Agenda 2063 revives Africa’s integration debate

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February, 2014: Visiting Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director, Regional Bureau for Africa, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mr. Abdoulaye Mar Dieye has noted that the Agenda 2063 has rekindled debates around Africa’s integration. He shared these remarks with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on Thursday, 6 February 2014, at the AU Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Mr. Mar Dieye noted that Dr. Dlamini Zuma’s Agenda 2063 “e-mail from the future” is a defining moment. It is generating a lot of positive energy and refocusing Africa’s development agenda. He affirmed that UNDP’s Africa programme will be anchored on the various frameworks of the AU and the Regional Economic Communities. “You can count on our full support,” he assured the AU Commission Chairperson.

Dr. Dlamini Zuma expressed hope to have partners engage with Africa by supporting its development priorities. “Everyone of us in the international community must learn to adapt and engage with Africa based on its renewed self-determination as expressed by the articulation of Agenda 2063, Africa's Common Position on Post 2015 and by Africa’s determination to develop its own African Development Goals, regardless of the outcomes of the negotiations on Post 2015 in New York.”

She concurred that the need to revive the integration debate informs Agenda 2063 as an enabling framework. “None of our countries can reach its full potentials without integration. That is also why the OAU was created. It is our dream that each of our countries can become a super power by its own”, the AUC Chairperson remarked.

She expressed appreciation for UNDP’s continued support thus far. They both looked forward to strengthening various areas of cooperation between the AUC and UNDP.