Events

INVITATION TO THE MEDIA

PRESS BRIEFING OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Within the frame work of the 22nd AU Summit, H.E Mrs. Fatima Haram Acyl, Commissioner for Trade and Industry at the AU Commission will, on Monday 27th January 2014, at 15:00 hold a press briefing on the following issue:

- Africa 2063: the way to enhanced integration

The briefing will be held in Briefing Room 1, at the new AU Conference Center, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Journalist are invited to take part in the press briefing

Media contact

Mr. MolaletTsedeke
Media Center Coordinator
Directorate of Information and Communication
AU Commission
Tel: +251911630631
E-mail: molalett@africa-union.org

For further information contact

Directorate of Information and Communication /African union commission/ E- mail: dinfo@africa-union.org /Web site: www.au.int /Addis Ababa / Ethiopia.

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PRESS RELEASE N0 .14/ 22nd AU SUMMIT

AU COMMISSION OUTLINES MAJOR PRIORITIES FOR 2014 AS AU EXECUTIVE COUNCIL STARTS ITS 24TH ORDINARY SESSION

Addis Ababa, 27 January 2014: The African Union Commission will, during the on-going summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, present the Agenda 2063 Framework document. At the same time the Commission is calling on all Africans and peoples of African descent in the Diaspora to continue contributing to the framework’s call of defining the Africa they want; this as national consultations and feedback are set to continue in each of the Union’s Member States. The final framework will be adopted at the AU’s summit in July of this year.

So said AU Commission Chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as she laid out the Commission’s key priorities for the year 2014, in an address she gave to the Union’s Executive Council, composed mostly of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Union’s 54 member states. The Council is meeting in its 24th ordinary session at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa from 27th to 28th January. This is the first Executive Council to take place in the first year of the second fifty years of the African Union (previously the Organisation of African Unity), which was formed in 1963.

In the same year of 2014, the Commission will pursue its annual theme of “The Year of Agriculture and Food Security” and shall also mark the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). CAADP has the goals of increasing agricultural investment and productivity, of growing agro-businesses and value chains, and of expanding infrastructure, skills and research for agriculture. The Commission views agriculture as a critical tool in not only achieving food security, but also for driving the continent’s development and prosperity.

While developing agriculture, the AUC will take special measures to ensure that women, who are the largest part of the agricultural work force and food producers, have access to training and capital, and are supported to form cooperatives, marketing structures and agribusinesses. Without this push, the Commission believes that Africa will not succeed in the much needed African agrarian revolution. The Commission will seek too, to consolidate and accelerate the gains made in achieving gender parity by 2020, and the building of a non-sexist Africa, a key pillar of Agenda 2063.

During 2014, Africa will continue to carve its rightful place in the world, by engaging in matters critical to the continent’s transformation with its partners, and top of the agenda, will be matters of trade and the economic relations between the continent and the rest of the world. Dr Dlamini Zuma made an ardent plea in this respect, for the continent to remain united in its common approaches and “not allow individual countries to be isolated or intimidated into signing agreements that are against integration and against the interests of their peoples and their development”.

The Commission’s top priority for peace and security in Africa will be to ensure that the guns fall silent by 2020:
“The cost of conflicts and internal strife are too huge. We must therefore continue to create climates for peace and stability, including effective, democratic and accountable governance and institutions, and by ensuring development and shared prosperity”, said the AUC Chairperson.

Another top priority for the Commission in 2014 will be to strengthen its institutional effectiveness, raise domestic resources for its operations, build a people centered African Union, strengthen its communications and ensure that it informs and involves the African citizens and civil society in the programmes and positions of the Union.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Dr Carlos Lopes, while applauding the successful stories on the continent, made the case for increased agricultural productivity.
“An increase in agricultural productivity, has, from the time of the European industrial revolution, contributed immensely to fast tracking the structural transformation of economies. The effect of the agricultural revolution on the economies of Brazil, India and China give an illustration of how the surplus from increased agricultural productivity can fuel industrial growth”.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Chairperson of the Executive Council of the African Union, said the situation in South Sudan and the Central African Republic is “very alarming” and “there is no justification for the continuation of the crises in both places even for a day”. He congratulated the Government and the opposition in South Sudan for signing the agreements on the cessation of hostilities and the question of detainees.

The Minister also took time to welcome his new counterparts from different countries who were attending the Executive Council meeting for the first time. They were from Somalia, Mali, Comoros, Cape Verde, Gambia, Algeria, and Zambia. He also welcomed Mauritania which is re-joining the African Union after a period of suspension.

Apart from discussing the theme of the summit, the ministers have many other reports for consideration. These include: the Annual Report of the Commission for 2013; the Report of the Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC); the Recommendations of the PRC on the Report of the Commission on the Implementation of Previous Decisions of the Executive Council and the Assembly; the Progress Report of the Commission on the Africa 2063 Agenda; Report of the 8th Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance; the 9th Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers responsible for Animal Resources; the 9th Ordinary Session of the AU Labour and Social Affairs Commission (LSAC); the 6th Ordinary Session of AU Conference of Ministers in charge of Integration (COMAI VI); the 6th Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Health; the 20th Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Industry; the High Level Meeting on Renewed Partnership for a Unified Approach to end Hunger in Africa by 2025 under the CAADP Framework; the 5th Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Sport (CAMS-5); the Regional Conference on Population and Development and of the 9th Ordinary Session of the African Population Commission (APC); the 5th Special Session of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN); the 8th Ordinary Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Trade; report of the Commission on the Implementation of the July 2008 Assembly Declaration Assembly/AU/Decl. 1 (XI) on the Sharm El Sheikh Commitments for Accelerating the Achievement of Water and Sanitation Goals in Africa; and the Implementation of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA).

Reports coming from other organs of the African Union will also be considered. These include the Report on the Activities of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights; and the Report on the Activities of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.

Additionally, the ministers will elect 10 members of the Peace and Security Council for a 2-year term as well as elect the President and Vice President of the Pan-African University Council. These appointments will be confirmed by the Heads of State in their meeting later this week.

To conclude their meeting tomorrow, 28 January, the Ministers will consider the draft decisions and declarations of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government to be held from 30-31 January and propose the date and venue of their next meeting.

WZM/

For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dinfo@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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INVITATION TO MEDIA

Title:
Consultative Dialogue: Engaging Non-State Actors on What is Next for DRC and the Great Lakes Region in the implementation of the PSC Framework

KEY SPEAKER:
Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the DRC and the Great Lakes region, Mary Robinson
DATE:
Monday 27 January 2014
TIME
14:30 – 16:30
VENUE

Agenda 2063: an e-mail from the future
Presentation by Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the AU Commission to the Retreat of Foreign Ministers held at Bahir Dar, Ethiopia on 24-26 January 2014.

Date: 24 January 2063
To: Kwame@iamafrican.com
From: Nkosazana@cas.gov
Subject: African Unity

My dear friend Kwame,
Greetings to the family and friends, and good health and best wishes for 2063.
I write to you from the beautiful Ethiopian city of Bahir Dar, located on Lake Tana, as we finalize preparations for the Centenary celebrations of the Organisation of African Unity, which became the African Union in 2002 and laid the foundations for what is now our Confederation of African States (CAS).
Yes, who would have thought that the dream of Kwame Nkrumah and his generations, when they called in 1963 on Africans to unite or perish, would one day become a reality. And what a grand reality.
At the beginning of the twenty first century, we used to get irritated with foreigners when they treated Africa as one country: as if we were not a continent of over a billion people and 55 sovereign states! But, the advancing global trend towards regional blocks, reminded us that integration and unity is the only way for Africa to leverage its competitive advantage.
In fact, if Africa was one country in 2006, we would have been the 10th largest economy in the world! However, instead of acting as one, with virtually every resource in the world (land, oceans, minerals, energy) and over a billion people, we acted as fifty-five small and fragmented individual countries. The bigger countries that should have been the locomotives of African integration, failed to play their role at that time, and that is part of the reasons it took us so long. We did not realize our power, but instead relied on donors, that we euphemistically called partners.
That was the case in 2013, but reality finally dawned and we had long debates about the form that our unity should take: confederation, a united states, a federation or a union.
As you can see, my friend, those debates are over and the Confederation of African States is now twelve years old, launched in 2051.
What was interesting was the role played by successive generations of African youth. Already in 2013 during the Golden Jubilee celebrations, it was the youth that loudly questioned the slow progress towards integration. They formed African Union Clubs in schools and universities across the continent, and linked with each other on social media. We thus saw the grand push for integration, for the free movement of people, for harmonization of education and professional qualifications, with the Pan African University and indeed the university sector and intelligentsia playing an instrumental role.
We were a youthful continent at the start of the 21st century, but as our youth bulge grew, young men and women became even more active, creative, impatient and assertive, often telling us oldies that they are the future, and that they (together with women) form the largest part of the electorates in all our countries!
Of course this was but one of the drivers towards unity. The accelerated implementation of the Abuja Treaty and the creation of the African Economic Community by 2034 saw economic integration moved to unexpected levels.
Economic integration, coupled with infrastructure development, saw intra-Africa trade mushrooming, from less than 12% in 2013 to approaching 50% by 2045. This integration was further consolidated with the growth of commodity exchanges and continental commercial giants. Starting with the African pharmaceutical company, Pan African companies now not only dominate our domestic market of over two billion people, but they have overtaken multi-nationals from the rest of the world in their own markets.
Even more significant than this, was the growth of regional manufacturing hubs, around the beneficiation of our minerals and natural resources, such as in the Eastern Congo, north-eastern Angola and Zambia’s copper belt and at major Silicon valleys in Kigali, Alexandria, Brazzaville, Maseru, Lagos and Mombasa, to mention but a few such hubs.
My friend, Africa has indeed transformed herself from an exporter of raw materials with a declining manufacturing sector in 2013, to become a major food exporter, a global manufacturing hub, a knowledge centre, beneficiating our natural resources and agricultural products as drivers to industrialization.
Pan African companies, from mining to finance, food and beverages, hospitality and tourism, pharmaceuticals, fashion, fisheries and ICT are driving integration, and are amongst the global leaders in their sectors.
We are now the third largest economy in the world. As the Foreign Minister’s retreat in Bahir Dar in January 2014 emphasised, we did this by finding the balance between market forces and strong and accountable developmental states and RECS to drive infrastructure, the provision of social services, industrialization and economic integration.
Let me recall what our mutual friend recently wrote:
“The (African) agrarian revolution had small beginnings. Successful business persons (and local governments) with roots in the rural areas started massive irrigation schemes to harness the waters of the continent’s huge river systems. The pan-African river projects - on the Congo, the Nile, Niger, Gambia, Zambezi, Kunene, Limpopo and many others – financed by PPPs that involved African and BRIC investors, as well as the African Diaspora, released the continent’s untapped agricultural potential.
By the intelligent application of centuries-old indigenous knowledge, acquired and conserved by African women who have tended crops in all seasons, within the first few years bumper harvests were being reported. Agronomists consulted women about the qualities of various grains – which ones survived low rainfalls and which thrived in wet weather; what pests threatened crops and how could they be combated without undermining delicate ecological systems.
The social impact of the agrarian revolution was perhaps the most enduring change it brought about. The status of women, the tillers of the soil by tradition, rose exponentially. The girl child, condemned to a future in the kitchen or the fields in our not too distant past, now has an equal chance of acquiring a modern education (and owning a farm or an agribusiness). African mothers today have access to tractors and irrigation systems that can be easily assembled.
The producers’ cooperatives, (agribusinesses) and marketing boards these women established help move their produce and became the giant food companies we see today.’
We refused to bear the brunt of climate change and aggressively moved to promote the Green economy and to claim the Blue economy as ours. We lit up Africa, the formerly dark continent, using hydro, solar, wind, geo-thermal energy, in addition to fossil fuels.
And, whilst I’m on the Blue economy, the decision to form Africa-wide shipping companies, and encourage mining houses to ship their goods in vessels flying under African flags, meant a major growth spurt. Of course the decision taken in Dakar to form an African Naval Command to provide for the collective security of our long coastlines, certainly also helped.
Let me quote from our mutual friend again:
‘Africa’s river system, lakes and coast lines abound with tons of fish. With funding from the different states and the Diaspora, young entrepreneurs discovered… that the mouths of virtually all the rivers along the east coast are rich in a species of eel considered a delicacy across the continent and the world.
Clever marketing also created a growing market for Nile perch, a species whose uncontrolled proliferation had at one time threatened the survival of others in Lake Victoria and the Nile.
Today Namibia and Angola exploit the Benguela current, teaming with marine life, through the joint ventures funded by sovereign funds and the African Development Bank.”
On the east coast, former island states of Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar and Mauritius are leading lights of the Blue economy and their universities and research institutes attract marine scientists and students from all over the world.
Dear friend, you reminded me in your last e-mail how some magazine once called us ‘The hopeless continent’, citing conflicts, hunger and malnutrition, disease and poverty as if it was a permanent African condition. Few believed that our pledge in the 50th Anniversary Declaration to silence the guns by 2020 was possible. Because of our firsthand experience of the devastation of conflicts, we tackled the root causes, including diversity, inclusion and the management of our resources.
If I have to single out one issue that made peace happened, it was our commitment to invest in our people, especially the empowerment of young people and women. By 2013 we said Africa needed a skills revolution and that we must change our education systems to produce young people that are innovative and entrepreneurial and with strong Pan African values.
From early childhood education, to primary, secondary, technical, vocational and higher education – we experienced a true renaissance, through the investments we made, as governments and the private sector in education and in technology, science, research and innovation.
Coupled with our concerted campaigns to eradicate the major diseases, to provide access to health services, good nutrition, energy and shelter, our people indeed became and are our most important resource. Can you believe it my friend, even the dreaded malaria is a thing of the past.
Of course this shift could not happen without Africa taking charge of its transformation, including the financing of our development. As one esteemed Foreign minister said in 2014: Africa is rich, but Africans are poor.
With concerted political determination and solidarity, and sometimes one step back and two steps forward, we made financing our development and taking charge of our resources a priority, starting with financing the African Union, our democratic elections and our peacekeeping missions.
The Golden Jubilee celebrations were the start of a major paradigm shift, about taking charge of our narrative.
Agenda 2063, its implementation and the milestones it set, was part of what brought about this shift. We developed Agenda 2063 to galvanize and unite in action all Africans and the Diaspora around the common vision of a peaceful, integrated and prosperous Africa. As an overarching framework, Agenda 2063 provided internal coherence to our various sectoral frameworks and plans adopted under the OAU and AU. It linked and coordinated our many national and regional frameworks into a common continental transformation drive.
Planning fifty years ahead, allowed us to dream, think creatively, and sometimes crazy as one of the Ministers who hosted the 2014 Ministerial retreat said, to see us leapfrog beyond the immediate challenges.
Anchored in Pan Africanism and the African renaissance, Agenda 2063 promoted the values of solidarity, self-belief, non-sexism, self-reliance and celebration of our diversity.
As our societies developed, as our working and middle classes grew, as women took their rightful place in our societies, our recreational, heritage and leisure industries grew: arts and culture, literature, media, languages, music and film. WEB du Bois grand project of Encyclopedia Africana finally saw the light and Kinshasha is now the fashion capital of the world.
From the onset, the Diaspora in the traditions of Pan Africanism, played its part, through investments, returning to the continent with their skills and contributing not only to their place of origin, but where the opportunities and needs were found.
Let me conclude this e-mail, with some family news. The twins, after completing their space studies at Bahir Dar university, decided to take the month before they start work at the African Space Agency to travel the continent. My old friend, in our days, trying to do that in one month would have been impossible!
But, the African Express Rail now connects all the capitals of our former states, and indeed they will be able to crisscross and see the beauty, culture and diversity of this cradle of humankind. The marvel of the African Express Rail is that it is not only a high speed-train, with adjacent highways, but also contains pipelines for gas, oil and water, as well as ICT broadband cables: African ownership, integrated planning and execution at its best!
The continental rail and road network that now crisscross Africa, along with our vibrant airlines, our spectacular landscapes and seductive sunsets, the cultural vibes of our cities, make tourism one of our largest economic sectors.
Our eldest daughter, the linguist, still lectures in KiSwahili in Cabo Verde, at the headquarters of the Pan African Virtual University. KiSwahili is now a major African working language, and a global language taught at most faculties across the world. Our grand children still find it very funny how we used to struggle at AU meetings with English, French and Portuguese interpretations, how we used to fight the English version not in line with the French or Arabic. Now we have a lingua franca, and multi-lingualism is the order of the day.
Remember how we used to complain about our voice not being heard in trade negotiations and the Security Council, how disorganized, sometimes divided and nationalistic we used to be in those forums, how we used to be summoned by various countries to their capitals to discuss their policies on Africa?
How things have changed. The Confederation last year celebrated twenty years since we took our seat as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and we are a major force for global stability, peace, human rights, progress, tolerance and justice.
My dear friend, I hope to see you next month in Haiti, for the second round of unity talks between the Confederation of African States and the Caribbean states. This is a logical step, since Pan Africanism had its roots amongst those early generations, as a movement of Africans from the mother continent and the Diaspora for liberation, self-determination and our common progress.
I end this e-mail, and look forward to seeing you in February. I will bring along some of the chocolates from Accra that you so love, which our children can now afford.
Till we meet again, Nkosazana.

The First AU Ministerial Retreat Reflects on Africa’s Agenda 2063

Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, 24th January 2014: With the aim of brainstorming and exchanging ideas on critical issues relating to Africa’s Agenda 2063, and the state of the African Union, members of the AU Executive Council converged at a ministerial retreat, which kicked off on24th January 2014, in the Ethiopian city of Bahir Dar, under the theme of “Defining Agenda 2063 for Africa”.

Hosted by the Ethiopian Government in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), the three-day retreat is to discuss the framework for the Agenda 2063, the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Commission (2014-2017), and revisit AU structures, decision making processes, and its implementation mechanisms for effective delivery on set objectives.

Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, AUC Chairperson, noted in her opening remarks that as Africa just emerged from the collective reflections on Pan Africanism and African Renaissance that grounded its golden jubilee celebrations, and as it looks ahead towards the next fifty years, the retreat presents an opportunity to revisit some of the debates, in a more convivial atmosphere.

Dr. Dlamini Zuma said that the decision of the Chairperson of the Executive Council to have this retreat on the Africa Agenda 2063 is well-timed, with a view “to enable this august body to add its collective contribution towards the Africa we want and the milestones we must set towards this end”, specially that the Africa’s Agenda 2063 is coming after a year of robust consultations with civil society on the future they want.

Addressing the retreat, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Chairperson of the AU Executive Council, highlighted that the continent needs to address issues such as the economic emancipation, peace and stability, accelerating rapid economic growth, governance and democratization, leadership and the need for a critical mass of people with a developmental mindset, in order to realize its long term agendas. He emphasized on the significance of the Agenda 2063 for the future of the African continent and achievement of the African Renaissance.

Representing the host country, Mr. Gedu Andargachew, President of the Amhara National Regional State, welcomed the hosting of the ministerial retreat in Bahir Dar, noting that the event “will offer a good opportunity for our people to enhance their understanding of our continental organization and its activities”.

The overall objective of the First Ministerial Retreat of the African Union is to give clear direction and guidelines on the key areas of Agenda 2063 for subsequent elaboration and devising on best ways and means of improving the functioning of the AU structures, institutions and processes with a view to attaining its objectives as well as to galvanize synergy among all major stakeholders, actors and development partners. Agenda 2063 will be considered by the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government on 30th January, and the final adoption is expected to be done at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly in June/July 2014.

The retreat is being attended by the AU Foreign Ministers and Members of the Executive Council; Dr. Carlos Lopez, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Mr. Erastus Mwencha Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission; AU Commissioners, and members of the PRC and other officials.

The ministerial retreat will end its debates on Sunday 26th January 2014.

For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dinfo@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia