Video message
Dear participants,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to this workshop on “Strengthening Institutional Capacities in Africa for Effective Implementation of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063: Follow-up to the 2023 SDG Summit”.
I would like to extend appreciation to the Government of South Africa for their gracious hospitality and for supporting the work of UN DESA and the Committee of Experts on Public Administration.
This workshop is a dynamic opportunity to share experiences on strengthening national institutional capacities and to consider practical ways of incorporating lessons learned into national sustainable development planning and oversight mechanisms.
This is the fourth such workshop we have organized together with the African Peer Review Mechanism Secretariat. These workshops reflect the strong partnership between the UN and the African Union to support Africa’s inclusive, broad-based and sustainable development.
Distinguished participants,
This workshop takes place against the backdrop of a devastating pandemic, geopolitical tensions, and a climate catastrophe that have combined to derail progress towards our shared development goals. But, in the midst of this darkness, we’ve heard the voice of hope.
At the recent SDG Summit, UN Member States pledged to deliver bold, ambitious, accelerated and transformative actions that drive a systemic shift towards a more inclusive, just, peaceful, resilient and sustainable world for present and future generations. Such ambition requires effective governance at all levels and transparent, effective and accountable institutions.
In this connection, the UN stands ready to support countries to build the capacities they need to ensure that their public institutions are fit for purpose. This was demonstrated during the SDG Action Weekend, held ahead of the SDG summit. The UN system rallied countries and stakeholders around a set of 12 high-impact initiatives to show the type of transformative progress possible between now and 2030. Among these was a high-impact initiative called “FutureGov” on building public sector capabilities for the future, developed by UN DESA in partnership with UNDP, alongside others focused on building digital public infrastructure, enhancing data capacities and other areas relevant to strengthening public institutions.
I am hopeful that countries present today will seek to learn more about these initiatives and how they can be leveraged in your own efforts.
UN DESA has also continued to produce technical guidance notes for operationalizing the principles of effective governance for sustainable development, developed by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration and endorsed by UN Member States. I encourage participants to make full use of these notes, which are available on our website.
Finally, I congratulate all of you on your resolve to build strong institutions to accelerate implementation of sustainable development in Africa.
I wish you a productive workshop and look forward to continuing to work with all of you.
Thank you.