Adonis & Abbey Publishers

editor@adonis-abbey.com UK: 0207 795 8187 / Nigeria:+234 705 807 8841

JOURNAL OF AFRICAN UNION STUDIES (JoAUS) Vol. 3, Issues 1, 2014 : The State of the Union Reflections on the AU’s Eventful Year

About This Edition

ISSN : ISSN 2050-4306 (Online) ISSN 2050-4292 (Print)

To buy or subscribe,
please email:
sales@adonis-abbey.com

The African Union (AU) has firmly dedicated itself towards Agenda 2063 and acknowledged that a fundamental paradigm shift is required to seize upon the momentum en route towards 2063. AU policymakers acknowledge that “in order to achieve the African Union’s vision of ‘An Integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena’, significantly more action is still required on a number of fronts”.

In their 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), while acknowledging past successes and challenges, rededicated themselves to the continent’s accelerated development and technological progress. They laid down vision and eight ideals to serve as pillars for the continent in the foreseeable future, which Agenda 2063 will translate into concrete objectives, milestones, goals, targets and actions/measures. Agenda 2063 strives to enable Africa remain focused and committed to the ideals envisaged in the context of a rapidly changing world.^{^[1]}

The architects and policymakers stress that “Agenda 2063 should be seen as a unique opportunity to recreate the African narrative by putting it into perspective to energize the African population and harness citizens’ creativity through a set of clear goals that citizens participate in setting for unity, peace and development in the 21st century. The thrust of Agenda 2063 is a program of social, economic and political rejuvenation that links the past, present and the future in order to create a new generation of Pan Africanists that will harness the lessons learnt and use them as building blocks to consolidate the hope and promises of the founding parents for a true renaissance of Africa”.

The architects further envision that Agenda 2063 should be a source of inspiration for development of national and regional sustainable development plans.

Through the Solemn Declaration of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union at Addis Ababa, on 26th May 2013, Africa’s top political leadership committed itself to long term national and continental development and technological transformation through a strategic planning and implementation process. In the AU’s view “this is an encouraging starting point that offers a solid entry point to translate political statements and commitments into concrete actions, provide the means to track progress and take timely decisions on corrective measures”.^{^[2]}

Agenda 2063 envisions several measures at the national level that include: among others, designation of national focal points for Agenda 2063, integrating Agenda 2063 milestones/targets into national planning frameworks, as well as regular progress reports on Agenda 2063 to cabinet retreats and to National Assemblies/ Parliaments.^{^[3]}

The AU stresses that, apart from the strong political commitment stated above, other critical success factors include the following:

1. Participation and inclusion of all stakeholders in the conception, design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 is one of the building blocks of Agenda 2063 success. This will enhance awareness, ownership and knowledge of Agenda 2063 objectives and purpose and strengthen collective commitments to realizing its goals. Thus Agenda 2063 aims to be fully participatory and be owned by all the continents stakeholders, with the full engagement of women and youth in particular, to rekindle the spirit of working together toward collective prosperity, common destiny under united and strong Africa.

2. Agenda 2063 will put in place a results-based approach with concrete targets that are measurable and can be tracked and monitored;

3. While providing a general framework and a common set of goals and targets, Agenda 2063 also takes account of Africa’s diversity and defines trajectories and addresses issues related to this diversity.

4. Agenda 2063 must be seen as a part of the African Renaissance which calls for changes in attitudes, mind-sets to inculcate the right set of African values, i.e., discipline, focus, honesty, integrity, transparency, hard work and love for Africa and its people. Agenda 2063 provides the opportunity for Africa to break away from the syndrome of “always coming up with new ideas but no significant achievements” and set in motion high levels of productivity, growth, entrepreneurship and transformation.^{^[4]}

Amidst the admirable affirmations and bold commitments, the AU has a significantly difficult road ahead to ensure that all its transformation goals are successfully met within the next 50 years. Considerable challenges remain that the continental body has yet to overcome. Even the main architects of Agenda 2063 acknowledge that fifty years is an extremely long development horizon. Overall, given the often volatile context within which African politics often take place, charting a long-term trajectory would and could potentially represent a futile exercise. Nonetheless the AU is to be commended for recognizing the need to take stock of achievements, successes and failures- an audit that is long overdue, given the inefficiency which bedevilled its predecessor the OAU. One of the major Achilles Heels of the OAU, and one that could equally hamper the AU’s effective functioning is the threat that a plethora of policy initiatives will see the light, yet not see effective implementation and follow-through overall.

In operational terms, the architects of the new plan envision that Agenda 2063 would be a rolling plan of 25 years, 10 years, 5 years and short term action plans.

As part of the Agenda 2063 endeavour regular and in-depth appraisals of the continental body’s progress will absolutely be essential to ensure that all of the AU’s ambitious and commendable policy initiatives are fully enacted. Of greater importance is to ensure that all AU Member States fully comply with decisions and to ensure the effective implementation of AU policies. This is critically important if the AU is not to become yet another “Paper Tiger”.

[1] Background to Agenda 2063, http://agenda2063.au.int/en/about

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

UNITED KINGDOM (HEAD OFFICE)
Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd
85 Great Portland Street
First Floor
London W1W 7LT

NIGERIA
Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd
Plot 2560 Hassan Musa Katsina
Street, Asokoro, Abuja

UK: 0207 795 8187
Nigeria: +234 816 597 0458 +234 805 221 3212
editor@adonis-abbey.com (for editorial inquiries)
sales@adonis-abbey.com (for sales and other inquiries)