My last week’s article, titled “A review of the second ten-year implementation plan for Agenda 2063 (2024-2033),” concluded by stating that the two major challenges facing African countries in the implementation of the second ten-year plan of Agenda 2063 were domestication of the plan and costing it for local financing. This article focuses on the vital importance of the domestication of the continental development agenda at the national level, which is crucial and inevitable if the plan objectives are to be achieved at the national, subnational, and local levels. Domestication is one of the eight accelerators for the implementation of Agenda 2063. The African Union, under its Executive Council decision EX.CL/998(XXXII) requested Member States to enhance the domestication of Agenda 2063 in their national plans alongside the Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the “One Framework, Two Agenda” strategic alignment—that is, the fusion of the SDGs with Agenda 2063 goals in collaborative endeavours by the United Nations and the African Union.
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Agenda 2063 defines “domestication” as “the process through which Member States integrate commitments made at the continental level as encapsulated in AU Decisions, Policy Frameworks, and Programmes into national and regional development plans, policies, and legal frameworks. A strengthened domestication process will result in a high-level alignment between national development plans with continental priorities, goals, and targets. Domestication is the bedrock for the sustainability of Agenda 2063.”
Six of the eleven critical success factors of domestication include: i) “high level awareness and engagement in the STYIP among a critical African population at all levels – continental, regional, national, sub-national and community levels; ii) high level of ownership and responsibility among regional economic communities (RECs), member states, non-state actors and citizens in implementing the second ten-year implementation plan (STYIP); iii). sound governance and political commitment at all levels – from continental level cascading to the community level among local authorities; iv) robust national and sub-national planning systems which are agile, people-centred and results-driven and accompanied by requisite capacities for execution; v) structured mechanisms and capacities at continental and regional levels to support mainstreaming the STYIP into regional, national and sub-national development plans; vi) robust financing and domestic resource mobilisation strategies and actions.”
“A strengthened domestication process will result in a high-level alignment between national development plans with continental priorities, goals, and targets.”
“The overall aim of domestication of Agenda 2063 at national level is to provide African Union Commission (AUC) technical assistance support to assist the Member States to craft new self-driven and Africa-centric visions for development and socio-economic transformation drawing upon the common long-term 50-year continental framework that Agenda 2063 and the 10-Year Implementation Plans represent. The specific objectives of AUC technical assistance for domestication in the Member States” include, among others:
“(i) Build state institutions’/citizens’ awareness, engagement, and ownership of Agenda 2063 to catalyse and sustain a momentum for change and transformation; (ii) Ensure that the Member States translate commitments enshrined in Agenda 2063 into national visions and plans for medium-term socio-economic development and transformation; and (iii) Facilitate collective progress of Member States in implementing Agenda 2063, leading to the transformation of the continent and ensuring that Africa assumes her rightful place on the global stage, including her ability to finance her development.”
The AUC has provided technical assistance to literally all 55 member states in domesticating Agenda 2063. Some, including Egypt, Rwanda, and Chad, have taken excellent steps in incorporating the SDGs, the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) High 5s, and Agenda 2063 into their national development plans. Egypt, in implementing its national strategic goals, prioritised seven enablers, namely: data availability, financing, digital transformation, technology and innovation, legislative environment, supportive cultural values, and population growth management. In addition, each national strategic goal is mapped with the relevant SDGs and Africa’s aspiration. In Rwanda, this has resulted in its Long-Term Vision 2050, the Medium-Term Development Strategy, the National Strategy for Transformation (2017-2024), and related sector strategies and district development strategies. In Chad, the formulation of ‘Vision 2030’ and the associated national development plans, including the 2017-2021 National Development Plan, ensure alignment with Agenda 2063 aspirations and goals.
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The reality, however, for most African countries, including Nigeria, is that apart from the formal adoption of the domestication of global and continental development agendas, especially the SDGs and Agenda 2063, progress in implementation has been varied and generally slow, as shown in the 2023 Africa Sustainable Development Report. The report partly credits the relatively poor result to COVID-19, the challenges of climate change, and the Russia-Ukraine war. However, Africa has historically performed poorly in domesticating and mainstreaming global development agendas, as was the case with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2000-2015. Nigeria’s performance so far in the implementation of the SDGs is particularly disappointing, given our development imperatives. “In 2023, Nigeria ranked 146 out of 166 countries on the SDGs Index, with a score of 54.3. This was an improvement from 2020, when Nigeria ranked 160 out of 166 countries.” This dismal performance is contributed by the three tiers of government—federal, state, and local.
Nigeria’s performance in domesticating and implementing Agenda 2063, which is a component of the “One Framework, Two Agendas” global and continental programme appears headed in the same path of poor performance. This is because even though we have a National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025 and a long-term plan, Nigeria Agenda 2050, they have not been implemented, and the basis for the domestication of Agenda 2063 and, by extension, “One Framework, Two Agendas,” is an NDP that is faithfully implemented with a firm political commitment by successive governments from whichever political party. Unless Nigeria, as a major economy in Africa, commits to the implementation of Agenda 2063, its national development and the achievement of the continental development agenda will be seriously compromised.
Mr Igbinoba is Team Lead/CEO at ProServe Options Consulting, Lagos.
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