THE African Union has recorded significant achievements in the first decade of implementation of Agenda 2063 (2013-2022) including advanced operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.
It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat revealed that through his message on celebration of African Union Day marked on September 9.
According to him other achievements are transformation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) into an African Development Agency and the effective functioning of the Pan African University.
In the list of achievements there is also the integration of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) into the structures of the AU, the granting of the status of Specialised Agencies of the AU to the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and many others.
He said other achievements include the establishment of the Africa CDC, the Africa Medicines Agency (AMA) and its commitment to the fight against pandemics, particularly which of COVID-19, the establishment of the Africa Medicines Agency (AMA), the African Humanitarian Agency (AHA), progress in integration efforts, at the level of Regional Economic Communities.
“The fight against terrorism on the one hand and against the harmful effects of climate change on the other hand, has become high priorities as their impact on the other development sectors of the Continent is harmful,” he said.
He, however, said that the second implementation decade of Agenda 2063, which starts next year, will revolve around three main objectives which are to ensure greater physical connectivity of the continent through the construction of roads and other communication infrastructures.
Others are to establish the conditions for sufficient domestic agricultural production to reduce imports of foodstuffs and build the technical capacities to make the energy transition a success.
Mr Mahamat called upon all Africans, from the continent and the Diaspora, to join in the collective effort to build “the Africa we want”, through a permanent desire to transcend ourselves, which is expressed by the systematic exercise of critical thinking, as the ideal means of access to excellence, whatever the field of activity in which one exercises.
According to him, September 9, 1999, is a date which recalls the critical questions raised by African leaders, then meeting in Sirte, Libya, about the level of strategic relevance of the OAU in the face of the upheavals that occurred at that time in geopolitics on a global scale.
Refusing complacency despite the significant victories won over colonialism and the odious system of Apartheid in favour of the liberation of the continent, our Heads of State and Government, under the impetus of unfailing determination, decided to chart a new path for an Africa open to the horizon of modernity and the collective well-being of the peoples. “This was the operational action of the African Union in 2002”.
He saluted the memory of all the leaders, who have passed away and pay tribute to those who are alive, for having ensured this fortunate change.