Accelerating recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and African Union Agenda 2063 at all levels
The year 2023 marks the midpoint for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and one decade since Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, of the African Union, was launched. Although notable progress has been made on those two seminal frameworks, progress is being stalled during the current period of immense global flux, which includes the continued fallout from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; a cost-of-living crisis that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine; a debt crisis that is having a disproportionate effect on countries across Africa; and an intensifying climate emergency.
The present 2023 Africa Sustainable Development Report is an assessment of the progress made by countries across Africa in implementing the “one framework, two agendas” initiative, set against the backdrop of those unfolding crises. The report sets out the progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and the targets of Agenda 2063 in a range of key areas. For instance, many countries made steady progress in the extension of 4G mobile network coverage, access to safe drinking water and electrification, and the efforts of Governments to spur technological development, research and innovation have been notable. Multiple crises have severely affected the development trajectory of the continent, however. In Africa, excluding North Africa, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty is projected to rise until 2030. At present, some 20 per cent of the population of Africa is classified as food insecure, and some 54 per cent of Africans lack basic sanitation services. Furthermore, the challenges faced by Africa in recent years have exacerbated wealth and gender inequalities and deepened rural-urban disparities in income.
