How to realize Africa’s potential for the future of all its peoples and build international support for the continent’s development were key questions explored in the first session of the Africa Rising Forum held this week in New York.
Taking place at the Africa Center and organized by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the 22 September event brought together a number of African heads of state, United Nations partners, and leaders from African civil society and the business community.
They examined how to move beyond simply talking about the need for broad-based economic transformation and sustainable development to taking concrete steps to make them a reality, especially with regard to the post-2015 development agenda.
A session on ensuring shared prosperity looked at ways to improve investment and resource mobilization, champion entrepreneurship and ensure social protection. Another stressed that development cannot be achieved without the existence of good governance, peace, security and respect for human rights.
It was agreed that ensuring health for all was a critical facet of Africa’s rise, and that ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 now a realistic goal. There was also a consensus that the continent’s rise should not only be measured in terms of overall wealth generated but by the inclusiveness of socioeconomic progress that leaves no one behind.
