17 January 2017
Africa Resilience Forum Highlights Poverty, Youth Unemployment and Climate Change
UN Photo/Isaac Billy
story highlights

At the Africa Resilience Forum, participants discussed a range of risks that contribute to fragility, including climate change, poor natural resource management, rapid urbanization and high migration, undiversified economies, unemployment and poor governance.

The Forum supported integrating resilience and fragility indicators into national statistical systems.

The seventh session of the Sub-regional Coordination Mechanism (SRCM) of the UN System Support to the African Union and its New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) programme in Central Africa adopted an 18-month roadmap for the third Common Indicative programme (CIP III) for Central Africa’s development.

11 January 2017: Participants at the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Africa Resilience Forum discussed opportunities to support African countries’ transition from fragility to resilience. The Forum focused on the theme ‘Delivering the High 5s in a Resilient Africa.’

The ‘High-Five’ priority areas are: light up and power Africa, feed Africa, integrate Africa, industrialize Africa, and improve the quality of life for people in Africa. In September 2015, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina identified these areas as critical for implementing AfDB’s Strategy 2013-2022 and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The implementation of the High-Fives is expected to contribute to enhancing the resilience of the AfDB’s regional member countries.

AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina called for considering fragility in the context of the “triangle of disaster, the vicious cycle of rural poverty, youth unemployment and climate change.”

Over 150 participants attended the Forum, which aimed to strengthen partnerships, beyond aid coordination, to effectively build resilience at community, country and regional levels. The Forum convened in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 10-11 January 2017. AfDB organized the Forum in partnership with the African Union (AU), the World Bank, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the G7+ Secretariat and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. The Forum built on an AfDB Seminar on SDG 16 and the High-Fives in Fragile Situations, which took place in March 2016.

In opening remarks, Adesina called for considering fragility in the context of the “triangle of disaster, the vicious cycle of rural poverty, youth unemployment and climate change.” He underlined that the “impact of fragility includes lives lost through conflict, rural poverty, and no employment for youth, increasing intra-societal divisions, and deteriorating infrastructure and natural resources, threatening to create a triangle of disaster.” He shared how AfDB is scaling up its support in each of its High-Five areas, including through “a bottom-up initiative to deliver the High-Fives in 10,000 communities in fragile situations in 1,000 days.”

The Forum supported integrating resilience and fragility indicators into national statistical systems. UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa Chief Economist Odusola Ayodele explained that integrating resilience and fragility issues into national development plans and strategies will ensure that countries monitor and report on progress towards resilience as part of their reporting on national plan implementation.

Participants discussed a range of risks that contribute to fragility, including climate change, poor natural resource management, rapid urbanization and high migration, undiversified economies, unemployment and poor governance. They recognized the importance of enhancing institutional capacity and building effective institutions as critical in achieving inclusive sustainable development.

Also on development in Africa, the seventh session of the Sub-regional Coordination Mechanism (SRCM) of the UN System Support to the African Union and its New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) programme in Central Africa adopted an 18-month roadmap for the third Common Indicative programme (CIP III) for Central Africa’s development. Representatives of regional economic communities (RECs), regional development bodies and other stakeholders agreed on the importance of aligning Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the SDGs, noting that the two should be “the anchor points for the third Common Indicative Programme (CIP 111).”

Participants further stressed that the convergence of development programmes would contribute to sustainable development. The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) organized the session, which took place in Libreville, Gabon, from 6–7 December 2016, in collaboration with the AfDB and other UN system partners. [AfDB Event Website] [Event Programme] [AfDB President Statement] [Forum Video] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on High-Five Tracking Application] [UNECA Press Release] [Seventh Session of the SRCM Webpage]

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