Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Chairperson of the National Planning Commission
3.10 Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union
Thank you very much!
May I just say, a very respectful greeting to the panel of the table and all distinguished, members, the Mayors and all the Researchers, and everybody here. To begin, let me apologize for not being here at the Summit opening, but I thought it was also important to put our voice at the COP 21.
Firstly, I am very happy, that you talk about unity because the founders of our organization, and the prior pan-Africanists stressed the question of unity. We all know that Kwame Kruma said: Africa must unite or perish. So, that must be something that we hold dear in everything we do. Secondly, Local Government is at the coalface of improving people’s lives; national government is very important, provincial or regional government is very important, but local government is at the coalface. And Agenda 2063 is really about how to get Africa to become a prosperous, integrated, peaceful continent.
Driven by its citizens and playing a dynamic role in the world. And there is no way we can achieve that, without full involvement of local government.
The Deputy Minister who welcomed me reminded me that there is nothing that happens in a country that does not happened in the municipality, which is true: even the Head of Government of Pretoria is in the municipality; any big hospital or small hospital is in the municipality; any railway station is in the municipality; airports are in the municipality, as are schools. He reminded me of something that is obvious but often forgotten: that everything that happens and that we do, and every infrastructure is located in the municipality. So it shows how integrated the municipality is to our life. And of course, if we look at local governments, it is about improving delivering services to our people. Sometimes people think only of services in the cities, but cities are very important because they are also hubs of economic growth, the face of our countries, our capitals and so on.
But for me, I grew up in the rural areas, and the municipality is important both at rural and urban setting. If we are to improve the lives of our people, as local government, it means we must improve the life of women across the continent. Because everyone grows up in part in their rural area, in part in their township. In the rural area, before going to school or after coming back from school, we have to go and fetch water from a distance and sometime when my back is painful, I think of those days when I was carrying 20 litres of water on my head as a young woman. When you think of something to cook with, it is usually with very few exceptions the women. The men here, with due respect, expect a cup of tea in the morning. They know there is no water or electricity in the house, but they expect a cup of tea. So, if a woman has to give birth, it helps to have a road to the clinic or to the hospital in the rural areasl it helps if there is a bridge to go across the river to the school. In reality, improvement of life has to be really geared towards women because when you improve the life of women, you improve everybody’s life. Women do not just improve their own life – they improve their family’s life and their community. Therefore, Local Governments must ensure that they are women in Local Governments.
I was talking to one minister from Columbia, when I was still in Foreign Affairs, who told me that in in Columbia they realized that the best thing is to give free/low-cost housing to the women. When government gives housing to a woman, it is primarily to ensure that the children are safe. And what they found in Columbia was that, when houses were given to a man, and the man does not like the woman anymore, he chases her and her children out of the house into the street and brings somebody else into the house. And now the kids are out in the street, and their house given by the Government is still there, but the kids are out in the street. So, they decided they must give the entitlement to the women.
Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union
So Agenda 2063 will not be achieved without Local Government but will also not be achieved without full involvement of women. And when you look at Agenda 2063, everything that is there impacts on local government, such as the skills revolution, agriculture or improving productivity.
Cities and Local Government are very much involved because Africa may be the least urbanized but is the fastest urbanizing, which means many more people within the cities still need to be fed. So we are here to ensure that there is enough food. And we import more than 80 billion dollars’ worth of food as a continent every year. We need to become self-sufficient: the president of Ghana said that they would save 1.5 billion dollars every year if they produced oil, rice, sugar, tomatoes, which are common things used every day. That amount of money will be very useful at local government for education in all sort of areas that are critical for our development. So, agriculture is very important, as is infrastructure and energy.
I hope one of this days, ministers and mayors can seat together to work out the relationship between national, provincial and local government and how we empower Local Government to do more of what they should be doing and doing it better. So, thank you very much for all the things you do as municipalities, as local governments. In everything we do, the aim is to accelerate the development of Africa not only local government. All of us needs to do a lot more than what we are doing.
Unity is important, and I hope that as we go forward you maintain it and see the continent as a continent. We are looking at how to improve the interaction among Africans across the continent, and at how to have an African passport that can take you to any country of the continent. We also want to move away, from this artificial separation of people. “There is no illegal immigrant; they are illegal borders” is the view of many young people. It is also possible to do that – I am sure you know that Rwanda has led the way: if you have an African passport, you do not need to apply for a visa to visit Rwanda. This is one of the things we would like to do, so that young people can get skills anywhere and can work where their skills are needed as part of integration.
Thank you very much, thank you for all you do, continuing doing it, faster, better ,so that you can achieve Agenda 2063 much faster. Older people ask how do you put Agenda 2063 and the SDGs?
Agenda 2063 is same Sustainable Development but Africa specific.
Thank you!