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Welcome Remarks by HE Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission

To the Opening session of the 26th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC)

Addis Ababa, 19 May 2013

Your Excellency, the Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Chairperson of the PRC,
Your Excellency the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission and Commissioners,
Chairpersons of AU Organs,
Distinguished Ambassadors, Members of the PRC,
Excellencies and Officials from the Capitals

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me start by congratulating Ambassador Konjit Sene Giorgis, the Chairperson of the PRC, on her fifty years of service to Ethiopian diplomacy and her unwavering service to the cause of Pan Africanism.

Excellencies, when we met at the January Summit earlier this year, we agreed that 2013 shall be an exciting, but hardworking year for us all. Indeed, the 50th anniversary of the OAU and AU represents yet another moment of destiny for our continent.

There is general acceptance about the rise of Africa for the last decade in terms of economic growth, public investment in infrastructure development, regional integration efforts, as well as improvements in democracy, governance, peace and stability and some human development indicators.

There is also an emerging consensus that Africa’s endowments and future trends present huge opportunities: its human resources and demographic trends, especially its youthful population and its women; its rates of urbanization; the arable land and other natural resources at its disposal; the potential for energy generation, both fossil and renewables; its mineral deposits and its long coastlines, to name but a few.

And yet, we must all agree that this potential was also present when the founders formed the OAU in 1963. As newly independent state they had to construct independent states and develop a vision and plans for continental integration on the foundations of the fragmentation, destruction and structural underdevelopment caused by centuries of colonialism. Though representing thirty two independent states, they still confronted the scourge of colonialism with nearly half of Africa still under its shackles.

The founding generations therefore had to continue the fight, in the spirit of Pan Africanism, for self-determination during most of the existence of the OAU, whilst simultaneously embarking on the tasks of nation and state formation, fighting poverty, ignorance and disease in their countries, and taking forward the vision of African unity, development and integration.

Following Namibian independence and the end of apartheid in 1994, the transformation of the OAU into the African Union signaled a new era for our continent. This is the era that heralded in the current positive trends we see in Africa today.

Your Excellencies,

After a decade of the African Union, and as we celebrate 50 years since the founding of the OAU, it is an opportune moment for reflection on the grand narratives that have been part of the Pan African project for at least the last fifty years and before.

These narratives include our long-term vision of African unity; the paths towards shared prosperity and human security for all African citizens, regions and countries; speeding up the integration agenda; achieving gender equality; tackling the root causes of conflict; celebrating unity in diversity and building inclusive political and human rights cultures.

Excellencies, as we debate the Summit Proclamation, and as we reflect and plan during the Yearlong 50th Anniversary celebrations, we must answer some of these questions:
• What will it take for Africa to be integrated, people-centred, prosperous and at peace with itself over the next five decades?
• Are the milestones we set in various continental frameworks and initiatives, especially around human development, infrastructure, agriculture, women’s empowerment, health and industrialization, and above all on political unity and integration sufficiently bold to achieve our vision?
• What type of paradigms and actions in terms of leadership, people’s participation, resource mobilisation and our implementation, monitoring and evaluation strategies are required to ensure impact and rapid implementation?
• And finally, are our institutional architectures aligned towards the achievement of rapid integration, development and industrialization, how do we improve their impact, efficiency and effectiveness?

There is no question that we have grappled with all these issues since the founders gathered in Addis Ababa in 1963 and before, although in different times and context.

We recall the words of the High Level Panel on the Audit of the African Union when they said that ‘only through introspection can appropriate lessons of history be learnt and Africans, as a people, confidently forge ahead towards the desired future.’

Excellencies, PRC Members, Representatives from Capitals

The first five months of this year have indeed been a period of hard work, yet also exciting because we are beginning to see movement in a number of areas which the Summits entrusted to us, and on which we shall account.

Firstly, Summit instructed the PRC and the Commission to finalise the approach to and preparations for the 50th Anniversary. We have not only adopted the Anniversary Project document and Budget, but your good selves have been engaged in monitoring and providing direction to the preparations for the Anniversary. The first phase of the Anniversary is upon us, and we will soon witness whether we have turned our plans into reality.

Secondly, we were required to finalise the Third Strategic Plan of the African Union Commission (2014-2017). This has been a challenging endeavor, because we needed to agree not only the priorities for the next five years and beyond, but also to effect the paradigm shift in our planning so as to focus on impacts and outcomes rather just on activities.

Thus when we said in the Strategic plan that our people are our most important resource, we had to articulate the strategies to achieve this, as well as set the indicators to measure impact.

The discussions on these matters, and on the AUC 2014 Budget, in PRC and in the Extra-Ordinary Executive Council, are testimony to our seriousness to ensure that our premium continental organisation, the African Union, indeed is serious about accelerating the agenda of creating an integrated, people-centred, prosperous and peaceful Africa.

Your Excellencies,

The third task on which we can report progress is on the review of strategic partnerships. Although we have not started the formal review yet, the broad outline of a different approach has begun to emerge in our practical engagements on partnerships over the last five months.

We not only held the Africa South America Summit, the TICAD Ministerial meeting, the AU and EU college to college meeting and engaged with the BRICS on our continental priorities, we have also started preparations for a number of important initiatives with partners this year, including the TICAD Summit, the Africa-Arab Summit, India Africa Ministerial meeting, as well as preparations for the Africa-Europe Summit next year.

During this period, we also visited China to discuss how to strengthen relations, based on our vision. We have made a follow-up meeting to the Brics Summit by visiting the Russian Federation. At the World Economic Forum we were able to put our priorities, to mention a few.

A key lesson from these engagements is that when the African Union is clear about its priorities and its common positions, we are more likely to have effective partnerships and move forward our continental agendas, whether it is on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) or on our infrastructure priorities. We must therefore use these lessons to inform the partnerships review that we must formalise after this Summit.

Fourthly, Excellencies, we undertook as the Commission, as part of building a People’s Union to ensure that we communicate more effectively. The AUC has begun to develop and executive a communication and outreach strategy, developed with government communicators and journalists from across the continent. Early signals are that the Union is more visible and that important shifts are occurring in perceptions of the continent.

Of course, the 50th anniversary of our Union in and by itself, and the consultative approach towards the development of the Agenda 2063 framework, provide us with good opportunities for raising the AU and continental profile.

We must however caution that we still have to do objective research on the impact of our strategy, and that important elements of our communications strategy have still to be rolled out, especially with regards to radio and social media, in order to reach all regions and sectors of the African citizenry.

Your Excellencies,

A fifth area of reflection is our ongoing work on peace, security, and on governance and democracy. Since January, the Commission has send observer missions to a number of Member states, including the recent elections in Kenya. We continue to learn lessons from these experiences, and they help to inform our paradigm of building inclusive political cultures and national and regional development.

We must repeat the message that there can be no peace without development, and no development without peace. Through implementation of the peace and security, and the good governance architecture, Africa continues to register increasing levels of peace and security. We must highlight that whereas in the 1990’s there were about fifteen countries engulfed in conflicts, this number reduced to five between 2000 and 2010.
Conflict resolution efforts have yielded encouraging results in many parts of the continent, as shown by the tremendous progress recorded in Somalia, the agreements reached between Sudan and South Sudan in their post secession relations and the ongoing initiatives to promote good neighborliness and cooperation for a shared prosperity in the Great Lakes region.

However, as the remaining conflicts and recent crises in Mali and Central African Republic and the ongoing situation in Western Sahara suggest, there is no room for complacency, and we must resolutely tackle the root causes of conflicts and instability, so as to ensure lasting peace.

Excellencies,

There are other areas that we need to pay greater attention to or that we postponed till after the May Summit. These include the strengthening of the AU Commission and organs, including the relationship between Commission and the PRC and implementing the decisions of the AUC and RECs retreat held in April this year.

We will therefore act in the coming months with speed on decisions such as the follow-up on the High Level Panel Audit of the AU review; the issue of the proliferation of AU institutions and agencies; the review on the mandate of the Pan African Parliament and strengthening our capacity to implement decisions of our policy organs, to name but a few.

Your Excellencies,

In conclusion, our debates on the theme over the last few months have brought us closer to a common narrative on the lessons and achievements of the last five decades, including the strengths and weaknesses of our Union. The yearlong anniversary activities, and our engagements with all sectors of society on the theme will continue to build on this African narrative.

However, more importantly during this year, besides the celebratory aspects of our 50th Anniversary, we have before us the task to map out a vision and milestones for the next fifty years. The Proclamation of the Anniversary Summit must provide the framework and set the tone. It must be bold and inclusive; and not shy away from confronting the issues that make it difficult for us to achieve integration, peace and prosperity.

Your Excellencies, let us recall the words of our founders, that Africa must unite or perish. When they formed the OAU on 25 May 1963, they chose to unite behind the mission to rid Africa of colonialism and apartheid.

On 25 May 2013, we must unite behind the mission to rid Africa of poverty, disease, hunger and prosperity.

We must unite, or perish.

Welcome Remarks by HE Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission to the Opening session of the 26th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC)

Statement by H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission at the Opening Ceremony of the 5th Meeting of the African Union Ministers of Women’s Affairs and Gender

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

14 May 2013

Chairperson of the Bureau of Ministers,
Host Minister of Women and Youth Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,
Sister and Vice President of Gambia, who has been here for 3 days discussing women issues,
Ministers in charge of Women Affairs,
Experts from Member States
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I join you, this morning at this 5th Meeting of the African Union Ministers of Gender and Women’s Affairs. It is the first one I am attending and I am happy that I was asked by the Programme Director to come and speak to you.

I would like to thank you for your messages of congratulations that I received on my election as the Chairperson in July 2012. I also received messages from many women on the continent.

I will concentrate on what is happening at the AUC, as you know more about what is happening at national level.

Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen
This meeting takes place at a very critical time, when we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the OAU/AU. This celebration should give us a unique opportunity, as citizens and women, to reflect at what has happened around women since the establishment of the OAU in 1963, and ascertain what progress we have made as women, and where we want to go in the next 50 years. We should do this in the context of Africa looking at itself as an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.

As we go forward, the main issues are about unity, an integrated Africa, at peace with its self and driven by its citizens. We have always said this but we have not always put it into practice. The AU is not an organization of governments only; it must be driven by its citizens.

While indeed we have made some progress in the past, we must acknowledge that it is not enough. Even at pre-colonial times, women have always played a critical role in their civilizations. But of course patriarchy has always been part of our systems - except for a few countries, it is a global issue. Even during the fight against slavery and colonialism, and before the establishment of the OAU, African women came together to establish PAWO, in the spirit of Pan Africanism.

Women continued to struggle, not only for themselves, but for the rest of humanity. That is why women emancipation is the emancipation of everyone. Historically, women played an important part in the family. Even today, if you give the resources of the family to a woman, you will know that the family will be looked after. They will make sure the children are fed, they go to school, and ensure that all members of the family are well looked after. Empowering women is therefore empowering a nation. Women rights are human rights. The emancipation of women is not about fighting men, and it cannot be about fighting men. Women give birth to men and women. How can it be that they give birth to men, only to fight them? The emancipation of women is about them reaching their full potential, and contributing to the nation. It should not threaten anyone, but be embraced by everyone. Unfortunately, women have not always received the support that they need.

If we look at the Constitutive Act of the AU, the principles of gender parity are enshrined. The AU also adopted the Protocol to the Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on The Rights of Women in Africa, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, (SDGEA), the AU Gender Policy and the declared 2010-2020 as the African Women’s Decade, We therefore have many continental and global instruments. If we were just to implement what we have agreed on, without adding many more legal instruments, we would be very far. Unfortunately, we have not implemented our protocols, declarations, or even our Constitutive Act. Nevertheless, women have been resilient, they struggle, but we would like to invite every one to work with us so that we make progress.

At AU, we need to celebrate the achievements of the continent, and women. We are working with ECA and UNESCO, to see if we can produce a book that will celebrate the achievements of women over the past 50 years. The challenge is that even though women have played an important part, it has not been documented. There is therefore a need to research what they have done. We are seeking the research capacity from UNESCO and ECA so that in the next year we can have a book that celebrates the achievements of women and their participation in the struggle. We will therefore ask you to contribute from your countries, whom you consider as women who have contributed to bringing us to where we are, so that they can be recognized.

The second aspect is about thinking about where we want to go. Our forbearers ensured that today we are all free men and women. They ensured that they bequeathed to us a better Africa than the one they found and lived in. Especially the women, they have bequeathed us a better baseline for women equality. It is incumbent upon us that we leave a better world for our children.

We had a workshop for women on Sunday and Monday (12-13 May), comprising of women from across all sectors and age groups, including founder members of PAWO, and that is where the Vice President and some of you were. We had very important discussions. This is in line with trying to implement what is expected of us; that this Union should be driven by its people. The women had discussions on the theme of the Summit, and reflected on where we want to be as women in the next 50 years.

In the course of the discussion, one women articulated her vision by saying that in the next 50 years, our grand children will be asking: What was this gender discrimination about? This will be because by then, all women will be emancipated. Gender discrimination will be history. In SA for example, people born after 1994 are asking: “what was this apartheid? You mean our women were minors”? This is because if one was not married, they would have their unemployed son to help them to open an account. Women were seen as minors for the rest of their lives. So today, emancipated young women are asking; what that was all about? So, this is the kind of conversation we want our grandchildren to have in 50 years.

We hope that going forward we can define the steps that will take us towards that conversation.

Right now, we think that we have made progress because we can count that we have two female presidents, less than ten countries have 30% women in Parliament, and we have a number of successful women in business. However, real progress should be when we can no longer count. Men do not count when a male president gets elected. Women’s progress should be when we no longer have to count.

During the two days discussion, a young woman asked why we cannot have women Chairpersons of the AU Commission for the next 50 years. Men have done it. It will just mean that we have made progress. We must just decide where we want to be, but also how we want to get there.

At the AUC, we have been tasked with developing our own strategy (2014-2017), and an AU-wide strategy. So we are working on a 50-year framework, which will point to the direction we want to take, and the steps to get us there. Then we can all develop, within that framework our short to medium term action plans. The Framework will not be ready immediately; we need to consult all institutions and citizens in their various formations. When we put this framework together, it must be a framework where Africans have had a say. The two-day workshop I mention earlier was about that. We also said in the workshop that each and every one of the participants must go back, and engage with citizens locally.

The Strategic Plan, which the AUC is working on, has been reviewed by the Executive Council, and will be adjusted as soon as the Heads of State and Government have adopted the 2063 framework.

We have also identified a few priorities, which we have to focus on if we are to be prosperous and peaceful. This does not mean that other things will not be done.

As a start, we have asked ourselves what assets we have, and how we can use them to attain prosperity and peace. We have said that the most precious of our resources/assets is our people. We need to invest in our people. This means investing in women, youth, and everybody. There must be access to healthcare, we must reduce child mortality, and improve the general well being of our people. In the area of education we must go beyond universal education and focus on higher education, science and technology, and innovation, for both young women and men. If we invest enough in the young population we have, this population will be one of the drivers for the future of the continent. But if we do not invest in the youth, they will be our greatest liability. When young people are restless and cannot reach their potential, they will be involved in revolutions.

We also said we must invest in agriculture. 75% of workers in agriculture are women. We must invest so that women also become farmers and entrepreneurs for processing what is being produced.

I am talking at length with you because you are the law-makers. Women must have access to land, finance, technology, so that they can progress to farmers who make a great living from farming. The continent is spending billions importing food, even though we have vast amounts of arable land. The money we spend on importing food can go into funding development. So we would like to work with you so that we convince governments to put money into agriculture.

We have also prioritized infrastructure and transport-in all its diversity; road rail, air and ports.

Indeed, if we are integrating, why can we not dream that those same grandchildren can visit Cairo from Cape Town and Dakar on a speed train. It happens in other continents, so why can it not happen here?

We also need to think how to use technology to leapfrog the various stages of infrastructure development.

In the next few years, India and China will be sending to the world more than 300 million tourists. What proportion of that will be coming to Africa? If we do not have infrastructure, they will not come, despite the endowments we have in tourist products.

We need to invest in energy. If we do not have energy, girls will fetch firewood, instead of going to school. This is in addition to fact that we cannot industrialise. But from a gender perspective, girls and women are disadvantaged, because they are the ones to fetch firewood, firewood smoke is also not good for health.

There is a World Bank study that shows that if we provide energy, women can go into much more productive activities. The same applies with water. Our policies must ensure that we provide water so that women are free to do all the other things that will make Africa prosperous.

ICT is also very important. Africa is second biggest consumer of telephones, after Asia. But we do not make them, we just consume. So when we get our young people into science and technology, they can also innovate and create technology.

Trade can only flourish when we have infrastructure. Compared to other regions, Africa has the lowest level of intra-regional trade. But all this will not happen if we do not have peace, and good governance.

We also have youth and women as priorities. We have also prioritized resource mobilization, as well as strengthening of our institutions.

But if we take women out, we will never be prosperous, never be at peace, if we do not include women and youth.

Women have always been the protectors of the environment, because they survive from the environment.

We also have short-term goals. 3 years into the 10 years of the African Women’s Decade, we need to implement this. We are working with UNDP to implement some of the basket of issues for women in a number of areas, including women in business and agriculture, women in political leadership, as well as budgeting. We want to invite a lot of partners to work with us on this. Women in leadership is very important. If we had enough women leaders in decision making, we would not be talking about access to water. By putting women in position, we ensure that development is people-centred.

We therefore rely on you to ensure that women are part of every endeavor for prosperity and peace, so that our continent can reach its full potential.

Thank you