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An African Moment: UN Sustainable Development Goals

Satyam Malaviya
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“Can the world prevent catastrophic climate change while building the energy systems needed to sustain growth, create jobs and lift millions of people out of poverty? That question goes to the heart of the defining development challenges of the 21st century. It is a vital question for Africa. No region has done less to contribute to the climate crisis, but no region will pay a higher price for failure to tackle it”1 Kofi Annan

The words of Kofi Annan resonate the concerns of billions of people living either in the developed west or the developing south. Keeping planetary stability at its core, world leaders met in 2015 to comply with two instrumental documents, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with an Agenda for 2030 and the Conferences of Parties twenty first meeting in Paris (COP 21) which came up with an agreement commonly known as the Paris Climate Agreement (to be opened for ratification from April 26, 2016).The foundation of these documents rest upon the idea of ‘sustainable development’ i.e. adopting and endorsing the means and methods of growth that not only benefit the current generation but are also beneficial for upcoming generations. The adoption of sustainable development goals is an African moment which simultaneously speaks to many aspects climate change.

Learning from Millennium Development Goal (MDGs)

It was in September 2000 when the world leaders gathered at the Millennium Summit to adopt the UN Millennium Declaration. Under this declaration, nations committed to a global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, set out time bound targets up to 2015. If looked at in terms of indictors for respective MDGs, the African story is satisfactory enough. But as the saying goes, the devil lies in details.


Source- MDG Report 2015 Summary, September 20152

For instance, only three in 29 countries in Africa reduced hunger at the rate of 50% under MDG sponsorship; overall the African pace in reducing hunger is less than 7.0%. Poverty is still a burning issue, though African economies are projected to grow faster than any economy in the world. Most of the workers are employed in low wages and low productivity jobs. Furthermore, in terms of rate of achieving primary education, one in every three student enrolled drops out of school because of either late entry or poverty. Also, 30% students with six years of school education cannot even read. The status of women in African society is worse. They are now being used as a means of wages to pay the soldiers is somewhat a common phenomenon. West Africa still suffers from the worst form of child mortality and in totality, Africa has the largest number of maternal deaths i.e. 56% globally. On pandemics like malaria, Africa has been affected most with 91% of total deaths. In terms of HIV/AIDS, Africa has been alarmingly afflicted with 69% of the world’s affected population living in the continent. In terms of development assistance, the fund releasing agencies like World Bank and IMF induced certain mechanisms that were hard to be attained by least developed African countries. Eventually, there was a realisation among various governments of the continent that a new economic order needs to be set up that is totally Africa driven, with emphasis on a home grown economy, people-centered development and investment in peace and security. This gave rise to the AGENDA 2063.

AGENDA 2063: The Renaissance Document

Having gained from the experience of implementing MDGs the African Union formulated an endogenous plan for transforming the African continent. Agenda 2063 puts people at its core. The ‘principle of self-reliance’ and Africans financing their own development needs is central to the agenda. The Agenda primarily aims to attain seven aspirations by 2063. It talks about, a prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable development, the ideas of Pan-Africanism and the Vision of Africa’s renaissance, good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and rule of law.

An Overview of Agenda 2063 from the Perspective of SDGs


Source: Report of the Commission on the African Union Agenda 20633 , January 30, 2015.

The first phase of the Agenda 2063 is the Ten Year Implementation Plan. It mostly echoes numerous priority areas which find mention in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For instance, one of the goal of the plan is to achieve high standards of living, quality life and well-being for all citizens; this resonates with Goal 1 and 2 of SDGs to end poverty of all kinds; to attain well educated citizens, and a skill revolution is mentioned in Goal 4 of SDG; to have healthy and well-nourished people echoes in Goal 3; working towards full gender equality is mentioned in Goal 6 of SDGs; to transform economy i.e. sustainable and inclusive economic growth is similarly cited in Goal 9; to develop an environmentally sustainable and climate resilient economies and communities is discussed in Goal 8, Goal 12 and Goal 14 of SDGs; and to promulgate democratic values, practices, universal principles of human rights, justice and rule of law is specified in Goals 16 of SDGs.

African voice echoed in the policy documents of UN in the form of UN Sustainable Development Goals which addresses every aspiration of African Union’s Agenda 2063, a fifty-year continental transformation blue print.

COP 21: An African Conundrum

The challenge which confronted Africa in proposing its Common African Position at COP21 was the emancipation of 42.7% of its population from poverty while maintaining economic growth. In addition, it has a challenge to transform its economy into a sustainable one, within a span of 15 years as stated in Agenda 2063’s first Ten Year Implementation Plan, keeping its greenhouse gas emission around 4 % only. As, Adesina, the president of African Development Bank says, “COP- 21 is a forum where Africans went not to beg, but to make the case that they want to be a part of the solution”.4

The Paris Agreement that was signed and agreed to by all the participating states, acknowledges Common But Differentiated Responsibilities, which satisfies Africa’s Agenda 2063 requirements. The agreement also mentions that the adaptation cost will be based on needs and policies of the respective governments. However, displeasure can be drawn from few aspects of the agreement. For instance, the financial mechanism laid out in Article 9, paragraph 3 of the agreement asserts that “the developed countries intend to continue their existing collective mobilization goal through 2025” and that prior to that, the COP “shall set a new collective quantified goal from a floor of USD 100 billion per year, taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries.” It is noteworthy, that similar commitments were made during COP16 also and have not been fulfilled up till now. This induces cynicism about the whole financing mechanism among the African nations, who need around USD7-15 billion per year up to 2020 in order to furnish its adaptation to the changing climate.5

The major set-back for developing countries and least developed countries (mostly in Africa) is the non-binding nature of the Paris Agreement. As charted out in Article 21, the agreement will take effect if it is ratified by more than 55 per cent of nations or nations that are responsible for 55 per cent of global emissions. However, Article 28 goes further in diluting any responsibility accruing to the developed world by stating that “(A)t any time after three years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force for a Party, a party may withdraw from this Agreement by giving written notification to the Depositary.”

Out of 2,900 billion tonnes, the world now has only 1000 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide to be dispersed into the atmosphere by 2100 in order to maintain the 2 degree Celsius commitment. If Africa takes the path of business as usual, it will emit around 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide i.e. 5.5% of the remaining carbon budget. It is under these circumstances that Africa hopes to achieve the goals of the first Ten Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063. In order to achieve the planned renaissance, African countries need energy strategies that drive growth and reduce extreme energy poverty, widespread in the sub-Saharan region where 621 million Africans do not have access to electricity. The challenge is not limited to energy poverty; the cost of electricity for a common sub-Saharan person is 20% higher than any developed country66 . The only viable solution to deal with crisis is to opt for new renewable energy sources. A renewable energy source not only decentralizes energy governance but also is cost effective. Another area in which Africa needs to focus is its agriculture sector, as it contributes a third of Africa’s GDP. Africa needs to adopt sustainable ways to produce agricultural yields that are in tandem with changing climate.

Last, but not the least, African countries need to manage and contain the intra- African Union rivalry, as Nigeria and South Africa are engaged in a battle of economic supremacy in the poverty and war wrecked continent.7 The aims and objectives of Agenda 2063 should be the guiding principle for these two countries in particular, and Africa in general. Finally, according to Jeffery Sachs, an American economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Sustainable development Goals must have immediate milestones unlike Millennium Development Goals. African Union’s Agenda 2063’s First Ten Year Implementation Plan is such a mechanism. But, it puts the onus of implementation on the governments. Thus, the spirit of Pan-Africanism should be at the core of the action of every society to implement and achieve the mandate of Sustainable Development Goals within the given timeframe.

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