28 September 2015 saw Minister Jeff Radebe, Minister in the Presidency: Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation participating in another power packed session entitled the “High Level Conference on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Africa's Perspective” at the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the UN, 305 East 47th Street, 5th floor, 3 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, USA .
The African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Development Bank (AfDB), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have been working together to unpack Africa’s position on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These organizations more than fully understand the role of the SDGs in carrying forward the Post-2015 Development Agenda to complete the “unfinished business” from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – i.e., looking at emerging issues in the development agenda in a quest to leave no one behind.
The process of arriving at the 2015 development agenda in Africa was led by African member states with broad participation from external stakeholders such as civil society organizations, the private sector and businesses, academia and scientists. African statisticians have used various documents for crafting their position on the SDGs.
The pan African institutions have been collaborating to produce an annual report of African Progress on MDGs. This report has been extremely useful to track progress, bring the implementation challenges to policy makers and relevant stakeholders. The report provides comprehensive and comparable data and analysis comprising economic, social and political trends in Africa. The 2015 edition captures the diversity of achievements and identifies challenges at regional and national.
In view of all of this, a ‘’High Level Conference on SDGs on Africa’s Perspective’’ was organized to coincide in the margins of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly. The session brought together key stakeholders to discuss critical issues around implementation of the SDGs in Africa: areas of focus included sustainable financing, governance and accountability and gender.
The event started with welcoming remarks from the African Union Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and was followed by a lively, provocative and interactive moderated panel discussion of select speakers, including:
- Minister Jeff Radebe: Minister in the Presidency: Department, Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation
- H.E Dr. Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary, UNECA
- Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank, AfDB
- Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director, UNDP Africa
- H.E. Dr Abraham Tekeste Meskel, State Minister, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia
- Mr. Paul Okumu, The African Platform (CSO)
- Mr. Adam B. Elhiraika, Director, Macroeconomic Policy Division, UNECA; and
- Mr. Angel Gurria, Secretary General, OECD
The various speakers shared exhilarating views about Africa’s perspectives from their respective pan African institutional dimensions.
Minister Radebe started off by explaining that the sixth and final Millennium Development Goals report have just been completed and submitted. The MDG report also reflects on the achievements made by the people of South Africa in dealing with the scourge of extreme poverty in all its forms.
However, Minister Radebe noted the MDG report also highlights the challenges that still remain. He noted that the MDGs was a natural fit for South Africa as it aligned seamlessly with its own development agenda as expressed through the Freedom Charter and was endorsed by successive Governments since 1994, while the basic rights espoused by the MDGs were already entrenched in our Constitution. Thus, implementation of the MDGs was a confirmation of the developmental path South Africa embarked on and gave further impetus to the endeavours of building a post-apartheid South Africa. Although the MDG processes were coming to an end, there are still challenges in achieving the goals that remain ‘’unfinished’’, as it were.
Minister Radebe stressed that as we move to the next fifteen years of the global development agenda through the Sustainable Development Goals, South Africa takes note of the fact that the National Development Plan, Vision 2030, the lodestar and overarching plan for government, continues to anchor, reflect and underpin the commitment to improving the lives of the poor and marginalised in society.
Furthermore, Minister Radebe underscored the fact that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), being the latest set of comprehensive and universal development goals, cover a wide range of issues and brings together economic, social and environmental priorities like never before. More specifically, he noted that South Africa likes the emphasis on “turning words into action” and that it was indeed high time that there is a focus on the implementation of real solutions to Africa and the world’s challenges. Minister Radebe noted: “We are indeed on the cusp of being the first generation that has it within our reach to end poverty, inequality and injustice; it is an opportunity that we may never again see in our lifetime. Our former President, son of the African soil, Tata Madiba, Nelson Mandela stated: “We pass through this world but once, and opportunities you miss, will never be available again”.
Minister Radebe amplified the fact that His Excellency, President JG Zuma has emphasised, and consistently so, that South Africa continues to regard the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which was adopted by African leaders in response to the global call for action triggered by the MDGs, 15 years ago, as Africa’s ‘socio-development blueprint’. South Africa and Africa have also committed fully to the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), Africa’s vision and strategic framework for the development of regional and continental infrastructure. This, he stated, will most certainly assist in ensuring the implementation of Africa’s infrastructure envelope based on the continental strategic objectives and prioritized regional and continental infrastructure investments pivoted on and aligned with Agenda 2063. Also, the African Union’s ‘Agenda 2063’ will, together with NEPAD, PIDA, and PICI be the cornerstone and foundation of Africa’s Development Agenda going forward.
Thus, Minister Radebe recalled, South Africa’s insistent reference to Africa, as a focus, in the post-2015 debate is highly appropriate and significant as “it serves to underscore the centrality of the continent in our world view, our foreign policy and ultimately the articulation of our role as a development partner in its region. We will continue to assert and drive an inclusive African Agenda on all our global platforms, no less!”
The SDG goals is an attempt at global co-ordinated efforts to ensure that the goals South Africa and the rest of Africa sets itself including ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests are achieved in the shortest possible time and in the most efficient way imaginable, according to Minister Radebe.
Enquiries:
Hanief Ebrahim
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