Agenda 2063: Africans ‘need to find synergies and work together’

Agenda 2063 may be 41 years ahead, but newly appointed African Union Development Agency (Auda) chief executive Nardos Bekele-Thomas is confident that the continent’s blueprint for transforming Africa into a global powerhouse of the future is not far-fetched.

Addressing a media briefing in Johannesburg yesterday – along with African Union goodwill ambassador and globally acclaimed artist Yvonne Chaka Chaka – Bekele-Thomas said although Africa was endowed with natural resources, it resembled “a continent of paradox, with very high poverty levels”.

“Agenda 2063 has come about to address this paradox – a plan to serve as a solution to the many difficulties that we face.

“Beneficiation of our natural resources is very crucial and Africa has to ensure that it has the right policies, legal framework and the right environment for businesses to operate,” said Bekele-Thomas.

“In turning things around, we need to promote domestic investment – of Africa by Africans, a motto that we are promoting.

“This is why the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement sees natural resources as being among growth pillars.

“And around these, there should be a value chain – making sure that investments are put in the right places in terms of value addition – addressing poverty in the process.

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“African countries remember the past and want to do things better – addressing past challenges where there was exploitation of our natural resources, with the continent not getting the benefits that it really deserves.

“We have just come from Indonesia, which gave us a presentation on how they have ensured that mineral exploration by outsiders benefit to their own – ensuring that negotiations are in line with policies and a progressive regulatory framework, in the interest of that country.”

Bekele-Thomas said Auda wanted to “create a platform for countries to benefit from the exchanges of others”.

“We have a wonderful masterplan for mineral resource management, which we need to implement to the letter.

“African countries need to sit together and reflect, with action being required – guided by the African mining vision.

“But the capacity and resources that we have are too limited. But, hopefully, they will be enhanced in time, for there to be an impact,” said Bekele-Thomas.

Africa required an integrated approach to resolve a myriad of its problems.

“While we are focused on silencing the guns, let us also look at sustainable development and such areas as nutrition,” said Bekele-Thomas.

“In our planning, we have to work together and break the silos. Accountability and transparency are very important for us.

“We have put systems in place to ensure these work at regional and continental levels and we have regular progress reports that we issue on a quarterly basis, also made available to the African Union commission.

“We plan to improve our communication by making documents available on the Auda website. But it becomes difficult to detail every programme.

“We are also developing the African project development facility in our offices to deal with various areas like infrastructure – also backed up by monitoring and evaluation.”

Chaka Chaka said Africans “need to find synergies and work together”.

“A lot of work has already been done – let us not despair and be despondent. When talking about the future, saying the youth are our future – we need to integrate them now in all our programmes, so that later they become better citizens.

“Young people want to see change and they want to see it now. This is our continent and any change has be done by us and nobody else,” said Chaka Chaka.

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– brians@citizen.co.za