Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa and its partners recently launched a new publication, the Millennium Development Goals, Agenda 2063, Sustainable Development Goals Transition report which aims to take stock of Africa's performance on MDGs to date.
The partners are the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Africa.
The MDG Agenda 2063/SDG Transition report is the last in a series of MDG reports and it takes stock of Africa's performance on the MDGs to date and reflects on challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to the new global and continental development Agendas adopted in 2015 which are the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063, Africa's 50-year roadmap for development.
Reflecting on the recent trends on the MDGs, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa Carlos Lopes called on member States to "accelerate efforts to diversify their economies and add value to their primary commodities so as to expand decent employment opportunities for their population".
The report highlights important strides made by the continent in: improving net primary enrolment; enhancing gender equality and empowerment of women; reducing child mortality; combating the spread of HIV and AIDS; and ensuring environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, it calls attention to the partial fulfillment of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) commitments by development partners, raises concern about Africa's persistently low share of Africa global trade and calls on African Member States to take further steps to reduce maternal deaths and the incidence of extreme poverty.
Currently 42.8 percent of the African population earns less than $1.25 per day and based on the most recent data in 2012 there are 109million more people in extreme poverty than there were in 1990.
The African Union Commission noted "the convergence of the Sustainable Development Goals with Agenda 2063 calls for coherent implementation of both agendas by African Member States."
The African Development Bank reiterated the Bank's support for the implementation of the two agendas and observed "the institution's priorities as reflected in the High 5s provide substantial leverage for the implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2063."
To ensure effective implementation of the new global and continental agendas, the report highlights the need for countries to strengthen capacities for evidence-based policy-making and to improve institutional coordination to ensure that implementation of the two agendas takes into account the three dimensions of sustainable development in a balanced manner.
The UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa underlined its "commitment to strengthening the capacities of countries to implement the two agendas."
Overall, the key message of the event was that African countries have already started the hard work of implementing Agenda 2063 and 2030.
However, success will require among others, strengthened capacities for integration of both agendas in national planning frameworks, effective institutional coordination and strong statistical systems to support evidenced based policymaking and follow-up.
