Sisi to address Aswan Forum on sustainable peace in Africa on Dec. 11

10 / 12 / 2019

• Egypt
• news

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will deliver a keynote speech at the inaugural session of the Aswan Forum which is due to kick off on December 11 under the title “An Agenda for Sustainable Peace, Security and Development in Africa.”

The two-day forum will provide the first of its kind platform in Africa to address the interlinkages between peace and development, and champion Africa-led solutions, through strengthening the policies-practices linkages. It will also inspire thought leadership on Africa’s future trajectory.

The Aswan forum was announced by Sisi in February 2019 as he chaired the African Union during the 32nd summit in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa for the first time since the African body was established in 2002.

The forum, to be held annually in December, will bring together heads of states and governments, leaders from national governments, regional and international organizations, financial institutions, private sector, and civil society, as well as visionaries, scholars, and prominent experts.

It is, indeed, the responsibility of this generation of African leaders, policymakers and intellectuals to provide the home-grown solutions, that the continent so desperately needs, to protect the present and secure the future for generations to come.

Therefore, Egypt took the initiative to launch the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development.

Announcing the forum earlier this year, President Sisi commended African efforts to prevent conflict, including through the African Union’s ambitious plan to Silence the Guns by 2020. He noted, however, that the road towards fulfilling the aspirations of Agenda 2063 is still long.

Underscoring that “development is the best shield against conflict,’ President Sisi called on African leaders, to work together to revitalize and operationalize the Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development Policy, to develop action plans to prevent the relapse into conflict, and to help build the capacities of state institutions. The president highlighted ongoing efforts to launch the African Union Center for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (AUC-PCRD) in Cairo, which will develop and implement programs and projects to support African countries emerging from conflict.

“We must continue to work together, to turn the page on a painful history of conflicts in Africa, which has negatively affected the continent’s developmental aspirations,” Sisi said.

The first session of the forum is entitled “The Africa We Want: Sustaining Peace, Security & Development” and is scheduled to review Africa’s potential, as home to at least half of the fastest growing economies in the world due to rich resources, urbanization, industrialization, and economic diversification.

The second session, themed “Silencing the Guns in Africa: Owning the Prevention Agenda,” will tackle how the prevention agenda must be “integrated into national development policies and efforts, with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the core of this approach.

Other sessions will tackle a regional cooperation framework for peace, security, and development in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as well as means of realizing sustainable peace and development in the Sahel region.

The second day of the forum will see sessions on promoting African women’s contribution to peace, security and development.

Commenting on preparations for the Aswan Forum, Julian Reilly, Special Envoy for the Red Sea and Horn of Africa UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office said “Innovation and action have been a clear focus during the preparatory process and the Aswan Forum itself, and are a necessity in order to turn challenges into opportunities.”

Jan Thesleff, Ambassador of Sweden to Egypt, said “What happens in Aswan should not stay in Aswan but continue on. It is a first step that will set the path forward, including at other international fora such as the Stockholm Forum.”