Message by H.E. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, AUDA-NEPAD
The COVID-19 pandemic has set Africa’s economic convergence with the world economy back. Africa’s economic growth was projected to decelerate to 4.1% in 2022 and 2023, 8 percentage points lower than the growth rate for the rest of the world. Across the continent, we have seen an increase in economic vulnerability with higher government debt, inflationary pressure, and tighter monetary policies. Against this background, Member States continue to face difficult socio-economic challenges. Over the past two years, more than 59 million Africans have been pushed into extreme poverty. Furthermore, at least one in five Africans goes to bed hungry and an estimated 140 million people in Africa face acute food insecurity. These statistics not only reflect the severity of the socio-economic challenges facing Member States, but more importantly, they highlight that local actors, policymakers, regional bodies, development institutions and AUDA-NEPAD need to intensify efforts to respond to present socio-economic crises, prepare for future challenges, reduce vulnerability, and build resilience in all facets of society.
When I took office as the Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) on May 1, 2022, I was confronted with the question of how the Agency will address these challenges and contribute to the development of the continent. Our system-wide response has been to strengthen the Agency’s technical and financial capacity to deliver its mandate, embrace an integrated development approach, redefine, and adopt a more agile strategy to ensure that we fully execute our mandate, deliver a people-centred inclusive transformative impact and champion the implementation of Agenda 2063.
Towards this end, in 2022 we adjusted our programmes and budget to respond to the emerging needs and priorities including disruptions and shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, geo-political tensions on the continent, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and the impacts of climate change. This process resulted in a strategic reprioritisation and focus on transformational results in three areas taking into account Africa’s goals of sustainable socio-economic development through rapid industrialisation within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area. These include (i) Health systems–focusing on building capacity in the pharmaceutical and manufacturing sector and improving access to essential healthcare services; (ii) Economic growth and job creation through interventions aimed at enhancing infrastructure development, trade and markets and productivity-enhancing innovations, and (iii) Food systems— aimed at increasing agricultural and food productivity to ensure food and nutrition security. This Annual Report highlights some of the key achievements made by AUDA-NEPAD in these areas.
As part of these initiatives, AUDA-NEPAD has developed and initiated the implementation of innovative and locally adapted interventions. AUDA-NEPAD in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) has developed a monitoring tool to track the significant progress made across all goals, priority areas and targets, and subsequently launched the Second Biennial Continental Report on the Implementation of Agenda 2063. Furthermore, AUDA-NEPAD and AUC have embarked on the evaluation of the first ten-year implementation plan and the preparation of the successor ten-year plan of Agenda 2063— a process also dubbed “The Special Project”. These interventions will help us to better prepare and build the necessary capacities to respond to current challenges and future needs of Member States towards realising “The Africa We Want”. We also launched the AUDA-NEPAD Energize Africa Initiative which focuses on catalysing and harnessing the youths’ potential, creativity and innovativeness into Africa’s economic growth and development drive. The aim is to expand income opportunities for the youth—through the creation of jobs, dynamic innovations and entrepreneurship contributing to rapid industrialisation. AUDA-NEPAD has already rallied a significant number of stakeholders and partners behind Energize Africa. The multi-year and partner initiative serves as a catalytic AUDA-NEPAD flagship towards realising Agenda 2063.
In pursuit of operational excellence, AUDA-NEPAD has enhanced its business processes through the deployment of digital solutions. This has enabled AUDA-NEPAD to implement a dynamic business model towards becoming a more agile and efficient organisation. Furthermore, the Agency successfully completed a comprehensive EU IX pillar capacity assessment in the areas of internal controls, accounting, external audits, grants cycle management, procurement, exclusion from access to funding, publication of information on recipients and protection of personal data. Importantly, as the Agency moves forward in speeding and scaling up its interventions, the Agency’s delivery model will be enhanced, and a fit-for-purpose organisational structure defined with the required competencies.
I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to the Heads of State, members of the NEPAD Steering Committee and the African Union Commission for the immense support I have received since my appointment. I sincerely appreciate the unwavering support and trust from H.E. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AUC, all the AUC Commissioners, and Chief Executives of the Regional Economic Communities. I am grateful to all AUDA-NEPAD staff and our development partners. Without your commitment and efforts, we would not have achieved the milestones highlighted in this report.
Looking ahead to 2023, the Agency recognises that getting ahead of Africa’s development complexities requires leaping forward into new and uncharted opportunities. The Agency intends to do this by continuing to forge dynamic and productive working relations with Member States, and all of Africa’s stakeholders and partners through collective approaches.