Social Dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa's Development

E/RES/2020/6View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 19b Social development, published in 2020.

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?

60 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;¹⁰

¹⁰E/CN.5/2020/2.

Welcomes the progress made by African Governments in fulfilling their commitments in the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development8 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;

Takes note of the strengthening of the African Peer Review Mechanism through the decision of the Assembly of the African Union to make the Mechanism an organ of the African Union in line with article 5, paragraph 2, of its Constitutive Act,¹¹ and welcomes the progress that has been achieved in implementing the Mechanism;

¹¹United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2158, No. 37733.

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

Takes note of the development of the monitoring and evaluation framework for the first 10-year implementation plan of Agenda 2063 by Africa’s regional economic communities, the Planning and Coordinating Agency of the New Partnership, the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the African Symposium on Statistical Development, as well as the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa, both of which have fostered convergence in the monitoring and evaluation of the first 10-year implementation plan and the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as a unified implementation and monitoring plan for Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,3 and notes the incorporation of the first 10-year implementation plan into national planning frameworks by 35 countries;

Welcomes the adoption of the governance structures of the African Union Development Agency, the implementing mechanism for the African Union Agenda 2063 development strategy, during the thirty-fifth ordinary session of the Executive Council of the African Union, held in Niamey on 4 and 5 July 2019, and whose mission is to foster the development of the continent through effective and integrated planning, coordination and implementation of Agenda 2063 with Member States, regional economic communities and pan-African institutions by leveraging partnerships and technical cooperation;

Also 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 all 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;

Takes note with appreciation of the efforts of the African Union Commission, which have resulted in the launch of national campaigns to end child, early and forced marriage in 24 countries, the adoption of the African Common Position on the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa and the endorsement by the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa in February 2019 of the continental initiative to be known as “Saleema: African Union Initiative on Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation”, in partnership with the United Nations;

Also takes note with appreciation of the launch, on 24 August 2018 in Addis Ababa, by the African Union Commission, in collaboration with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the International Telecommunication Union, of the African Girls Can Code Initiative (2018–2022), which is aimed at enhancing the mastering of information and communications technology for girls and women and, therefore, increasing their contribution to Africa’s innovation in that sector;

Recognizes the progress that has been made in the implementation of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa in support of regional and continental integration with a focus on the movement of people and goods (the Move Africa initiative), through the “traffic light system”, which has been operationalized at four pilot “one-stop border posts”;

Acknowledges the progress made towards ensuring free movement of persons as well as goods and services in Africa, and in this regard welcomes with appreciation the entry into force on 30 May 2019 of the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to boost intra-African trade and continental integration, and the launch of its operational phase on 7 July 2019;

Recalls the African Union Road Map on Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth and the first five-year priority programme on employment, poverty eradication and inclusive development 2017, and welcomes the declaration by the African Union of the period from 2018 to 2027 as the African Decade for Technical, Professional and Entrepreneurial Training and Youth Employment, with a focus on the creation of decent jobs for youth and women, aimed at achieving more inclusive growth and sustainable poverty eradication;

Notes the decision of the ministers of the Executive Council of the African Union, at its thirty-fifth ordinary session, to adopt as the theme for the year 2020 “Silencing the guns: creating conducive conditions for Africa’s development”;

Urges all countries that have not yet done so to ratify or accede to the United Nations Convention against Corruption,¹² encourages States parties to review its implementation, committing to making the Convention an effective instrument for deterring, detecting, preventing and countering corruption and bribery, prosecuting those involved in corrupt activities and recovering and returning stolen assets to their country of origin, as appropriate, encourages the international community to develop good practices on asset return, expresses support for the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the United Nations and the World Bank and other international initiatives that support the recovery of stolen assets, urges the updating and ratification of regional conventions against corruption, and strives to eliminate safe havens that create incentives for the transfer abroad of stolen assets and illicit financial flows;

¹²Ibid., vol. 2349, No. 42146.

Calls upon African Governments to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa, to demonstrate the commitment of Member States to the dignity, empowerment and rights of persons with disabilities and older persons across the continent;

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, robust efforts are needed to integrate additional health issues into a broad health and development agenda, and therefore takes note of the declaration of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union, at its thirty-second ordinary session, in which it committed to supporting and enhancing the reform of the health sector through adopting the health in all policies approach in order to achieve universal health coverage and curb the outbreak of major diseases in Africa and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals;

Takes note with appreciation of the revised Africa Health Strategy for the period 2016–2030, which was endorsed by the Assembly of the African Union in 2016, with the main objectives of strengthening health systems, improving performance, increasing investments in health, improving equity, addressing social determinants of health to reduce priority disease burdens by 2030 and helping member States to more effectively manage the risks of disasters in a more systematic manner;

Urges African Governments to fast-track the implementation of the revised Africa Health Strategy, which provides umbrella guidance for the development of the African Regional Nutrition Strategy, the Maputo Plan of Action 2016–2030 for the Operationalization of the Continental Policy Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa and the Catalytic Framework to End AIDS and Tuberculosis and Eliminate Malaria in Africa by 2030, welcomes the Declaration on Universal Access to Immunization as a Cornerstone for Health and Development in Africa adopted by African Ministers of Health in 2016, and the 2017 declaration on committing to accelerate implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005),¹³ and also urges African Governments to achieve ambitious targets, a business case and strategic priorities to end the three diseases as a public health threat by 2030;

¹³World Health Organization, document WHA58/2005/REC/1, resolution 58.3, annex.

Stresses the importance of improving maternal and child health, and in this regard recalls the declaration of the African Union summit on maternal, infant and child health and development, welcomes the fact that 51 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;

Takes note of the declaration of the special summit of the African Union on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, held in Abuja from 12 to 16 July 2013, on the progress made in implementing the Abuja actions towards the elimination of HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa by 2030, also takes note of the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: On the Fast Track to Accelerating the Fight against HIV and to Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030, adopted on 8 June 2016 at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS,¹⁴ and reaffirms the resolve to provide assistance for prevention, treatment and care, with the aim of ensuring an Africa free of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, by addressing the needs of all, in particular those of women, children and young people, and the urgent need to significantly scale up efforts towards achieving the goal of universal access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, treatment, care and support in African countries, to accelerate and intensify efforts to expand access to affordable and quality medicines in Africa, including antiretroviral drugs, by encouraging pharmaceutical companies to make drugs available, and to ensure strengthened global partnership and increased bilateral and multilateral assistance, where possible on a grant basis, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in Africa through the strengthening of health systems;

¹⁴General Assembly resolution 70/266, annex.

Also takes note of the decision of the African Union to extend the African Union Road Map on Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Response in Africa from 2016 to 2020 so as to achieve full implementation, notes the revitalization of AIDS Watch Africa as an African high-level platform from which to advocate action, accountability and resource mobilization for the response to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa, and requests, as appropriate, and in line with relevant international obligations, development partners and the United Nations system to support the efforts of African countries and organizations to reach the main objectives put forward in the Road Map, including achieving diversified sustainable financing, strengthening regulatory harmonization and local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and enhancing leadership and governance of the responses;

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, and notes the strategy of the African Ministers’ Council on Water for the period 2018–2030, launched for the achievement of the African Water Vision 2025, Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals;

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 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 that the achievement of sustainable development and the eradication of poverty hinge on the ability and readiness of countries to effectively mobilize domestic resources, attract foreign direct investment, fulfil official development assistance commitments and use such assistance effectively and facilitate the transfer of technology, on mutually agreed terms, to developing countries, and also stresses that the resolution of unsustainable debt situations is critical for heavily indebted poor countries, while remittances have become a significant source of income and finance for receiving economies and their contribution to the achievement of sustainable development;

Notes with concern that the preliminary data indicate that the net bilateral aid flows to Africa decreased in 2018 compared with 2017 figures;

Reiterates that the fulfilment of all official development assistance commitments remains crucial, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries, is encouraged by those few countries that have met or surpassed their commitment to 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance and the target of 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance to the least developed countries, and urges all others to step up efforts to increase their official development assistance and to make additional concrete efforts towards official development assistance targets;

Recognizes that middle-income countries still face significant challenges in achieving sustainable development and that, in order to ensure that achievements made to date are sustained, efforts to address ongoing challenges should be strengthened through the exchange of experiences, improved coordination and better and focused support of the United Nations development system, the international financial institutions, regional organizations and other stakeholders, and therefore requests those stakeholders to ensure that the diverse and specific development needs of middle-income countries are appropriately considered and addressed, in a tailored fashion, in their relevant strategies and policies, with a view to promoting a coherent and comprehensive approach towards individual countries, while also acknowledging that official development assistance and other concessional finance is still important for a number of these countries and has a role to play for targeted results, taking into account the specific needs of these countries;

Also 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;

Further 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 efforts of the United Nations and the African Union to realign the clusters of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa to deal with the major themes of both Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and invites development partners, including the United Nations system, to continue to support the Mechanism in achieving its objectives, including through the allocation of the financing necessary to support the implementation of its activities;

Encourages African countries to intensify their efforts to strengthen the capacity of subnational and national statistical systems 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 local, 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;

Takes note of the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024, which aims to have an impact across critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, environment, health, infrastructure development, mining, security and water;

Underlines the importance for African Governments to build the productive capacity of sustainable 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 the access of 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 rural-urban linkages through 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 the alignment of external funding;

Welcomes progress made in addressing issues such as food security through the adoption of a resolution on the development of a model law on food security and nutrition in Africa in October 2018 by the Pan-African Parliament, and the development of a technical cooperation project to incorporate indigenous crops into the African nutritious food basket for improved food security and nutrition, and notes the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa;

Reaffirms that among the objectives of the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027), proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 72/233 of 20 December 2017, are maintenance of the momentum generated by the implementation of the Second Decade and support, in an efficient and coordinated manner, for the internationally agreed development goals related to poverty eradication, including the Sustainable Development Goals and their objective of leaving no one behind;

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, including efforts to realize girls’ right to education, in particular for African countries, including through building and strengthening education-related infrastructure and increasing investment in education, and takes note of continental initiatives such as the African Union International Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Education in Africa, which implemented activities in line with its strategic plan for the period 2018–2020;

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, and in this regard takes note of the launch at the Pan African Youth Forum on the theme “Africa unite for youth: bridging the gap and reaching African youth”, held in Addis Ababa from 24 to 27 April 2019, of the African Union 1 million by 2021 initiative, which targets direct investments in millions of African youth on four key elements, namely employment, entrepreneurship, education and engagement, through leveraging partnerships and private sector opportunities;

Reaffirms the commitment of the General Assembly to bridging digital and knowledge divides, recognizes that its approach must be multidimensional and include an evolving understanding of what constitutes access, emphasizing the quality of that access, and acknowledges that speed, stability, affordability, language, local content and accessibility for persons with disabilities are now core elements of the quality of such access and that high-speed broadband is already an essential enabler of sustainable development;

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, 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;

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;

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 the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), 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 African Union and its New Partnership, and requests the Secretary-General to continue 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 advocacy and communication 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 social dimensions 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-ninth 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 resolution 73/335 of 10 September 2019, 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-ninth session, an action-oriented report with recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of the work of United Nations bodies in regard to the social dimensions of the New Partnership, Agenda 2063 and its links with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, taking into account current processes related to social development in Africa.

18 June 2020

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?

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