The African Union has described Agenda 2063 as “Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future” the plan is grounded by giving great importance to inclusive social and economic development, continental and regional integration, democratic governance, and peace and security. The Solemn Declaration was signed in May 2013, intending to achieve this vision within a 50-year period. It’s the pan-African vision for Africa’s people.  

The plan clarified the intended objectives and priority areas, while the 50-time frame of Agenda 2063 is divided into a series of five ten-year implementing plans. The Agenda identifies key activities to be undertaken in its 10-year Implementation Plans. 1st in the series was titled “The First Ten Year Implementation Plan (FTYIP) 2013 – 2023” In addition to several continental frameworks developed to address the development of key sectors, including, Agricultural, Infrastructural, Mining, Science & Technology Innovation, Intra African Trade, and Accelerate industrial development. 

Many various challenges and difficulties are facing the vision and the agreed agenda. And the economic growth rate is one of the biggest challenges facing Agenda 2063 because it’s too low. If you look at the GDP growth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, in the ten years (2011-2021) for instance, that experienced significant volatility, when it reached the highest rate of 5% in 2013 during the ten years. However, it continued to fluctuate and decline, and it did not reach the previous rate again. Rather, it fell to the bottom at a rate of -2% in 2020 then returned to recover strongly in 2021, reaching 4.1% according to the World Bank*  

Not to mention the challenges such as poverty, hunger, poor education & healthcare, violence, terrorism, and conflicts. As well as other challenges which surprise the vision, such as epidemics, the Russian-Ukrainian war, economic recession, domestic political tensions, and Military coups.  

There is no solution but moving forward, facing challenges, and achieving the goals of each 10-year implementation plan, with the endeavor of Africa’s people, investing in human capital, and natural resources, extending peace and security, with good governance, we can see The Africa We Want.  

It is very clear that the SDGs UN Agenda 2030 are connected to Africa’s vision as laid out in Agenda 2063 much is in common. However, Africa’s agenda is more specific in a number of details, issues, and goals. Cooperation and dialogue continue between the UN and AU due to the importance of Africa’s transformative vision for development, in particular, the High-Level Dialogue (HLD) held last July 2022 is dedicated to assessing progress in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 especially toward the end of FTYIP where KPIs are emerging and evaluated, and the imminent launch of the Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan 2024-2033 (STYIP), a dialogue that pushes and urges international support, with significant assistance from the UN, from this stage, we emphasize on considering the intersection duration of 6 years with the SDGs Agenda.  

*World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files.