24 September 2015 - Senior government officials, development experts and representatives from the NEPAD Agency on Thursday agreed that it was critical that the ambitious targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be streamlined within national priority programmes.  At a high-level meeting co-organized by the Government of Zambia and the NEPAD Agency in collaboration with African Monitor – a broad coalition of civil society organizations - on the sidelines of the SDG Summit in New York, participants discussed the broad challenges faced by African countries ahead of the adoption of the set of global development goals.

In his keynote address, Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Agency Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki underscored that “for Africa the SDGs comes at a times marked with significant milestones in Africa’s transformation agenda”. He highlighted that for the past 15 years the continent had seen comprehensive political and socio-economic reforms driven at the continental level by the African Union. Today, human development has improved with economic growth hovering around 5.2 percent in 2014. But despite these in-roads, Mayaki added, several challenges remain, particularly deepening inequality. “Achieving the SDGs would require strengthening and aligning systemic capacity, wise utilization of resources and building strong partnerships at all levels,” he said.

 NEPAD CEO Ibrahim Mayaki, Zambia Foreign Minister H.E. Harry Kalaba and AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture H.E. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace

The CEO outlined that the five pillars of the NEPAD Agency’s operations: programme implementation; partnership building; resource mobilization; monitoring; and knowledge management positioned the Agency in an “unique position within the institutional landscape of the continent to support our Member States, civil society and other stakeholders in the implementation of the SDGs and the attainment of sustained growth and prosperity for all its citizens”. 

In his remarks,  Zambia's  Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Harry Kalaba noted that the NEPAD Agency had been “steadfast  in its efforts at encouraging Member States  to deliver on the SDGs.” He also outlined the significant strides that African countries had made in implementing continental programmes such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). The Minister however pointed out  that while it was important to find synergies between the work of the NEPAD Agency and the SDGs, Member States should continue to implement existing programmes while aligning them to the SDGs.

UN ECA Executive Secretary Mr. Carlos Lopez (r) and Archbishop Njongo Ndungane attending the SDG side event

During her intervention African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture H.E. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace stressed implementation. “ I believe that as far as commitments in the past 15 years are concerned, in addition to our Common Position on the SDGs, the scene has been set. What is really left now is how we ‘catalyse’ countries and regions to implement and for each country to embark on doing its ‘homework’ and then show the rest of the continent what has been done in terms of results and impact.”

– Source NEPAD.