Speech by Helen Clark at the Opening Session of the UNDP Africa Cluster Meeting, 2 November 2016

Welcome to the 2016 cluster meeting of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa. Our thanks go to His Excellency President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo for joining us today, and to the Government of Equatorial Guinea for its hospitality. Our thanks also go to the President and his Government for their support for agencies in the UN Country Team to deliver in line with the UN Development Assistance Framework, and in providing the UN House in which all UN agencies in Malabo are located.

Equatorial Guinea has drawn up an ambitious roadmap for economic diversification and improved human development for all by 2020. UNDP is pleased to be a partner in this country’s development journey, and in those of all other countries in Africa. Africa’s ambition for transformation is high, and all partners have a role to play in supporting it to succeed, building upon and learning from the many development successes witnessed in the region.

Since UNDP’s last African regional meeting in Madagascar in July 2015, many countries have begun the process of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Supporting this agenda, national development agendas, and the African Union’s visionary Agenda 2063 is at the heart of UNDP’s work.

Yet these are challenging times for development. Among the factors which African nations must contend with are:

• the sluggish global economy. Those countries heavily dependent on extractive industries have been hit hard by low prices and low demand. Economic diversification and transformation are vital for building resilience to such shocks and to sustaining development momentum. Those African economies which are more diversified, and have stable macroeconomic and fiscal policies and better enabling environments for business, are faring better.

• the scale of natural disasters. The severe droughts in parts of Africa in recent times, exacerbated by the impact of El Nino, are the face of the foreseeable future as climate change intensifies. Much greater resilience to these shocks must be built too – they impose heavy human, economic, and environmental costs. Even if the ambition of the Paris Agreement is realised, we can expect worsening weather for decades to come. We must do everything we can to support countries to adapt to this, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.

• ongoing conflicts. On this continent as elsewhere, a number of countries are reeling from protracted conflicts. These set human development back many years. They also create fertile breeding grounds for illicit trade and organised crime. Radicalization and violent extremism are drivers of conflict in some settings from the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin to the Horn of Africa. As development actors, we must support countries to address the root causes of these conflicts and phenomena, including marginalisation, lack of livelihoods, and other grievances.

• pervasive inequalities and discrimination. Disadvantage comes in many forms, affecting the poor in general, women, and marginalized groups. Lack of access to opportunity and to basic services holds back human development, and those suffering these deprivations are the least able to influence the political process. The 2030 Agenda compels us to support development which is inclusive of all.

So what will it take to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 in these circumstances?

• First, strong national ownership and leadership is needed – and it is being given. In Africa, as around the world, many governments are giving priority to mainstreaming the 2030 Agenda into national plans and policies. Some of the most inspiring actions on SDG implementation are coming from countries which do face many challenges, but see the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 as opportunities to drive forward on transformation.

• Second, the pledge to ‘leave no one behind’ is the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. It calls on countries to reduce inequalities by tackling income disparities and discrimination in laws and social norms. In unleashing human potential, special attention must be paid to:

  • Women: UNDP’s 2016 African Human Development Report estimates that gender inequality in Africa’s labour market costs the continent as much as $95 billion per year. Investing in women and girls is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

  • Youth. With more than sixty per cent of its population under the age of 25, Africa has the opportunity for an enormous demographic dividend – if the right investments are made. Youth empowerment and employment must be a priority for all countries.

  • Urban populations. Many of Africa’s poorest and most marginalized people now live in cities, and by 2030 more than half the continent’s population will be urbanised. The New Urban Agenda adopted at Habitat III in Ecuador last month aims to ensure that cities can be inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. But there is much to do to achieve that.

  • Rural communities – particularly those living with little infrastructure and few services, and/or in remote borderlands. We can learn a lot from our engagement with cross-border initiatives like that backed by the Governments of Ethiopia and Kenya, and from our global experiences with devolution of governance and off-grid energy solutions.

  • Refugees, internally displaced people, and migrants. Africa is the origin of, the transit land to, and the host of many millions of people on the move. Many of these need shelter, health care, protection, and livelihoods. Their children need education. As development actors, we must work with governments and with humanitarian partners on sustainable responses.

• Third, sustainable development requires whole of government and cross-sectoral approaches. Often the key obstacle to achieving an important goal will be outside the immediate sector targeted for attention. This became clear when obstacles to achieving the MDGs were analysed – results in one targeted area depended on progress in others. With the SDGs it will be critical to identify and act on key accelerators of progress from the outset – such as the empowerment of women and girls, sustainable energy for all, and inclusive growth which contributes to poverty eradication and reducing inequalities and marginalization. The 2030 Agenda must be approached holistically. The aim must surely be to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth which doesn’t worsen inequalities or harm the environment.

• Fourth, broad coalitions around the SDGs are needed. Achieving the SDGs is a multi-trillion dollar challenge. It requires domestic resource mobilisation, public and private investment, technology transfer, knowledge exchange, innovation, and capacity development around the world. Aid flows and concessional finance will remain critical for least developed, low income, and vulnerable countries. Let me also acknowledge the high priority Africa is giving to regional integration – ease of doing business and mobility of people and goods across borders will drive investment, trade flows, and work creation.

Parliaments and civil society have important roles to play in monitoring progress made on the 2030 Agenda and in ensuring accountability for commitments made. To be effective, they will need access to data, and the capacity to analyse it, and they must have voice.

As well, special efforts and sustained investments will be needed to make progress on the SDGs in fragile states. The 2030 Agenda acknowledges that sustainable development and peace are interlinked. The root causes of violence and fragility must be addressed, and not just the symptoms.

What is UNDP’s role in implementing the 2030 Agenda and SDGs?

• The expectations of UNDP on implementation of the 2030 Agenda are high. At UNDP’s 50th Anniversary Ministerial Meeting in February, the Minister present from Sierra Leone called UNDP the “SDG Accelerator”, and a number of other ministers said how much they valued UNDP’s role in facilitating countries’ access to knowledge, expertise, and resources to implement the SDGs.

• It is a top priority for UNDP to support SDG implementation from within well co-ordinated UN Country Teams dedicated to delivering integrated solutions for the 2030 Agenda.

• Guided by the UN Development Group’s common approach to SDG mainstreaming, acceleration, and policy support – known as MAPS – we are supporting countries to domesticate the 2030 Agenda; identify and address bottlenecks to progress; and access a wide range of policy expertise.

• In addition, over the past year UNDP has led or co-led a number of UNDG efforts in support of implementation, follow up, and review of the 2030 Agenda, including through:

  • the production of a reference guide for UNCTs on mainstreaming the agenda;

  • preparing guidelines for national reporting on SDG progress;

  • supporting programme countries undertaking voluntary national reviews presented at the High Level Political Forum, including Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kenya which are covered by UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa

  • establishing and hosting the UN SDG Action Campaign in Bonn with the support of the Government of Germany. This successor campaign to the Millennium Campaign encourages citizen engagement with the 2030 Agenda, including through innovative communications, campaigning and policy advocacy, and strengthening accountability mechanisms for monitoring SDG progress;

  • setting up a pooled fund to support UNCTs working together on SDG implementation; and

  • making tools which can accelerate SDG progress readily available on an online platform – this is due to be established by January next year.

• Some early lessons and experiences with the SDGs were collected in a UNDG publication, “The SDGs are Coming to Life”, which was launched on the margins of the HLPF in July. The report included four case studies from Africa – from Cabo Verde, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, and its insights are informing our on-going and future support for SDG implementation.

• UNDP is also deploying its full policy and programming capacity from HQs, regional hubs, and Country Offices, in support of SDG implementation. Cross-disciplinary MAPS support missions are being sent to support UNDP COs and UNCTs, based on country demand, and it is our desire to engage other parts of the development system in these. UNDESA has already joined one mission.

• UNDP will support countries to monitor, report on, and apply lessons learned from SDG implementation, as it did for the Millennium Development Goals. UNDP will help to strengthen statistical capacities and data disaggregation to monitor SDG progress, and support countries with multidimensional poverty assessments with the aim of ensuring that no-one is left behind.

• UNDP is also working with the Economic Commission for Africa, the International Development Research Centre, and the World Wide Web Foundation on a new initiative to “Strengthen the Evidence base for an African Data Revolution”. An Africa Data Report will be published in early 2017, which assesses data availability, quality, and analytical capacities, and provides a baseline against which to measure progress on achieving the data revolution needed to support sustainable development in Africa.

• Forging partnerships to back the SDGs: UNDP will seek to engage with national governments and legislators, municipal leaders and councils, civil society, NGOs, the private sector, and other stakeholders, and will work to create broad awareness of the SDGs, including through the SDG Action Campaign.

  • A recent survey by GlobeScan, a market research firm, found the average level of public awareness of the SDGs across thirteen countries was 28 per cent. I’m pleased to say that public awareness in the two African countries in the survey was above average – at 34 per cent for Kenya and thirty per cent for Nigeria.

• Promoting South-South and Triangular Co-operation. This is a very high priority for UNDP. Fast growing South-South Co-operation, including through grants, knowledge exchange, technology transfer, and trade and investment flows has significant potential for driving SDG progress.

• UNDP will continue to support countries to mobilise financing for development, and to increase domestic resource mobilisation. We are already working with Liberia, Nigeria, Botswana, and Zambia through our Tax Inspectors Without Borders Initiative with the OECD to increase tax revenues by building greater tax audit capacity. We are able to deploy world class expertise from within Africa and elsewhere for this task.

• UNDP will also support countries to find synergies across the global agendas. The Paris Agreement on climate change goes hand in hand with the SDGs. UNDP is well placed to support countries to take ambitious climate action and to green their economies. We are supporting countries as they prepare to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and to mobilise finance for adaptation and mitigation, including from the new Green Climate Fund (GCF). We will work hard to support African countries to access vital funding through this mechanism.

• Risk management is being integrated into all UNDP country support and programming. Building the resilience of people, communities, and countries to be able to withstand shocks is essential for sustaining momentum on the SDGs. We are contributing to disaster preparedness, risk reduction and prevention, and to ongoing support for human development during times of protracted crisis and recovery from crisis.

• UNDP has also developed and is rolling out a dedicated support package to help countries affected by crisis and fragility to incorporate the 2030 Agenda in their national and local development plans, in order to promote resilience building and accelerate progress on SDGs implementation in fragile contexts.

Conclusion

By the end of the 2030 Agenda period, African development can be transformed. Each country is unique and the challenges to emergence are considerable, but the direction is clear and the potential for progress is vast.

UNDP aims to be the very best it can be in supporting countries to achieve their national goals and the global goals. We must be proactive, responsive, and entrepreneurial in meeting the demands made of us, and in raising the funding and adapting our business models to ensure that we can do so. Across our Country Offices, we must be fit for purpose in a dynamic and continually challenging development environment.

Across UNDP, enormous efforts are being made to these ends as the organisation adapts to the reality that core funding has not been a major part of its overall funding flows for many years and is unlikely to be in the future. Now the organisation must make its luck, building on our strong reputation of development thought leadership and innovation, solid delivery, accountability, and transparency. In this Bureau and beyond, there are many examples of mobilising new sources of financing and of ways of working. At this cluster meeting, we can share those experiences so that all Country Offices and all units of the organisation can be inspired to do more and better.

Under the strong leadership of our Regional Director, Mar Dieye, and with the commitment of all our staff across Country Offices, the Regional Hub, and in New York, I am confident that UNDP will continue to be a partner of choice in Africa. I thank you all for your tireless efforts, and I thank all our staff throughout the region for their commitment to African development.