PROTOCOLS
It is a great honour for me to address this dialogue on “Winning the Fight Against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”, on behalf of His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, in his capacity as the Chairperson of the African Union.
I wish extend my profound gratitude to the Government of Botswana for hosting this Seventh High-Level Dialogue whose raison d’etre is to explore normative, structural and implementation enablers for sustainable anti-corruption efforts in Africa.
Africa must tackle the scourge of corruption in the private sector, the public sector and the non-state sector head on, if we are to make progress towards “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena”, as enshrined in Agenda 2063 - The Africa We Want.
This is why African leaders at the AU Summit held in Addis Ababa in January 2018 committed themselves to putting in place sustainable and collective efforts to address this challenge.
Today’s gathering presents a golden opportunity to deliberate on this serious obstacle to Africa’s progress, and a contributing factor to violent conflicts on the continent. Corruption is not unique to Africa, but it continues to be at the centre of discourse on governance deficit, and in practice, undermines the effectiveness of African institutions.
