H.E Mahamoud Ali Youssouf officiated the opening ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel, Djibouti. In his opening remarks, H.E Mahamoud Ali Youssouf reiterated that “It is essential that all countries invest in achieving the SDGs in order to meet the legitimate aspirations of our peoples: to enjoy the fundamental rights to education, justice, health, social cohesion.” H.E Mahamoud Ali Youssouf was joined by Prof. Eddy Maloka, CEO of APRM Continental Secretariat; Mr. Osman Idriss Djama, Head of APRM National Governance Council; Ms. Barbara Manzi, UN Resident Coordinator in Djibouti as well as Dr. Inge Baumgarten, Director of GIZ Office to the African Union and H.E Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development of the Arab Republic of Egypt; who both honoured the meeting with virtual statements.

The APRM joined forces with AU Commission, AUDA-NEPAD and the office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Djibouti to successfully organize the captioned two-day workshop. The meeting offered an opportunity to take stock of the progress achieved by Member States towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 the ‘Africa We Want’, while considering the daunting consequences of COVID-19 on African economies.

Seven sessions primarily focused on the following issues 1) institutional mechanisms and means of implementation at national levels of both Agenda; 2) VNRs and lessons learnt from COVID-19; 3) cross-cutting issues i.e, gender, migration, civil society, and health-governance nexus; 4) UNECA, AUDA-NEPAD monitoring tools 5) partnerships for SDGs amongst the African Member States and experts. Further emphasis was put on the reprioritization of national indicators, digital, institutional, and policy reforms in light of the COVID-19 crisis towards the promotion of the implementation of the SDGs; and preparations for the African Sustainable Development Forum

It is worth highlighting that more than 40 African countries have presented VNRs since 2016 till date. For the HLPF 2021, nine African countries including Egypt, Chad, Uganda, Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Namibia, and Zimbabwe will table their VNR report. Djibouti has already taken progressive steps to present its VNR in 2022.

Through this workshop, the APRM and its partners renewed, once again, their commitment to supporting African countries in VNRs preparations to achieve SDGs and Agenda 2063. The CEO of APRM, Prof Eddy Maloka’s stated, “on our journey towards the “Africa we want” by 2063, we will keep proffering formulae and technical advice that are best suited to the prevailing circumstances in our member-states”. In the spirit of galvanizing partnership with regional development partners, the APRM and the SDG Center for Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the workshop’s margins to institutionalise their collaboration and joint programs on different SDGs and Agenda 2063 programs and research projects.

ABOUT APRM and supporting the VNRs

APRM, as an African self-monitoring mechanism based on voluntary accession, is committed to supporting its member-states in their efforts to achieve both Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 to develop the continent. In light of the strong correlation between governance and SDGs and  Towards fulfilling the Agendas’ aspirations and enhancing national capacities to report on Sustainable Development goals (SDGs), the APRM has been hosting VNRs continental workshops since 2019. With the spread of the pandemic in Africa, the APRM has also launched virtual dialogues on VNRs from March-May 2020 to allow African countries to share best practices for VNR preparations and responses pandemic & overall support to SDG 3- health and wellbeing.

For more information

Sara Hamouda

Agenda 2063/SDGs Expert

[email protected].