Department FrontPage

Statement by the

Chairperson of the African Union Commission

H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma

At the

Meeting of the Committee of Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC),

held on the margins of the 69th UN General Assembly and UN Climate Change Summit at the Office of the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the United Nations, 305 East 47th Street,

September 22nd, 2014

New York, USA

Your Excellency, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania and Coordinator of CAHOSCC

Your Excellency, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Your Excellency, Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union, Minister of Environment of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania

Excellency Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission and other Commissioners

Excellencies, Heads of State and Members of CAHOSCC

Excellencies, Ministers and Leaders of Delegations

I am pleased to welcome you all to this meeting of the Committee of African Heads of States and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), convening here at a very critical point in the global negotiations on climate change and the post-2015 development agenda.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is worth repeating that even though Africa contributed and continues to contribute the least to global warming, it bears the brunt of the impact of climate change, representing an urgent and irreversible threat to human societies and the planet.

This ranges from the devastating impact of increasing sea temperatures on the livelihoods of coastal communities and islands, to the impact of rising sea levels on the very survival of the peoples of island states.

It reflects itself in the southwards expansion of the Sahara/Sahel desert, the drying up of the great Lake Chad, more severe and frequent droughts in Southern and East Africa, floods plaguing Mozambique and Sudan, unpredictable weather patterns that impacts on agriculture, and the threats everywhere to African biodiversity and eco systems.

All the above takes place at a time when Africa is pushing forward to build shared prosperity, by addressing its energy, transport, ICT, water and sanitation, and other infrastructure backlogs. We confront this threat as we focus on modernizing our agricultural and agro-processing sectors and seek to diversify our economies, through industrialization, building manufacturing and adding value to our natural resources.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

Since Africa is so directly affected and since we started engaging based on a common position, our approach has been to focus on what we need to do to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and seeking to integrate the issues into our development planning.

There are a host of African initiatives, in virtually every single country, which as African leaders we must promote and popularize. This includes ensuring that as we power our continent, households, cities, rural areas and industry, we have an appropriate energy mix.

This includes pushing forward with hydro-electric projects such as the Inga dam in the DRC, the Renaissance dam in Ethiopia and other regional hydro projects in West and Southern Africa. It means that as African leaders we must promote the African Clean Energy Corridor along the eastern coast of Africa, which IRENA is implementing with affected states, with its mix of solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy. We must promote and push these initiatives, and call on our partners to work with Africa on these critical projects.
Africa is also doing work to push back desertification through the Great Green Wall for Sahara and Sahel initiatives and the Sustainable Forest Management Programmes in Africa. We are pursuing national and regional initiatives on water and sanitation, and as part of CAADP promotes climate resilient and climate smart agriculture.

At national and continental levels, we are looking at climate associated risk management, ranging from strengthening our scientific monitoring capacities through the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme and the African Regional Strategy on Meteorology; to the innovative Africa Risk Capacity (ARC) that provides coverage to participating countries against floods and droughts. The ARC is launching an extreme climate facility (XCF) to insure against risk, but also develop extreme climate indices and thresholds that could be used to track severity and frequency of weather extremes across Africa.

Of course we have to develop the skills, science, technology and research capacity, to enable Africans across the continent to manage and drive innovations in all these areas. The AU will before the end of 2014, launch the Pan African University branch on Climate Change in Algeria, to build an African centre of excellence, sharing experiences and pooling our collective knowledge and best practices on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and on sustainable development.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

These are amongst the major initiatives, which are at the core of Africa’s drive for its common prosperity and human security, to help current generations to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and leave a better Africa for future generations.

This is what we are doing as Africa, but we also have expectations from the rest of the world.
Our expectations include the need for the revision of the global 2 degrees Celsius (2°C) goal to safer levels for all people, especially small island states; greater commitments from developed countries on reducing emissions; as well as technology transfer and resources to assist developing countries with mitigation and adaptation. In addition, the recent report of the Global Oceans Commission calls for a stand-alone goal in the Sustainable Development Goals on our oceans, a recommendation that Africa should support.

This CAHOSC meeting therefore has an important challenge: to consolidate the common African positions and sharpen our common messages; but also to ensure that we highlight what Africa is already doing for itself, and to fight for policy space in the climate change negotiations, that will allow Africa to develop and prosper.
I wish this important meeting fruitful deliberations.

I thank you

September 21st is International Peace Day, a day devoted to peace and to end wars and violent conflicts.

However, peace is more than just achieving a war-free world. Peace is about economic independence and security. It is about a world free of sexual violence. It is about having universal education and health care services especially to young girls and women.

Peace is about social and political cohesion. It is about respecting and celebrating diversity in our continent and the world at large.

Thirty years after the UN General Assembly declared International Peace Day, Africa has taken major strides towards achieving a continent at peace with itself, its communities and the world.

Progress is possible because African women and men are putting their lives on the line to protect African citizens and maintain peace and security.

We therefore pay tribute to our African Peacekeepers and peacekeepers the world over, some of whom have lost their lives, while others have been seriously injured.

Last year on Peace Day, our vision for peace was challenged and compromised when terrorists attached the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya killing least 67 innocent people and leaving over 175 wounded.

We will continue to fight terrorism in all its forms, including the kidnapping of innocent school students.

As we celebrate this international peace day, our hearts go to those who have lost their lives in the battlefield, as well as in the Ebola epidemic currently plaguing an important part of our continent.

In the spirit of Ubuntu, we have deployed our young men and women together with much needed medical and humanitarian assistance to stop the spread of the disease and its farreaching social, economic and political consequences in the region and the entire continent.

We will remain steadfast in our quest for peace and prosperity in an integrated continent.

Happy International Peace Day!

H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma
Chairperson
African Union Commission

STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION (AUC)
H.E DR. NKOSAZANA DLAMIN ZUMA, DURING THE EXECUTIVE AND STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS OF THE CONFDERATION OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL (CAF),
19 SEPTEMBER, 2014, AT 14:00 PM
AUC HEADQUATERS, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
 
H.E Dr. Issa Hayatou, President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF)
Distinguished Members of the CAF Executive Committee and Standing Committees
Excellencies, Members of the Permanent Representative Council of the AU and of the
Excellencies, representatives from the Diplomatic Corps and International Organisations
Invited Guests,
Representatives from the media,
Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the African Union Commission, we are honoured to host the CAF Executive Committee and Standing Committee meetings and warmly welcome you to the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We hope it will help to further strengthen the relations between our two African institutions.

The relations between the African Union and CAF are historical and important for the entire continent. Our two institutions share common Pan African values, as exemplified by the role that CAF played in the liberation struggle of Africa, in the development of the human potential of Africa through sport and increasingly in the promotion of peace and security.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

CAF and the AU are deeply aware that the common prosperity of the continent and its citizens, are critical to our agenda for peace and human security. Africa is at a point where it faces new and old challenges, like the Ebola crisis, the threat of terrorism and conflicts. At the same time, a number of economic, social and human development indicators are moving in the right direction. Growth is being sustained at 5% and over, public and private investments in infrastructure across the majority of countries are increasing, we have halted and reversed the spread of the AIDs pandemic, intra-African trade is on the increase, maternal mortality is on the decline and we have more boys and girls in school than ever before in our history.

To sustain the positive trajectory, and decisively break the back of poverty and under-development, to ensure African prosperity, we must ensure faster and deeper political, social and economic transformation. The African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and Member states, as it finalizes its framework for the Africa we want, Agenda 2063, therefore continue to work on a number of key African priorities.

These priorities include investing in people, especially youth and women as our most precious resource; in health, education, science, technology, innovation and research.

It includes transforming and modernizing our agriculture and agro-processing, so as to end hunger and malnutrition, and enable the continent to feed itself and to be a net exporter of food. Woman, who are the majority of the agricultural work force, are also calling for modernization of agriculture, to banish the handheld hoe to the museums.

Our priorities also embrace the need for industrialization and value addition to our natural resources, so that we have inclusive growth and create jobs and economic opportunities for especially Africa’s young people. The skilling of our young and the empowerment of women, including through access to capital, land, markets and infrastructure are critical, in all sectors of our economies, including the extractive industries, the green, blue and maritime economies and in infrastructure development and manufacturing.

All of the above means that we have to make decisive progress on the infrastructure backlogs: energy, transport, ICT, water and sanitation, and other social infrastructure. Many of our national development plans, regional master plans and indeed Agenda 2063 therefore pay special attention to infrastructure development.

Last, but not least, our priorities also include ensuring peace and stability, through good governance, inclusive, caring and tolerant societies and through democratic, accountable, effective and people-centred public institutions.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The contribution that CAF makes to the development of African football and to youth and community development more broadly, is a critical part of this Pan African drive for the Africa we want. When fans from across the continent cheer on their national and continental teams during the African Cup of Nations, Olympic or World Cup Games, it is an expression of our believe in our common destiny.

Yesterday when I met with the CAF President and Deputies, I said to him that in the coming decades, an African team must win the World Cup, in addition to hosting it again. We talk about Africa rising, we also want to see our football and sports as rising.

We are committed to invest in our people, especially health and education. For the sporting family, and more specifically football, this means promoting mass community and amateur sports that build healthy bodies, as well as the development of professional sport. It also means training our people in the various sports sciences, so that we can indeed produce the excellence we are capable of. The AU Commission division on sports stands ready to work with CAF on these issues.

Sports people also know that without infrastructure, it becomes difficult to do anything. We must therefore add to the Agenda 2063 list of infrastructure, the importance of sports infrastructure, not just big stadiums, but also facilities in all our schools, educational institutions and communities.

We remain steadfast that we will not move forward decisively, unless we empower the continent’s youth and women. More is being done across the continent today to promote women’s football (and in some of our countries our women’s national teams outperform the male teams!). But, we do know that more can be done to invest in getting more girls to play the game, to build their self-confidence and to contribute towards keeping them in school, to reduce teenage parenthood and early marriages. When I said yesterday that African teams must start winning the World Cup, I was therefore also including our women’s teams!

The AU and CAF are already cooperating on the Make Peace Happen Campaign, and we have footballers who serve as champions of this campaign. When Africa celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the forming of the OAU/AU last year, our Heads of State and Government pledged that by 2020, we would have silence all the guns on the continent. This is not a goal that can only be done by governments, we need all of African society to work towards this, and we look forward to continue working with CAF and the national associations towards achieving this objective.

Of course ending conflict and violence, and building caring and tolerant societies also apply to sports fans. We noted with concerns the incidents of violence at some sports event, and we add our voices to that of CAF, calling on fans to support their teams with their usual enthusiasm and vigor, but to do so in a peaceful manner.

The AU is working tirelessly to ensure that we end the Ebola crisis in parts of West Africa, through assistance to the countries concerned and by raising public awareness. We know that CAF has and can play a role in this regard, and we welcome all efforts.

Finally, Africa will not move forward unless it is able to raise resources for its development and its institutions. We must also work together on this, and ensure that we all contribute towards the building of a better Africa for all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Excellencies,

In our meeting with the CAF President yesterday, we therefore agreed that CAF and the national associations will make their contributions and set out the aspirations for the Africa they want. The deadline for submission is the end of October, and we look forward to receiving your written submissions. We will incorporate it into the Agenda 2063 framework that will be adopted by the Summit in January 2015.

I wish the CAF Executive Council fruitful deliberations, at the AU Headquarters. This is your home and we look forward to welcome you back.

Addis Ababa, 17 September 2014: The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, continues to closely follow the evolution of the situation in Guinea-Bissau, particularly following the presidential and legislative elections of April and May 2014.

The Chairperson of the Commission welcomes the determination of President Jose Mario Vaz and of his Government in initiating the required reforms in Guinea-Bissau.

The Chairperson of the Commission reiterates the AU’s support to the democratically-elected institutions in their efforts towards recovery in the country, in consultation with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as well as with the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), the International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF), the European Union (EU), the United Nations and other members of the international community, as evidenced by the presence, at this moment, in Bissau, of a joint assessment mission.

The Chairperson of the Commission calls on all the political stakeholders to maintain the sense of responsibility which they have demonstrated during the Transition, with a view to consolidating and deepening democracy in the country.