Sustainable development as an African agenda
Hafte Gebreselassie Gebrihet, Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, Azza Mustafa Babikir Ahmed
ACEIR working paper no. 17, October 2025.
Also published as a SALDRU working paper.
One of the most common misconceptions about Africa is that Africa is only a recipient of ideas and aid. This view of Africa is not only narrow-minded and dismissive, but it also overlooks the fact that Africa has been a rich source of ideas about how societies should be. These ideas stem from politics, history, and economics and include notions of development embedded in the ethos of African societies. This paper adds to mainstream accounts of Africa’s role in global development, looking at the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the African Union's Agenda 2063, and illustrating the role of African institutions and individuals in informing both regional and global development agendas. The authors describe some of the contributions of African institutions and leaders to global development debates. They do this by presenting the case of Agenda 2063 to illustrate the continental initiatives that preceded and most likely informed discussions that led to the SDGs agenda, challenging the misconception of Africa as merely a recipient of ideas about global development. They describe how Africa exerted its agency by presenting the Africa Agenda 2063 to the continent and the world. Africa Agenda 2063 tabled a continental vision of Africa and its development, which was part of the debates about the Post 2015 Development Agenda taking place at the time. The authors detail the timeliness of Africa’s Agenda 2063 in contemporary discussions on the SDGs and future debates about development agendas in 2030. The AU's Agenda 2063 illustrates Africa's agency in proposing development visions. It constitutes a compass for the continent and perhaps a more realistic vision for the world’s development in the debates ahead for the post-2030 development agenda. Read more