Deputy Secretary-General Urges African Leaders to Forge Path towards Realizing Agenda 2063, at Regional Coordination Meeting, Pledging UN’s Solidarity amid Global Crises

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the fifth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union, Regional Economic Communities and Regional Mechanisms, in Nairobi today:

It is a great honour to join you at the fifth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and the Regional Mechanisms.  I want to thank the Government of Kenya for the cordial welcome and the African Union for inviting me to share some reflections.  This year’s meeting provides us with a unique opportunity to find common ground in shaping and implementing Africa’s narrative to meet the ambitions of Agenda 2063 and the aspirations of the people of Africa.

Our world continues to face unprecedented crises from the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, a climate emergency and the knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine.  None of us needs reminding that Africa played no part in creating any of these challenges.  Unmet commitments by the international community to financing, climate action and adequate humanitarian responses have further aggravated the obstacles to the efforts made by Africa and its leaders to implement Agenda 2063.

Meanwhile, renewed conflict and extremist terrorism are wreaking havoc across the continent, resulting in lost decades of development and millions of displaced persons and refugees.  These calamities are leaving a generation of our young people, especially women, with the anxiety of a tortured present and a deeply uncertain future.

Let me salute you — that as African leaders, against this challenging global and continental backdrop, you continue tirelessly, day after day, here and abroad, to make the powerful case for Africa.  Africa as the new horizon of possibility and as the source of solutions for its own challenges and those of the planet.  Excellencies, you have our complete solidarity.

In just one important demonstration of this solidarity, the Secretary-General continues to call to the Group of 20 (G20) for meaningful climate action to end the addiction to fossil fuels in order to address the imperative of a 1.5-degree world.  He also continues to call loudly for a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) stimulus tackling debt distress and increasing fiscal space through the reallocation of additional special drawing rights to the African Development Bank Initiative and the reform of the current global financial architecture, which is morally bankrupt.

If African solutions to African challenges and opportunities are to be more than a slogan, we must have a still more insistent voice in the G20 and unified action by African leaders to disrupt the unacceptable status quo.  We applaud the strong voices of President Ruto, President Macky Sall and President Rhamaphosa at the recent Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris.

You are here today to discuss the African Union reforms, the second 10-year plan, governance and the work of the regional economic communities and mechanisms.  As you do so, you will need to ensure your cohesive voice and common positions come together to shape the upcoming G20 meeting, United Nations General Assembly and the SDG Summit, the Climate Action Summit, the Commemoration of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights at 75, the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Fall Meetings on Reform and the Paris Climate Stocktaking at the twenty-eighth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28).

The United Nations remains committed to accompanying the continent as it navigates these international rough waters and through these milestone Summits.

Finally, allow me to end with a plea to you all as an African mother of six and grandmother of four.  The continent faces a moment of reckoning when the world appears to have taken its gaze off Africa.  We may appear down, but we are far from out.  And as our leaders, we continue to count on you to forge a path towards delivering our vision for Africa enshrined in Agenda 2063.

This will not happen unless you stand united, with no light between you, determined to live up to the courage of your convictions. It is this unity that must draw from the depths of our turbulent history, shared values and a sense of common purpose.  Ultimately, is Africa’s very dignity that is at stake for us and future generations.

In the words of the late Kwame Nkrumah, who inspired Agenda 2063:  “We in Africa, who are pressing now for unity, are deeply conscious of the validity of our purpose.  We need the strength of our combined numbers to protect ourselves from the very real dangers of colonization returning in disguised forms.”

Thank you, and I wish you a productive meeting.  Assante Sane.