Social Dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development

E/RES/2017/11View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 19b Social development, published in 2017.

What other versions does this mandate have?

20 versions · 2007–2026

This is an older version — the most recent is E/RES/2026/3

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	E/RES/2026/3	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development	7,970	83%Compare
2025	E/RES/2025/6	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development	7,998	89%Compare
2024	E/RES/2024/5	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development	7,459	96%Compare
2023	E/RES/2023/13	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development	7,531	82%Compare
2022	E/RES/2022/6	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development	6,979	92%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

10 reports · 2008–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2025	E/CN.5/2026/2	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2025/6
2025	E/CN.5/2025/2	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2024/5
2024	E/CN.5/2024/2	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2023/13
2022	E/CN.5/2023/2	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2022/6
2021	E/CN.5/2022/2	Social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2021/9

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Africa Development Assistance Partnership Social Development Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

52 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;¹³

¹³E/CN.5/2017/2.

Welcomes the progress made by African Governments in fulfilling their commitments in the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development11 to deepen democracy, human rights, good governance and sound economic management, and encouraging them, with the participation of stakeholders, including civil society and the private sector, to intensify their efforts in this regard by developing and strengthening institutions for governance and creating an environment conducive to attracting foreign direct investment for the development of the region;

Also welcomes the progress that has been achieved in implementing the African Peer Review Mechanism, in particular the voluntary adherence of 36 African countries to the Mechanism and the completion of the peer review process in 20 countries, welcomes the progress in implementing the national programmes of action resulting from those reviews, in this regard urges African States that have not yet done so to consider joining the Mechanism process, and encourages further strengthening of the Mechanism process for its efficient performance;

Reaffirms the importance of supporting Agenda 2063 of the African Union, as well as its 10-year implementation plan, as a strategic framework for ensuring a positive socioeconomic transformation in Africa within the next 50 years, and its continental programme embedded in the resolutions of the General Assembly on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and regional initiatives, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme;

Recognizes the progress that has been made in the implementation of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, particularly through the mechanism of the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative, under which impressive progress has been recorded in the conception of many critical infrastructure projects on the continent;

Welcomes and urges further efforts to promote the process of regional economic cooperation in Africa, including measures to facilitate regional connectivity, trade and transit, including through regional development initiatives such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme framework and the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, and the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, emphasizing that such initiatives should stimulate jobs and growth for all, spur African integration and mobility and encourage the full and equitable participation of Africa in global value chains;

Stresses that inclusive and sustainable industrialization is a critical engine of economic and social development, and emphasizes the need to accelerate Africa’s inclusive and sustainable industrialization by the adoption and implementation of specific measures and actions at the national, regional and continental levels and with the support of and in collaboration with development partners and the international community;

Also stresses the importance of taking measures to promote the dynamic diversification of African economies through transforming African economies from resource dependence, increasing local processing of and value addition to natural resources in order to expand the domestic economy and increase revenue, and developing new industries in order to transform lives and create opportunities for more and better jobs;

Welcomes the efforts made by African countries and regional and subregional organizations, including the African Union, to mainstream a gender perspective and the empowerment of women and girls in the implementation of the New Partnership, including the implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa;

Also welcomes the decision taken by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union at its twenty-sixth ordinary session, held in Addis Ababa on 30 and 31 January 2016, to proclaim 2017 the Year of Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investment in Youth;

Notes that health is a precondition, an indicator and an outcome of sustainable development and that, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,3 robust efforts are needed to sustain gains made under the Millennium Development Goals and integrate additional health issues into a broad health and development agenda, particularly the extension of universal health coverage;

Stresses the importance of improving maternal and child health, and in this regard welcomes the declaration of the African Union summit on maternal, infant and child health and development, held in Kampala from 19 to 27 July 2010, notes that 47 African countries have since integrated the objectives of the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Mortality in Africa into their national strategies, and urges the pursuit and implementation of commitments to improve maternal and child health;

Encourages African countries to prioritize investments in building the institutional capacity of health systems, reduce health inequities within and across countries, progressively achieve universal health coverage and curb the outbreak of major diseases;

Invites development partners to continue to assist African countries in their efforts to strengthen national health systems, including by providing skilled health personnel, reliable health information and data, research infrastructure and laboratory capacity, and to expand surveillance systems in the health sector, including by providing support for the efforts to prevent, protect against and combat outbreaks of disease, including outbreaks of neglected tropical diseases, and in this context reiterates its support for the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action and follow-up conferences to respond to the serious health workforce crisis in Africa;

Encourages Member States to continue to provide international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries, particularly African countries, in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies;

Emphasizes that progress in the implementation of the New Partnership depends also on a favourable national and international environment for Africa’s growth and development, including measures to promote a policy environment conducive to private sector development and entrepreneurship and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Also emphasizes that democracy, respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development, transparent and accountable governance and administration in all sectors of society and effective participation by civil society, including non-governmental and community-based organizations, and the private sector are among the indispensable foundations for the realization of social and people-centred sustainable development;

Further emphasizes that the increasingly unacceptable high levels of poverty, inequality and social exclusion faced by most African countries require a comprehensive approach to the development and implementation of social and economic policies, inter alia, to reduce poverty, to promote economic activity, growth and sustainable development in order to ensure productive employment creation and decent work for all, to promote quality education, health and social protection and to enhance equality, social inclusion, political stability, democracy and good governance at all levels and the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Emphasizes that identifying and removing barriers to opportunity, as well as ensuring access to basic social protection and social services, are necessary to break the cycle of poverty, inequality and social exclusion;

Encourages African countries to continue to prioritize structural transformation, modernize smallholder agriculture, add value to primary commodities, improve public and private institutions of economic and political governance and invest in major public infrastructure projects and in inclusive, equitable and quality education and health in order to promote inclusive growth, generate full and productive employment and decent work for all and reduce poverty;

Emphasizes that economic development, including employment-intensive resource-based industrial development, with due regard to the sustainable management and use of natural resources, infrastructural development and structural transformation, in particular in the rural economy, based on pragmatic and targeted policies to enhance productive capacities in Africa that are consistent with national development priorities and international commitments, can generate employment and income for all African men and women, including the poor, and therefore be an engine for poverty eradication and for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals;

Encourages African countries to continue to foster political stability, promote peace and security and strengthen the governance, policy and institutional environment in order to enhance the prospects for inclusive and sustainable development, and to develop an enabling environment for the private sector to contribute to sustainable economic transformation and the creation of productive employment and decent work for all;

Stresses the essential role that official development assistance plays in complementing, leveraging and sustaining financing for development efforts in developing countries and in facilitating the achievement of development objectives, including the internationally agreed development goals, in particular the Sustainable Development Goals, and welcomes steps to improve the effectiveness and quality of aid based on the fundamental principles of national ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results, inclusive development partnerships and transparency and mutual accountability;

Welcomes the increase in the volume of official development assistance since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus,12 expresses its concern that many countries still fall short of their official development assistance commitments, reiterates that the fulfilment of all such commitments remains crucial, welcomes the fact that a few countries have met or surpassed their commitment to provide 0.7 per cent of gross national income as official development assistance and the target of providing 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national income as assistance to the least developed countries, urges all other countries to step up efforts to increase their official development assistance and to make additional concrete efforts towards their targets, welcomes the decision by the European Union reaffirming its collective commitment to achieving the target of providing 0.7 per cent of gross national income as official development assistance within the time frame of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and undertaking to meet collectively the target of providing 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national income as official development assistance to the least developed countries in the short term and reach 0.20 per cent within the time frame of the 2030 Agenda, and encourages providers of such assistance to consider setting a target of providing at least 0.20 per cent of gross national income as official development assistance to the least developed countries;

Recognizes that, while social development is primarily the responsibility of Governments, international cooperation and assistance are essential for the full achievement of that goal, and calls upon the international community to continue to support the resolution of challenges faced by developing countries, especially the least developed countries, including in Africa, to independently achieving sustainable development;

Also recognizes the contribution made by Member States to the implementation of the New Partnership in the context of South-South cooperation, and encourages the international community, including the international financial institutions, to support the efforts of African countries, including through trilateral cooperation;

Welcomes the various important initiatives undertaken by Africa’s development partners in recent years, and in this regard emphasizes the importance of coordination in such initiatives on Africa through ensuring the effective implementation of existing commitments, including through the African Union/New Partnership for Africa’s Development African Action Plan 2010–2015: Advancing Regional and Continental Integration in Africa, which remains at the centre of the continent’s engagement with partners, and the Framework for a Renewed United Nations-African Union Partnership on Africa’s Integration and Development Agenda 2017–2027, adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union at its twenty-fifth ordinary session, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 14 and 15 June 2015;¹⁴

¹⁴See General Assembly resolution 71/254.

Also welcomes the efforts of the United Nations and the African Union to align the clusters of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa¹⁵ with the strategic frameworks of the African Union and the New Partnership for 2014–2017 and Agenda 2063, welcomes in this regard the Framework for a Renewed United Nations-African Union Partnership on Africa’s Integration and Development Agenda 2017–2027, and reaffirms General Assembly resolution 71/254 of 23 December 2016, entitled “Framework for a Renewed United Nations-African Union Partnership on Africa’s Integration and development Agenda 2017–2027”, and invites development partners, including the United Nations system, to continue to support the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa in achieving its objectives, including through the allocation of the necessary financing to support the implementation of its activities;

¹⁵The eight clusters include sustainable and inclusive economic growth, industry, trade and regional integration; infrastructure development; development of human capital, health, science, technology and innovation; labour, employment creation, social protection, migration and mobility; women and gender equality and youth empowerment; humanitarian matters; environment, urbanization and population; and advocacy, information, communications and culture.

Encourages African countries to intensify their efforts to strengthen national statistical capacity in order to produce reliable and timely statistics and indicators for the monitoring of national development policies and strategies and of the implementation of commitments for the achievement of all sustainable development goals at the national, regional and international levels, and in this regard urges donor countries and organizations, including the United Nations system, and the international and regional statistical communities to support African countries in strengthening statistical capacity in support of development;

Underlines the importance for African Governments to build the productive capacity of agriculture, as a top priority, in order to increase rural incomes and ensure access to food for net food buyers, and stresses that greater efforts should be made to promote and implement sustainable agriculture, increase access for smallholder farmers, in particular women, to necessary agricultural resources, including productive assets, and improve access to infrastructure, information and markets, and that, furthermore, efforts should be made to promote small and medium-sized enterprises that contribute to job growth and increase incomes along the agricultural value stream;

Urges African Governments, within the framework of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, to expand investment financing to agriculture to at least 10 per cent of the annual budget of the national public sector while at the same time ensuring necessary action in policy and institutional reforms for enhanced performance of the agriculture industry and systems;

Recognizes the need for Africa’s development partners that are supporting agriculture, food security and nutrition in Africa to align their efforts more specifically towards supporting the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, using the Programme’s investment plans for alignment of external funding, and in this regard takes note of the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security;¹⁶

¹⁶Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, document WSFS 2009/2.

Also recognizes that the implementation of the commitments made by Governments during the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997–2006) has fallen short of expectations, and welcomes the proclamation of the Second Decade (2008–2017) by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/205 of 19 December 2007 in order to support, in an efficient and coordinated manner, the internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Sustainable Development Goals;

Urges African countries to pay close attention to inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth capable of being employment-intensive, including through employment-intensive investment programmes, aimed at reducing inequalities, increasing productive employment, generating decent work for all, particularly those who are vulnerable, including women and young people, and improving real per capita incomes in both rural and urban areas;

Emphasizes the need, in particular for African countries, to enhance capacity-building for sustainable development, and in this regard calls for the strengthening of technical and scientific cooperation, including North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, and reiterates the importance of adequate human resources development, including through training, the exchange of experience and expertise, knowledge transfer and technical assistance for capacity-building, which involves strengthening institutional capacity, including policy coherence, coordination and implementation, as well as planning, management and monitoring capacities;

Also emphasizes the importance of increasing international cooperation to improve the quality of and access to education, in particular for African countries, including through building and strengthening education-related infrastructure and increasing investment in education;

Urges African countries and development partners to meet the needs of young people and empower them, in particular by tackling the high levels of youth unemployment through the development of quality education, skills training and entrepreneurship programmes that address illiteracy, enhance the employability and capabilities of young people, facilitate school-to-work transitions and expand guaranteed employment schemes, where appropriate, with particular attention to disadvantaged young people in both rural and urban areas;

Recognizes that improving access to school for all girls and boys, especially the poorest and most vulnerable and marginalized, and their ability to receive a quality education, and improving the quality of education beyond primary school can have a positive impact in terms of empowerment and on social, economic and political participation and thus on the fight against poverty and hunger and can contribute directly to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals;

Also recognizes that Africa’s youthful population creates significant opportunities for the continent’s development, and underlines in this regard the importance of African countries creating appropriate policy environments, in collaboration with the United Nations system, in order to realize a demographic dividend driven by large proportions of young people moving into their prime working years, while adopting an inclusive results-based approach to development planning and implementation in accordance with national priorities and legislation;

Encourages Governments, international organizations, other relevant institutions and stakeholders, as appropriate, to provide relevant skills training for youth, high-quality health-care services and dynamic labour markets to employ a growing population;

Calls upon the international community to enhance support and fulfil its commitments to take further action in areas critical to Africa’s economic and social development, in the spirit of win-win cooperation and to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity, and welcomes the efforts by development partners to strengthen cooperation with the New Partnership;

Welcomes the increasing efforts to improve the quality of official development assistance and to increase its development impact, recognizes its Development Cooperation Forum, notes other initiatives, such as the high-level forums on aid effectiveness, which produced, inter alia, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the Accra Agenda for Action¹⁷ and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, which make important contributions to the efforts of the countries that have made commitments to them, including through the adoption of the fundamental principles of national ownership, alignment, harmonization and managing for results, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development,4 and bears in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all formula that will guarantee effective assistance and that the specific situation of each country needs to be fully considered;

¹⁷A/63/539, annex.

Recognizes the need for Governments and the international community to continue to make efforts to increase the flow of new and additional resources for financing for sustainable development from all sources, public and private, domestic and foreign, to support the development of African countries, and welcomes the various important initiatives established between African countries and their development partners in this regard;

Acknowledges the activities of the Bretton Woods institutions and the African Development Bank in African countries, and invites those institutions to continue their support for the implementation of the priorities and objectives of the New Partnership;

Expresses deep concern that illicit financial flows and poor legal, fiscal and regulatory frameworks for mineral resources undermine national development efforts, encourages African countries to take measures to address these challenges, and invites development partners to continue to assist African countries in tackling illicit financial flows;

Encourages Africa’s development partners to continue to integrate the priorities, values and principles of the New Partnership into their development assistance programmes;

Encourages African countries and their development partners to place people at the centre of government development action, to secure core investment spending in health, education and social protection and to give particular consideration to universal access to basic social security systems, recognizing that social protection floors can provide a basis from which to address poverty and vulnerability, and in this regard takes note of Recommendation No. 202 concerning national floors of social protection, adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 101st session, on 14 June 2012, which can serve as a guideline for social investment;

Notes the growing collaboration among the entities of the United Nations system in support of the New Partnership, and requests the Secretary-General to promote greater coherence in the work of the United Nations system in support of the New Partnership, on the basis of the agreed clusters of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa;

Emphasizes the importance for the cluster working on information, communications and culture to continue to muster international support for the New Partnership, and urges the United Nations system to demonstrate more evidence of cross-sectoral synergies to promote a comprehensive approach with regard to successive phases of planning and implementation of social development programmes in Africa;

Requests the Commission for Social Development to continue to discuss in its annual programme of work those regional programmes that promote social development so as to enable all regions to share experiences and best practices, with the agreement of concerned countries, and in this regard requests that the work programmes of the Commission include priority areas of the New Partnership, as appropriate;

Decides that the Commission for Social Development should continue to give prominence to and raise awareness of the social dimensions of the New Partnership and give due consideration to Agenda 2063 of the African Union at its fifty-sixth session;

Requests the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa and the Economic Commission for Africa, taking into consideration General Assembly resolutions 62/179 of 19 December 2007, 63/267 of 31 March 2009, 64/258 of 16 March 2010, 65/284 of 22 June 2011, 66/286 of 23 July 2012, 67/294 of 15 August 2013, 68/301 of 17 July 2014, 69/290 of 19 June 2015 and 70/295 of 25 July 2016, entitled “New Partnership for Africa’s Development: progress in implementation and international support”, to submit to the Commission for Social Development, for its consideration at its fifty-sixth session, a report on the social dimensions of the New Partnership, including, in cooperation with relevant United Nations bodies, an overview of current processes related to social development in Africa, including recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of the work of United Nations bodies while preserving the social dimensions of the New Partnership.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents