Africa In Union 2016 / 2017

AFRICA IN UNION

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VOLUME 5: 2016

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THE PUBLICATION OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION

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Standard Bank Namibia

BANKING BUSINESS WITH INTEGRITY

‘O

thers call it Africa but we call it home” is one recent campaign for Standard Bank clearly spelling out the bank’s commitment to Africa. Working in Africa for over a century, the bank can confidently say that Africa is indeed home.

We at Standard Bank are fortunate to be part of a wider group being the largest bank by assets in Africa. We have a footprint in 19 African countries excluding South Africa and are present in 5 African countries with the GDP growth in excess of 7%. From the above we can state that our growth is dependent on banking the winners of the continent we pride ourselves in not viewing economic prosperity in isolation of our own P/L but are proud to be a part of the growth of the African continent as a whole including SACU region. Hence our slogan “Africa is our home and we drive her growth”.

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As stated above as a group we are aligned and do not take only a national view per country, but a holistic view of the continent as a whole, we partner in country teams with the group strategy as a whole and truly see ourselves as partner for the development of African industry as a whole. We also leverage of our strategic partnership with ICBC and certain development Banks to promote DFI in African countries.

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Standard Bank Namibia was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Bank Group domiciled in the RSA, we are very pleased to announce that in line with the Financial Sector Charter guidance Standard Bank Namibia is now owned 10% by the Purros Trust that has beneficiaries consisting of qualifying employees from previously disadvantaged groups. Our Bank is headed by CEO Junius Vetumbuavi Mungunda previously the Deloitte Southern and Central African corridor managing partner. The bank is split in 2 distinct divisions namely Per-

sonal and Business Banking and Corporate and investment banking, however whilst these two divisions serve two very separate market segments we prefer to take a holistic view of the market we serve and see ourselves as a universal bank and partner the two divisions within the broader Namibian market as a partner to all Namibian stakeholders and drive growth on a national level as a true partner to our customers from the man on the street to the multinational corporate.

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er w e: H e a d of B u sin es s

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Another cap in the feather, Rejoice Itembu takes over the reigns as Head of Workplace Banking.

An ever “green asset” for Standard Bank Namibia, Rejoice assumes this important role from another important assignment as Manager for Public Relations and Communication. She led this division with distinction over the last two years.

The bank has also taken strides to dealing with union/labour related issues in a progressive manner. The bank relates well and with mutual respect with unions representing workers at all levels possible. This relationship ensures that the bank and the unions work on an understanding that helps foster a beneficial relationship for all parties involved. Stretching history as far back as 1994, the bank has continues to uphold their relationship with the Bank Worker’s Union of Namibia. These relations help assure all parties involved of the bank’s commitment to meeting and protecting all interests with integrity.

5th Floor, Standard Bank Centre, Corner of Werner List Street Post Street Mall, PO Box 3327, Windhoek, Namibia www. standardbank.com.na

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Leadership at the Standard Bank Namibia is not just a preserved for the male gender. The bank has in top management women who have taken important leadership roles to help the bank meet its business objectives. The bank has the following women leading various important portfolios as evidenced by the recent appointment of Karen van der Merwe as Head of Business Banking. Karen, a seasoned banker, comes to this position with over 23 years of service at Standard Bank Namibia. She has held various roles over the years mainly in her capacity as client account executive for business banking and most recently in the Corporate and investment banking space. Standard Bank is very proud to partner with Karen in her new role as of April 2016 as the Head of Business Banking. As the head of business banking Karen will be heading up all the banks clients in the Public Sector, Agri, SME, Property and Commercial banking space.

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Standard Bank has a long and rich history in Africa for instance we have had a presence in Namibia for over a 100 years. This gives us a unique insight into doing the right business the right way in Africa. We like to think this gives us a distinct competitive advantage in providing the opportunities African’s require to grow their wealth and eliminating the inequality we see in many genie coefficients in African countries. By addressing the above challenges in our own way we believe ourselves to be fundamental in promoting stability in the economies were we operate.

EDITOR’S NOTE AUC

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Contents Dr Zuma’s foreword Editor’s Note In it for Women Women’s & Children’s Rights: Are we there yet?

Africa looks to its entrepreneurs Counting on Success: Pamela Marlowe Tackling challenges through science and technology

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70 74 84 92 104 110

The African Union Commission’s Strategic Plan:2014-2017 Transnet-Kings of Freight Are we utilising our natural resources productively?

Sustainable Development goals: No one will be left behind Taking the pulse Africa Vision 2063 – Where will we be?

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EDITOR Grivin Ngongula

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THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION DIRECTORATE OF INFOMATION AND COMMUNICATION P.O. Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: (+251) 551 7700, +251 1155 1299 Fax: (+251) 11 551 1299 Website: www.au.int 86

All work published in Africa In Union Magazine is protected by copyright.

Only with written permission from the publisher may part of this magazine be reproduced or adapted in any form. The information provided and opinions expressed in Africa In Union Magazine do not necessarily represent the opinions of this publication., the publisher or the editor. The publication, the publisher and the editor cannot be held liable for damages of any kind arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages or from any statements made or withheld by this publication.

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MANAGING DIRECTOR Hillary Munemo

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FORWARD | AUC

African Union Chairperson DR NKOSAZANA DLAMINI ZUMA

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he African Women’s Decade journey is expected to reach its apex in 2020, after having started in 2010. The aim is to advance gender equality by accelerating implementation of Dakar, Beijing and AU Assembly decisions on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, through a dual top down and bottom up approach, which is inclusive of grassroots participation.

When I started off as the AUC Chairperson, I celebrated the recognition that African leaders and Africa’s people had given to women. At that time, Malawi had appointed Dr. Joyce Banda as President from 2012-2014. I had come in as the first female Chairperson of the African Union Commission. Other African countries, particularly in East Africa have come to recognize women’s leadership abilities and we saw Ethiopia appoint Aster Mamo as their first female Deputy Prime Minister in 2014, and Mauritius electing their first female president, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, in June 2015.

These recognitions were and are pivotal; especially in as far as women participating in male dominated spaces is concerned.

The question that remains is whether or not by having women at the helm, a difference has actually been made. There remains a need to acknowledge that a lot lies in the kind of difference that has been made and the ability of women to make a difference. I believe substantial milestones have been achieved thus far.

The strides that some states have made in relation to advancements in protecting women from sexual violence and encouraging women to participate in politics and elections are phenomenal. Amongst other achievements are the existence of gender policies, and other mechanisms of a national nature such as Ministries of Gender or Ministries of Women’s Affairs. Furthermore, gender equality has found its way into constitutions and some countries have passed other laws on different aspects of women’s rights. All these initiatives have created a favourable environment for the advancement of women’s right at national, regional and continental level.

Such progress however, should be followed by full implementation of legislative commitments for without implementation, we will remain with a void where women’s safety and protection from various impediments that hinder their growth remain.

We will remain committed to ensuring that the gender discourse remains on the AU’s agenda, more so now as we head toward 2020 and look beyond to 2063. Safeguarding the rights of vulnerable women and children is a key to attaining a peaceful and healthy community, which is crucial for building democratic institutions and economic development.

We will not forget the importance of African children in determining Africa’s future. It is crucial that we recognise their unique position in African society. Our efforts under The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of Children (ACERWC) were established to ensure that continental protection of children shifts from political rhetoric to legal and judicial safeguards.

We remain steadfast in protecting children affected in armed conflict situations, as we continue to encourage good governance, human rights, and sanctity of human life in AU member states. In the process, it remains imperative that we recognise the child’s importance in African society and that more still needs to be done for them to participate effectively in the continent’s efforts to achieve sustainable peace and development. This means going beyond increasing instruments and mechanisms on the part of African governments and real proof in commitment through implementation of these instruments.

Educating women and children on their basic rights, tolerance and promotion of justice, will in turn enhance peace, stability and interdependence on the continent. Women and children are fundamental as agents for change on the continent and our commitment towards their full participation is core to the success of the African continent as a whole.

NOTE AUC |EDITOR’S AU ANTHEM

The African Union

COMMISSION ANTHEM Let us all unite and celebrate together The victories won for our liberation Let us dedicate ourselves to rise together To defend our liberty and unity O Sons and Daughters of Africa Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky Let us make Africa the Tree of Life Let us all unite and sing together To uphold the bonds that frame our destiny Let us dedicate ourselves to fight together For lasting peace and justice on earth

Let us all unite and toil together To give the best we have to Africa The cradle of mankind and fount of culture Our pride and hope at break of dawn.

O Sons and Daughters of Africa Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky Let us make Africa the Tree of Life

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O Sons and Daughters of Africa Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky Let us make Africa the Tree of Life

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AUC |EDITOR’S EDITOR’SNOTE LETTER

Editor’s

LETTER W

hen Dr Zuma took over as the Chairperson of the African Union Commission in 2013 some issues featured more than others on her to do list. One issue has stood out during her term as chair of the continental body -Women. Issues such as violence against women, the marginalisation of women in health or work places and outright deliberate abuse of women and the vulnerable in society were well articulated during her reign.

African In Union looks at some of the highlights over the four years of her reign. Yeah, others would be of the opinion that issues could be dealt with better, but I believe Dr Zuma played her role well representing issues directly affecting women.

The elective summit penned for the first quarter of 2017 will decide who takes over the reigns as the Chairperson of the African Union Commission. We looking forward to leadership that will stand for the promotion of Africa at home and overseas!

As Dr Zuma move’s on with her life, we wish her the best in her endeavours. She played a part towards to the realisation of so many “hopes and dreams” by not just being the first woman to lead the AUC but through her leadership in navigating around so many problem issues on the continent. We wish her well as Africa looks forward to working with the new leadership at the AUC. This is issues carries rich articles articulating the important role women continue to play in different areas of leadership in Africa. The next edition follows on how different countries continue to develop in terms of global practice on democracy. From South Africa right up to Egypt, the Africa In Union will publish a detailed survey on how much the continent will have progressed on elections, local and national, respect for human rights, promotion of access to information as one cornerstone of democracy to name but just a few issues.

Grivin

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Until next time, good reading!

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AUC EDITOR’S ADVERTISING FEATURENOTE

H

orizon Group Ltd was established in 2007 by the Rwandan government. The creation of the company was prompted by the need to contribute to accelerated socio-economic development of Rwanda. The group would focus on those critical sectors of the Rwandan economy where local private players are less willing or unable to venture.

The initial focus was on the launch of the Horizon Construction Company.

Currently, Horizon Group consists of three established subsidiary companies: Horizon Construction Ltd, Horizon Sopyrwa Ltd, and Horizon Logistics Ltd. The company is also involved in several joint ventures, including Agropharm Africa for value addition to pyrethrum, S&H Industries Ltd for manufacturing of roofing materials, and Afriprecast for production of precast materials for construction.

Horizon Construction is the first subsidiary of the group. The com-

Eugene Haguma, CEO, Horizon Group pany was born out of the engineering regiment of the Ministry of Defence and has focused primarily on roads and large infrastructure projects.

Horizon Sopyrwa is a pyrethrum processing business. Prior to being acquired by the Horizon Group in 2008 the company was privately

Cactus Green Park, one of our estates under development, is designed to be environmentally friendly. It is a pilot project in implementation of Green Cities as enshrined in Rwanda’s Economic Development & Poverty Reduction Strategy 86 90

run. Horizon Sopyrwa has over 3,000 hectares under cultivation. This acreage is cultivated by seven farming cooperatives that produce a combined annual output of some 600 metric tons of dry flowers. Horizon Sopyrwa contributes an estimated 10 percent of the world’s supply of pyrethrum.

Horizon Logistics is the successor company to both Horizon Clearing and General Services and the Sudan Maintenance Project which have been in existence since 2009. Services include import/export trade, clearing services, equipment maintenance and leasing of construction equipment. The company has specialised in peacekeeping logistics, and is a UN Registered Vendor.

The Horizon group of companies aims to build a strong future for Rwanda through investments that deliver value, social impact, and prosperity.

Horizon Group maintains a number of independent subsidiaries.

There are, however, structural ties between the operating subsidiaries and the holding. The core responsibility of the holding company is the formulation of a clear strategy in addition to serving as an incubator of businesses. The holding is also responsible for taking investment decisions, enhancing capacity, policy formulation, and monitoring and control of operations.

Horizon Group is wholly-owned by the government of Rwanda but registered as a private company. The government is not in charge of the day-to-day oversight of the company but acts through the board of directors.

Horizon Group is aware that in the emerging global economy – where the internet, the news me-

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Venturing into sectors where other private investors dare not – leading the way

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dia, and the information revolution shine light on business practices around the world – companies are more frequently judged on the basis of their environmental stewardship.

This transparency of business practices means that for many companies, corporate social responsibility including environmental conservation and protection is no longer a luxury but a requirement. Rwanda’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), to which Horizon Group is a major contributor, acknowledges that sustainable poverty reduction and environmental conservation and protection are inextricably inter- linked.

The country’s reconstruction process in the 2000s prompted the establishment of Horizon Construction Company to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the emerging market. In 2007, Horizon was awarded its first construction contract for an asphalt concrete road in Kigali. The successful com-

EDITOR’S NOTE AUC

Eco-friendly pest control products produced by AgroPy Ltd

One of the pyrethrum fields in Musanze District vourable profile. While all pesticides can be toxic to aquatic and other organisms, pyrethrins are ten to over hundred times less toxic than some of the synthetic pyrethroids.

Because of the relatively water insoluble nature of the pyrethrins, they are considered immobile in soil. This property greatly limits their ability to migrate into groundwater. The binding of pyrethrins to soil makes microbial metabolism in the soil an important component of their degradation, with half-lives of 10.5 days under aerobic soil conditions, and 86.1 days in anaerobic conditions.

In both production and processing of pyrethrum, Horizon Sopyrwa has consciously adopted a number of environmentally friendly approaches, including sun-drying pyrethrum flowers and the rotation of pyrethrum with food crops to keep soil depletion to a minimum.

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One of the many roads in Kigali City, recently constructed by Horizon Construction

pletion was followed by many other construction projects both road and infrastructure developments like the Kigali public library landmark and the first dyke in Rwanda, built in Bugesera District.

An example of the Horizon Group’s dedication to sustainable business practices may be found at Horizon Sopyrwa, one of the world’s leading producers of pyrethrum – the main ingredient of eco-friendly pest control products.

Compared to many other pesticides, most notably the synthetic pyrethroids, pyrethrins have a fa-

www.horizongroup.rw

Horizon Construction introduces the Road Recycling Technology to the Rwandan construction market 86

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Political

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AFFAIRS

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ABOVE Ambassador Smail Chergui , AU Commissioner for Peace and Security

ABOVE Dr. Admore Kambudzi is the Ag. Director of the Peace and Security Department of AU.

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s part of its overall strategic vision of a peaceful and prosperous emerging Africa by 2063, the AU is determined to silence the guns and strive to achieve the objective of a conflict-free continent if possible by the year 2020. To that end, we are working diligently with Member States, Bilateral and Multilateral Partners, Academics, NGOs, African citizens at home and in the Diaspora, and other stakeholders to consolidate the peace and security gains of the last 50 years since the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) – the predecessor of the AU – and especially the last ten years since the establishment of the Peace and Security Council.

When the OAU was founded in May 1963, the struggle to liberate almost half of the continent from colonial rule and apartheid tyranny was our organization’s main focus. Today, the entire continent has achieved political liberation. However, the persistence of armed conflicts, mostly within states, necessitated the establishment of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) in December 2003. The Council is a standing decision-making organ for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts. It is a collective security and early-warning arrangement to facilitate timely and efficient response to conflict and crisis situations in Africa.

When the PSC was established over a decade ago, there were more than 15 active conflicts on the continent. Ten years later, there are about half a dozen armed conflicts in Africa. The Council and the entire African Peace and Security Architecture built around it have worked hard to resolve existing conflicts and prevent disputes from degenerating into wars in which women and children are often the primary victims.

Our mandate as a Department is to support the PSC in carrying out its responsibilities as provided for under the Protocol relating to the Council’s establishment. We are also mandated to support the AU Commission in its activities aimed at promoting peace, security and stability in Africa. To achieve these policy objectives, the Department is organized into several divisions and programs, including: the Peace and Security Council Secretariat, Defense and Security Division, Peace Support Operations Division, Conflict Prevention and Early Warning Division, and Crisis Management and Post-conflict

Reconstruction Division. The Department also oversees AU Field Missions and Liaison Offices, notably: the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic (MISCA), and African Union Mission for Mali and the Sahel (MISAHEL).

Our staff of dedicated experts in various areas related to peace and security daily strives to assist the PSC and the Commission to promote peace, security and stability in Africa. We are by no means a perfect department. But we try hard every day to fulfill the mandate incumbent on us.

We hope that our efforts are adequately reflected in the pages of this website, as well as in the social media sites linked to it.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you need further information on the activities of the Department.

Admore Mupoki Kambudzi was born in Gutu communal lands in south-central Zimbabwe, and later grew up in Chikomba District to which his parents had migrated, in 1964, to run an agro-commercial venture. He was educated at the University of Zimbabwe, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Politics and Administration, and subsequently, a Master’s Degree in International Relations in 1987. He then went to study in France where he obtained a Diploma in French and later on, a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in International Relations.

Between 1993 and mid-2001, Admore Mupoki Kambudzi taught political science at the University of Zimbabwe. He later took up a United Nations consultancy in 2001, to assist the OAU/African Union in putting in place the African Peace and Security Architecture – this being Africa’s blueprint for promoting peace, security and stability in the continent. In 2006, he became the Secretary of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, which is the supreme organ responsible for decision-making on issues of peace and security in Africa.

Further, in January 2016, he also took an additional task as Acting Director of the AU Peace and Security Department.

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DEPAERTMENT OF PEACE AND SECURITY | AUC

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

In it for WOMEN WHEN SOUTH AFRICA’S NKOSAZANA DLAMINI-ZUMA TOOK CHARGE OF THE AFRICAN UNION IN 2012, IT WAS HERALDED AS ONE OF THE UNION’S MOST IMPORTANT APPOINTMENTS FOR AFRICA, FOR WITH HER INAUGURATION CAME A FOCUS ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS THAT WAS TO LAST THROUGH HER ENTIRE TENURE.

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BY KERRY DIMMER

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DEPARTMENT OF PEACE AND SECURITY | AUC

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indicated that part of the agenda included the mainstreaming of gender and women’s empowerment throughout all the goals in the document.

When it came to announce the AU’s year of focus for 2015 it may not have come as a surprise that it declared it the ‘Year of Women’s Empowerment’ and this was aligned to Agenda 2063, which expresses a vision of Africa being one of a people-driven development that relies on the potential of the continent’s women and youth.

Within the Agenda some of the key components aimed for to ensure an empowered woman by 2063 include: • All forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls must be eliminated and an end to all harmful social practices and barriers that prevent access to quality health and education.

• Fully empowered women who have access and opportunity in all spheres of life inclusive of economic rights such as property inheritance, signing of contracts, registration and management of businesses, particularly for rural women.

• Full gender parity with women occupying at least 50 percent of elected offices within state, regional and local bodies as well as managerial positions within government and private sector enterprises.

In attaining such priority areas, the AU insists that strategies need to be ratified as policies within governance streams, along with fast-tracking the Agenda’s goals.

While it might be that Agenda 2063 is the AU’s current blueprint on the ‘Africa we all want’, its birth was founded on all preceeding development plans. While it is acknowledged that African nations have always had ideas and plans to address gender imbalances, what was lacking was a commitment, particularly in terms of implementation and distribution of resources.

What makes Agenda 2063 significantly different is the rallying of governments and other stakeholders to transform in unity, no more is it just ‘talk’. And to say that 2015 was a momentous year for African women is an understatement. Women have been included in all walks of business, development and growth. Women’s rights have been the theme of an untold number of conferences and features on the agendas of

other’s as spotlights or side events.

In leading by example, the AU’s adoption of the Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the African Union Gender Policy, and the 1990 African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation has resulted in the implementation of the AU Gender Parity Policy: five of its 10 Commissioners are

MY ELECTION IS NOT A PERSONAL VICTORY BUT A VICTORY FOR THE AFRICAN CONTINENT IN GENERAL AND FOR WOMEN IN PARTICULAR. WOMEN HAVE TO PARTICIPATE AND TAKE THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE IN SOCIETY SO THEY CAN REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL” women. The AU also has the highest number of women in peacekeeping forces and the highest number of women in political decision-making bodies globally.

Whether this motivated the fact that of 37 countries in the world with at least 30 percent women representation in Parliament, 16 are in Africa, is almost irrelevant. That it is so, is of value to everyone because their influence webs out into all aspects of society, and ensures the focus remains on gender not matter what discussions are on the plate of parliamentarians.

Similar such positive developments have carried through to sub-regional levels, such as the SADC Women’s Rights Protocol that rolls out into national level policies and legislations, specific ministries and parastatals that together promote the protection of women’s rights and their

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lthough women’s rights had not been ignored on the continent, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as the first woman in the position, made it clear in her inauguration speech that gender equality was to be a priority: “(My) election is not a personal victory but a victory for the African continent in general and for women in particular. Women have to participate and take their rightful place in society so they can reach their full potential; for it is only if men and women reach their full potential that we as a continent shall reach our full potential.”

Dlamini-Zuma’s appointment to the AU did indeed set the stage for the implementation and introduction of new policies and resolutions aimed at promoting gender parity among not just the member states but within the AU itself. Her role also had implications on how the many issues that Africa’s women and children faced were to be handled, particularly under the AU Gender Policy (2009) and the Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) (2000) the latter of which was created to mainstream and practice gender equality in all AU instruments, ultimately to close equality gaps and deliver on the promise of equality for all Africans.

The appointment of Dlamini-Zuma was also timeous given that it came two years after the AU declared the years 20102020 ‘a decade for women’, an idea that was motivated by the United Nations, and led to a number of African women-related conferences.

At one such, the AU’s Commemoration of the International Women’s Day, in 2013, Dlamini-Zuma highlighted the gender imbalance issues in Africa, specifically arguing for the prosecution of crimes against women, in war, sexual violence and human rights. She called for greater commitment and action to empower women and girls in the process of eradicating hunger, poverty and in promoting greater attention to their participation in decisionmaking areas. “The emancipation of women is not an act or charity, or the result of humanitarian or compassionate attitude.

The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity of the revolution, the guarantee of its continuity and the precondition of its victory.”

By March 2014, with the AU readying itself to announce what was to become known as Agenda 2063, Dlamini-Zuma

socio-economic empowerment.

Also in 2015 the African Gender Index, issued by the African Development Bank, proved that many African countries were making headway in respect of women’s rights, particularly their access to land and credit facilities, and access to education.

The AU continued the momentum of women’s rights into 2016 with the announcement that its theme for the year would be ‘Year of Human Rights with Special Focus on Rights of Women.’ At its Summit in July, it also launched the first-ever report on the ‘Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Africa’, which seeks to form the basis for “enhanced dialogue and engagement with AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities, civil society and other key stakeholders, on accelerating the implementation, as well as better informing the AU’s engagement with international interlocutors and partners on the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Africa.”

The report focused on the progress made on the performance of legislative and administrative mechanisms, and the machineries that were put in place at all levels in achieving the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda.

Analysis of the 19 Member States that 86

DEPARTMENT OF PEACE AND SECURITY | AUC

adopted UNSCR 1325 National Action Plans includes: parliamentary representation, leadership and special measures; ministerial level representations; participation in peacekeeping and peace agreements.

The AU’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, H.E. Mme Bineta Diop commented at the launch: “As the AU shifts its orientation from policy formulation to support Member States and Regional Economic Communities in the transformation of commitments into concrete, sustained implementation, the importance of utilising monitoring and reporting tools to drive accelerated delivery should be recognised.”

By the end of the Summit, Dlamini-Zuma had stated that almost all AU Member States had achieved at least one of the AU gender related goals, largely in the promotion of health, education, employment and the social welfare of women. In her wake, Chairperson of the AU and President of the Republic of Chad, H.E. Idriss Deby Itno called upon all African States to focus on implementing Agenda 2063 and reaffirm commitments to the principle of gender equality as enshrined in Article 4 (1) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union.

“Our commitment to developing the continent and making it independent must

continue,” he said. “As we go forward, we should learn from one another and accelerate efforts to promote gender equality at all levels.

“Major obstacles to gender equality still remain, however, and require concerted and collective leadership and efforts from all of us including networks working on gender and development. We should be always aware of the fact that low levels of women’s representation in social, economic and political decision-making structures have a negative impact on women’s ability to derive full benefit from the economies of their countries and the deomocratisation process.”

Overall, in being just over halfway through the decade for women, much has been achieved and certainly women are noticed and considered in all strategies and agenda’s, with the AU’s continued devotion to ensuring it remains so.

In the words of the Commissioner for Political Affairs for the AU, Dr Aisha Laraba Abdullahi: “As we strive towards actualising the African Agenda 2063 through promoting women’s rights, we are clear about the Africa we want. It is a unified and well-governed Africa respectful of human dignity and one in which a culture of human rights and democracy is institutionalised.”

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

ACAdEmIA

n 97 doctoral students from 27 countries on five continents

n Three Research Areas

n Collaboration with six Partner Universities covering distinct regions of the continent and thus allowing for wide recruitment and theses in Arabic, English, French and Portuguese n n n n n n

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University d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Mohammed V University of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

B Knowledge, Communication and Communities in Motion C Negotiating Change: Discourses, Politics and Practices of Development n 18 academic disciplines n 29 countries of research n Over 500 publications of doctoral students and alumni

www.bigsas.uni-bayreuth.de

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n 84 alumni from 23 countries now working on four continents

A Uncertainty, Innovation and Competing Orders in Africa

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

Commitment to society

© Jean Comaroff

Advisory Board

ORIgIN Of dOCTORAL sTudENTs ANd ALumNI

OuTREACH Projects to promote cooperation with the society n Lecture series “BIGSAS Forum for Thought” which is open for the public n Bi-annual BIGSAS Journalist Award for excellent journalism about Africa n BIGSAS@school meetings between pupils and BIGSAS students n Annual BIGSAS Festival of African and African-Diasporic Literatures n BIGSAS in Town during the annual Africa-Caribbean-Festival n BIGSAS Football Club with two teams

© Thorsten Ochs © Peter Kolb

Over 600 international guests

86

Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies

Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-5101 | Fax: +49 (0)921 / 55-5102

BIGSAS | University of Bayreuth | D-95440 Bayreuth

www.bigsas.uni-bayreuth.de | BIGSAS@uni-bayreuth.de

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OUR WAY TOGETHER since 2007

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

I am an

AFRICAN.

I

owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.

My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter-day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightning, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope.

The fragrances of nature have been as pleasant to us as the sight of the wild blooms of the citizens of the veld.

The dramatic shapes of the Drakensberg, the soil-coloured waters of the Lekoa, iGqili noThukela, and the sands of the Kgalagadi, have all been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of the day.

At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena,

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 22

the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito.

A human presence among all of these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say - I am an African!

I owe my being to the Khoi and the San whose desolate souls haunt the great expanses of the beautiful Cape - they who fell victim to the most merciless genocide our native land has ever seen, they who were the first to lose their lives in the struggle to defend our freedom and independence and they who, as a people, perished in the result.

Today, as a country, we keep an inaudible and audible silence about these ancestors of the generations that live, fearful to admit the horror of a former deed, seeking to obliterate from our memories a cruel occurrence which, in its remembering, should teach us not and never to be inhuman again.

I am formed of the migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land.

Whatever their own actions, they remain still part of me.

In my veins courses the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East. Their proud dignity informs my bearing, their culture a part of my essence. The stripes they bore on their bodies from the lash of the slave master are a reminder embossed on my consciousness of what should not be done.

I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour the cause of freedom.

My mind and my knowledge of myself is formed by the victories that are the jewels in our African crown, the victories we earned from Isandhlwana to Khartoum, as Ethiopians and as Ashanti of Ghana, as Berbers of the desert.

I am the grandchild who lays fresh flowers

on the Boer graves at St Helena, [unclear], and the Vrouemonument, who sees in the mind’s eye and suffers the suffering of a simple peasant folk, death, concentration camps, destroyed homesteads, a dream in ruins.

I am the child of Nongqawuse. I am he who made it possible to trade in the world markets in diamonds, in gold, in the same food for which our stomachs yearn.

I come of those who were transported from India and China, whose being resided in the fact, solely, that they were able to provide physical labour, who taught me that we could both be at home and be foreign, who taught me that human existence itself demanded that freedom was a necessary condition for that human existence.

Being part of all of these people, and in the knowledge that none dares contest that assertion, I shall claim that - I am an African.

I have seen our country torn asunder as these, all of whom are my people, engaged one another in a titanic battle, the one to redress a wrong that had been caused by one to another and the other, to defend the indefensible.

I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.

I know what it signifies when race and colour are used to determine who is human and who, sub-human.

I have seen the destruction of all sense of self-esteem, the consequent striving to be what one is not, simply to acquire some of the benefits which those who had imposed themselves as masters had ensured that they enjoy.

I have experience of the situation in which race and colour is used to enrich some and impoverish the rest.

I have seen the corruption of minds and

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BY THABO MVUYELWA MBEKI

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

86

have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be.

We are assembled here today to mark their victory in acquiring and exercising their right to formulate their own definition of what it means to be African.

The Constitution whose adoption we celebrate constitutes an unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our African-ness shall be defined by our race, our colour, our gender or our historical origins.

It is a firm assertion made by ourselves that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and White.

It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans, and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern.

It recognises the fact that the dignity of the individual is both an objective which society must pursue, and is a goal which cannot be separated from the material well-being of that individual.

It seeks to create the situation in which all our people shall be free from fear, including the fear of the oppression of one national group by another, the fear of the disempowerment of one social echelon by another, the fear of the use of state power to deny anybody their fundamental human rights and the fear of tyranny.

It aims to open the doors so that those who were disadvantaged can assume their place in society as equals with their fellow human beings without regards to colour, to race, to gender, to age or to geographic dispersal.

It provides the opportunity to enable each one and all to state their views, to promote them, to strive for their implementation in the process of governance without fear that a contrary view will be met with repression.

It creates a law-governed society which shall be inimical to arbitrary rule.

It enables the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means rather than resort to force.

It rejoices in the diversity of our people and creates the space for all of us voluntarily to define ourselves as one people.

As an African, this is an achievement of which I am proud, proud without reservation and proud without any feeling of conceit.

Our sense of elevation at this moment also derives from the fact that this magnificent product is the unique creation of African hands and African minds.

But it also constitutes a tribute to our loss of vanity that we could, despite the temptation to treat ourselves as an exceptional fragment of humanity, draw on the accumulated experience and wisdom of all humankind, to define for ourselves what we want to be.

Together with the best in the world, we too are prone to pettiness, to petulance, selfishness and short-sightedness.

But it seems to have happened that we looked at ourselves and said the time had come that we make a super-human effort to be other than human, to respond to the call to create for ourselves a glorious future, to remind ourselves of the Latin saying: Gloria est consequenda - Glory must be sought after.

Today it feels good to be an African.

It feels good that I can stand here as a South African and as a foot soldier of a titanic African army, the African National Congress, to say to all the parties represented here, to the millions who made an input into the processes we are concluding, to our outstanding compatriots who have presided over the birth of our founding document, to the negotiators who pitted their wits one against the other, to the unseen stars who shone unseen as the management and administration of the Constitutional Assembly, the advisers, the experts and the publicists, to the mass communication media, to our friends across the globe congratulations and well done!

I am an African.

I am born of the peoples of the continent of Africa.

The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, and of Somalia, of the Sudan, of Burundi and Algeria is a pain I also bear.

The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a blight that we share.

The blight on our happiness that derives from this and from our drift to the periphery of the ordering of human affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow of despair.

This is a savage road to which nobody should be condemned. The evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes.

Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now! Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!

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souls as a result of the pursuit of an ignoble effort to perpetrate a veritable crime against humanity.

I have seen concrete expression of the denial of the dignity of a human being emanating from the conscious, systemic and systematic oppressive and repressive activities of other human beings.

There the victims parade with no mask to hide the brutish reality - the beggars, the prostitutes, the street children, those who seek solace in substance abuse, those who have to steal to assuage hunger, those who have to lose their sanity because to be sane is to invite pain.

Perhaps the worst among these, who are my people, are those who have learnt to kill for a wage. To these the extent of death is directly proportional to their personal welfare.

And so, like pawns in the service of demented souls, they kill in furtherance of the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. They murder the innocent in the taxi wars.

They kill slowly or quickly in order to make profits from the illegal trade in narcotics.

They are available for hire when husband wants to murder wife and wife, husband.

Among us prowl the products of our immoral and amoral past - killers who have no sense of the worth of human life, rapists who have absolute disdain for the women of our country, animals who would seek to benefit from the vulnerability of the children, the disabled, and the old, the rapacious who brook no obstacle in their quest for selfenrichment.

All this I know and know to be true because I am an African!

Because of that, I am also able to state this fundamental truth that I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines.

I am born of a people who would not tolerate oppression.

I am of a nation that would not allow that fear of death, of torture, of imprisonment, of exile or persecution should result in the perpetuation of injustice.

The great masses who are our mother and father will not permit that the behaviour of the few results in the description of our country and people as barbaric.

Patient because history is on their side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun shines.

Whatever the circumstances they

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS AUC

EDITOR’S NOTEOF POLITICAL AFFAIRS AUC DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT OF

Political Affairs

COMMISSIONER FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS H.E AISHA ABDULLAHI, DIRECTOR - MR. KHABELE MATLOSA, LESOTHO

T

Governance, Human Rights and Elections; and Humanitarian Affairs, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.

interaction and synergies among AU organs, institutions and RECs in promoting good governance and democracy in Africa.

ELECTIONS

HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS, REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS

In the 1960s and 1970s, Africa reportedly averaged only 28 elections for the decade.

By the 1990s, this had increased to 65 per decade. Between 2000 and 2005 alone, African countries held 41 elections . It is reported that in 2011, 18 countries in Africa are considered electoral democracies as compared to only four in 1991.

The African Union has developed a draft Humanitarian Policy Framework, aimed at promoting greater legal preparedness of member-states to overcome regulatory barriers to effective cross-border disaster assistance.

DEMOCRATIZATION, HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

The Commission has established the African Governance Architecture and Platform as the overall political and institutional framework for enhancing coordination,

PHOTOGRAPHY: 123/BEN GOODE

he Department is the African Union Commission body responsible for promoting good governance, democratic principles, the rule of law and respect for human rights, as well as the participation of civil society organisations in the development of Africa. Key work includes promoting these AU shared values; implementing AU instruments on governance, elections, democracy and humanitarian affairs; coordinating AU election observation and monitoring missions; providing technical support to the electoral bodies; coordinating implementation of the African governance architecture and its platform; and implementing sustainable solutions to humanitarian and political crises, including through preventive diplomacy. The Department has two divisions: Democracy,

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

86 92

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 26

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS | AUC

OUR TIME

YEAR ON YEAR AFRICA BECOMES MORE PEACEFUL. THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT WARS AND CONFLICTS DO NOT CONTINUE TO RAGE, BUT THE FORCES AGAINST THOSE ARE JUST AS DEVOTED, IF NOT MORE PASSIONATE, TO ACHIEVING PEACE AND SECURITY AS THOSE WHO SEEK TO DOMINATE THROUGH VIOLENCE AND FEAR.

BY KERRY DIMMER

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Peace in

O

ngoing risks and uncertainties teach us that there is no such thing as 100 percent security. The smallest thing can spark a conflict … the smallest group, like Boko Haram once was, can turn into a major antagonist having caused some 21 400 deaths in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Last year Boko Haram clashes resulted in 11 651 recorded deaths, elevating Boko Haram encounters from the definition of just ‘war’, to a ‘major war’, in other words more than 10 000 deaths. Whilst it might be early days, up to end June this year, 1 675 Boko Haram related deaths have been reported which suggests that the African Union Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a joint effort of a number of nation’s armies, is having some success tackling the Islamist group.

Cross-border efforts such as the MNJTF proves that Africa is thinking, and acting, differently about its conflict problems, including support of reinforcements from overseas, largely France and the US. Guided

by Chad’s President, Idriss Deby, who was elected Chairperson of the AU in January this year, an additional 9 000 armed troops have now been seconded to the MNJTF, to ensure that the fight against the Boko Haram insurgents continues.

Even better in H.E. Smail Chergui’s opinion, the AU’s Commissioner for Peace and Security, is that the AU has been able to pledge $250-million to the fight against 86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 28

the jihadists. Nigeria is a major contributor to that fund, having staked $110-million, and the EU some 50-million Euro’s.

As a result the MNJTF has, says Chergui, achieved considerable success on the ground to the extent that Boko Haram’s stronghold in North East Nigeria has been broken. “We are maximizing our efforts to eradicate Boko Haram,” he says.

It is those precisely those efforts that the AU’s Commission for Peace and Security motivate. Its current major responsibility is however, to manage The African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) which was recently established, along with the African Regional Economic Communities (RECS), to aid in the prevention, management and solving of the different crises on the continent.

“This is almost a 24-hour job,” says His Excellency, Smail Chergui, Commissioner for Peace and Security of the AU. “But of all our achievements since the elections, I am most proud that we were able to secure 6 000 troops from the SADAC region to assist us, making our Africa stand-by force strong enough to change the way in which we react to conflicts. This also means we now have a rapid deployment capability.’

Another important achievement, and again as a result of having APSA in place, is that a Continental Logistics Base (CLB) is to become active during the latter quarter of the year. Cameroon is the host of the CLB that provides the AU Peacekeeping forces

with greater autonomy and efficiency in peacekeeping and conflict resolution.

Yet another area that Chergui says the AU can be most proud is the “extraordinary work undertaken by the women and men in Somalia, under very dangerous environments, sometimes without the necessary equipment and enablers, like helicopters. We are seeing significant improvements in Somalia with many conflict commanders surrendering to our forces.

And all this to ensure that the Somali people will recover peace and some semblance of a normal life.”

Along with the United Nations and other stakeholders, the AU has sent a team to North Mali to propose for the creation of a force within the UN to contain and control a terrorist dimension at work in the north western parts of Africa, most recently in Burkina Faso and Cote d’ Ivoire. On the eastern side of the continent the Djibouti Process is cementing its efforts to ensure the cessation of all armed conflict, particularly within Somali borders, the war there having cumulated in some 500 000 deaths since 1991.

But peace and security is not just about war, but also the ripple effects of it, and how those play out in terms of food security, poverty and sexual violence. Chergui says, “While the biggest issue for us is terrorism we also have to concentrate on the aftereffects of a crisis and peace and development.

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AUC NOTE OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS AUC EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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NOTE OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS AUC |EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT

“WE ALSO NEED TO ENSURE THAT WE PROVIDE THE BEST EDUCATION POSSIBLE TO OUR YOUTH SO THAT THEY ARE NOT STIMULATED

BY HEATED AND MISINFORMED MESSAGES.”

become more technically aware, they are being exposed to more of the social platforms that give rise to radicalism, and this has tremendous implications for Africa’s future.”

The AU’s Silencing the Guns by 2020 theme is also something Chergui feels strongly about and points out that society needs coherence and friendship to achieve the goal. “This requires a comprehensive approach,” he says. “by bringing together aspects that are political, economical, societal, and security-based to work together simultaneously.

“However, the conflicts we experience on the continent today are far fewer than those that existed in the 80s. We have learnt a lot, for instance, the South Sudan problem was a relapse because it did not have strong institutional support during its recovery period.

“CAF is another case in point. With the shifting of sanctions we expect the nation to recover in a far better way than it could have. Overall I am optimistic because we are working steadfastly to operationalize APSA and when all those tools are fully prepared, we will be able to react very swiftly to any crisis. Along with all the architecture plans of the AU – development, governance, etc – I have no doubt that we will be able to attain all the goals of Vision 2050 and have a peaceful and welldeveloped Africa.”

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“This is vital because it prevents a relapse and aids in restoring a country to its national order.”

For Chergui the work achieved by the AU is something that Africans in general should be proud of. “The respect of the international communities has played out in many areas. For example, there are two sessions of meetings annually between the Peace and Security Councils of the AU and the UN. “Yet another acknowledgement comes from the European Union (EU)’s Council of Security, with which we also have two meetings annually. Both of these

collaborations reflect the enormous sacrifices that the women and men in the African forces make, and that Africa is ready to be the first to enter a situation, especially when it is difficult for the UN to mobilise its forces quickly.”

In terms of sexual violence, the AU has taken both an active and tough stance, during conflicts says Chergui . “It may be that many organisations have a zerotolerance policy on sexual violence, but the AU is even tougher than most. I believe those committing such crimes should pay the highest price.”

The biggest current problem remains the spread of terrorism, which often comes into Africa from elsewhere. Jihadism may be a global problem but there have been many Africans that have gone to the Middle East to fight, and when they return it is difficult to deradicalise them.

Chergui says that the best way to ensure peace and security is prevention and this involves, among other issues, political governance, respect of human rights, giving equal opportunities to every citizen on the continent, and improving the distribution of wealth between all the regions. “The only way to achieve the results we want is to implement all the policies that have been agreed to by our member nations,” says Chergui.

“We also need to ensure that we provide the best education possible to our youth so that they are not stimulated by heated and misinformed messages. As our youth

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 30

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

I n v e s t o r pa n e l

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AUC| DEPARTMENT EDITOR’S NOTEOF WOMEN, GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT AUC

DIRECTORATE OF THE DIRECTORATE PROMOTES GENDER EQUALITY IN AFRICA AND WITHIN THE AU. IT DESIGNS PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS BASED ON POLICIES ADOPTED BY AU MEMBER STATES. IT ALSO OVERSEES THE DEVELOPMENT AND HARMONISATION OF GENDERRELATED POLICIES; INITIATES GENDER-MAINSTREAMING STRATEGIES WITHIN THE COMMISSION AND FOR AU ORGANS AND MEMBER STATES; AND SUPPORTS CAPACITY BUILDING BY PROVIDING TRAINING ON GENDER POLICIES AND INSTRUMENTS. THE DIRECTORATE HAS TWO DIVISIONS: GENDER POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION (GPDD) AND GENDER COORDINATION AND OUTREACH. IT ALSO ACTS AS THE SECRETARIAT FOR THE AFRICAN UNION WOMEN’S COMMITTEE (AUWC).

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Women, Gender and Development

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

ARE WE THERE YET?

BY MOLLY TSITSI CHIMHANDA

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 34

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Women’s & Children’s Rights:

DEPARTMENT OF WOMEN,GENDER & DEVELOPMENT | AUC

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 | 35

T

he African Union has established institutions and laws for safeguarding the rights of women and children in Africa. Through implementation of the various legal mechanisms that are in place; African governments can better the lives of their people, particularly these two special groups, which have the potential to help nations grow if their participation is embraced and enhanced.

The world over, women and children have often been marginalized, bearing the brunt of various forms of abuse due to their vulnerability and in some instances, a lack of protection. Children and women in Africa have had to endure different types of abuse, including economic and sexual exploitation, gender discrimination in education and access to health as well as being affected by armed conflicts.

UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2016 report points to a gloomy picture as it states that unless we accelerate the pace of our progress in reaching them, the futures of millions of disadvantaged and vulnerable children – and therefore the future of their societies – will be imperilled.

However, this gloomy picture is made slightly better by the tremendous progress the world has made in reducing child deaths, getting children into school and lifting millions out of poverty. The same report highlights that “...any of the interventions behind this progress –such as vaccines, oral rehydration salts and better nutrition – have been practical and cost-effective. The rise of digital and mobile technology, and other innovations have made it easier and more cost-effective to deliver critical services in hard-to reach communities and to expand opportunities for the children and families at greatest risk” .

Because children are important, and through acknowledging that the ideals set out in Agenda 2063 cannot be achieved in a short space of time, African countries agreed as stated in Africa’s Agenda for Children 2040 that young people – and children, in particular – have to be the drivers of Africa’s renaissance. Securing future progress, peaceful coexistence and welfare lies in their hands. In order to allow them to take charge of Africa’s future, their full potential has to be unlocked by fully protecting and realising their rights.

African countries’ commitment to upholding children’s rights is buttressed

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 36

by their commitment seeing as over the 25 years between 1990 and 2015, the African Children’s Charter has come to be recognised as the principal treaty dealing with children on the African continent. By December 2015, it had been ratified or acceded to by 47 AU member States.

Although much has been achieved during these 25 years, a lot more still needs to be done. For example, the African Children’s Agenda’s Aspiration 4 states that “Every child is born alive and survives infancy” but in sub-Saharan Africa, new born deaths account for about one third of the deaths of children under age 5 as noted by UNICEF. Prospects for child survival will be successful if governments keep a relentless focus on the most disadvantaged children.

It is therefore impressive that some

YOUNG PEOPLE – AND CHILDREN, IN PARTICULAR – HAVE TO BE THE DRIVERS OF AFRICA’S RENAISSANCE. SECURING FUTURE PROGRESS, PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE AND WELFARE LIES IN THEIR HANDS” countries in Africa have made extraordinary progress in reducing child mortality.

Examples include Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique and Niger, which started out with very high mortality rates, in excess of 200 deaths per 1,000 live births but this has since improved.

Ethiopia and Mozambique for example, have both achieved MDG 4 reducing their under-five mortality rates by two thirds between 1990 and 2015. For Ethiopia to achieve the SDG target by 2030, underfive in Addis Ababa– the country’s best performer –will have to fall by more than one third.

However, the fact that Africa’s position in the world is changing and that the continent’s potential has grown beyond

expectation cannot continue to be ignored. Which is why it is important that no demographic is left behind as Africa continues to transcend in leaps and bounds.

According to UNICEF’s report (ibid p.3), “Children born into poverty and deprivation are not doomed to live lives of despair.

Inequity is not inevitable, if governments invest in expanding opportunity for every child– shifting policies, programming and public spending priorities so the most disadvantaged have a chance to catch up with the most advantaged” This can be made possible through adopting different mechanisms as observed in a working paper on Strengthening Child Protection Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. This requires that child protection systems strengthening work needs leaders and practitioners to take a holistic view of interventions, and discern how an intervention aimed at one element of the system requires aligned interventions in other areas. This approach supports success with the target intervention and strengthens other elements of the system at the same time. It requires relationships between and among different elements to be accounted for as key factors in the change process. Done with this approach in mind, the interventions are likely to be more effective, leverage scarce resources, and be more sustainable in the long run (2012:6-7).

The AU is aware of this and has also stated that the realisation of Agenda 2040 for example, depends on its effective implementation by a range of stakeholders, including the AU political organs, States, relevant government ministries of State parties, civil servants, parents, children, families, teachers, civil society organisations, religious and community leaders, communities and the media.

It therefore remains incumbent upon African governments to make plans for all within their jurisdictions considering that the positive changes in growth do not necessarily translate into positive outcomes for the growing populations on the continent. John W. McArthur observed in the 2014 Foresight Africa report, published by the Brookings Institution, that “…In 2014 and beyond, African policymakers should make the creation and implementation of strategies to improve employment outcomes for its enormous youth cohorts a major priority… and that “To succeed, these strategies will need to be tailored across

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DEPARTMENT OF WOMEN,GENDER & DEVELOPMENT | AUC

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the practical environments in which young Africans live.”

At the same time, any interventions that involve the gender mainstreaming, the empowerment of women and their subsequent success in any sector also rely heavily on multiple approaches as well as a massive investment in accountability.

Make Every Woman Count’s Mid-Term Review on the African Women’s Decade (AWD): 2010-2020 points out that both States and Non-States Actors must ensure that women’s rights are fully implemented so that laws passed actually have a tangible impact on the lives of the people. There must be a strong system of monitoring, reporting and accountability to ensure that Governments turn their commitments into concrete actions. Moving forward, it is paramount that we acknowledge the importance of accountability and resources to build a framework and create actual implementation of the national, regional and international laws and policies that advance 86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 38

women’s rights and gender equality.

The main goal of the AWD is to enhance the implementation of African Union countries’ commitments related to gender equality and women’s empowerment and to support activities resulting in tangible positive change for African women at all levels. In all areas of society, gender equality has become the norm. Universally accepted principles of human rights have set the standard for equality between women and men. This concept extends to the recognition that girls and young women are unique individuals with rights and responsibilities similar to those of boys and young men.

Yet, despite many successes in empowering women, numerous issues still exist in all areas of life, ranging from the cultural, political to the economic. For example, women often work more than men, yet are paid less; gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often are

the ones that suffer the most poverty.

This is not to say that there has been limited progress in enhancing women’s rights across the continent. The drive for recognition of issues of gender equality in Africa has been taken up by various African states and has been impressive thus far.

This would not have been possible had there not been an unprecedented move by AU members States for the advancement of women’s rights.

The AU has led in ensuring that this shift happens through adopting important decisions which form the basis of the AU Gender architecture such as the Constitutive Act, the AU Protocol on Women’s Rights, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the Africa Women’s Decade, and the Fund for African Women. In addition, the AU declared in January 2015 “Year of Women’s Empowerment and Africa’s Development for the Concretization of Agenda 2063” as the theme for its 24th Summit. The year

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2016 was once again marked by a renew commitment from the AU, when they adopted the 26th AU Summit as the “Year of Human Rights with Particular Focus on the Rights of Women.

Politically, there have been movements in women occupying spaces that were traditionally taken up by their male counterparts. According to the 2012 data from the Inter- Parliamentary Union, women now occupy 20.2% of parliamentary seats in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is slightly higher than the world average of 19.5%. At the dawn of the African Women’s decade, Joyce Banda was appointed as the first Malawian woman president in 2012, followed by Catherine Samba-Panza in 2014 joining Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia to make three female heads of state in Africa, while Gambian Fatou Bensouda was elected as the first female International Criminal Court prosecutor. One of the biggest highlights since the launch of the Decade was the appointment of the first female Chairperson of the AU Commission, Dr 86

DEPARTMENT OF WOMEN,GENDER & DEVELOPMENT | AUC

Dlamini-Zuma.

In Angola, following the adoption by the ruling party of a quota, requiring a minimum of 30% female representation the rise in women’s representation in the National Assembly has dramatically increased from 9.5% in 1992 to 36.8% in 2015.

As of September 2015, Seychelles was ranked fourth on the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Women in Parliaments: World Classification, with women occupying 43.8% of Parliamentary seats. Women’s parliamentary representation is also on the rise in Uganda from 31.5% in 2010 to 34.97% in 2015. In Kenya women currently comprise 19.7% of seats in the Lower House compared to 2011 when they only made up 9.8% (upper house seats not included). In Madagascar, women made up 12.5% of the Lower House in 2011 compared to 20% in 2015. In 2012, Senegal adopted a law requiring parties to ensure that women make up at least half of candidate lists. As a result, the percentage of women in the Lower House has more than

doubled from 18% to 42.7% following the 2012 election, making Senegal the seventhbest ranked country in the world for female representation.

Most countries have seen a rise in female literacy and education, as well as improvements in reproductive health initiatives. In São Tomé and Principe, the maternal mortality rate has declined since 1990, from 410 per 100,000 live births to 156 per 100, 000 births in 2015.

It remains important that whatever formal commitments have been made to improve the rights of women and children in Africa be followed up with serious implementation that sees their full participation in all aspects of their lives.

The progress made thus far is laudable, but African governments need to ensure that whatever statutes and protocols they have adhered to attain the necessary impact for both these groups, which have the potential to develop Africa into a continent that shines and makes its mark globally.

AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 | 39

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (SGPA) Faculty of Management and Commerce

East London Campus Telephone: +27 (0) 43 704 7000 Facsimile: +27 (0) 43 704 7095 http://www.ufh.ac.za/faculties/commerce/ departments/public-admin

ACADEMIC OFFERINGS Post- Graduate Offerings/Programmes in Public Administration PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION HONOURS DEGREE [62502]

Duration of the Programme • The honours Programme shall extend over not less than two consecutive semesters of full-time study and not more than four (4) semesters over three (3) years.

• A learner may, with the permission of the Programme Coordinator AND/OR the Head of Department, attend and complete the programme on a part time basis in no less than four (4) semesters and not more than six (6) semesters, which may spread over four (4) years.

NOTE that applicants may be invited for an interview and / or required to write a paper.

Applicants must attach their CV’s.

Target Group Public Officials, who are familiar with the challenges of the Public Sector as well as graduates of other disciplines who want to inte86

Bhisho Campus Telephone: +27 (0) 40 639 2445 Facsimile: +27 (0) 40 639 2447

grate their areas of interest and academic pursuits through a wide range of courses.

Duration of Programme The Master of Public Administration is a minimum of two (2) years and a maximum of three (3) years programme. A combination of contact and other creative modes of education are employed for effective learning purposes. Studies are arranged through block release coursework and research.

There is one exit qualification in the programme: • Master of Public Administration Obtained after completing two (2) years of study which includes course work and Research Project.

MINIMUM ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS • NSC or NCV NQF level 4 certificate or equivalent and as recommended by the Department Admissions Committee • Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as determined by the University RPL policy as recommended by the Department Admissions Committee.

Who may apply?

This course is designed for individuals, Civil Society Or-

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CONTACT US Alice Campus Telephone: +27 (0) 40 602 2533 /2118/2382/2020 Facsimile: +27 (0) 40 653 1007

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

ganisations, Non Governmental Organisations, Community Based Organisations, Community Development Workers and Government officials who working in communities (rural and peri-urban), dealing with issues relating to community development and urban renewal. It is expected that candidates are active community members, who are willing to work with individual households and communities to improve household incomes through the creation of employment, lead projects aimed at food security and improved nutrition and health.

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN PUBLIC SECTOR MONITORING & EVALUATION Purpose of the course and qualification The introduction of the Post graduate diploma in Public Sector Monitoring and Evaluation expresses international qualification standards, taking into cognizance local realities in both Public Administration practice and discipline environments. Firstly, the six modules and a mini-dissertation that form the bases for the new programme were carefully articulated with coherency in mind to dealing with the myriads of performance improvement challenges facing the South African public sector work environment. Methodology applied for course development includes research and benchmarking. Research was germane to the course development process firstly to ensure that course content reflects present realities in South Africa including developments in policy and practice in government and Civil Society circles.

For instance Secondly, it was important to reflect associated developments and standards in similar Monitoring and Evaluation courses locally and internationally, benchmarking content with relevant and comparable post graduate diploma courses in South Africa, United States, Canadian and Australian universities. Thirdly, the course was developed using South African government criteria for accreditation of programs from the higher education quality committee.

The Post Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Monitoring and Evaluation seeks to impact the required skills towards contributing to the implementation of the government policies 86

“ Celebrating 100 years” and programmes for better service delivery and its consequential improved and better performance in government at all levels. The need for development of competency in the Public Sector Monitoring and Evaluation may not be over emphasis given the establishment of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency and development of the National and provincial monitoring and evaluation framework and indicators for government.

Public sector officials at our catchment area of the Eastern Cape in particular and South Africa in general will for once have opportunities for training, research, consultations, conferences, seminars and exchanges at both national and international fora towards developing personal and institutional competencies required in the practice of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Public sector work environment.

M.ADMIN: (Research-based Master of Administration in Public administration) Admission requirements Admission requirements for the above degree is contingent to at least 65% average mark and above of a threeyear junior degree and 70% average mark Honours programmes in Public Administration or related discipline. An extensive managerial experience at a government department with honours degree or its equivalent may be considered for the research-based M.Admin programme and /or proof of high potential research capability and /or any other requirement that may be obtainable within the University of For Hare admissions policy.A comprehensive proposal and /or researcher intent expressed in writing may be required to ascertain the applicant’s suitability to conducting an independent research at a researched-based Masters level.

Submission of honours degree research project may form part of the admissions requirement D.Admin: (Research-based Doctor of Administration in Public Administration)

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“A global University with a sustained African Tradition”

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT’S CORE MANDATE IS TO SUPPORT THE AU IN BOOSTING INTRA-AFRICAN TRADE, FAST TRACK ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA (CFTA) AND TO ENSURE AFRICA’S COMPETITIVENESS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. IT SUPPORTS AFRICA’S TRANSFORMATION BY PROMOTING DIVERSIFICATION AND MODERNISATION OF PRODUCTION STRUCTURES. THE DEPARTMENT’S CORE FUNCTIONS ARE TO: ENSURE THE FORMULATION, IMPLEMENTATION AND HARMONISATION OF TRADE POLICIES TO PROMOTE INTER- AND INTRA-AFRICAN TRADE; ENSURE DEVELOPMENT OF POLICIES ON TARIFFS, NON-TARIFF BARRIERS AND FREE MOVEMENT OF BUSINESS PEOPLE; LIAISE WITH RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS, SUCH AS CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATIONS, EXPORTERS, IMPORTERS, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AND THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC COMMUNITIES (RECS), TO ENSURE FAIR TRADE; PROVIDE SUPPORT TO AU MEMBER STATES IN GLOBAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS; COLLECT, ANALYSE AND MONITOR DATA ON GLOBAL TRENDS IN TRADE AND THE IMPACT ON AFRICA. THE DEPARTMENT IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR IMPLEMENTING INITIATIVES SUCH AS ACCELERATING INDUSTRIALISATION OF AFRICA (AIDA) AND THE AFRICA MINING VISION (AMV), WHICH PROMOTE TRANSPARENCY, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND TAX COMPLIANCE IN THE EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY. THE DEPARTMENT HAS THREE DIVISIONS: TRADE; INDUSTRY; AND CUSTOMS COOPERATION.

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Trade and Industry

DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY | AUC

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Randgold Resources is an Africa-focused gold mining group with mines and projects in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.

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SHARING THE VALUE WE CREATE

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Randgold Resources is committed to the principle that the countries and communities in which we operate should benefit fully from our activities.

LSE : RRS • NASDAQ : GOLD

www.randgoldresources.com 86

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dPA 5999

By putting this partnership philosophy into practice, we not only contribute substantially to our host gover nments’ revenues through taxes and royalties, but also create jobs and develop skills, open up economic opportunities, build infrastructure and improve the quality of life in regions which are remote and often deprived.

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Africa looks to its ENTREPRENEURS

A USEFUL STRATEGY IN THE TOOLBOX TO REDUCE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

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BY: RAPHAEL OBONYO, FROM AFRICA RENEWAL

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DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY | AUC

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Company Profile

H

omefoods was started by Felicia Twumasi on her kitchen table and incorporated in August 4th 1995 as a limited liability company, with focus to engage in processing and packaging of various types of ethnic foods for the export market. The company is also engaged in the importation of partly processed food items from all over the world for re-processing and packaging, fusing flavours and spices from around the world to suit both domestic and international markets.

OBJECTIVES 1. process local agro based products to create, build and establish food processing industry fusing flavors and spices around ,the world ensuring our farmers have ready markets for their produce through an effective supply chain concept 2. To focus attention and creativity on food ingredients to food industry, homes and individuals, food ingredients they absolutely want and need through adaptive production, inventory management and product design to cater for every need.

3. Create Value and wealth for our nation through agriculture and ensuring leaving a sustainable legacy for posterity.

Vision: The Company’s vision is to create, build and establish a quality food chain industry, fusing flavours and spices from 86

Felicia Twumasi – Founder / CEO around the world to meet the needs of consumers.

Mission: To focus attention and creativity on basic food ingredients and services to as many people and homes, Catering, Hotel and Fast Foods Industry; food products they absolutely need and want and making every meal an experience.

Our Achievements and Awards • The Otherways, Top Quality Customer Satisfaction Aptitude Seal for High Quality • The Otherways Golden Award for Quality and Business Prestige, 2007 • National Export Achievement Award (Silver Award Winner), 2006 for Palm Oil • National Export Achievement Award (Gold Award Winner), 2007 for Gari and Palm Oil • 4th Ghana-Africa Business Award (Silver Award Winner), 2009 • UNCTAD Nominee for Entrepreneur Woman of the year, 2009 • GOLDEN Award for Business Prestige, Geneva, 2009 • African Brand Leadership Merit Awards 2016 Winner “African’s Best Premium Food Products Company of the year 2016” • Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Finalist, for West Africa • Millennium Agribusiness Award in London 2014

ENJOY!! Explore our brands.

For more information about our products and services contact us on Homefoods Processing and Cannery Ltd P.O.Box 16519 KIA Accra Ghana Phone: +302 303 914/325 570 http://homefoodsghana.com

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Homefoods has been in business for the past 20 years solely in export of Red Palm Oil and other ethnic foods to Europe, America, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and the Gambia and has been able to keep up our business-level strategy; the issue of how to build a sustainable competitive advantage in a discrete and identifiable markets for all these years. In Europe alone and in Britain in particular, Homefoods has been able to keep 70% market share in the Red Palm Oil business for nearly 13 years under custom brand names like “BLUE BAY”, “TROPIGOLD”, “AFRICA’S FINEST” In 2009, we embarked on a new business model by adding value to the palm oil into vegetable oil and expanded to other food product lines.

Homefoods has grown exponentially from the kitchen table to the factory floor and expanding further to our “state of the art” factory soon at Tema freezone enclave, Ghana.

100% owned Ghanaian company within the FMCG marketing industry (which is dominated by multi-national companies) producing and marketing locally produced Palm Oil in Ghana and working with over 5,000 co-operative women out growers and suppliers saving a chunk of foreign exchange for the country, resulting in spillover of wealth within the farming communities especially women farmers.

Homefoods is unique, creative, focused and innovative Agro-based company with a mission to empower women farmers in our community.

Our core business is linked to improving Nutrition: Linking Health, Agriculture and Productivity. Our supply chain starts from the FARM GATE with more than 5,000 women cooperative members, and its still growing.

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W

ith a majority of African nations diversifying from traditional sources of income, entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as a key to economic growth.

So far, entrepreneurship has yielded huge returns for entrepreneurs, and according to experts, there lies great untapped potential to drive the African continent into its next phase of development.

A study released in June 2015 by Approved Index, a UK-based business networking group, ranked Africa as among the top of the entrepreneurship chart. As a testimony of the continent’s rising star, the Entrepreneurship around the World report listed Uganda, Angola, Cameroon and Botswana among the top ten on the entrepreneurship list. The group sees entrepreneurship as a ‘necessity’ at a time of high employment, saying: “When unemployment is high and the economy is weaker, people are forced to start small businesses to provide 86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 50

for themselves and their families.”

Today, entrepreneurship is seen as one of the most sustainable job generation tools in Africa. Roselyn Vusia, a human rights advocate, points out that Uganda’s youth unemployment estimated to be 83% according to the African Development Bank’s 2014 report, is one of the highest in Africa.

Unemployment around the continent is also worrying. A 2013 study by Brookings Institution, a Washington DC-based think tank, found that African youth (15-24 years) constitute about 37% of the working age population. The same age group, however, accounts for about 60% of jobless people in Africa.

Kwame Owino of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank based in Nairobi, says: “High youth population, poor policy choices and a lack of comprehensive employment plans in many African nations precipitate the high rates of unemployment.”

Ms. Vusia comments on one proactive approach: “The government of Uganda has implemented an entrepreneurship strategy that is focused on skills development, resource provision and access to markets. This seems to be bearing fruit,” she says.

The importance of entrepreneurship was underscored at the July 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, attended by US President Barack Obama, entrepreneurs from over 100 countries and a group of American investors, among others.

Speaking at the summit, President Obama lauded entrepreneurship for its promise for Africa with participants at the GES agreeing with him that entrepreneurship is one of the key ingredients in the toolbox to address youth unemployment in Africa, the region with the youngest population in the world.

“Entrepreneurship creates new

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“ENTREPRENEURSHIP, IF WELL MANAGED, CAN CREATE MORE JOBS ON THE CONTINENT AND INCREASE THE MIDDLE CLASS WHICH IS ESSENTIAL IN SUSTAINING ECONOMIC GROWTH. THERE IS NEED TO INTEGRATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING IN FORMAL EDUCATION IN AFRICA TO PREPARE THE YOUTH FOR THE FUTURE,”

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jobs and new businesses, new ways to deliver basic services, new ways of seeing the world — it is the spark of prosperity,” Mr. Obama told the summit.

According to Evans Wadongo, listed by Forbes Africa as one of the most promising young African entrepreneurs, many African governments have not been keen on developing policies that would avert unemployment among the youth in a big way.

“Governments are not doing enough.

The private sector is trying, but most goods brought into the African market are from China. This denies the youth the much needed manufacturing jobs, which are more labour intensive,” he says.

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

Kenya’s cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development, Adan Mohammed, however, defends the policies of most African governments,

saying that their efforts have been spurring confidence in the continent and are enabling more young people to turn toward entrepreneurship.

“Success breeds success — as many entrepreneurs make headway, others get on board. Also, technology-based inventions are pulling entrepreneurs,” says Mr. Mohammed. “The mindset has changed and many young people now think as employers. Many African governments have created opportunities in terms of finance and access to markets.”

Commenting on the increase in foreign investment and economic growth in Africa, Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said his government’s efforts to promote entrepreneurial culture have produced “remarkable results.” For instance, the state-run Youth Venture Capital Fund trains and provides money to young people with good business ideas.

The government alsohelps young entrepreneurs to market AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 | 51

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DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY | AUC

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

AUC |EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT NOTE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

In Kenya, Eric Kinoti, the group managing director at Safisana Home Services, a company that provides cleaning services, hopes the government will follow Uganda’s example by creating an enabling environment to support entrepreneurship that could create jobs for youth.

“Many financial institutions in Kenya expect young people to provide collateral, yet only a few investors are ready to invest in young people’s ideas,” notes Mr. Kinoti, who mentors other young entrepreneurs and is listed among Forbes Top 30 under 30 in Africa.

Lack of access to working capital has hampered entrepreneurship in Kenya. Even though the government has created the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) and Uwezo Fund to support youth entrepreneurship, budgetary constraints limit their impact.

“Entrepreneurship, if well managed, can create more jobs on the continent and increase the middle class which is essential in sustaining economic growth. There is need to integrate entrepreneurship training in formal education in Africa to prepare the youth for the future,” says Mr. Wadongo.

In Cameroon, Olivia Mukami, the 86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 52

president and founder of HarambeCameroon, a social entrepreneurship organization, insists that Africa needs to prioritize youth unemployment: “African countries are sitting on a powder keg and if they don’t change, it is going to explode”.

Ms. Mukami says that in addition contributing to job creation, entrepreneurship can also help the continent to solve some of the social problems that undermine progress.

“I am encouraged that the government of Cameroon has prioritized entrepreneurship as a key pillar of Cameroon Vision 2035,” she said.

Andrew Wujung, a lecturer of Economics at University of Bamenda in Cameroon, attributes the country’s entrepreneurship effort to its unique poverty reduction strategy. Unlike other countries in Africa, Cameroon’s poverty alleviation strategy is linked to entrepreneurship. Moreover, the government is organizing robust skill acquisition and training programmes for entrepreneurs and making credit facility easily accessible to people with innovative technological and business ideas.

FACING CHALLENGES

For entrepreneurship to strongly impact Africa’s economy, governments must tackle some of the greatest challenges that impede its progress, including lack of funds, relevant mentorship and poor government policies. In addition, African governments should consider giving the private sector incentives through tax relief to create more jobs.

Laws and regulations should favour entrepreneurs.

Mr. Mohammed says Africa is on the right path. But to reap the fruits of entrepreneurship, effective strategies and policies are required to create more employment opportunities within small and medium enterprises.

Raphael Obonyo is Africa’s representative to the World Bank’s Global Coordination Body and a Ford Foundation fellow.

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their products.

Most importantly, with youth comprising more than 75% of its population, Uganda has remodeled its education system to include entrepreneurship as one of the subjects of instruction in secondary schools and colleges. Also, with the help of the private sector and development agencies, the government has established information, communication and technology innovation hubs which help entrepreneurs to launch successful startups.

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

INVINCIBLE VALVES (PTY) LTD Invincible Valves (Pty) Ltd was established in 1982 and since has grown to a medium sized enterprise located in Knights, Germiston. Invincible Valves prides itself on service excellence and flexibility by striving to enhance our customer’s bottom line.

Valve Sales, Reconditioning & Rubber Lining Stockists of the Inval Range, Babbit, Cla-Val, Insamcor & Saunders

Our 6,500m² facility in Knights is made up of 4,500m² under roof being our stores and workshop. The facility is fully equipped to offer a one-stop resource for valves and ancillary equipment which we transport globally.

As an approved supplier to all major industries within South Africa, we maintain expertise and experience across a broad spectrum of industries and applications with a wide range of products. We are Africa’s largest stockist of Saunders & Insamcor products. We offer a comprehensive range of local and imported valves and accessories for the mining, petro-chemical, power generation, water, sewerage and general industries. We have agents in all major centres around the country and service all four corners of the globe.

We offer an in-house rubber lining service for valves, pipes, fittings and vessels which is utilized by many of the country’s major valve manufacturers. In addition we offer complete service, repair and valve reconditioning services for all types of valves.

Our Core Values:

We believe in treating our customers with respect. We grow through creativity, invention and innovation. We integrate honesty, integrity and business ethics into all aspects of our business functioning.

Our Mission Statement:

Build long term relationships with our customers and clients, to provide exceptional customer services by pursuing business through innovation and advanced technology.

Our Purpose:

Tel: 011 822 1777 / 011 027 1831 Fax: 011 822 3666 Sales: enquiries@invalve.co.za Management: pamdp@invalve.co.za

www.invalve.co.za

Our Vision:

To provide a quality service that exceeds the expectations of our esteemed customers.

Invincible Valves is a proud supplier of quality valve products and ancillary equipment backed by service excellence around the globe. It is the combination of these values that allows us to form lasting business relationships.

© Creamer Media 061115CG

P.O. Box 2149, PRIMROSE 1416

To be a leader in the Valve Industry by providing enhanced services, customer service and profitability.

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33 Shaft Rd, KNIGHTS Germiston

TEL: +27 (0) 11 822 1777 | FAX: +27 (0) 11 822 3666 | EMAIL: enquiries@invalve.co.za | WEB: www.invalve.co.za 86 92

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY | AUC

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

COUNTING ON SUCCESS: Pamella Marlowe is a woman entrepreneur on the rise W

omen in different spaces and in leadership say in business, politics or anywhere epitomise the strength and tenacity of women in Africa in their resolve to make their situations better and the continent a success. We received insights from an up-and-coming entrepreneur, Qualified Chartered Accountant, wife and mom, Pamella Marlowe, and discovered what it takes to be a well-rounded successful business woman in a tough economic climate.

NOT JUST ABOUT THE NUMBERS

Having achieved her Bachelor of Accountancy degree at Wits University and an HDip Tax qualification from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Marlowe went on to serve her Articles at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, after which she took up a position at PwC. This set her up for top financial positions within a seemingly unexpected industry for a woman, the automotive industry.

“I have extensive experience within the Motor Industry. I was a Franchise Financial Director for the BMW franchise within McCarthy, a Senior Financial Manager at Head Office at Barloworld Motor Retail and a CFO of a subsidiary of Barloworld SA (RO Metrics),” she explained.

Wanting to achieve her own success in business, Marlowe founded DNM Consulting, a business operating out of an office in Johannesburg, providing full accounting and tax support to Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs). The business has 86

been in operation since August 2015.

Marlowe explained that she decided to get into the business of finance through her passion for numbers and accounting. “I love helping people so it only made sense that I decided to focus on SMMEs as there is currently a gap, and I believe I can contribute to the growth and sustainability of SMMEs by working with them in maintaining credible financial records. Having access to their financial information, I want to be able to analyse the numbers and identify opportunities with the management of the companies that I work with. I want to be the ‘voice of reason’ to my clients and not just a ‘bookkeeper’. I want my clients to enjoy the SMMEs incentives as provided by government as I provide information on the less-known provisions of the Tax Act which seeks to reduce burdens on the SMMEs,” she said.

It is not just her passion for numbers and helping others that has allowed Marlowe to make a success of her business, but also she says her outgoing personality and ease of interacting with people. “Networking is easy for me, which is the backbone of any entrepreneur, you need people for your business to grow,” she says.

To this end Marlowe is also a public and motivational speaker, and MCee at events. Interestingly, this eyecatching entrepreneur said that she was in the Top 12 of the Mrs South Africa pageant in 2015 and was voted Mrs Personality by her fellow finalists!

She has also been featured in the Destiny Magazine ‘Top 40 Under 40’ AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 | 55

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BY DAVID NOTHLING

I LOVE HELPING PEOPLE SO IT ONLY MADE SENSE THAT I DECIDED TO FOCUS ON SMMES AS THERE IS CURRENTLY A GAP, AND I BELIEVE I CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY OF SMMES BY WORKING WITH THEM IN MAINTAINING CREDIBLE FINANCIAL RECORDS”

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feature, and was a Finalist in the ‘Top 35 Under 35 CA competition’ in 2015.

seven Full Marathons and two Ultra Marathons.

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF BUSINESS

ADVICE FROM PAMELLA MARLOWE FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Marlowe admits that it hasn’t been easy going in the establishment of her own brand, and that like most entrepreneurs, funding has been her greatest challenge. “As I grow my business, I am funding it myself which means I need to defer some less-important business tools such as a website so that I can sustain the basic day-to-day running of the business.” But, she says that the rewards have by far outweighed the challenges she has faced, listing her greater flexibility with time, allowing her to spend more time with her family, being able to empower other individuals, and bringing in new clients as major motivating factors.

And Marlowe clearly has what it takes to stay the course as a successful business woman, highlighted by the fact that she is a long distance runner, having completed a number of half marathons,

Finally, we asked Marlowe to share with our readers her top tips for emerging entrepreneurs. This is what she had to say: 1. You have to give your business your 100% focus. Once you have an idea and you believe in it, give it your all.

Don’t expect your business to grow on year one, have a strategy and document it.

2. Have a business bank account from the word go. This way you get into a habit of treating your business as a business and are able to separate your business from pleasure.

3. If you can, operate from home therefore you don’t incur unnecessary costs i.e. rent.

4. No job is too small, treat all your customers with respect and give them you full attention. It is the ‘small’ clients who will be your ambassadors and will spread the word about your business.

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AUC DEPARTMENT AUC |EDITOR’S NOTE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

AICAD HQs in Juja, Kenya AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

T

he African Institute for Capacity Development (AICAD) is an autonomous international regional institution that was founded on 1 August 2000 with the mandate to deal with poverty in Africa through human capacity development. To date, AICAD has supported more than 130 research projects through 18 Public universities in the Member States. The establishment of the AICAD came as a result of the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD II) which was held in Tokyo, Japan in November 1998. The TICAD II was followed by high level negotiations and commitments among the East African Governments of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Japan.

The Institute is governed through the Governing Board, which is responsible for decision-making at policy level. At the Secretariat, day-to-day decisions are made through the Management Committee, which is under the Executive Director. AICAD has put in place the structures (including budgetary and human resources) at its Headquarters and Country Offices to co-ordinate the implementation of programme activities.

The main function of the AICAD is the reduction of poverty through human capacity development by supporting research and development; training and extension; and information networking activities in the Member States. These functions are executed through the three divisions, namely: Research and Development; Training and Extension; and Information Network and Documentation. AICAD has also established linkages as well as a database for Poverty Alleviation Information and Knowledge Systems (PAIKS).

The Institute operates through public higher learning institutions, including seven universities in Kenya, namely: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Moi University, University of Nairobi, Egerton University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Maseno University and Kenyatta University. In TanzaTraining in session on Value Addition Course

86 92

Prof Andrew B. Gidamis, Executive Diretor, AICAD

nia there are six member universities, namely: University of Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Mzumbe University, Open University of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology – Arusha, Tanzania, State University of Zanzibar. In Uganda there are five member universities, namely: Makerere University, Busitema University, Gulu University, Kyambogo University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

AICAD utilizes human resources and other facilities in these institutions to enable African people to alleviate poverty in the continent by using existing knowledge and technology, creating new technology suitable for local conditions, developing and utilizing the potential capacity of local expertise; bridging the gap between institutions creating technologies and the communities; exchanging information, experiences and practices; sharing information, experiences and practices; and sharing human resource information in Africa and beyond.

It has trained over 6 000 farmers and extension officers through various training programmes. These include: Regional and Local Planning and Management; Export Trade Capacity Development; Rural Women Capacity Building; Value Addition; Enterprise Development; Irrigation and Water Resource Management; Regional Training of Trainers; Climate Adaptation and Sustainable Land Water Management; and the Regional Training Course on Community and Ecosystem-Based Climate Change Adaptations.

AICAD follows a clearly defined Strategic Plan with the Vision of becoming a leading African institution in building human capacity for poverty reduction. It does so through its mission of linking knowledge to application within communities in order to reduce poverty in Africa. In implementing the Strategic Plan, AICAD follows its core values of Partnership, Equity, Empowerment, Excellence and Responsiveness (PEER).

AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT CEO | Andrew Barde Gidamis Address | PO Box 46179 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel | +254 67 522212, 52059 Cell | +254 72 6610402, 733 337733 Fax | +254 67 52360 Email | aicad@aicad.or.ke

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How AICAD contributes to Poverty Reduction in Africa

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF

THE DEPARTMENT’S ROLE IS TO ENSURE THE COORDINATION OF AU PROGRAMMES ON HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT MATTERS. IT ALSO HAS A SEPARATE MANDATE TO PROMOTE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. THE DEPARTMENT ENCOURAGES AND PROVIDES TECHNICAL SUPPORT TO MEMBER STATES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES IN ITS FIELDS. KEY ROLES INCLUDE: PROMOTING RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; PROMOTING COOPERATION AMONG MEMBER STATES ON EDUCATION AND TRAINING; ENCOURAGING YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN THE INTEGRATION OF THE CONTINENT; AND ACTING AS THE SECRETARIAT FOR THE SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL FOR AFRICA. THE DEPARTMENT HAS THREE DIVISIONS: HUMAN RESOURCE AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT; EDUCATION; AND SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

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Human Resources, Science and Technology

DEPARTMENT OF HR, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | AUC

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

THROUGH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

BY OWN CORRESPONDENT

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Tackling challenges

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF HR, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | AUC

86

The division has the following as its Mandates and Core Functions: • Development and harmonization of education policies and programs on the continent, towards the achievement of the AU vision • Spearhead the revitalization of education systems • Develop and Manage Continental Education Management Information Systems linked to regional and national levels providing information for local and international users • Organize meetings of the relevant Specialized Technical Committee and other political and professional bodies to ensure collective articulation of priorities, ownership and accountability

1. AFRICAN UNION SPACE STI INITIATIVES

The development of an African Space policy and Strategy by the Space Working Group (SWG) comprising ten Member States has progressed well. A draft Space policy has been developed and presented on different platforms including the AU Ministerial Conferences of S&T and Meteorology. In August 2014, the 4th meeting of the SWG was held in Cairo, Egypt, which incorporated inputs from other user sectors and AU policy organs into the draft African Space Policy; developed a draft strategy for the implementation of the policy; and deliberated on a governance structure. At this meeting, the SWG also incorporated inputs from the African Ministerial Conferences.

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T

he Science and Technology Division has a responsibility and oversight on issues that pertain to Science and Technology in Africa. The division has visions that encompass the following ideals for the African Union Commission: • An authoritative and respected Commission leading locally and globally, in articulating Africa’s priorities in education; • Restored African dignity, expressed through the confidence of education policy makers in ensuring that partner programmes are aligned with African priorities as articulated by the AUC. • An educated African population, with at least a secondary school certificate of education for both male and female, underpinned by a culture of critical thinking, entrepreneurship and innovation The mission statement states that Science and Technology Division of the AUC stands to contribute towards revitalized, quality, relevant, harmonized education systems responsive to the needs of Africa, taking into account Africa’s aspiration and capacity in terms of human and material resources; systems that produce Africans with appropriate attitudes, values, knowledge and skills to facilitate the attainment of the AU vision; systems that generate applied and new knowledge and contribute towards its harnessing for meeting Africa’s challenges as well as placing Africa firmly within the core of the global knowledge economy.

NOTE OF HR, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AUC |EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT

The draft space documents were presented during the World Space Week 2014 celebration in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and during the African Association of the Remote Sensing of the Environment Conference 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa. These events are part of the efforts of the Commission in consulting with stakeholders in the sector and ensuring that Africa will benefit from space science and related technologies for its socio-economic development.

2. THE GLOBAL MONITORING FOR ENVIRONMENT AND SECURITY (GMES) & AFRICA The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative is one of the programmes under the Earth Observation mission of the African Space Programme under development. This programme seeks to establish long term capacity development and partnership between the two unions: The African Union and the European Union. The aim is to provide sustainable, reliable and timely services to the public and public policy makers in environmental and security matters. GMES & Africa is an extension of the European Copernicus programme to Africa. It was launched in Lisbon, Portugal, on December the 7th, 2007 during the 2nd EU - Africa Summit, in response to the Maputo Declaration signed in October 2006, calling

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(operational) ii) Marine Monitoring (quasi operational) iii) Atmosphere Monitoring (quasi operational) and iv) Emergency Management (operational).

A Coordination Team meeting was held in Tunisia in December 2014. This was followed by the 6th Space Troika meeting in April 2015. The EU-Africa Space Troika meeting is a forum that was set up in 2011 bringing together representatives of the African Union Commission Departments and European Commission Directorates involved in space matters so as to advance cooperation in space, monitor the implementation of agreed projects, enable Africa to exploit its space resources and coordinate synergies amongst space initiatives in the continent so that space systematically contributes to Africa’s sustainable development efforts. The 6th Space Troika reiterated commitment to deploying all efforts to finalize the remaining six chapters of GMES and Africa so as to realize the full evolution of the programme in order for Africa to develop local capacities (institutional, human and technical) for access to and exploitation of Earth Observation-based services for its sustainable development. It also adopted the GMES and Africa Road Map that included convening a stakeholders’ workshop to launch the implementation process for the first three thematic areas under the Pan African Programme.

1. AFRICAN UNION RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAMME

The quest for an innovative way to exploit and utilize Africa’s existing scientific excellences, promote greater participation in and involvement of African scientists, researchers and institutions in implementing the Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) engineered the design of the African Union Research Grant programme (AURG). The CPA was developed by the Ministers of Science and Technology (AMCOST) in 2005, to ensure Africa’s comparative advantage and leverage her capacities to focus her research and development on responding to the continent’s challenges and needs.

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CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS REVITALIZED, QUALITY, RELEVANT, HARMONIZED EDUCATION SYSTEMS RESPONSIVE TO THE NEEDS OF AFRICA, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT AFRICA’S ASPIRATION AND CAPACITY IN TERMS OF HUMAN AND MATERIAL RESOURCES”

for an extension of the European GMES initiative to ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries. GMES & Africa aims to set-up an overall framework in Africa for Earth Observation (EO) applications which goal is to support national and regional policies through the systematic exploitation of Earth Observation data, technologies and services. It is one of the two space-focused priority projects for Africa, identified in the Book of Lighthouse Projects, ready for implementation. Cross-cutting and technical thematic areas have been identified and agreed on at the expert level. The GMES and Africa initiative has been integrated into the First Action Plan of the EU-Africa Joint Strategic Partnership.

The main objective of the Action Plan is to allow Africa to make full use of the potential of space systems for sustainable development and reinforce the continent’s capacity in and ownership of using and contributing to remote sensing applications.

The Action Plan identified nine priority thematic areas: (1) Long term management of natural resources (2) Marine and coastal management (3) Water resource management (4) Climate variability and change (5) Disaster risk reduction (6) Food security and rural development (7) Infrastructure and territorial development (8) Conflicts resolution (9) Health and five cross-cutting sectors namely: policy and institutional framework, infrastructure framework, capacity building, financial issues, and monitoring and evaluation.

The 4th Africa-EU Summit (Brussels 2014) agreed to focus on three of the thematic chapters: long term management of natural resources (LTMNR),marine and coastal management (M&CR), and water resource management (WMR). The decision took into consideration the recommendation of the GMES& Africa Coordination Team composed of stakeholders from relevant EU and African States and institutions.

GMES and Africa will make use in particular of the technology offered by the European Copernicus programme.

The Sentinel satellites programme should satisfy part of the EO data needs in Africa.

Four Copernicus services are disseminating free-of-charge data of high interest for Africa: i) Global Land Monitoring

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

86 92

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENERGY | AUC

DEPARTMENT OF

Infrastructure and Energy

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THE DEPARTMENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENERGY RESOURCES AT THE REGIONAL AND CONTINENTAL LEVELS. KEY ROLES INCLUDE: PROMOTING, COORDINATING, IMPLEMENTING AND MONITORING PROGRAMMES AND POLICIES ON TRANSPORT, ENERGY, TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION IN COLLABORATION WITH THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC COMMUNITIES (RECS) AND AU SPECIALISED INSTITUTIONS AND AGENCIES; FACILITATING PRIVATE SECTOR INITIATIVES ON INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT; AND ADVOCATING AMONG DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS FOR PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION. THE DEPARTMENT HAS THREE DIVISIONS: ENERGY; INFORMATION SOCIETY; AND TRANSPORT AND TOURISM.

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

Resolutions: The Organisation of AFRICAN UNITY AND THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION SOME OF THE RESOLUTIONS UNDERATKEN BY THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION FROM THEIR INITIAL SITTINGS IN 1963 TO HELP FIND SOLUTIONS TO CHALLENGES FACING THE CONTINENT

The Council of Ministers meeting in its Extraordinary Session in Addis Ababa from 15 to 18 November 1963, by virtue of Article 12, paragraph 2, of the Charter of the Organization of African Unity and in accordance with the request contained in the joint Bamako Communiqué dated 30 October 1963 with regard to the AlgeroMoroccan difference, Considering that all Member States are bound by Article 6 to respect scrupulously all the principles formulated in Article 3 of the Charter of the Organization of African Unity, Considering the imperative need of settling all differences between African States by peaceful means and within a strictly African framework, Having heard the statements made respectively by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Morocco and Algeria on the question of the dispute between these two brother States, Welcomes the Agreements reached at Bamako on 30 October 1963 by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, His Majesty Hassan II, King of 86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 66

Morocco, His Excellency Ahmed Ben Bella, President of the Republic of Algeria, His Excellency Modibo Keita, President of the Government of Mali and Head of State, Reaffirms the unwavering determination of the African States always to seek a peaceful and fraternal solution to all differences that may arise among them by negotiation and within the framework of the principles and the institutions prescribed by the Charter of the Organization of African Unity, Notes with satisfaction the moderate and fraternal tone in which the discussions of the Council have been conducted, Pays a warm tribute to His Majesty Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, and His excellency Modibo Keita, President of the Government of Mali and Head of State, for their efforts to obtain a cease-fire between Algeria and Morocco, Considering that the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration provided for in article 9 of the charter has not yet been set up, 1 DECIDES therefore to create the Ad-Hoc Commission provided for in article 4 of the joint Bamako Communiqué and designates for this purpose the following countries: - 1. Ethiopia 2. Ivory Coast 3. Mali 4. Nigeria 5. Senegal 6. Sudan 7. Tanganyika The terms of reference of this Ad-Hoc

Commission thus constituted are those laid down in article 4, sub-paragraphs a) and b), of the joint Bamako Communique, In the spirit of the Bamako Communique, the Commission shall as soon as possible establish its own rules of procedure and its working methods in accordance with the principles and the provisions of the charter of the Organization of African Unity and of the Rules of Procedures of the Council of Ministers, REQUESTS further that the Ad-Hoc Commission report back to it’s on the results of its work, APPEALS finally to the two parties to refrain from any action likely to jeopardize the success of the AdHoc Commission. Adopted on 18 November 1963.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, Sixteenth Extraordinary Session 8 September 2014 Addis Ababa, The Executive Council, 1.Takes note of the Reports of the Commission on the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak and its socio-economic impact on Africa; as well as the technical presentation by the World Health Organization (WHO); 2. Further notes the responsibility of

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RESOLUTION OF THE FIRST EXTRA-ORDINARY SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS HELD IN ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, FROM 15 TO 18 NOVEMBER 1963

Member State to protect their citizens and public health consistent with International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) and high alert provoked by the current EVD outbreak and the Africa’s solidarity and its integration objectives; 3. Acknowledges the circumstances under which some Member States took measures to protect their citizens, including restrictions on travel, trade and humanitarian activities; 4. Expresses concern about the extent of EVD casualties and the need for a response capacity that is way beyond the fragile health public systems of the affected countries; 5. Expresses support for the civil military medical missions the “AU Support to the EVD in west Africa (ASEOWA) and CALLS UPON Member States to respond positively and provide adequate number of qualified health personnel for ASEOWA to assist the affected countries to combat the EVD, taking also into account the necessary protection measures to be provided to such personnel; 6. Similarly expresses concern about panic reactions due to misinformation and inadequate communication about EVD with consequences for worsening the situation; 7. Also takes into consideration: Ext/EX.CL/Dec.1(XVI) Page 2 i) The WHO recommendation that air, sea and land travel be resumed unimpeded, while intensifying surveillance and observing specific screening protocols; ii) The assessment that economic and financial activities should not be unnecessarily restricted given the recognized heavy negative socioeconomic impact and unproven effectiveness of reactive restrictive measures taken; iii) The need to apply to EVD lessons learned from dealing with similar infectious diseases; iv) The need to protect individual and group human rights as stated in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

8. Expresses with appreciation the solidarity of many organizations and countries, non-governmental organizations and Civil Society Organizations as well as the active mobilization of AU support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) and APPEALS that the same assistance be mobilized in favour of other countries affected in other regions; 9. Also expresses its high appreciation to all the Member States which have 86

DEPARTMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE & ENERGY | AUC

provided generous financial, personnel and material assistance to the Member States affected by the epidemic and CALLS UPON all Member States to contribute human, material, and financial resources to contain the spread of the virus; 10. Decides, to request the Commission to: i) Report progress on ASEOWA at its 26th Ordinary Session in January 2015; ii) Call upon Member States to urgently lift all travel bans and restrictions to respect the principle of free movement and urge that any travel related measures be in line with WHO and ICAO recommendations, in particular proper screening; iii) Prepare a list of recommended economic and financial measures which are to be adopted and implemented at national, regional and continental levels in solidarity with the directly affected countries as well as economic and financial measures the international community and institutions at large are called upon to consider and apply; iv) Put in place a monitoring mechanism to support urgent disbursement of pledged support to EVD outbreak response; v) Continue planning and organizing the AU meetings as already scheduled; Ext/EX.CL/Dec.1(XVI) Page 3 vi) Facilitate the expansion of the mandate of the AU Special Emergency Assistance Fund for Drought and Famine in Africa to include public health emergencies and other calamities; vii) Ensure the replenishment of the exhausted AU Special Emergency Assistance Fund for Drought and Famine in Africa to continue to provide support to Member States and elaborate specific criteria for the Fund operations; and CALLS ON Member States to make voluntary contributions to the Special Emergency Assistance Fund for Drought and Famine in Africa whose resources are dwindling by the day. In this regard, to explore possibility of convening a Pledging Conference in favour of that Fund; viii) Take all the necessary steps for the rapid establishment of an African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDCP), pursuant to Assembly Decision AU/Dec.499 (XXII) on the establishment of the Centre; and ensure the functioning of the ACDCP, together with the establishment of regional centres by mid-2015, including the enhancement of the early warning systems to address in a timely and effective manner all the health emergencies and the

coordination and harmonization of health domestic regulations and interventions as well as the exchange of information on good experiences and best practices; ix) Encourage on going scientific researches on the use of serums and vaccines; x) Work closely with Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), international and regional Organizations, Africa’s partners, public sector and other relevant actors on the ground, with a view to mobilizing adequate resources to respond to the EVD crisis, in the spirit of Africa solidarity and global approach and in a very well-coordinated and transparent manner, including the sharing of information on commitments and contributions of the various partners; xi) Engage with media and advocacy groups, local communities, civil society organizations, social networks and other relevant actors on the ground to ensure proper communications about EVD to the general population and the international community at large.

11. Invites Member States to share the list of infected persons with epidemiological surveillance services (especially neighbouring countries and those affected by the epidemic) so as to facilitate the contribution of these countries and different regions to the monitoring of infected persons, their identification if missing and early medical care for them; to strengthen screening measures at the entry and exit of these countries, and the immediate use of mobile screening laboratories, Ext/EX.CL/Dec.1 (XVI) Page 4 with the support of the WHO, to thus ensure greater health security at national, regional and continental level; 12. Stresses the critical importance of the timely payment of assessed contributions to the AU Budget for the implementation of all AU programmes, including confronting all humanitarian challenges such as the Ebola Crisis, EXPRESSES CONCERN over the current financial situation of the AU and CALLS UPON once more Member States to pay up their due contributions to the AU Budget in a timely manner to enable the Commission carry out effectively its mandate; 13. Further decides to remain seized with the matter and REQUESTS the Commission to report on the implementation of this decision to the 26th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council in January 2015.

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

5Th ANNuAL

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Featuring over 40 industry experts from 15 countries sharing their insights including:

ENT KW AZ STM UL VE IN

17 – 21 October 2016 | Durban International Convention Centre

O

RT

01

EX

P

KWAZULU-NATAL EXPORT WEEK

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TRA DE

AL AT -N U

&

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

W EEK

2

A full week of activities dedicated to growing KwaZulu - Natal’s export businesses and industries

Export Week KZN is an annual programme of TIKZN that was developed to recognise, promote and assist with growing KwaZulu-Natal’s export businesses and industries. Through a comprehensive programme of activities, it will provide professional development and information on growth sectors and market opportunities to KwaZulu-Natal’s new and existing exporters and internationally focused businesses.

Export Week will highlight the significance of exporting to the KwaZulu-Natal economy and will aim to celebrate the success of KwaZulu-Natal exporters. Export Week KZN will be filled with information and networking session of interest for emerging exporters, existing exporters and seasoned exporters.

BREXIT AND BRICs ON KZN EXPORT WEEK AGENDA

Brexit and Brics are both very important economic issues – especially if transposed into the Indian Ocean economy.

Strategically positioned by being home to two of Africa’s busiest and largest ports with direct access to both the Indian and Pacific Ocean rims, KZN provides effortless access to both emerging African export markets and traditional markets. This is according to Trade Invest KZN Executive Manager for Export Development and Promotion, Mr Lester Bouah.

Bouah continues saying it is clear that both Brexit and Brics are some of the most strategic and promising platforms for KZN’s export potential, but the withdrawal of the UK from the EU 86

opened up a number of uncertainties that will require a rethink on various fronts.

According to Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies South Africa’s trade ties with the BRICS members are vital, especially given the uncertainty about trade ties with the United Kingdom after the Brexit vote.

But, economists agree that even without the UK, the EU represents a significant bloc and Africa cannot afford to ignore the US, which has the biggest GDP, China, with the second largest, and also Japan and Germany.

These global economic drivers and implications for KZN’s export economy will be debated and discussed by panellists at the upcoming Export Week KZN Summit in Durban taking place 17-21 October.

Export Week KZN will give exporters direct access to businesses that are looking for trade partners and associations who can help them to reach new markets and to make the most out of global economic issues such as Brexit and Brics. The event hosts some of the top business minds who will share their tips and stories on how to build a global business.

Other highlights include an Exports Essentials pre-summit seminar, interactive panel discussions and unlimited case studies on trade agreements, mentorship, export credit insurance, trade into Africa vs. traditional markets as well as a post-event master class seminar on how to increase the efficiency in the movement of goods in South Africa.

Contact Athi Myoli at athi@exportweek.co.za to gain access to the conference

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Trade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) will be hosting “Export Week” at the Durban International Convention Centre between the 17th - 21st October 2016 as part of African Ports Evolution.

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE & ENERGY | AUC

STRATEGIC PLAN 2014-2017

BY DR. NKOSAZANA DLAMINI ZUMA CHAIRPERSON OF THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION

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The AU Commission

I

am pleased to present the African Union Commission Strategic Plan 2014-2017.

The Plan constitutes the framework that outlines the overall priorities of the Commission for the four year period, and provides guidance for program formulation and prioritization. It provides space for AUC to play its facilitating role, especially, with respect to policy and strategy setting, coordination and catalyzing Africa’s socio-economic and integration agenda, consensus building and advocacy, experience and information sharing. It seeks to establish the basis for creating the continental public goods and the enabling conditions necessary for peace, security, political stability and growth.

The AU is in the process of developing a 50 year African Agenda and Unionwide Strategic Framework in order to provide greater coherence in the actions and initiatives of the African Union, its organs and those of key stakeholders and partners (Regional Economic Communities, NPCA, Member States, civil society and private sector, etc). The Union-wide plan, in addition to creating better synergies and collaboration, is expected to enhance impacts on the ground. The Commission’s strategic plan will be adjusted to take account of the directions charted by the Union-wide plan once it is approved by the AU Policy Organs.

This Strategic Plan comes at a seminal point in the history of the African Continent.

The year 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization for African Unity (OAU) in 1963, while 2012 marked the first decade of the 86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 72

establishment of the African Union (AU) as the successor to the OAU, as well as the setting up of the African Union Commission.

Over this period the world and Africa have witnessed momentous developments.

Africa is making steady and rapid progress in economic growth, social development and democratization, development of human capital and fostering peace and stability.

Many of the gains made have elements of sustainability, and capacities and capabilities are required to reinforce the path to progress and self-reliance.

In spite of the many challenges, there are notable improvements in the economic and political governance systems on the continent, and there are opportunities for Africa to make the robust growth African economies realized in recent years, more inclusive and jobs-oriented, especially for Women and Youth, and to have greater impact on poverty elimination. The continental integration process is being fast-tracked with the aim of putting in place a Continental Free Trade Area by 2017, but we realize the need to boost intra-African trade and turn it into opportunities for growth, employment and development Conflicts have diminished substantially and peace, security and security are on the upswing, although persistent fragility and new security threats, including the drugs trade, terrorism and tensions over borders remain a major concern. Broad gains are been made on the democratic front, with an increasing number of elections that are free and fair.

The continent has registered significant advances in primary education, as well

as with respect to women’s political representation. The challenge that remains is to achieve economic empowerment and boost tertiary education, science, technology and innovation. Capacities are needed for Africa to turn its challenges into opportunities for broad economic development through implementation of policies on product and export diversification; natural resource management; investments in human capital development, science, technology and innovation; and infrastructure development.

The work of the Commission is driven by the belief that the African dream of an integrated continent offering secure, decent livelihoods and the free movement of people, goods and services is not only achievable but can be done in a shorter timeframe. Thus there is a new sense of urgency on the need to accelerate concrete actions to realize the African Union vision.

Our overall goal is to accelerate progress towards an integrated, prosperous and inclusive Africa, at peace with itself, playing a dynamic role in the continental and global arena, effectively driven by an accountable, efficient and responsive Commission. Over the four years of the Strategic Plan period, the Commission will seek to accelerate progress towards a stable, peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa within a good governance environment, while paying particular attention to women, youth and other marginalized and vulnerable groups. The Commission will work to build a People-centered Union through active communication of the programs of the African Union, the branding of the Union and

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

CONFLICTS HAVE DIMINISHED SUBSTANTIALLY AND PEACE, SECURITY AND SECURITY ARE ON THE UPSWING, ALTHOUGH PERSISTENT FRAGILITY AND NEW SECURITY THREATS, INCLUDING THE DRUGS TRADE, TERRORISM AND TENSIONS OVER BORDERS REMAIN A MAJOR CONCERN” participation of all stakeholders, including those in the Diaspora, in defining and implementing the African agenda. Priority will also be given to the strengthening of the institutional capacity of the AUC, and enhancing relations with the RECs and other organs, and with strategic and other partners.

As a Commission we are therefore focused on addressing eight key priorities which this strategic plan has translated into concrete and annualized targets in the following key areas that impact directly on 86

DEPARTMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE & ENERGY | AUC

the welfare, lives and livelihoods of Africans in all works of life: 1. Human capacity development focussing on health, education, science, research, technology and innovation; 2. Agriculture and agro processing; 3. Inclusive economic development through industrialisation, infrastructure development, agriculture and trade and investment; 4. Peace, stability and good governance; 5. Mainstreaming women and youth into all our activities; 6. Resource mobilisation; 7. Building a people-centred Union through active communication and branding; and 8. Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Union and all its organs.

This strategic plan represents a turning point in the way the Commission plans, budgets, implements and monitors its work. The plan is fully results-based and focused on delivering concrete and clearly measurable targets, and the annualized targets represent the deliverables the Commission is accountable for on a yearly basis. By adopting this approach, we are further consolidating the shift to a results-based / performance management culture. . All of the above are supported by a robust implementation arrangement and Monitoring and Evaluation framework.

We therefore should use the opportunity of this new Strategic Plan to focus dialogue between the Commission and the AU Policy Organs on deliverables rather than activities. The targets set put emphasis on implementation of existing frameworks, policies, and legal instruments in order

to attain the strategic plan goal and the Commission’s commitment of facilitating the accelerated attainment of the AU Vision The plan also provides clarity of roles and responsibilities, not only internally between AUC departments but also with respect to external actors (other AU Organs, NPCA, RECs, Member States, and cooperating partners).As with any plan, the right set of conditions must be in place to guarantee success. We have highlighted a set of enablers that all must work together to put in place: AU organs, Member States, national institutions and organizations, the Commission, partners, etc. We shall deploy special efforts, starting with popularizing the plan, to increase the visibility of our work to African citizens and we count on Member States to help in this process.

Finally, I note with satisfaction the excellent teamwork and the high degree of participation that has characterized the strategic plan development process. The plan is truly the fruit of a collaborative effort and the hard work of many contributors; AU organs, RECs, Commission’s technical departments, etc. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for their efforts and inputs. I would like to single out in particular the Member States through the Permanent Representatives Committee and the Executive Council for the role they have played. Our engagement with them has enriched the strategic plan and made it more focused, responsive, realistic and achievable than it would otherwise have been. You have our deepest appreciation.

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

Company Profile AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

TRANSNET NATIONAL PORTS AUTHORITY

Transnet National Ports Authority provides port infrastructure and marine services at the eight South African commercial seaports and operates within a legislative and regulatory environment created by the National Ports Act 2005 (Act No. 12 of 2005). In line with the provisions of the National Ports Act, the core functions of the national ports authority are as follows: • To plan, provide, maintain and improve port infrastructure; • to provide or arrange marine-related services; • to ensure the provision of port services, including the management of port activities and the port regulatory function at all south African ports; and • to provide aids to navigation and assistance to the 86

manoeuvring of vessels within port limits and along the coast.

TNPA’s service offering is targeted at mainly port users (which include terminal operators, shipping lines, ship agents, cargo owners and clearing & forwarding agents). As such, it manages the eight commercial seaports along South Africa’s 2 954-km coastline.

These ports are Richards Bay, Durban, East London, Ngqura, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay, Cape Town and Saldanha. TNPA’s service offering is divided mainly in two categories: • the provision of port infrastructure; and • the provision of maritime services. Maritime services include dredging, aids to navigation, ship repairs and marine operations.

OPERATION PHAKISA In August 2013, the South African president, Mr. Jacob Zuma, undertook a state visit to Malaysia.

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Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) is one of five operating divisions of Transnet SOC Ltd. TNPA is responsible for the safe, effective and efficient economic functioning of the national port system, which it manages in a landlord capacity.

Company Profile AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

He was introduced to the “Big Fast Results Methodology” through which the Malaysian government achieved significant government and economic transformation within a very short time. Using this approach, they addressed national key priority areas such as poverty, crime and unemployment.

With the support of the Malaysian government, the Big Fast Results approach was adapted to the South African context. To highlight the urgency of delivery the approach was renamed to Operation Phakisa (“phakisa” meaning “hurry up” in Sesotho).

• Marine transport and manufacturing; • Offshore oil and gas; • Fisheries and aquaculture; and • Marine protection services.

Marine Transport and Manufacturing South Africa is ideally positioned to serve the EastWest cargo traffic and the booming African offshore oil and gas industry, through marine manufacturing, which includes ship and rig repair, refurbishment and boatbuilding. Despite this competitive advantage, the South African ports we currently capture only 1 % of the global market of ship repair and refurbishment.

Of the eighty oil rigs estimated to be in the range of the Western Cape, four rigs are serviced per year, showing significant potential for growth. As a solution, the marine transport work stream has developed eighteen initiatives across three categories: (1) infrastructure and operations, (2) skills and capacity building; and (3) market growth, to accelerate sector growth.

Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa’s coast and adjoining waters have possible resources of approximately nine billion barrels of oil. This is equivalent to 40 years of South African oil consumption.

The country also has eleven billion barrels oil equivalent of natural gas, which is equal to three hundred and seventy five years of South African gas consumption.

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The work stream tasked with this aspect has set an ambitious target of drilling 30 exploration wells in 10 years.

Over the next 20 years, this work could lead to the production of three hundred thousand (370 000) barrels of oil and gas per day. This is approximately 80 % of current oil and gas imports. The result would be one hundred and thirty thousand jobs and a contribution of two point two billion US dollars (US $2.2 billion) to GDP. Aquaculture The Aquaculture work stream has underlined the high growth potential of South Africa’s aquaculture sector due to increasing demand for fish. While aquaculture contributes to almost half of the global fish supply, it contributes less than 1% of South Africa’s fish supply.

This sector offers significant potential for rural development, especially for marginalised coastal communities.

This work stream has identified eight initiatives to spur the growth of the sector. These projects are expected to grow the aquaculture sector’s revenue from about half a billion rand today, to almost R1.4billion in 2019.

Three further aquaculture initiatives relate to the creation of an enabling regulatory environment, including the establishment of an Inter-Departmental Authorisations Committee. The committee will co-ordinate aquaculture applications and approvals. The intention is to reduce processing time from the current periods of about 890 days to 240 days in future. Other initiatives focus on funding support, increasing the skills pool and awareness and improving access to markets.

Marine Protection Services and Ocean Governance This work stream undertook the task of developing an overarching, integrated ocean governance framework for the sustainable growth of the ocean economy.

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The objective of Operation Phakisa, formulated in 2014 and led by the Department of Environmental Affairs, is to leverage SA’s strategic location, infrastructure and skill base to accelerate growth of marine transport and manufacturing, unlocking the economic potential of South Africa’s oceans. Four of the nine priorities of the South African ocean economy that were selected as new growth areas for the Operation Phakisa labs consist of:

Company Profile AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

TNPA KEY INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS In response to the requirements of Operation Phakisa, Transnet National Ports Authority has developed key infrastructure plans including ship and oil rig repair and refurbishment which is planned to be big drivers of marine manufacturing growth.

South Africa is ideally positioned to serve east-west cargo traffic and Africa’s offshore oil and gas industry, given the regional potential. South Africa’s high traffic location, low cost and service sophistication make the industry globally competitive. Included is building, repairing and servicing of vessels including ship and oil rig repair, boat or ship building and offshore oil and gas services.

A key initiative is to establish purpose-built oil and gas port infrastructure in Saldanha. Other plans include increasing ship repair capacity at Richards Bay, i.e. refurbishing the repair quay and installing a floating dock will significantly enhance ship repair capacity.

Transnet National Ports Authority has also developed a National Port Plan with the main objective to direct port development. It includes a National Infrastructure Development Strategy, Port Development Framework 86 92

Plan, Implementation and Infrastructure plan, and key recommendations for each of the eight individual ports.

The National Infrastructure Development Strategy, divided into the different cargo sectors, includes national container, dry bulk, break-bulk, automotive and liquid bulk strategies with each strategy containing short and medium term development plans across the eight commercial seaports of South Africa.

The port development plan does not only set out to ensure adequate capacity ahead of demand, but also considers the sustainability of the infrastructure being planned. Sustainability of infrastructure relates to its performance lifespan and durability while also examining the social, economic and environmental impacts the infrastructure development will have throughout its lifespan.

Sustainable infrastructure design is not just about new infrastructure; but also about rehabilitation, refurbishment or optimisation of the existing infrastructure. The following development outcomes for sustainable infrastructure have been identified: • Employment; • Skills development; • Industrial capability building; • Investment leverage, regional integration; • Transformation; • Health & safety; • Community development; and • Environmental stewardship.

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The plan entails the protection of the ocean environment from illegal activities and to promote its multiple socio-economic benefits with results by 2017. The team also proposes the delivery of a National Marine Spatial Planning Framework in order to enable a sustainable ocean economy.

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF Rural Economy

T

he Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was endorsed at the African Union Heads of State Summit as a New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) program in July 2003. The overall goal of CAADP is to “Help African countries reach a higher path of economic growth through agriculture-led development, which eliminates hunger, reduces poverty and food insecurity, and enables expansion of exports.” CAADP is a growth-oriented agricultural development agenda, aimed at increasing agriculture growth rates to six percent per year to create the wealth needed for rural communities and households in Africa to prosper. To achieve this goal, CAADP focuses its interventions in four key pillars to achieve measurable outcomes: • Pillar 1: Extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems; • Pillar 2: Improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 82

access; • Pillar 3: Increasing food supply, reducing hunger, and improving responses to food emergency crises; and • Pillar 4: Improving agriculture research, technology dissemination and adoption.

Crosscutting issues common across the four pillars targeted for interventions include capacity strengthening for agribusiness; academic and professional training; and improving access to information for agricultural strategy formulation.

In 2013, it will be 10 years since CAADP was endorsed in Maputo in 2003. The implementation of CAADP has enabled inclusive participation of all relevant sector players. CAADP has raised the profile of the agricultural sector in national domestic politics and the attention to agriculture has significantly increased.

CAADP has contributed to more specific, purposeful and incentive-oriented agricultural policies. It has also facilitated a noticeable improvement and progress towards donor coordination, harmonisation

and alignment to country priorities. In a number of countries, additional resources have been allocated to targeted programs that have the highest potential to generate returns to these investments. Regional co-operation has been increased as a result of CAADP engagement. CAADP has also facilitated the establishment of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation, peer review, dialogue and accountability.

At the African Union Commission (AUC), CAADP is implemented through the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA), which was established with the objective of promoting agricultural and rural development. It also strives to support African institutions in advancing food security for Africans as well as achieving sustainable development and improved livelihoods for the population, underpinned by sound environmental and natural resource management and adaptation to climate change.

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THE COMPREHENSIVE AFRICA AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

DEPT OF RURAL ECONOMY | AUC

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

Are we utilising our

A

griculture has the greatest potential to lift the African continent out of poverty and alleviate hunger, but the sector has struggled to perform in recent history, with reforms happening excruciatingly slowly. According to the World Bank, agriculture contributes 32% to Africa’s GDP and provides employment to 65% of the labour force on the continent.

In fact, in many countries in Africa, up to 85% of the workforce is employed in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, an estimated 38% of Africa’s working youth is presently employed in the agricultural sector. Despite these numbers, African soil remains greatly underutilised and the continent still imports a substantial deal of its food needs. According to Trade Map, African countries imported about US$94bn worth of agricultural products during 2013, compared to exports amounting to about US$60bn. In addition to the significant labour resources as yet untapped,

86 | AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 84

Africa is home to millions of hectares of unexploited arable land. It is estimated that about 60% of the world’s available and unexploited cropland is in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, only between 5% and 7% of the continent’s cultivated land is irrigated, which leaves farmers exposed to the elements. Given the nature of African agriculture, where a large proportion of farmers are smallholders or subsistencebased, it is essential to invest in and develop accessibility to quality inputs, markets for produce, good soils and soil management techniques, innovative finance tools and other resources needed for sustained agricultural production. Moreover, the lion’s share of African farmers use non-modern techniques in their production process and this limits their productivity, while the lack of irrigation leaves them exceedingly vulnerable to weather shocks and often lacking adequate inputs, efficient markets and the necessary technology to ramp up

production to levels beyond personal use.

The key drivers which could see the African agricultural sector shift to a higher growth trajectory are all rooted in government policy. With subsistence and small scale farming forming the bulk of agricultural activities on the continent, the provision of co-operative structures, financial backing, stable markets, improved infrastructure and knowledge sharing initiatives all stem from government and organisational structures on all levels.

Unfortunately, there is not one blueprint that fits all the regions on the continent and some countries have fared better than others in this regard. Government and multilateral organisations need to focus on spreading skills and knowledge, increasing fertiliser use, increasing the availability of financing, implementing technologies to improve yields – including research into improved seed varieties – and improving infrastructure. If reforms are implemented

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NATURAL RESOURCES PRODUCTIVELY?

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

DEPARTMENT OF RURAL ECONOMY | AUC

THE 2015 AGRICULTURE SECTOR REPORT RELEASED BY KPMG SHARES INTERESTING INSIGHTS ABOUT THE STATE OF THE SECTOR IN AFRICA. THE REPORT TOUCHES ON IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON THE STATE OF THE SECTOR AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HARNESS THE MOST FROM AFRICA’S NATURAL RESOURCES.

efficiently, these focus areas will combine to lead to significant increases in yields in order for Africa to feed itself and ultimately lift a large proportion of the population out of extreme poverty.

Policy As mentioned above, the role the government plays in the agricultural sector in the African context is pivotal, on all levels. In 2003, at the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo, African leaders pledged to allocate at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture, to adopt sound agricultural development policies and to achieve at least 6% agricultural growth p.a. and created specific plans like the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). Central to the CAADP’s policy objectives are a series of interventions designed to strengthen policy processes and implementation: Support institutions in order for them to be more efficient and accountable; Improve governance of natural resources; 86

•

Encourage planning and implementation on more inclusive foundations based on experience; • Improve coordination, partnerships and alliances both within and between the private and public sectors; • Foster public investment in agriculture; • Increase production of / and access to quality data and knowledge, and provide information to the public.

In addition to budgetary thresholds and developmental targets, the broader strategy also included the concept of regional economic integration that was supposed to facilitate cross border trade and investment and create economic/ agricultural hubs that would in theory be more efficient than individual nation states.

In the framework of the AU, these regional economic communities are the building blocks for Africa’s economic integration and almost by definition play an important role in regard to the harmonisation and

coordination of agricultural policies and as components of overall agricultural development in relation to the CAAPD. However, the problem here is that the obsession with creating regional economic integration hubs and expanding these into an African whole often inhibits national agricultural development policies with the result that despite the grand designs of NEPAD, the AU and its CAADP, the record is not impressive.

Overall policy development and specifically implementation in the agricultural sector has been disappointing over recent years and in fact has shown some signs of going backward in respect of measurable outcomes. In fact, the UN estimates that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world, with only modest progress in recent years. The organisation estimates that around one in four people in the region remains undernourished. Moreover, sub AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 | 85

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BY GRIVIN NGONGULA {ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM KPMG}

EDITOR’S NOTEOF RURAL ECONOMY AUC DEPARTMENT

too big, unmanageable and unfunded. At the other end the initiatives and interventions are too small and too limited. It seems most governments continue to ignore the potential of agriculture to alleviate poverty and improve overall quality of life.

There is a wide range of serious obstacles standing in the way of Africa reaching its full potential with regard to agricultural development. The role of government cannot be overstated. For African agriculture to prosper the local authorities need to take the lead. Unfortunately most governments on the continent are under severe fiscal pressure, with inefficient revenue collection practices, large public wage bills and severe infrastructure deficiencies. As such, the necessary funds needed to kick-start the agricultural sector may not always be available on time. Nevertheless, being a key povertyalleviating sector, we expect governments and NGOs on the continent to intensify their efforts to boost the agricultural sector over the medium to long term. In the following section we list a range of countries where the agricultural sector is likely to flourish over the medium to long term, be it on the back of increased government involvement or private entities taking advantage of the immense potential buried in Africa’s soil. We explore some of the countries more deeply, but expansion will of course not only be limited to these countries.

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THE LION’S SHARE OF AFRICAN FARMERS USE NON-MODERN TECHNIQUES IN THEIR PRODUCTION PROCESS AND THIS LIMITS THEIR PRODUCTIVITY, WHILE THE LACK OF IRRIGATION LEAVES THEM EXCEEDINGLY VULNERABLE TO WEATHER SHOCKS AND OFTEN LACKING ADEQUATE INPUTS, EFFICIENT MARKETS AND THE NECESSARY TECHNOLOGY TO RAMP UP PRODUCTION TO LEVELS BEYOND PERSONAL USE”

Saharan Africa has actually regressed over the past two decades in terms of feeding its people. The amount of undernourished people in Africa rose from 176 million in 1990-92 to 214.1 million in 2012- 14.

Although this represents a proportional decline from 33.3% of the total population to 23.8% of the total population, subSaharan Africa is the only major region in “The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2014” report where the actual number of undernourished people increased over the past two decades. Individual nation states have done better than others and in almost all cases individual states have tended to make better progress that the regional integration schemes. According to the NEPAD website, 30 countries have signed up to the CAADP Compact since 2003, though only eight have surpassed the 10% budgetary allotment target. Although there is certainly a place for mega policy programmes such as the CAADP, especially over the longer term and there is a tendency by donor nations and organisations to look to integrate their contributions to CAADP objectives, the results of this scheme is speckled over the past decade.

It seems clear that overall policy direction and specifically mechanisms for policy implementation regarding agriculture in Africa requires a major overhaul. The concepts at the top level are necessary and even visionary but they are simply too grand,

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

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AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

www.igad.int

MESSAGE FROM THE IGAD EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

Increased cooperation and investment on key regional infrastructure projects is an important aspect of that plan; to this end the development of regional interconnectivity among the countries of the IGAD region is being actively supported by the IGAD Member States and development partners, with the European Union and AfDB playing a leading role.

Enhanced interconnectivity in transport, energy and water resources is expected to contribute to enhanced trade and to the alleviation of poverty within the region, while overall contributing to its peace and security. Being characterized by inadequate levels of investments in infrastructure, the IGAD region has not been able to attract significant investment levels which it requires to support higher levels of economic growth, although there is indeed the need to increase infrastructure access, particularly transport infrastructure.

It is however widely acknowledged that increased spending in infrastructure alone will not be effective, nor will funds be forthcoming unless efforts are made to improve policies for management and maintenance of infrastructure. Delays and cumbersome transit procedures increase the cost of doing business in the Region. Measures implemented in the transport/infrastructure sub-sector should aim at ensuring uninterrupted flow of inter-regional traffic to enhance regional integration.

The region has since 2008/09 seen impressive improvement 86

and development of infrastructure with the current situation reading as follows: ● There are 5,000 km of paved roads linking five capital cities in the IGAD region; ● There are 2000 km of energy lines connecting five of our member states; ● The regional coastline witnessed the arrival of undersea cable ( Mombasa-Djibouti up to Port-Sudan); ● Plans are underway to integrate the use of Internet Exchange Points(IXPs) at the regional level for the benefit of other Members States that are landlocked; ● Feasibility study and detailed engineering design for Kampala-Juba-Addis Ababa-Djibouti Corridor together with the trade facilitation study are about to start; ● Rehabilitation of Berbera /Addis Ababa Corridor has been included within the priority list of the EDF11; ● On the soft infrastructure, policy papers for regional transport and ICT have been developed; ● Studies for developing OSBPs are currently being carried out.

Our future plans for the regional infrastructure will be guided by the IGAD Infrastructure Master Plan (RIMP) which is currently under design. The IGAD RIMP will include the four sub-sectors of transport, energy, ICT and trans-boundary water. Member States will be actively participating in this major regional effort from the inception up to the final delivery.

Ambassador (Eng.) Mahboub Maalim Executive Secretary

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Believing that cross-border cooperation on development can alleviate political tensions, the IGAD leadership together with its major partners adopted an integrated regional response strategy for the IGAD region in 2007. In 2008, this strategy was followed by designing the Minimum Integration Plan (MIP2008) with the aim of accelerating regional economic cooperation and integration.

AUC EDITOR’S NOTE

Ongoing construction of Mombasa-Nairobi section of the Kenya-Uganda standard gauge railway

Sections of the laid Djibouti-Addis Ababa new railway line and transportation of construction materials

Construction of Isiolo Moyale road section of Nairobi – Addis Ababa Highway

Ongoing construction of Mombasa-Nairobi section of the Kenya-Uganda standard gauge railway

Members states:

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Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda

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Organisation name: Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Headquarters: IGAD Secretariat, Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti Executive Secretary: Ambassador (Eng.) Mahboub Maalim Founded: 16 January, 1986 Official languages: English and French Population: 214 million

Djibouti – Loyada (Somalia Border) recently completed road

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DEPARTMENT OF

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Social Affairs

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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS | AUC

The Department works with the following bodies

Technical and Research Commission (STRC) African Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation (AOSTI) Pan African University (PAU) Pan African Youth Union (PYU); International Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Education in Africa (CIEFFA) the Pan African Institute for Education for Development (IPED)/African Observatory for Education

Pan African University

PAU aims to promote networks and develop 86

programs and research centers within selected existing high quality universities in the five geographic sub-regions of Africa, namely Northern, Western, Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. Each sub-region will host a thematic component of the PAU which will be committed to selecting and networking high quality centers developing similar programs, and serve as a coordinating hub for these institutions.

African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Awards An Awards scheme known as the “African Union Scientific Awards (AUSA)” was established by the African Union Commission on the 9th 0f September 2008 and named “African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Awards (AUKNSA)” by Assembly/ AU/Dec.306 (XV) of the 15th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union held on 27 July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda.

Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024 (STISA-2024) The Mission of STISA-2024 is to “Accelerate Africa’s transition to an innovation-led, Knowledge-based Economy”.

This will be achieved by: • Improving STI readiness in Africa in terms of infrastructure, professional and technical competence, and entrepreneurial capacity; • Implementing specific policies and programs in science, technology and innovation that address societal needs in a holistic and sustainable way.

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he Department’s role is to ensure the coordination of AU programmes on human resource development matters. It also has a separate mandate to promote science and technology. The Department encourages and provides technical support to Member States in the implementation of policies and programmes in its fields. Key roles include: promoting research and publication on science and technology; promoting cooperation among Member States on education and training; encouraging youth participation in the integration of the continent; and acting as the Secretariat for the Scientific Council for Africa. The Department has three divisions: Human Resource and Youth Development; Education; and Science and Technology.

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Sustainable Development Goals:

NO ONE WILL BE LEFT BEHIND

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BY: MASIMBA TAFIRENYIKA

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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS | AUC

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DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS | AUC

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Masimba Tafirenyika: Let me

start with the significance of your appointment. This is probably one of your most challenging tasks. What came to your mind when you first heard about your new assignment?

David Nabarro: Well, the secretary-

general telephoned me in December asking whether I would be ready to do this job. The first thing I thought was: I’m being asked to succeed Amina Mohammed who was an extraordinary, charismatic leader who helped the UN give birth to sustainable development goals. So it was an honour to be asked to do this job. It is a huge and daunting responsibility. At the same time, it’s a job that is enormously important because the SDGs set out a plan for the future of the world’s people and the planet. It’s a tough job because I’m being asked to help the secretarygeneral to ensure that the ambitions of world leaders are properly fulfilled.

Your main task will be to work with member states and other stakeholders to implement the 2030 Agenda. What does this involve?

Most of the work to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is going to be done by the member states themselves —governments and the different institutions within countries.

We’re already seeing signs that countries are moving fast to get their national plans aligned with this agenda. They’ll be supported by the UN and backed by a big movement of civil society, business, faith organizations, academic groups, the media and others. My job is to help the secretary-general keep an eye on who’s doing what and where he can put his energy to try and advance the process.

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Who is responsible for implementing SDGs? Can governments be held accountable if they do not implement them?

The goals are owned by world leaders on behalf of their people. So in truth, the accountability is between national governments and their people, with the people having the right to expect that the goals will be addressed in their own countries and to demand this of their leaders.

It is estimated that trillions of dollars will be required over the next 15 years to finance SDGs. Where will this money come from and are you going to advocate for more resources for poor countries?

The SDGs apply to every country in the world. The concept that world leaders had when they developed these goals was that they would underlie every national development plan of all countries. That means existing spending by governments should be adjusted to align to the SDGs. A lot of the money will come from existing national budgets. But of course extra money will be needed. Some of these goals are going to be expensive. But they will be needed particularly in poorer countries to help ensure that there are opportunities for everybody and nobody gets left behind. For that, development financing is critical, supplemented in some cases by private sector investment. To ensure that development funds are available, [donors] will be asked to maintain their assistance and not to reduce it because of domestic pressures. One of our jobs within the UN is to advocate for continued development assistance for poor countries.

Experts say some of the money needed to finance SDGs could come from curbing illicit financial flows. The 2030 agenda calls for reductions in illicit financial flows and the need to strengthen the recovery and the return of stolen assets. What are your views on this?

The most important requirement for governments is for fair and transparent

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avid Nabarro is the new special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on sustainable development goals (SDGs), a plan of action for ending poverty adopted

by UN member states in September 2015 to replace the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Nabarro will work with member states to implement SDGs by 2030. The following are excerpts of his interview with Masimba Tafirenyika

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systems to ensure money needed for the public sector benefits the people.

This is the core set of principles underlying the SDGs. If, by any chance, [money is] moved from countries without proper accountability or if there is diversion of money [to avoid paying] taxes not just in poor countries, then this undermines the realization of SDGs. That’s why proper use of tax revenue and proper use of government finance is absolutely key for the SDGs to be realized.

Are you concerned that the global fight against terrorism and extremism could pull resources away from funding SDGs? When I talk to governments in countries affected by extremism and terrorism, I hear that they would like to have more resources to fulfil the SDGs so that younger people, particularly those that have received some education, do not find themselves being attracted to extremist behaviour. I see investment in the SDGs as an absolute prerequisite to reduce the risk of violent extremism.

One of the challenges that faced the MDGs was the absence of regular national performance 86

reports. Are there plans to ensure citizens are informed through regular reports on the SDGs? The 2030 Agenda is going to be regularly followed up and reviewed by all countries.

This will be done through an annual mechanism called the High-Level Political Forum which will provide an opportunity for nations to explain what they have done on the SDGs. It’s a transparent way so people can question the performance of their governments and seek to understand why certain activities might not have performed as well as they should have but also to appreciate areas which have performed well.

Many countries or regions have their own development plans.

For example, the African Union has the Agenda 2063. How will the SDGs square up with these plans?

The SDGs were agreed to by all world leaders, and they knew already that there were some activities in their countries that directly reflected what’s in the SDGs. The idea is not to completely redesign national plans but instead to align them with the SDGs. In some places that means leaving things as they are. In others, it means changing them so that they are better aligned.

Let’s now talk about SDG targets.

Who is involved in drawing them up? Are the targets the same for both rich and poor countries?

that African countries could prioritize?

I’ve worked in development for more than 40 years and I’ve seen the reality of life particularly for poor and vulnerable people.

Their lives are interconnected. Issues in agriculture, in climate, in gender equity, in health and education tend to be linked in a very intense way. You can’t take one area, one aspect of human existence and deal with it out of sync with another aspect. So I actually do believe that all the different issues identified in the SDGs are important and if you take one part out it is like taking a big stone out of the middle of the arch of the bridge; the whole of the bridge will fall down. I believe all of them are important.

What makes you optimistic that 15 years from now, for the most part, the world will attain the SDGs? I am optimistic because I have seen the incredible capacity of people all over the world to come together around agreed objectives that improve human conditions and to work hard to achieve results. In the news we hear about situations where things are not good. But for every account of things going badly, there are thousands of accounts of things going well. They just don’t get in the news. It’s an optimism that makes me feel certain that people will come together and achieve the goals by putting special emphasis on climate change, on gender equity, on protracted crises, on human rights, and on financing for development.

The SDGs targets are offered to countries to help them judge progress on achieving the goals. The indicators, which apply to each of the targets, are also available for countries to assess progress. The [process] is country-first, it’s countrybased, it’s country-focused and countrycentred. It’s up to the countries to decide on the targets and indicators to use. It will not be for some external group to prescribe.

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SO IN TRUTH, THE ACCOUNTABILITY IS BETWEEN NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR PEOPLE, WITH THE PEOPLE HAVING THE RIGHT TO EXPECT THAT THE GOALS WILL BE ADDRESSED IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES AND TO DEMAND THIS OF THEIR LEADERS.”

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS | AUC

As the saying goes “if everything is important then nothing is.”

What would you consider to be the most important SDGs AFRICA IN UNION VOLUME 5: 2016 | 99

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DEPARTMENT OF

Civil Society & Diaspora

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THE DIRECTORATE IS DESIGNED TO SERVE AS A CATALYST TO FACILITATE THE INVOLVEMENT OF AFRICAN PEOPLES IN AFRICA AND AROUND THE WORLD IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE AU. CIDO HAS TWO DIVISIONS, THE CIVIL SOCIETY DIVISION AND THE DIASPORA DIVISION. IT ALSO HAS A UNIT THAT SERVES AS THE SECRETARIAT OF THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL COUNCIL (ECOSOCC). THE COUNCIL, WHICH IS COMPOSED OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS (CSOS) AND NON-STATE ORGANS, WAS ESTABLISHED IN 2004 AS AN ADVISORY ORGAN TO THE AU.

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AFRICA VISION 2063

- where will we be?

BY: ASHLYN PADAYACHEE

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ou might not think that a vision so far into the future applies to you. After all, if you’re a student or young professional, you’ll be in your mid-sixties by then, ready to retire.

Which means that we belong to the building generation. The ones who will spend our lives making this vision for Africa a reality for those who come after us.

Let’s ask ourselves then, when we get to 2063 and look back, what are the things we will want to have achieved?

Sustainability isn’t only important from the point of view of preserving our planet and its environment. It’s also a crucial part of any development plans that we make for our own continent.

With so many African economies

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either in early stages of economic development or extremely vulnerable to cost increases, it’s important that the products, processes and models we adopt can be sustained. In other words, that we can afford them in the long-term.

Of course we also need to start managing natural resources more carefully, and developing alternative sources of energy, if we are to leave a world that offers next generations a lifestyle that is at least comparable to ours – ideally better. On a continent so blessed with daylight hours and other alternative energy production methods, we should hope to be world leaders in sustainability by 2063.

A common culture is one of the

things that most strongly binds people together in large communities. If we think of some of the most successful countries in the world we find that a distinguishing feature is that they all have relatively homogenous cultural values. They have a shared culture that the vast majority of people are part of.

One of the big challenges we need to overcome in Africa is the tendency for cultural differences to be divisive.

We only need to think of the many civil wars that occur to realise this.

This places an exceptionally strong onus on us to work together towards a continent where we celebrate the vast majority of things that we share, rather than allowing our differences to divide us.

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“IF WE THINK OF SOME OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD WE FIND THAT A DISTINGUISHING FEATURE IS THAT THEY ALL HAVE RELATIVELY HOMOGENOUS CULTURAL VALUES”

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It’s an unfortunate historical truth that centuries of patriarchy have shaped the world in ways that pose unique challenges for women to overcome. As the world thankfully becomes more egalitarian in gender terms, Africa has its own challenges to overcome, including removing the restrictions that women still face, both regulatory and psychologically.

There are many women’s’ organisations and initiatives that are vitally committed to ensuring that gender inequality disappears from all strata of African society, from the most basic level of healthcare to the highest offices of the land.

These organisations are having an increasingly powerful impact on our

societies, which bodes well for a future where African men and women live on equal terms.

This is an area that Africa needs to focus on if it is to become a place that its inhabitants can really call a mother.

There are encouraging signs that a new generation of leadership is taking this very seriously. The so-called “Millennials” have a well-developed sense of social consciousness and, as they come to dominate the worlds of business and politics, they will hopefully transform these in ways that will serve the people of the continent more fruitfully.

What kind of Africa would you like to leave for your children one day?

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Taking the PULSE IN THE WAKE OF THE EBOLA CRISIS, AFRICAN NATIONS ARE TAKING A STRONG AND FIRM LOOK AT THEIR HEALTH SYSTEMS, MOTIVATING FOR NEW INJECTIONS OF FINANCE AND ENERGY, GUIDED BY THE AFRICAN UNION’S COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL AFFAIRS.

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BY KERRY DIMMER

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underinvested and requires sustainable development, which is why the Decisions of the Ministers of Health last year mandated the AU to finalize AU health policy instructions. Of those it is the aforementioned Africa Health Strategy that is the primary consolidative document for all African commitments in the health sector.

Kaloko says that it ‘will inspire, guide and highlight Africa’s strategic priorities in the next one and a half decade. It calls on Member States to prioritize and invest in health through strengthened health systems, community engagement, and the fostering of public and private partnerships.”

In his term, Kaloko has had to face one of the most severe and complex epidemics in Africa’s history, Ebola. This scourge is now contained through the AU’s deployment of 855 volunteers through a hastily, yet very successful, creation of the ASEOWA (African Union support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa) mission, a typical example of how public and private enterprises can work together to provide rapid response in times of health crises.

“ASEOWA is a replicable model,” says Kaloko, “and this experience has given us the impetus to form other response mechanisms such as the Emergency Response Teams. What this dreadful disease has motivated positively however, is that countries that were most severely affected, like Sierra Leone, have prioritized the re-building of health systems, the objective of which is to find solutions for sustainable human resources in health development programs.

Another such example, and currently on the table, is the establishment of the African Health Volunteers Corps, which the AU will spearhead under the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The CDC will assemble, equip and mobilize a deployable roster of volunteer medical and public health professionals to ensure effective and rapid responses to public health emergencies in our Member State portfolio,” says Kaloko. “This will also help us to address matters of global concern including health impacts of natural

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP HAS ENSURED THAT DOMESTIC FINANCING REMAINS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF FUNDING FOR HEALTH AND AFRICAN COUNTRIES SPEND, ON AVERAGE, 20 TIMES MORE FROM THEIR OWN RESOURCES THAN THEY RECEIVE FROM OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE.”

disasters and humanitarian crises.”

Health is, obviously, critical to improvements in livelihoods and enables poor people to participate in the economy.

Like everything, good health is impacted on by sanitation and access to clean water, which is possibly the most felt by women and girls who generally bear the burden of water collection and on average travel up to six km per day to fetch it. This takes away much-needed time that could be spent on education and income-producing activities.

“Statistics suggest that some 800 million people, mostly children, are likely to die in Africa from water-linked diseases,” says Kaloko. “Sub-Saharan Africa faces one of the biggest challenges with only 68 percent of individuals having access to improved water resources and 30 percent access to improved sanitation services.

These are statistics of real concern and why we need constant dialogue to ensure the issues are dealt with in a sustainable manner.”

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he recent announcement by The World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria with an investment of US$24-billion for health in Africa over the next three to five years has been hailed by the African Union’s Commissioner for Social Affairs, as a sign of what global solidarity can achieve in enhancing health systems on the continent.

Commissioner Dr Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko further said that more than ever before African countries are increasing investments in health, as has been demonstrated by Kenya that also announced US$5-million towards the Global Fund Replenishment.

Kaloko outlines the continent’s health climate, and its nation’s efforts to advance a health agenda. “African leadership has ensured that domestic financing remains the primary source of funding for health and African countries spend, on average, 20 times more from their own resources than they receive from Official Development Assistance.

“Our countries spend some US$126billion in 2014 in the sector. An additional US$115-billion of domestic funding can be mobilized annually over the next 10 years if we step up efforts.”

To help advance those efforts, the AU developed a Health architecture that includes the Africa Health Strategy, the Catalytic Framework to end AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa by 2030 and the Maputo Plan of Action, which places emphasis on domestic health financing as the panacea for strengthened health systems and Universal Health Coverage.

It remains however, that the health sector is

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proportion of citizens not having sanitation.

AU policy frameworks are key in taking a multi-sectoral approach to solving health and the social developmental challenges that hamper Africa’s development. Kaloko and his department have been actively pushing for changes across the Member States health sector that deal with a range of issues, including: maternal, newborn and child health; enhancing access to sexual and reproductive health; the elderly and people with disabilities; reducing the incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases, including emerging ones; and to ensure quality assurance systems are put in place, inclusive of financial, hygiene and evaluation processes.

Not forgotten are drug-related issues, that Kaloko says “while many are not unique to Africa, their negative impact on countries in our region continue to be disproportionally high. This affects development and prosperity, and the safety of people even beyond our own borders.

“Ultimately we have to plan for the decades ahead, and ensure that commitments to water, health and sanitation challenges remain high on the agenda’s of our Member States.”

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a developmental issue. This is why the Commissioner calls for a multi-sectoral approach in resolving health challenges, and not just by governments alone.

“In building strong relationships with the AU Member States and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has been regularly monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the implementation of commitments to water and sanitation projects,” says Kaloko.

In July this year, AMCOW promoted the sixth year of its annual Africa Water Week, using the opportunity to bring about dialogue and agreements on the direction that Africa must take towards achieving sustainable development and water security in Africa. This is in line with the targets of the Africa Water Vision 2025, which is aimed at ‘ensuring there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment.’

One of the most successful projects last year was the implementation of the Kigali Action Plan on Water and Sanitation Goals in Africa. Motivated by the AU, the Rwandan government aims to provide at least five million people with access to water and sanitation. It will do this in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the German cooperation Agency.

Rwanda is an excellent host to the project given that in 1990 just 30 per cent of its population had toilets and 60 percent had access to clean water. By 2014 the latter figure had risen to 74.5 percent of the population and elevated Rwanda to one of the few African nations to meet a Millennium Development Goal to halve the

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