Key messages
3.6 Dr Aisha Abdullahi, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs
Excellency Mr Thabo Manyoni, The Honourable Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, Their Excellency Khalifa Sall, the President of UCLG-A, Honorable Ministers in charge of decentralization publics’ service and urban development here present, Excellencies, Regional governors and mayors, Excellencies, head of diplomatic missions and International organizations,Representatives of Regional and International Organizations, Distinguished participants, Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
I am delighted to be with you, distinguished delegates this morning at this official opening of the Africities 7 Summit, here at the magnificent city of Johannesburg in the great Republic of South Africa.
I will begin by extending the apologies of my boss, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who yielded to peer pressure to go to Paris for the COP21, which is very closely related to this Summit. She apologizes and she looks forward to joining us as soon as she will through with Paris to participate actively in this noble endeavour.
Dear Excellences, This Summit organized by the United Cities and Local Government of Africa in collaboration with the host government and cities has become a popular and important event in the calendar of Local Governments in Africa. Before I go further, I wish to express our deep appreciation and warm congratulations to the UCLG-A, the City of Johannesburg and the Government of the Republic of South Africa for the warm hospitality accorded to us and the unprecedented organization of this Summit. You have indeed done Africa a great pride.
Dear Excellences, you may record that in 2013 we held the 50th anniversary of the creation of our continental organization. The then Organization for Africa Unity and now the African Union. During that summit, we adopted what we call our Agenda 2063. It represents a commitment to collective action to meet the goals of a stable and prosperous Africa. Our Agenda 2063, which is our collective vision, puts emphasis on a people centered, structure transformation of Africa. Supported by industrialization, infrastructure, agriculture, trade, regional integration and a lot more. In doing so, due consideration is also giving to the nexus between urbanization, industrialization, migration, security and economic development. And this, need to be tackled together. This is a challenge for our macroeconomists, development thinkers, urban planners, politicians and other actors who must work in collaboration to make it a reality. Needless to say, all these efforts would require the effort and support of policy-makers and politicians under the leadership of our Head of State and Government. To create an enabling environment for sustainable urbanization and human settlement for development take place requires the adoption of integrate national urban policies, rules and regulations; the strengthening of urban governance; planning and design; and the integration of urban economies in national development.
Dear Excellences, we envision through our Agenda 2063 a prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable development. This can only be achieved through good governance, democracy and respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law. We must effectively mobilize the domestic resources including the African peoples and the people in the Diaspora to accomplishe these noble goals. Our leadership must be democratic and accountable, and our institutions must be confident and effective. Most of all, we must change our mentality on the history and uniqueness of Africa and strengthen the pan-Africa values of solidarity, autonomy, collectivism and most importantly: hard work.
The first pillar of our Agenda 2063, envisions cities and other settlements as hubs of cultural and economic activities. Human settlements require modern infrastructure and the provision of basic services. If well managed, cities are engines of economic growth and can propel our continent to as
greater industrialization and a growing middle class. Harnessing the growth and the potential of cities requires strong local governments and institutions that are close to the people. The importance of events like this one, to enhance and create efficient and effective local governments cannot be overstated.
Dear Excellences, African Cities, regions of Local Authorities need to be committed to serving their people. Involving them in decision-making processes in order to make local government more connected to the people, as the Agenda 2063 demand in its programme: “Africa needs to be a continent where institutions are at the services of the people and where citizens actively participate in social, economic and political development”. The Agenda is there for a programme that involve Local Authorities with a special emphasis on the involvement and on the improvement of the living condition of the grassroots populations.
The Agenda 2063 is a common agenda comprise a set of aspirations for Africans of various backgrounds: men and women, young and old, united in diversity including does of the diaspora and relation as elaborate a consultative process. The aspirations are extremely critical to all of us, requiring consultation, and comprise:
1. A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.
2. An integrated continent, politically united and based on ideals of Pan Africanism 3. An Africa of good governance, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law.
4. A peaceful and secure Africa.
5. An Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics.
6. An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.
7. An Africa that is strong, united, resilient and influential global player and partner.
Dr Aisha Abdullahi, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs
This Agenda will be implemented through 10-year plan spaning a 50-year horizon. The AU has on this score the need of the participation of all AU members states, as well our partners as guided by fundamental principles of subsidiarity, accountability, transparency, participation and inclusion, integration, diversity, leveraging existing structures and systems, and harmonizing policies and systems.
Dear Excellences, cities are well recognized to be the engines of growth, critical for development, by the same times they are home to widespread poverty and face huge governance, service delivery and infrastructures challenges. The recent terrorism activities in Paris, in Mali and the Lake Chad Basin make us pay more attention to this development and challenges in our cities. The rapid population growth also impacts significantly on human settlements in the rural and peri-urban areas.
Urbanization is quickly changing the landscape of Africa. Management of urban growth is a major developmental challenge facing our continent. Urban growth will impact our capital and major cities as well as secondary cities. Areas that are often ill-prepared to meet the challenges of urban management. Cities can be driver of growth or centres of poverty and inequality but also sources of insecurity. As cities, as local managers, we need to devise strategies that will harness urbanization, structural and economic transformation, reducing poverty, inequality, and guaranteeing peace, security and stability for our nation. Furthermore, the African Union has prioritized the development of an Africa Charter on urban development and human settlements in the work as specialist technical committee number 8 to lay down key principles and minimum standards to facility sustainable urbanization and human settlements development. We recognized the need to consider the continuum of human settlements including mega cities, large, medium and small towns, market cities, urban growth centers and villages. A focus on urban rural linkages is critical as Africa urbanized.
Dear Excellences, across Africa continent, countries are experimenting with different governance arrangements. They remain a trend to decentralization and empowered local people to play a more active role in local planning and decision-making through established systems of democratic local government. However, there is some evidence of commitment to genuine implementation of decentralization which remains a challenge to many countries for a variety of reasons: from lack of political commitment, weak financial decentralization, a lack of delivery and management capacity but also resources.
Dear Excellences, challenges had to be fixed hopefully to the implementation of the new African Charter on Values and principles of Decentralization, Local Governance and Local Development adopted during our Malabo Summit in Equatorial Guinee in 2014. The African Union expects this Summit to come up with innovative solutions to challenges facing our cities.
I wish to end by appealing to our honourable ministers, mayors and senior government officials present to ensure that the signing and ratification of African Union instruments are prioritized in all our countries.
So that collectively we can achieve our aim of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.
I will also not end before reminding ourselves that for us as Africa Union this is the year of women.
The theme for the year is “Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063” we hope that our members States have expedited activities to promote inclusivity specially promoting equal participation of the 50/50. Next year the theme will also be the year of “human rights” with a special focus on the rights of women.
On this note, I thank you. Thank very much for listening!