A United Nations System in Motion

The Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa, Ahunna Eziakonwa, delivered deep, reflective, thought-provoking and encouraging remarks from New York, highlighting the significance of the retreat within the context of the ongoing UN reform agenda and the need for greater inter-agency coherence across the region. She commended the leadership of the hub for raising the bar very high and demonstrating UNDP’s value addition. She equally highlighted that the ongoing global crisis presents an opportunity for the African continent to assert itself even more to ensure its sovereignty. 

"What the series of global crises would have revealed is that Africa needs to build its own model. Its own financial architecture, its own systems. It needs to become independent of global supply chains. It needs to add value to its own commodities. And so, it creates its own jobs at home. It needs to gain economic sovereignty and technology sovereignty. And it has the capacity to do so because all the resources are in the African continent." Ahunna Eziakonwa, Regional Director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, New York.

Along the same lines, Matthias Naab, Director of the Regional Service Centre for Africa, based in Dakar, pointed out that the African countries should rather make use of the ongoing challenges. 

“Africa must move from being impacted by the global crisis to being an influencer in the global dynamics. We are moving from fragmentation to integration. We are one continent, and therefore, we should move towards greater social, political and economic integration.” Matthias NAAB noted.