Honourable Dr. Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Chairperson of the Executive Council,
Honourable Members of the Executive Council,
Madame Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa,
Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Commissioners,
Presidents of the Commissions of Regional Economic Communities,
Executive Secretaries of Regional Economic Communities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I, with the convening of your 38th Ordinary session, extend to you all my best wishes for health and prosperity, with the hope that the year 2021, despite the fact that it dawns with new concerns related to variants of the virus of COVID-19, will witness the end of the ordeal for our Continent and for the world.

May I also to commend, in particular, the leadership and tonus of the Chairperson of the Executive Council, Dr. NALEDI PANDOR, who ensured, with patience and professional talent, the smooth functioning of our Executive Council by taking the necessary decisions for fulfilling the obligations related to its mandate.

Exactly four years ago, my dear very sister Naledi, I was chairing, like you now, the Executive Council and it is with some emotion that I find some of my former colleagues, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, members of the big family of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of which I formed part for a little less than 10 years. I must confess that it brings a feeling of nostalgia.

At the end of my first term of office, at the helm of the Commission, I would like to express all the pleasure I had in working with you, in learning from your experiences and your contributions and in enriching myself with your diversity in order to better understand and serve Africa.

Honourable Ministers,
You are going to hold again holding an Ordinary Session of Council through Videoconference. COVID- 19, has indeed established an exceptional situation compelling us to change completely our working method. Your Agenda has indeed been adapted this constraint but I am convinced that your deliberations on the priority issues of the Continent will be as fruitful.

For my part, my Statement will focus on a very succinct presentation of the outcome of the areas of activity of the last four years. You will understand that for the purpose of the circumstance, I shall take a bit more time than usual:

These areas, presented in broad outline, reflect the major achievements of the term but also stress the challenges to be taken up to iron out the path leading to the Africa we want, our ultimate objective.

Regional integration, Infrastructures, Democratic governance, Peace and security, Institutional reform, Health, Social affairs, Science and innovation, Environment, Food self-sufficiency, bringing the AU closer to the peoples and finally the assertion of Africa on the world stage are the salient features of these priorities.

The implementation of the strategic priorities of Agenda 2063 has, to its credit, recorded two major achievements, namely on the one hand the First Continental Report which considers and consolidates the state of implementation of the Agenda in the Member States and in the RECs and on the other hand the effective transformation of NEPAD into the African Union Development Agency, which will be in charge of the coordination and execution of Regional and Continental projects, particularly the basic infrastructures.

At this level, two important challenges are to be taken up: the presentation by all the Member States and all the RECs of their National and Regional Reports and the mobilisation, for the AU/NEPAD Development Agency, substantial financial resources.

The panorama of Regional integration, during the term of office, was enriched by a set of achievements, the most striking of which are, among others, the operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched on 1 January, the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the adoption of the Protocol on Free Movement and the guidelines for the African Passport…..

The progress, if remarkable, still challenges us strongly by the problems which block their effective development. For example, the optimal functioning of the African Continental Free Trade Area depends on two key prerequisites, namely on the one hand, the entry into force of the Protocol on Free movement, whose ratification rate is still below the required threshold and on the other hand the full commitment of all stakeholders, both public and private sector.

A strong boosting of intra-African trade also seems essential.

In the area of Democratic governance, peace and security, the Commission has anchored its activities at the convergence of the two framework instruments, namely, the African Governance Architecture (AGA) and the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA).
In this perspective, the following activities have been carried out: (i) the facilitation of the peaceful settlement of disputes with a view to silencing the guns, (ii) the operationalisation of a Peace Fund endowed with almost 200,000,000 million USD, (iii) the establishment of a PRC Sub-Committee on Human Rights, Democracy and Governance, (iv) the Protocol on Statelessness and on the Right to Nationality, ( v) the AU Policy Framework on Transitional Justice, (vi) the Continental Result Framework on Women, Peace and Security and the operationalisation of Femwise-Africa and (vii) the AU Guidelines for elections during COVID-19.

Excellencies , Ladies and Getlemen,
The year 2020 was initially scheduled as a cut-off year to silence the guns on the Continent, the year from which democratic peace would function as a powerful lever for justice and socio-economic development. Looking at the state of affairs, I note that we have moved only half way.

The rise of violent extremism, religious radicalism, post-electoral conflicts, recurrent attacks by terrorist groups, the violent awakening of communatrianism, various socio-political expressions of the public governance deficit are as many challenges as the Member States, supported by the Union , must take up to place the Continent on the irreversible trajectory of political modernity.

In the areas of Health, Social development, Environment, Food self-sufficiency, Science and Innovation, the Commission has concentrated its efforts on health emergencies and on strengthening of education in fields of science, technology and innovation.

As such, a set of actions focusing on rapid, effective and coordinated responses to Ebola and Covid-19, the adoption of the African Medicines Agency and a series of measures relating to drugs, organised crime, migration, education and higher learning, environment, African migrants, people with disabilities, children and so on has been carried out by the different Departments of the Commission.

At this point, I would like to point out that the Coronavirus or COVID 19 pandemic has imposed itself on us and the rest of the world, disrupting all the working methods and the development of our States and our Continental Organisation. The convening of this Executive Council and the election, for the first, in virtual mode, of the members of the Commission, is precisely one of the consequences of this pandemic.

Faced with this situation, the African Union, through the Africa CDC, mobilised itself, very early on, to organise the response by putting in place a Strategy focused on the effective coordination of the States, the mobilisation of partners of Africa, the establishment of a COVID Fund, the acquisition of medical equipment, the mitigation of the economic consequences, the advocacy for debt relief, indeed the cancellation of the debts and so on in the fight against the pandemic.

This swift response from Africa indisputably contributed to prevent the health disaster at the Continental level.
The current challenge is that of acquiring vaccines. Under the effective leadership of the Current Chairman of the Union, H.E Cyril Ramaphosa, we have mobilised the necessary means, with the help of our partners, to acquire a quantity of vaccines sufficient to ensure the immunisation of more than 30% of the peoples by the end of this year.

Despite its remarkable performance in the fight against COVID-19 across the Continent, Africa CDC continues to face a number of challenges related to capacity building in the combined areas of infrastructure, human resources, research, production of vaccines and pharmaceuticals products. Making Africa CDC a Centre of Excellence, in all respects, must remain a top priority for Member States and the Union. The appropriate human and financial resources should be mobilised accordingly.

With regard to bringing the AU closer to its citizens, the Commission focused its efforts on improving communication and sensitization, on the involvement of citizens and the Diaspora, in the implementation of the policy on gender in the Union and the place given to youths.
In this context, it developed strengthened accountability mechanisms for commitments to gender equality, appointed a Special Envoy for Youth, developed a framework for the involvement of the Diaspora, a Model law on the protection of cultural goods and heritage and drafted the Statute of the Grand Museum of Africa, which will be based in Algeria.

Two important challenges, among others, must be taken up: first, to strengthen the involvement of civil society in the affairs of the Union to achieve a Union centered on African citizens, in accordance with Agenda 2063 and, in the same wake, to deploy efforts to better integrate intellectuals, artists and the Diaspora while strengthening its links with the Policy organs. This effort of involvement, led by ECOSOCC, should be continuously supported; second, to speed up the ratification, internalisation and implementation of the Maputo Protocol if the Union is to keep up its promises to advance effectively the rights of African women.

Quant à l’affirmation de la place de l’Afrique sur la scène mondiale, elle s’est manifestée à travers une action orientée dans trois directions, à savoir, (i) le renforcement des partenariats bi et multilatéraux dont l’évaluation, non encore approuvée, a néanmoins permis le repérage des zones d’ombre et la prise des mesures conséquentes d’ajustement dans le sens de la préservation des intérêts et de la protection de la souveraineté du continent à travers l’élaboration et la défense de Positions communes africaines sur les grandes questions stratégiques.
As for the affirmation of the place of Africa on the world stage, it manifested itself through action geared towards three directions, namely, (i) the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral partnerships, whose assessment, not still approved, nevertheless made it possible to identify grey areas and take consistent adjustment measures in the sense of the preservation of the interests and the protection of the sovereignty of the Continent through the preparation and defence of African Common Positions on major strategic issues.

The completion of institutional reform is one of the priority issues in the strategic partnerships.

As for the reform of the African Union, it began with the budgetary and institutional reforms which led to the adoption of a Departmental Structure of the Commission, rationalised result-based working methods against a backdrop of obligation of accountability and a new staff recruitment system that uses the most advanced technological resources to a minimum, reducing human intervention to a minimum.

The second major focus of the Commission’s review relates to strengthening the Union. This strengthening resulted in the implementation of the reform of the AU, initiated by the budgetary and institutional reforms leading to the adoption of a departmental structure of the Commission, of rationalized result oriented working methods against the backdrop of accountability and a new staff recruitment system that mobilizes the most advanced technological resources to a minimum, reducing human intervention to a minimum.

The strengthening of the Union was also affirmed through the establishment of a Coordination meeting between the AU, the RECs/RMs and the States to replace the Ordinary session of the Assembly of June/ July. The Coordination mechanism, thus put in place, has the advantage of articulating the relations between the AU and the RECs on a detailed division of labour, which clarifies their respective fields of competence, eliminates overlaps and other duplication and optimises the allotment of financial resources.

The biggest challenge for the new Commission will be to successfully implement these reforms and thereby give the Union a new face, crowned with attractiveness and relevance.

Moreover, your present session will have, among other activities, to confirm this reform by electing the new Commissioners, members of the restructured Commission.

The trajectory of our Union is, of course, well-marked by success. Nor has it been without making mistakes, having shortcomings, and blatant dysfunctioning.I am the first one to recognise and admit it.

Building the future of our Union means endeavouring, in a permanent concerted effort, to resolve all these challenges, gradually, methodically, in continuity of the work of our Founding Fathers who, from the inception of the OAU in 1963, had resolutely placed their action in an irreversible dynamic of change, of perseverance of which we are today the modest heirs.

Our loyalty to the aspirations contained in Agenda 2063 will only be better anchored in the service of the Africa we want.

I thank you for your kind attention and wish you fruitful deliberations.