Xi’an, China, November 6, 2026 – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) played a leading role at the Fifteenth International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development (IFESD-15) held in Xi’an, China, from 3–6 November 2026, helping to shape discussions on how stronger regional energy cooperation, integrated planning and a diversified technology mix can advance Africa’s energy security, industrialisation and sustainable development.

ECA contributed to the organization and substantive delivery of the Forum alongside the other United Nations Regional Commissions, with a particular focus on energy connectivity and trade, long-term resilient energy planning and policy development, and nuclear energy. Internal preparations for the Forum show ECA specialists participating in the teams responsible for these three sessions.

The ECA delegation, led by Anthony Monganeli Mehlwana (Monga) of the Technology, Innovation, Connectivity and Infrastructure Development Division (TICID), brought together ECA energy expertise, including Mekalia Paulos Aklilu of the Climate Change, Food Security and Natural Resources Division and Eskedar Bekele Gebremichael of TICID, while African regional institutions were represented by experts including Alison Makosa Chikova, Senior Regional Energy Systems Planner at the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), and Hlopheho Moses Ntlamelle, Senior Programme Officer – Energy in the Directorate of Infrastructure and Services at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat. The delegation helped ensure that African experience and priorities were reflected in the Forum, linking the global energy-transition debate to the continent’s practical challenges of

electricity access, cross-border infrastructure, power-pool integration, investment and energy security.

A central ECA message at IFESD-15 was that Africa’s economic integration must be matched by energy integration. In ECA’s session on energy connectivity and trade, Anthony Monganeli Mehlwana highlighted the relationship between rising electricity demand under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), investment in generation and transmission infrastructure, and the development of regional electricity markets. The presentation drew on practical examples from the Ethiopia–Kenya interconnector and SAPP and linked this agenda to ECA’s work on the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM), Continental Power System Masterplan (CMP), PIDA, and regional power pools. ECA also helped lead discussions on long-term and resilient energy planning, emphasising the need for countries to integrate energy security, demand growth, climate resilience, industrialisation and regional infrastructure into coherent national and regional planning. ECA experts were likewise part of the leadership team for the Forum’s nuclear-energy session, contributing an African perspective to dialogue on the potential role of nuclear power within diversified, secure and low-carbon energy systems. These priorities are strongly reflected in the Forum’s outcome, the Xi’an Declaration on Energy Transition in an Uncertain World: Driving Security, Growth and Resilience, signed by the Executive Secretaries of all five United Nations Regional Commissions. The Declaration commits the Commissions to promoting regional energy connectivity, interconnected infrastructure, regional power markets, grid reliability, strategic and integrated energy planning, and stronger institutional and technical capabilities. It also stresses that transition pathways must reflect countries’ different circumstances and be pragmatic, inclusive and country-driven.

The Declaration further strengthens the mandate for interregional cooperation, committing the five Regional Commissions to coordinated policy support, analysis and capacity-building, greater convergence of energy policies and regulatory approaches, knowledge-sharing and evidence-based energy planning. For ECA, IFESD-15 reinforced a clear message: Africa’s energy transition must simultaneously deliver access, security, resilience and economic transformation. Through stronger power pools, cross-border connections, integrated planning and informed consideration of the full range of energy technologies, ECA will continue working with African member States and regional institutions to translate that ambition into investment, infrastructure and functioning regional energy markets.

Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org