It is this Saturday, February 18 that the Heads of State of the African Union will meet at a summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the president of the Comoros who will take the reins of the rotating presidency of the African Union, following the Senegalese president, Macky Sall.
The African Continental Free Trade Area will be one of Azali Assoumani's priorities.
Although officially launched in 2021, the Zlec is indeed struggling to take shape.
Some states are reluctant to allow goods, services and above all people to circulate freely on the continent, as the representative of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Kenyan diplomat, Maureen Achieng, deplores.
"There are all these misperceptions, that migrants are coming and taking our jobs but we know that's not the case. So we're trying to build excitement around the continental free trade area and we're saying: goods won't move if people can't move.Africa remains the least integrated region of the world, which is slowing the continent's economic growth.So we are working with the African Union Commission and the various departments to interconnect all these AU initiatives in order to advance the whole integration agenda,” said the Kenyan diplomat.
Zlec must, according to its promoters, promote trade within the continent and attract investors. According to the World Bank, by 2035 the agreement would create 18 million additional jobs and could help lift up to 50 million people out of extreme poverty
“We hardly invest in the school system”
In Addis Ababa, it should also be a question of the state of progress of the African development plan, called Agenda 2063.
With Agenda 2063, AU Member States adopted in 2013 a common vision for Africa's development over the next 50 years.
But ten years later, the situation is bitter, according to Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Center for Democracy and Development, a Mozambican NGO.
“As an agenda, this Africa 2063 concept of the African Union can be considered as well elaborated. be considered positive. But in the end, it is only a nicely formulated goal. All the countries of Africa - without exception - are currently in a phase of massive dismantling of the public school and educational systems and offers. The African continent is going through a phase of destruction of public school systems. There is little investment in the school system. If things continue like this, it will be impossible to achieve the objectives of Africa Agenda 2063", warns Adriano Nuvunga.
The African Union Heads of State Summit is being held at a particularly delicate time for the continent.
Ethiopia, headquarters of the pan-African organization, is still embroiled in a civil war that has claimed thousands of lives and the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is hit by renewed violence that threatens the stability of the entire region. .
Added to this is the still worrying security situation in the Sahel.
Author: Antonio Cascais, Sandrine Blanchard, Georges Ibrahim Tounkara