President Kagame today addressed the eighth session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-8) in Kigali, hosted by the UN Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) and the Rwandan government in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and other partners.
The 3-day Forum is being held under the theme “Building forward better: A green, inclusive and resilient Africa poised to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.”
President Kagame told the conference that a green & more resilient Africa can be built with SDGs and AU Agenda 2063 as the continents blueprint. He said the pandemic response can be a springboard to speed up progress & innovate smarter ways to invest in human capital development.
The Regional Forum brings together Ministers, senior officials, experts and practitioners from UN member States, private sector, civil society, academia, and UN organisations to undertake integrated follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, of the African Union.
During the opening ceremony prominent speakers included Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Dr. Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of the UN & Executive Secretary of ECA and Collen Kelapile, UN ECOSOC President and Permanent Representative of Botswana to the UN as well as Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development and the Congo Basin who is the outgoing chair of the Regional Forum.
Rwanda takes over the chair of the 5-member bureau of the Regional Forum represented by Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.
