Towards Africa's prosperity: Creating the Conditions for a Socially Inclusive, Environmentally Sustainable and Well-Governed Continent

Abstract

The 2030 deadline is seven years away. What does Africa need to do to achieve the goals of Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063 in light of the severe socioeconomic setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic? What are the critical “game changers” that can enable this transformative change? Africa needs a much more ambitious strategy to achieve the goals by the end of 2030. Overcoming severe challenges—economic crisis, climate change, growing inequalities, peace and security—exacerbated by the pandemic, requires both fundamental reforms and unconventional methods. Building on the momentum generated by the declaration of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development on the UN Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development in Africa, as well as a summary report and key messages on Africa’s priorities, this study identifies the game changers needed to accelerate progress towards achieving prosperity within this decade. It envisages that by 2030, the region will have moved closer to Agenda 2063’s vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.” As a strategy document, it is intended as a roadmap for citizens, policymakers, and development partners to deliver prosperity by 2030 to the 1.07 billion inhabitants of the region. It offers a set of limited but crucial objectives achievable at the regional and the national levels of policy implementation. Most important, its realistic tone challenges governments to forge ahead to 2030 and beyond, confident in the regional support they will receive from the community of states that constitute the Africa Union and united in the common purpose of prosperity reimagined. This report is organized around four themes. Chapter 1 describes Africa’s economic and social conditions in 2022. Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive definition of the economic, political and social dimensions of a prosperity in which everyone on the continent can realize their full potential in an environment of peace and security.