“Okeil”: We are working on a unified development vision for African civil society, in the context of preparing for the upcoming future summit

“pasent Essam Eldin”: terrorism and poverty are the top challenges facing the African continent in the race towards the 2030 and 2063 development agenda

In the context of its desire to promote sustainable development paths in Africa and the belief in the importance of integration with all international and regional mechanisms for sustainable development. Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights Association participated in the tenth session of the African Regional Forum for Sustainable Development, which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 23 April to 25 April 2024, in addition to participating in the Preparatory and capacity development workshop for UN major groups and other stakeholders, which was held on 22 April in Addis Ababa as well, and included the participation of a number of side events and meetings with African civil society organizations and a group of press meetings.

As a member of the Steering Committee of the African Mechanism of the African Group of Major Non-Governmental Organizations and Stakeholders and coordinator of the North African Region of the African Group of Non-Governmental Organizations of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, Maat for peace participated in one of the workshop sessions held on the margins of the tenth session of the African Forum on Sustainable Development, on 22 April, under the heading of Reporting on the contributions of major groups and other stakeholders to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 and gathering of input to be shared at the Summit of the Future. The meeting is important as its outputs will be raised as contributions from African civil society to the future summit to be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York next September.

During its participation in the workshop on the contributions of major groups and other stakeholders to the implementation of development plans, pasent Essam eldin, Manager of African Affairs & SDGs unit at Maat for Peace, pointed out that the African continent was currently suffering during the race toward Agenda 2030 and 2063. During the session “pasent Essam” mentioned several worrying statistics on the conditions of sustainable development in Africa, focusing on the goals under review for 2024; statistics indicate that some 490 million Africans would be trapped in extreme poverty by 2050 if cooperative efforts were not accelerated in Africa, while an estimated 55 million people would struggle to feed themselves in the coming months in West and Central Africa because of the food price crisis. She stressed the seriousness of the reality of Goal 16 in the other region, where the eastern and western region currently harbored approximately 10 hotspots of conflict and armed conflict, which in turn had a full impact on development tracks.

On the sidelines of Maat's participation in the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, “Ayman Okeil” The international human rights expert and head of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights Association, confirmed the importance of pushing civil society to participate in these preparatory activities before the high -level Political forum, working to unite the voice of African civil society and shaping its consolidated vision and recommendations at the Future Summit on sustainable development.

"Okeil" explained that Maat as a coordinator of the North African region, in the UN NGO for Africa, bears responsibility for integrating the voices of all civil society organizations in the North Africa region into other regions and contributing to the crystallization of a unified African development on ways to accelerate work on the agenda Development 2030 and 2063 in Africa.

It should be noted that the event is one of the preparatory forums for the high-level political forum on sustainable development to be held next July at United Nations Headquarters in New York, along with the future summit to be launched next September. In view of its importance, a number of African heads of Government participated, in particular, Ms. Joyce Banda, former Head of State of Malawi, Ms. Amina Mohamed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as representatives of a number of ministries of planning and development of African States, as well as representatives of the United Nations in African States and a number of regional and international civil society organizations.

To complement its efforts to accelerate work on the global and African development agenda, Maat will work to reformulate the outcomes of the African Development Forum by completing its outreach to civil society organizations and all stakeholders participating in the Forum, to come up with a set of recommendations that will be circulated at the continental level and submitted to the future summit and the future policy forum on development.