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African Young Women: Soaring towards Excellence
Keynote address by Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) Africa Regional Conference
Lagos, Nigeria. 12 August 2013

I salute the leadership of the Girl Guides of the World, the Africa region and Nigeria and all you Girl Guides and Scouts

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is such an honour for me to address this gathering of young African leaders and with humility accept the Award for Woman of Outstanding Achievement.

I address you as young African leaders, because even though we say that the youth are our future, we must always and everywhere remind ourselves that we must buid tand invest in that future today. I am very happy to be amongst those who have dedicated their lives to investing in girls

This is particularly true for our beloved continent, since over seventy percent of our population is under the age of 30 years, and the majority are girls and young women. By 2025, one quarter of the world’s young women and men under 25 years will be African.
We are not only blessed with a youthful population, but we also have abandoned natural resources, land; forests and marine resources, fossil and renewable energy as well as mineral resources.
Those of you who are studying or have studied Geography will also agree with me that Africa is large, with a land size of 30,331,532 square kilometres – like a large island, surrounded by two oceans. It can therefore fit on its landmass China, India, the USA, Western Europe and still have space for Japan and a few other countries.
The greatest and our most precious resource we have, however, remains our people. If we therefore want to realize our dream of an Africa that is integrated, people-centred, prosperous and at peace with herself and her environment, we must invest in yourselves - the young girls women, and not forgetting the young men of Africa.

Girl Guides and Scouts, Fellow Africans

Amongst the ethos of the Girls Guides and Girl Scouts is your intergenerational approach to empowerment and leadership development. This is an ethos which the African Union, Your Union, embraces.

As older generations, we can share our experience of life, society and the world, and we are often in positions of authority and power, whether in families, communities or society as goverments.

As adults – whether as mothers, fathers, uncles or aunts; as neighbours, priests, pastors or imams; as teachers, journalists, politicians, artists, writers and musicians; as Guides, Scout leaders and public figures - we all have the duty to mentor, to share experiences, to protect, to provide opportunities and to work for a better life for the next generations.

This not only means providing guidance and sharing our experiences, but it means that we must listen to and engage with the views of young people, We must listen to you and engage you.

Young women and men, on the other hand, have energy, are creative, innovative and impatient and are prone to take risks. An enabling environment for young people to soar to excellence means an environment where energies, creativity, impatience and risk are geared towards positive self, peer, community and societal development.

The early Pan African movements, who helped to liberate our continent from slavery, colonialism and apartheid had in its ranks thousands upon thousands of young women and men, who used their energy and creativity, who were impatient to see change and who often took the ultimate risk, to free their people. As we this year celebrate fifty years since the formation of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) which is now the African Union, we must pay tribute to these early generations of youth.

Today’s generations of young Africans have an equally burdensome responsibility – to add your energy, creativity, your impatience and innovation, and be prepared to take risks – to ensure that our dream of an integrated, people-centred, peaceful and prosperous Africa becomes a reality, in your lifetime.

Girl Guides and Scouts, Ladies and Gentlemen

The African Union therefor has great expectations of the role you should play in helping to shape the future of the continent.

As members of the Girl Guides and Girls Scouts - and indeed all members of youth formations, including your sibling organization the Boys Scouts, young people in social, religious, cultural, educational, environmental clubs and societies - you have taken the first step, to be involved. Involvement in some form of organization from a young age is important to your personal development.

Being involved in organisation helps develop a sense of self-confidence, of being part of a group (other than your family or your schoolmates) and it fosters social and organizational skills. In addition, being part of organization from an early age also makes us aware about society, the world we live in and that we are all interdependent. Like the song we sang earlier today

Organization also teaches us that we can achieve excellence if we work hard and focus. It teaches us that we can and must contribute towards a better society and world - as individuals and through joint action. It teaches us – like the Guides’ Global theme that ‘together we can change our world.’

I therefore salute this 10 million-strong movement of Girl Guides and Girls Scouts and wish the African Region all the best with reaching their target of two million members by 2020.

A second expectation from the African Union is your role in energizing and as a partner in our path towards prosperity. As a Union and Member States of the African Union, as adults and parents of this continent, we know our responsibility in this regard, which is to ensure that you are educated, that your basic needs are met, that you have opportunities to participate in the economy, to express yourself freely and that the rights of girls and young women, are known, protected and defended. Ive heard what your priorities are: ending violence, ending child trafficking. We heard you and we will work with you on these issues, and I heard your request to be an Observer and we should work on a Memorandum of Understanding to give this effect.

This is why the African Union adopted the African Youth Charter in Banjul, in 2006:-
Recognizing (that) youth are partners, assets and a prerequisite for sustainable development and for the peace and prosperity of Africa.

Therefore, when we are talking about priorities such as investing in education, training, science, technology, research and innovation, we need to hear your voices and the contributions you can make.

I spoke earlier of the enormous natural and other resources we have on the continent, but they can only lead to shared prosperity if we have artisans and architects, farmers and pharmacists, miners, botanists, engineers, economists and electricians, doctors, nurses, lawyers, quantity surveyors and midwives, soft-wear engineers, business and entrepreneurs, artists and musicians that will ensure the development of world-class African companies and brands in every single economic sector, whether they are large, small or medium and in every area of human endeavor. That is why we call on all girls and young women to go into all these areas, to have a critical mass, without which Africa cant develop.

We also need young people in the public sector and in civil society, to ensure that our states and government serve the people by playing a truly developmental role and that we build inclusive societies.

Above all, with 60% of unused arable land in the world, you are the next generation that must get involved in agriculture so that Africa can feed itself and the world. Young Africans, especially young women must therefore learn the business of farming, agricultural sciences, the food processing sectors, marketing and logistics, in order to build and grow our agro-businesses and sectors.

In a similar vein, young Africans must be at the forefront of advocating for an integrated Africa, as we saw today girls and young women from so many countries. We can only build shared prosperity when our countries and region trade with each other first, before looking across the seas to import what are basic needs of our continent and import finished products when we export all the raw materials to make such products.

In addition, young Africans must take special interest in plans to integrate the continent through infrastructure. You must be interested, because it should be possible for you in the future to drive or take a speed train from Lagos to Algiers, Cairo and Djibouti, or from Banjul to Dakar, Freetown, Djamina to Juba, Addis Ababa, and Mombasa, or from Tunis to Maputo to Mbabane, to Cape Town and Luanda. You must also be interested whether you will on your journeys have access to fast broad band internet, to reliable electricity, energy and clean water and sanitation, no matter where you are on the African continent.

With rapid urbanization, young Africans also have an interest in the state of our cities and towns, whether they are well-planned, their infrastructure maintained, with green spaces and recreation facilities, bulk infrastructure and adequate housing.

You must also be interested in knowing whether ECOWAS, the African Union and all African countries are making progress with free movement of people and goods, because you want to experience the hospitality, natural beauty and cultures of other countries on your continent. This question is also important to enable young entrepreneurs to explore markets, innovations and form business links beyond the borders of their countries and regions, and help to build African business innovators and leaders.

An important process is the ongoing process of self-definition, who we are, what are our common Pan African values and ethos, and to be proudly African. If you are not proud of who you are, you cannot succeed.

Young people with their energy and innovations have always played an important role in taking our traditions, culture, history and life experiences and representing it in new ways and through new means. Our continent has the fastest growing mobile phone sector in the world, but we must be more than users of technology, we must also make cyberspace our own, through content that is African – in its rich diversity and languages.

Each generation must work for a better world for itself and future generations.

Your generation must therefore be the engine for African integration, peace and prosperity – the fuel and driver of its Renaissance.

Girl Guides, Ladies and Gentlemen

The African Union knows that for us to succeed, we must develop the potential of both men and women. We therefor pay special attention to the empowerment of young women and girls.

For us, the empowerment of girls and young women means making sure that they grow up to have their contributions valued in families, communities and societies, and that they have the space to make informed decisions and choices. Empowering girls and young women means that no-one should tell you that you cannot reach your goals and dreams, simply because you are a girl or a woman .

This means that we advocate, work for and monitor progress in the education of girls and young women in all our countries, encouraging parents to send and keep their girls and boys in schools.

We also engage with girls and boys on the need to value their bodies and to respect each other. We warn against the dangers of teenage pregnancy, HIV and AIDS, and advocate for policies that enable girls to have information and to protect themselves.

We also advocate for our societies to abolish harmful cultural and religious practices – such as child marriages - that infringe on the rights of girls and women. We recently had an AU conference on Maternal and Infant Mortality. Research shows that teenage mothetrs makes up a disproportional part of maternal and infant mortality. We must there
Lets not marry children, let they be children. Women’s rights, the rights otf girls and young women are human righs.

The African Gender Protocol commits the African Union and its Member States to work towards achieving Gender Parity by 2020. We are making progress in education and in the political sphere, but only ten (10) countries have met the interim goal of having 30% women in their parliaments and cabinets. We must congratulate Rwanda, the highest number of women MP’s in the world, as a role model for us.

In other spheres of society – the media, academia, business, religious and cultural institutions, in agriculture, professions and artisanships, in science, ICT and technology – progress is still very slow.

The excuse is often that they can’t find qualified and capable women to fill these positions. We also know that this is not always true – that if women are given a chance, they can make a difference in any organization or institutions – whether in the public or private sectors. Your generation of girls and young women, dear Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, must learn, develop and soar to excellence, so that not a single glass ceiling remains and we achieve our goal of gender parity in all spheres of life by 2020.

It is for this reason – our trust and confidence in the future of Africa – that the African Union decided to embark on the process to develop an agenda for the future – called Agenda 2063.

Through this agenda we want to achieve three things: firstly, to agree on the Africa we want; secondly, to set short and medium term milestones and concrete strategies on how we will get there, and thirdly, to define the role each of us should play to achieve this Agenda.

We therefore invite the Girl Guides and Scouts Association to also make their contributions, which should reach us by the end of October this year.

Girl Guides and Girls Scouts, Ladies and Gentlemen

You are the future of the continent, and you must build that future today. You must be strong, be focused and have confidence to reach your dreams. You must be role models for other girls and young women: in Africa and the world, for current and future generations.

You are Africa’s future – and I am confident that the future looks bright. We shouldn’t just want you to reach where we are, but beyond.

Wishing you fruitful deliberations during this week and looking forward to your inputs on Agenda 2063 and to working with you.

I thank you.

Keynote Address by H.E. Mr Erastus Mwencha
Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission
(On behalf of H.E. Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the AUC)

On the Occasion of the Official Opening Ceremony of the 12th African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Ministerial Forum

12TH AUGUST 2013
At the African Union Headquarters
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Your Excellency, Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Your Excellency, Ambassador Michael Froman, United States Trade Representative
Excellences, Honorable Ministers
Honourable Members of Parliament from Africa and Congressmen from United State of America
Excellencies Members of the Permanent Representatives Committee and the African Group in Washington
Heads & Representative of Regional Economic Communities, United Nations Agencies and International Organisations
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am singularly honoured to welcome you all to the Headquarters of the African Union, on behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who, sends her best wishes to this meeting. Let me begin by thanking H.E. Mr. Hailemariam Dessalegn, the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic, Republic of Ethiopia and government for hosting this very important meeting and for giving us the opportunity to provide the venue. I would also like to welcome and to congratulate Ambassador Froman on his recent appointment as the 11th United States Trade Representative. We believe your vast knowledge and experience in international trade and development will go a long way in maximizing growth and development opportunities for Africa through improved trade relations between the continent and the United States.
Allow me to seize this opportunity to thank the U.S. agencies that have supported the implementation of AGOA in Africa, specifically USAID, Ex-Im Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. I also acknowledge the contribution of the U.S Government towards the African Woman Entrepreneurship Programme (AWEP).

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,
AGOA is the cornerstone of the United States Government’s trade policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa and there has been remarkable growth in the partnership between the United States and Africa in general, and in the African Union Commission in particular. The U.S was the first country to dedicate a full time Ambassador to the AU, and this has enhanced dialogue between both sides as was witnessed at the recent meeting between President Obama, Ambassador Froman and the Chairperson of the AU Commission, H.E Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The AU and the AUC are beneficiaries of technical cooperation in strategic areas such as Energy, Agriculture, Peace and Security, Governance and Human Resource development. The U.S hosts many Africans and remittance is a major source of foreign exchange to Africa. It is against this backdrop that African Ministers of Trade are recommending that AGOA framework be expanded to include political dialogue and exchange of hi level visit to both sides.

As I said earlier we meet when Africa is celebrating the 50th anniversary and has just adopted a 4 year strategy plan and is developing a long term vision known as agenda 2063. Three key mega trends are instructive to AU
Vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful continent-participating effectively in the global arena.

The choice of the theme of this year’s AGOA forum “Sustainable Transformation through Trade & Technology” is to respond to these key challenges when AGOA was enacted in 2000, one would not have predicted its impact on African economies; ranging from exporting textiles to transport equipment in the form of motor vehicles and parts. At the time the proponents of AGOA were faced with skeptisms, trade relations between African and the U.S public and private sectors have been enhanced.

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since the enactment of AGOA in 2000, both Africa and the U.S. have derived benefits from their economic and trade relationship under AGOA, with combined two-way trade between the United States and AGOA-eligible African countries growing nearly three-fold, research showing as much as a 340% increase between 2001 and 2012. AGOA has generated about 350,000 direct jobs and one million indirect jobs in Africa, further stressing the significance of trade. Through these positive effects on exports, jobs and incomes, AGOA has generated a lot of goodwill in Africa for the USA.

It is also popular knowledge that Africa’s energy and energy-related sectors continue to enjoy stable growth. The non-oil product exports from Africa have also witnessed significant growth, with the textile and apparel industries recording total exports of US$ 4.8 billion in 2012, accounting for 40 percent of non-oil trade.

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen

Though there have been some successes thus far, the potentials for economic growth based on the original intent of AGOA of stimulating economic growth, diversifying African exports, encouraging economic integration and facilitating Africa’s integration into the global economy have not been realized. It is in this regard that the task of promoting African growth and development through AGOA can be regarded as an unfinished one.

Over the past few years, African governments have effected reforms and created an enabling environment that has led to unprecedented high growth rates and the continent is home to 6 of the world’s ten fastest growing economies. The opportunities for mutually beneficial trade between Africa and USA through a reauthorized and enhanced AGOA are enormous. We have witnessed significant progress in governance policies which have resulted in better macro-economic performance despite current global, financial and economic crisis.

Africa has embarked on an ambitious agenda to ensure: Peace and Security, Human Resource Development, Food Security, Infrastructure Development, Industrialization, (good) Governance, Gender Mainstreaming and ICT technology and Information.

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen

As we strive for an extended and more comprehensive AGOA, it is important to draw lessons from the past development frameworks and build a new arrangement taking into account Africa's current potential.
Extension of AGOA in time before September 2013 is important to avoid the type of setback Africa experiences with regard to the extension of the textile and apparel provisions. Also critical is the accompanying measures, namely:
1. To enhance investment provisions so as to encourage US bound investments in Africa. That U.S. Share of 1% of total foreign direct investment is clearly one area where there is big room for improvement- by making AGOA more predictable, more transparent and more stable.
2. Expand the range of products to include agricultural products which Africa has a comparative advantage
3. Support Africa’ integration agenda, through regional hubs by encouraging local supply chain systems as well as trade facilitation.
4. Encourage trade and investments interaction at business-to- business levels- to better appreciate trade and investment opportunities
5. Create a forum for political dialogue through which leaders on both sides nurture the relationship.

Excellences, Distinguished Delegates,

Once again you are welcome to Addis Ababa and I wish you successful deliberations.

Statement by the Commissioner for Political Affairs at the Second Edition of the Africa Day of Decentralization and local Development

Statement by H.E. Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Commissioner for Political Affairs, African Union Commission, at the Constitutive Conference of African Political Parties, Khartoum, Sudan,
27 April 2013

STATEMENT BY H.E. Dr. Nkosazana C. Dlamini Zuma Chairperson of the African Union Commission to the
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH
Johannesburg, South Africa. 1 – 3 AUGUST 2013
Your Excellencies
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is indeed an honour for me to address the International Conference Maternal, Newborn and Child Health on behalf of the Commission of the African Union, in our effort to promote the health and welfare of women and children in Africa. A word of thanks to the President, Government and People of South Africa for hosting this conference with us.

Soon after its inception in October last year, the current Commission of the African Union agreed on eight priorities on which to focus special attention. Foremost among these priorities is the development of Africa’s human capital. Africa’s most important resource is its people, there can therefore be no African Renaissance if thousands of women die every year giving birth and when our most precious and vulnerable, infants and children are not able to grow up and reach their full potential. Indeed, this is a priority and we have therefore no choice, but to implement with speed the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA).

This international conference on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health is, therefore, both timely and important because, before we can even talk about development of our human capital, those humans must be born and nurtured through a safe and wholesome childhood.

As we all know the health status/condition of a child, as well as its odds for survival and prospects to grow and develop, does not begin at birth. Rather, it starts way before with family planning choices and the health and nutrition status of the mother.

This requires the deepening of our quest for women’s empowerment by strengthening our health systems, entrenching women’s reproductive rights and the care and rights of children.

Our starting point at this conference should, therefore, be: What can we do together - governments, communities, civil society, and the private sector to ensure that women have choices, have universal access to family planning services and are educated about when t hey have children, the spacing of their children and the choice on the number of children they have? How do we ensure that expectant mothers have the necessary nutritional and health needs to be able to carry and deliver healthy and nutritionally balanced babies?

The second issue of focus should be how we can facilitate safe delivery by the expectant mothers. Far too many women in Africa needlessly die in the process of child birth. The causes for this include lack of access to proper prenatal care during pregnancy and to health facilities during child birth; inadequate trained or too few medical staff such as birth attendants, midwives, nurses and doctors; lack of essential and life-saving drugs and life support equipment in health facilities; and lack of information in basic life-saving techniques among traditional birth attendants, to name just a few.

The third area of concern for this conference should be the provision of care for the mother and child, especially in the immediate post-delivery period. This is a period of extreme fragility and danger for many new mothers and babies and many lives are lost due to birth and post-birth complications.

Fourthly, the conference should address issues related to sustaining the life of the newborn and its health care, encouraging breast feeding, general nutritional needs, during the child’s critical development stage from birth up to the age of five years. Besides the in-hospital medical care before and after birth, including post-natal visits, it is important to address the challenges posed by the home environment to the life, health and well-being of both mother and child. This includes access to safe drinking water and sanitation; vaccinations against various childhood diseases, malaria and HIV prevention and treatment, among others.

Finally, since teenage mothers are disproportionally represented when it comes to maternal and infant mortality, we have to pay special attention to empowerment of girls and women, ensure that girls remain in school until completion, discourage early pregnancy and outlaw child marriages. Research increasingly shows that girls’ education is not only important for their own empowerment, but that it also contributes to reductions in infant and maternal mortality and improves the lives of women, children, families and communities.

Nothing I have said is new. Indeed, this conference is not expected to make any new findings from either the policy or knowledge perspectives. We are here to share best practice, information and plans for implementation.

You will recall, in this regard, that in September 2006 African Ministers of Health and other stakeholders adopted the continental policy framework and the Maputo Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights to ensure universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services on the continent and CARMMA as our concrete plan to realize these objectives.

This landmark decision paved the way for the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. This Protocol urges our governments to guarantee comprehensive rights to women including the right to take part in the political process, to social and political equality with men, to control of their reproductive health. The Protocol calls on our governments to ensure delivery of quality and affordable health services in order to promote safe motherhood, child survival and maternal, newborn and child health.

Furthermore, African Heads of State held a special session of the African Union in Kampala, Uganda, in July 2010 devoted to issues of maternal, newborn and child health. In January this year, on the margins of the Assembly of Africa Union Heads of State and Government, African leaders held a working lunch of the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).

These continental policy frameworks, as well as various national health policy frameworks by African countries, provide sufficient guidelines, information and recommendations on how to address the challenge of maternal, newborn and child mortality in Africa.

The issues we need to address at this conference, therefore, are those relating to implementation of existing continental and national policy frameworks and plans of action. We need, in this respect, to create an effective coalition involving governments, communities, civil society, the private sector, cooperating partners and other international stakeholders that should galvanise and coordinate action on implementation, including resource mobilisation.

I also believe that the issue of maternal, newborn and child mortality is not merely a health issue. It is a multi-sectoral issue that can only be effectively addressed by a comprehensive approach both by national authorities and at continental level.

The conference will therefore involve several parallel sessions including a multi-sectoral session that will address those issues that may be outside the influence of the health sector but significantly impact on health outcomes.

I wish to reaffirm that solutions to our challenges, do not lie in the health sector alone. Advancement on health outcomes will depend on gender equality and status of women and children, education, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, food security and nutrition, capacity for production and distribution of essential health commodities. It is imperative for the Commission of the African Union, governments and partners to collaborate more closely to develop, prioritize and implement policies that will improve the health of women and children in Africa.

As we celebrate 50 years of our existence as a continental organization it is unacceptable that women continue to die while giving life or that children die from conditions which science has secured the means to prevent and treat.

Oftentimes we are paralysed into inaction by the challenge of resource constraints. But we have also seen that when we choose to act together, when we believe that an issue poses an existential threat to our nations, we act resolutely and undeterred by resource constraints.

If we choose to make maternal, newborn and child mortality a priority; if we believe that maternal, newborn and child mortality poses an existential threat to all our nations and if we can muster the necessary political will, I have no doubt that we can find the necessary resources to eradicate avoidable maternal, newborn and child mortality in Africa.

To spend resources to preserve life, our most precious resource, is not expenditure, but an investment - an investment in our common humanity and our common survival!

I wish the Conference fruitful deliberations and expect that it will produce a clear outcome, in the form of an Action plan that commits all governments, civil society, the private sector, continental organisations to save more lives, as we head towards the Millennium Development Goals countdown.

Thank You.