The 79th UN General Assembly gets underway under African leadership

The 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79) will meet this month to discuss climate change challenges, high-stakes conflicts, and continuing poverty and hunger. (Leonardo Munoz/AFP)

The UNGA79, which runs this month, falls under the presidency of former Cameroonian Prime Minister Philémon Yang.Yang promised that during the year under his command, the General Assembly will seek to find durable solutions to the situation in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere in Africa.The majority of African countries are far off 2030 SDG targets.

The 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79) will this month bring together world leaders against a backdrop of growing climate change challenges, high-stakes conflicts, and continuing poverty and hunger.

And it is doing so under the presidency of former Cameroonian Prime Minister Philémon Yang, elected in June to the job. He was sworn in on Tuesday and took over from Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the UN Secretary-General, the General Assembly “remains an indispensable tool in confronting the challenges before us and a vital pathway towards a peaceful and just future for all people”.

The almost month-long UNGA79 series of meetings began on Tuesday and will culminate in a gathering of heads of state and governments from across the world.

The high-level general debate is scheduled to begin on 24 September and end on 30 September.

READ | Andreas Peschke: Africa’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council is more relevant now than ever

For Yang, this year has presented the world with numerous challenges “sowing doubt about our collective capacity to come together for the common good”.

Yang said while the world had its attention on conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Haiti, he would also want global leaders to “find durable solutions to the situation in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere in Africa”.

One of the most pressing issues at the UNGA79 is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of 2030. 

With six years left, Africa might not meet the SGDs targets and already there’s a debate about whether to accelerate, extend or abandon.

Yang said during his time, more attention will be given to those lagging behind.

“As we work to safeguard the future for people and the planet, special attention will be given to least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states, which face unique structural weaknesses that hamper their sustainable development.

“Additionally, our efforts will concentrate on Africa,” he said.

Charles Sekwalor, an advisor and investor focused on building startups in Africa, told News24 that the continent’s leaders should rethink SGDs.

“I think Africa’s role in the world has been to follow and part of the reason why this has happened is Africa rarely comes together effectively.”There are many things that we disagree on (as a continent) but there are also things we can agree on and put our voice forward (to the world).”

He said: 

While the SDGs are a beautifully crafted set of initiatives that cover a lot of ground, I don’t think it’s the relevant set for Africa. How about we come up with our equivalent of the SDGs? The SDGs are so broad that they are not even allowing us to focus on what needs to be done.

Sekwalor said in any list important for Africa, the SDGs on education, economic growth, and tackling poverty and hunger should rank high up.

Yang said during his time in office he would also push for the African Union’s Agenda 63 and the inclusion of the youth in the economic growth of the continent.

“We will continue to support Agenda 2063, spearheaded by the African Union, which envisions a transformed continent thriving through sustainable trade and development.

“Throughout, I will prioritise initiatives to empower young people, including in Africa, where, by 2035, more young people will enter the workforce each year than in the rest of the world,” he said.

The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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