African Ministers Adopt 17 SDGs

African Ministers of
Finance, Planning and Economic Development rose from an annual joint AU-ECA conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, adopting 17 resolutions to support Africa’s efforts towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This is contained in a statement issued by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and e-mailed to newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.
The conference, convened by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC), was held from March 31 April 5.
According to the statement, the conference discussed the critical issues impacting on Africa’s development.
It reaffirmed the need to align the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 20 goals of Africa’s Agenda 2063 in their national plans.
The ECA, African Union Commission (AUC) and African Development Bank (AfDB) were requested to develop an integrated monitoring and evaluation framework on the implementation of both agendas.
The leaders in Addis Ababa also recognised that Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 would provide a framework for the continent to transit towards a new people-oriented development trajectory that will combine economic, social, and environmental considerations.
Speaking at the closing, the ECA Executive Secretary, Carlos Lopes, said the resolutions adopted offer “great opportunities for alignment of and implementation of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.”
“We have had a week packed with meetings all focused on the central question of our time: how to achieve economic transformation in order to change the lives of African men, women, children, young and old, urban and rural for the better,” said AUC Chairperson, Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma.
Democratic Republic of Congo Minister of Planning, Georges Wembi Lwembo, said that there were lots that needed to be done.
“We have no choice, but to continue working towards the set goals,” Lwembo said.
Among the key areas adopted are strategies for multiple sources of funding including external and domestic resource mobilisation, the latter of which will be the main strategy for financing Africa’s priorities.
The conference took place under the framework of the African Development Week which comprised an Experts segment, 23 side events and a two-day ministerial session.
ECA launched several publications which included a blue economy handbook, an alternative macro-economic framework for Africa.
Other publications launched are a governance report centred on corruption, 20 country profiles and reports on transformative industrialisation and greening industrialisation.
Lopes said that the launched reports would create knowledge that “shifts our mindset towards transformative policies.”
“We contribute to knowledge generation that is African-centered and do not apologise for it.
“Time has come to accelerate the speed of structural transformation,” the ECA scribe added.
Approximately 1000 participants attended the Conference whose theme was: “Towards an Integrated and Coherent Approach to Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs’’.