The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will, between March and June, organise high-level meetings in a bid to keep the global momentum on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as Africa’s Agenda 2063.
The announcement was made by UNGA President, Miroslav Lajcak, during his meeting with senior officials of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) on Thursday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
The high level meetings are expected to discuss financing for development, peace and security, water for development, and the youth and education as an impetus towards the realization of the SDGs and Africa’s Agenda 2063, according to the statement by the UN-ECA.
According to the UNGA president, the event on the youth that will be held in May, focusing on education, employment and the prevention of radicalism is first on the cards.
“Africa is well known for having a youthful population and this presents huge potential. In this meeting we just do not want to talk for the sake of talking,” he said, adding that “we want to discuss real issues, real problems and come up with real solutions otherwise we will be wasting our time.”
The water meeting will focus on the nexus between the precious liquid and energy and development, it was noted.
Financing for development meeting is also said to be another agenda, which will see UNGA engage with partners and stakeholders on how to raise the required resources to finance the SDGs agenda and ensure effective implementation of the targets on the ground.
Lajcak and UN-ECA officials on Wednesday also discussed on various global and regional issues including migration, sustainable development, aligning the global UN’s 2030 Agenda with Africa’s Agenda 2063, and on-going UN reforms.
