New York — African leaders and development partners have called for urgent action to turn the United Nations Pact for the Future from promises into measurable results for ordinary Africans.
The call was made on Tuesday at a high-level side event co-chaired by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to assess two years of implementation of the Pact, which was adopted in 2024.
The meeting brought together presidents Bassirou Diomaye Faye (Senegal), William Ruto (Kenya), Uganda vice president Jessica Alupo, Zambia’s foreign affairs minister Mulambo Haimbe, African Union Deputy Chairperson Selma Haddadi,
UN Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder and UNECA Executive Secretary Claver Gatete. Representatives from Egypt, South Africa, Cameroon, Djibouti, Jamaica, the European Union, the African
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Development Bank, civil society and the Pan-African Youth Union also took part.
“As Africa, we are not asking for free money. Africa, we want fairness,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.
She said the Pact aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and could help advance Africa’s priorities in areas such as youth empowerment, financing for development, peace, digital transformation and inclusive growth.
The President said African youth account for more than 60% of the continent’s population and should be placed at the centre of development planning.
She pointed to Namibia’s free tertiary education and National Youth Development Fund as examples of national efforts to equip young people with skills and opportunities.
Nandi-Ndaitwah also called for greater African participation in reforming the international financial architecture and in negotiations for a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
Adding his voice, Ruto, speaking on behalf of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, said Africa should develop a single mechanism to measure progress ahead of the Pact’s 2028 review.
Ruto proposed that the African Union and UNECA prepare one consolidated African implementation report to establish whether commitments are producing measurable results.
“Two years ago, Africa helped shape this pact. Today, our task is to turn its promises into results,” Ruto said.
He said the results must be visible in the lives of young Africans and in the financing of development.
Ruto also called for completion of negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation and reform of the international financial architecture to improve access to resources and concessional financing.
Financing crisis
Meanwhile, Faye said the Pact provides a framework for addressing Africa’s development challenges but warned that the continent continues to face infrastructure deficits, under-industrialisation, unemployment, debt and difficulties accessing finance.
“Funding for development is centre
stage,” Faye said.
He said African countries need a fairer international financial system and greater influence in global decision-making institutions.
Faye also called for stronger use of the African Continental Free Trade Area to reduce market fragmentation and support economic growth.
Not enough
Additionally, AU Deputy Chairperson Selma Haddadi said some progress had been made since the Pact was adopted, including movement on financing, digital governance and UN reform. She said Africa had also expanded electricity access to an additional 50 million people over the past two years.
However, Haddadi warned that implementation had “not yet fully matched the breadth and ambition” of the commitments made by member states.
She said the key test was whether the Pact was changing how Africa finances development and whether the resulting economic growth was creating more opportunities for young Africans.
UN
Moreover, Ryder said Africa was central to the Pact from its negotiation to its implementation.
He said progress had been recorded in peace and security, artificial intelligence, financing for development, and youth participation.
Ryder said the UN was working to adapt peace operations to current conflicts, while the Global Digital Compact was creating a framework for international cooperation on artificial intelligence.
“Africa was decisive in securing the Pact, and Africa’s continued leadership will be decisive in delivering it,” Ryder said.
Dashboard
UNECA Executive Secretary Claver Gatete said the Pact must be linked directly to national plans, budgets and investment.
He said he had met young African entrepreneurs who could build digital services but struggled to obtain affordable finance, as well as farmers needing climate information, irrigation, insurance and market access.
Gatete proposed an annual Africa-focused dashboard to track implementation of the Pact alongside Agenda 2063, the Sustainable Development Goals and
national priorities.
“Success will not be measured by the number of meetings we hold,” Gatete said, but by whether jobs are created, business costs fall, connectivity expands and lives improve.
Reform
Another interesting intervention came from Uganda’s Alupo, who said the Pact’s priorities are closely linked to Africa’s development needs, particularly youth empowerment, technology, sustainable development and reform of the international financial system.
She said limited fiscal space and rising debt pressures were preventing developing countries from investing sufficiently in infrastructure and public services.
Alupo called for reforms to international financial institutions to give developing countries a stronger voice in decision-making.
Critical
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South African representatives opined that the Pact should also support Africa’s industrialisation by ensuring that the continent benefits from its natural resources.
Further, critical minerals should be beneficiated at source, while African youth should be placed at the centre of artificial intelligence research and innovation.
South Africa estimated that Africa needs to close an annual US$1.3 trillion financing gap to achieve the SDGs by 2030 and called for reforms to the global financial architecture.
“Today, we cannot talk about implementing this Pact without talking about the real active role of young people,” the representative said.
The civil society representative similarly called for stronger monitoring of implementation and said youth participation must move beyond symbolic inclusion to concrete access to skills, jobs, finance and digital opportunities.
2028 review
The meeting ended with Nandi-Ndaitwah saying the discussions had shown the need for greater investment in youth, stronger financing, domestic resource mobilisation, digital readiness and institutional capacity.
“The real measurement of the Pact’s success will be its national uptake,” she said.
She said the 2028 review should be used to strengthen implementation and inform the emerging post-2030 development agenda, while calling for stronger North-South, South-South, and triangular cooperation.
