Economic Commission for Africa
Dialogue of the Executive Secretaries of the UN
Regional Commissions with
The Second Committee of the General Assembly
“Inter-regional cooperation: An enabler for the Post
2015 Development Agenda”
Aida Opoku-Mensah
Special Advisor: Post-2015 Development Agenda
Office of the Executive Secretary
31st October 2013, New York
Background: African Priorities
Noting  slow progress by African countries towards the MDGs
Recognising  the capacity deficits and disabling initial
conditions prevailing in a number of countries
Imperative that the post-2015 agenda have
an African footprint!
ECA & Partners played a key strategic role in the
African Common Position on Post 2015 Agenda
Background: African Priorities
Common agreement that the post-2015 development agenda
should:
1. Emphasise inclusive economic growth and structural
transformation
2. Re-orient the development paradigm away from externallydriven initiatives toward domestically-inspired and funded
initiatives that are grounded in national ownership
3. Prioritise equity and social inclusion and measure progress in
terms of both the availability and quality of service delivery
4. Pay greater attention to vulnerable groups such as women,
children, youth, the elderly, people with disabilities, displaced
persons
5. Take into account the initial conditions of nation states and
recognise efforts countries have made towards achieving the
goals as opposed to exclusively measuring how far they fall
short of global targets
6. Incorporate the Rio+20 outcomes and the outcomes of Africawide initiatives, national and regional consultations as well as
UN forums such as ICPD +20
7. Focus on development enablers as well as development
outcomes
Background: African Consultations & Common
Position
 The post-2015 consultations reinforced during the AU Heads of
State Summit in July 2012
 African leaders mandated AUC, ECA, AfDB and UNDP to
develop an African common position
 The regional consultations on the post-2015 development
agenda aimed to
 Identify Africa’s priorities for the post 2015 agenda
 Identify enablers and critical success factors for the post 2015
devt agenda
 Align the post-2015 priorities with other development
programmes and agendas including Rio+20 and NEPAD; and
 Determine the next steps of the consultation process.
 Outcome statement summarises views from
 stakeholders from a total of 53 African countries,
 represented by governments, Regional Economic
Communities, civil society organisations including youth
and women’s organisations, parliamentarians, academic
institutions and the private sector
Post 2015 in Africa: High Level Committee (HLC) of
African Heads of States
 Established by AUC Heads of State in May 2013 to
 Sensitise and coordinate the activities of African leaders and
 Build regional and inter-continental alliances on the African
Common Position on the post 2015 Development Agenda.
 Appointed Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia
as the chair of HLC
 Comprises two Heads of State and Government per region:
South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Liberia, Guinea,
Algeria, Mauritania, Chad, Congo
 The High Level Committee was requested to
 further synthesize, and even further consult to finalize the
African Common Position and ensure that the priorities
identified in the said African Common Position are
integrated in the New Global Agenda
 Sherpas of High Level Committee met in Addis 28-29 Oct 2013
 Finalise African Common Position
Statement by President Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia addressing the
HLC Heads of State meeting on September 23rd 2013, New York
 “As we prepare our Common Position, we must be
aware of what other regions – far advanced in their
work – have put together. We must look at how their
priorities affect us and how our priorities align or go
contrary to theirs. This will require consultations and
negotiations not only amongst ourselves, but also at
the global level”
 “We need to ensure that we continue to preserve the
principles of economic, social and environmental
emphasis such that the Common Position, already
formulated by our institutions, can be, once again,
looked at to make sure that it is a general consensus
among our positions. We also need to promote
South-South cooperation”
Potential of South-South cooperation: Enabler for Post
2015 Agenda
1.STRUCTURAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH
Priority area
Related actions, indicators and subpriorities
Inclusive growth that reduces inequality
 Accelerate the rate of growth and
diversify the sources growth
 Prioritize people-centered growth
 Reduce inequality
 Create decent work and full productive
employment
 Promote rural development
 Invest in fiscally sustainable social
protection programmes
 Support measures towards transition to
green economy
Sustainable agriculture, food self-sufficiency
 Improved food production, availability,
and nutrition
accessibility, utilization, safety and
quality
 Agriculture modernization and
diversification of agricultural sectors
 Agri-business development
 Agro-industry linkages
 Integration of small farm holders,
including women, into agri-business
value chains
Potential of South-South cooperation: Enabler for Post
2015 Agenda
2.SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
Priority area
Related actions, indicators and strategies
Enhanced technological capacities for
 Enhancing development, transfer and
structural transformation
diffusion of technology and innovation in
line with each country’s development
needs
 Improving access to funding for home
grown technological innovation
 Strengthening science and technology
component of education curricula
Enabling environment
 Creating an enabling financial and
regulatory environment to support
innovation culture
 Strengthening and creating where needed
African property rights institutions,
protect
intellectual
property
and
industrial rights
 Increasing funding for science and
technology research, innovation and
research and development
 Collaboration among African countries on
science and technology for development
Potential of South-South cooperation: Enabler for Post
2015 Agenda
3. FINANCING AND PARTNERSHIPS
Priority area
Mutually beneficial partnerships
Related actions, indicators and strategies
 Ensuring ownership, coherence and
alignment of international support for
national and regional priorities
 Working with partners to develop
financing frameworks that take into
account Africa’s peculiarities and
priorities
 Promoting public-private partnerships
 Strengthening South-South cooperation,
North-South cooperation, and diaspora
cooperation
 Supporting Intra- Africa cooperation,
including solidarity
 Support to countries in special situations
 Ensuring that the global governance
architecture promotes ownership,
reliability, equality of States, leadership
and accountability
 Partnership to promote international
Peace and security
 Autonomy and independence of countries
to advance alternative policies for
Regional & sub-regional efforts to promote interregional cooperation

HLC will be
 key political mechanism to promote sub regional and
regional cooperation through the auspices of the
African Union

ECA, African Development Bank, UNDP Regional
Bureau for Africa
 key actors in African consultations and Common
Position

Potential to share with other regions on

knowledge, experience and activities at national and regional
levels
 Creation of knowledge base on Post 2015 trends and
activities
ECA’s Catalytic Role in support of Post 2015
 Technical back-stopping to the HLC’s
Secretariat at AUC
 Support to member States on negotiating
the African Common Position
 Available
to
promote
inter-regional
cooperation
with
other
Regional
Commissions through the HLC & other
regional organisations
Economic Commission for Africa
Thank-you for your attention !
www.uneca.org/post2015
Twitter: @Post2015Africa
Please visit: www.regionalcommissions.org
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