The African Union (AU) Commission and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Friday launched a year-long project to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the AU.
This initiative, entitled “The AU at 20: A Renewed Call to Action for the 21st Century”, aimed to mark the 20th anniversary of the creation of the AU and to launch a new call to action to achieve continental and global development aspirations.
“Approved by the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the project will undertake a data-driven study to assess progress and issue a new call to action to achieve Agenda 2063 (Africa that we want) and the United Nations 2030 Agenda, “read an AU statement released on Friday.
The year 2022 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Durban summit, which created the African Union (AU), which succeeded the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
“Since then, the continent has experienced rapid economic growth and has developed normative frameworks on development, peace, and security, and governance,” the AU said.
The 55 members of the Pan-African bloc, however, stressed that the African continent “still had to fully consolidate the successes of recent years and meet the persistent challenges in the areas of the economy, governance, and society”.
The joint study intended, among other things, to come up with new ideas and innovative ways to help AU member states accelerate the achievement of inclusive growth and sustainable development, it was noted.
The AU Commission and UNDP stand ready to work on developing a research methodology, data collection, and analysis process to produce a compendium that assesses “where the continent is at, where we are. should be and establish a clear roadmap for sustainable and equitable progress across the continent, ”he noted.
In addition, a series of dialogues will be organized across the continent to present the results of the study in order to allow all stakeholders to make their contributions and validate the study. The final compendium will then be produced and launched in 2022 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the AU, according to the latter.
Representatives of the UNDP Regional Service Center for Africa, the Office of the President of the AU Commission, the Department of Peace and Security, the Department of Political Affairs, the Directorate of Public Information and Communications, Department of Infrastructure and Energy, Office of Legal Counsel and Department of Trade and Industry participated in the kick-off meeting.
Thirty-nine years after the launch of the OAU to end colonialism and unite the peoples of Africa, the continent's leaders inaugurated its successor, the AU, in Durban, South Africa, in July 2002.
The new organization inherits the OAU mantle of pan-Africanism. The AU, however, has a broader mandate to meet the challenges of an era of rapid globalization.