Theme: Advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 through inclusive growth and partnerships, social protection, and decent jobs

July 23, 2025

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. It is a profound honor to address this esteemed Forum at a moment that demands more than reflection but calls for our collective resolve. I bring you warm greetings from Addis Ababa, from the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, and on my own behalf.

2. We gather here today at a defining moment for the architecture of global development. The choices we make now will determine whether we perpetuate old patterns or forge new pathways.

Our HLPF theme for this year, is a timely call to action. It underscores the critical need to foster economic inclusion, strengthen social safety nets, and create decent employment opportunities, especially for Africa’s rapidly growing youth population.

3. The African Union’s Agenda 2063, outlines Africa’s visionary blueprint for long-term transformation, aiming to build a continent that is competitive, integrated and peaceful, driven by its own citizens. Its Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan, our Decade of Acceleration, captures a heightened sense of urgency and ambition.

4. Since the signing of the MoU between the African Union and the United Nations in 2018, we have deepened our commitment to the joint implementation of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

5. This agreement embodies the recognition that the two frameworks are mutually reinforcing, providing a comprehensive and coherent blueprint to achieve an integrated, prosperous, peaceful, and sustainable Africa within a global context, while ensuring that Africa’s development trajectory is inclusive, resilient, and transformative.

6. These two frameworks align key priorities such as poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth, social inclusion, gender equality, climate action, and peace and security. They empower African nations to harness their demographic dividend, natural resources, and innovative capacities for the benefit of all citizens.

Excellencies,

7. The outcomes of the 11th Session of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, held recently in Uganda, have sharpened our sense of urgency and strengthened our commitment to act.

8. The Kampala Declaration, a landmark outcome of the Forum, has provided critical policy guidance and strategic recommendations for the accelerated implementation of the UN 2030 and the AU 2063 Agendas.

9. It underscores the importance of strengthening institutional frameworks, data systems, and financing mechanisms; enhancing regional cooperation; and prioritizing inclusive policies that leave no one behind.

Excellencies,

10. Let me conclude by reaffirming that the African Union is committed to fostering partnerships across the continent and beyond with UN agencies, Development Partners, Civil Society, and the Private sector to ensure that Africa’s development is both self-driven and globally integrated.

11. What Africa needs most at this defining moment: not just political will, but political alignment; not just promises of financing, but bold and innovative solutions; not just solidarity, but strategic convergence

12. We call upon all stakeholders to prioritize sustainable development as a central agenda, embracing a whole-of-society approach that accelerates transformative change.

13. Let us reaffirm our shared vision and assume our collective responsibility to implement the 2063 and the 2030 Agendas not as parallel pursuits but as interdependent missions. Africa’s rise must be inclusive and sustainable. It must be anchored in dignity, shaped by its people, and framed as a contribution to a more prosperous world for present and future generations.

I thank you.