This Africa Week 2016 will take place in the context of the first year of implementation of both the historic 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. The two agendas underscore the criticality and importance of partnerships and synergies at all levels and across all sectors for the realization of all aspirations, goals, priority actions and targets. In this regard, this year’s Africa Week will be celebrated under the theme “Strengthening Partnerships for Inclusive Sustainable Development, Good Governance, Peace and Stability in Africa”.

About Africa Week 2016

Overall, the Week is intended to:

• Underscore the importance of multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder partnerships for the effective implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 in Africa;
• Highlight opportunities for strengthening the roles and partnerships between the United Nations, international community and African regional and sub-regional organizations in the implementation of both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063;
• Discuss and articulate innovative and concrete ways to enhance the current partnership approaches between the United Nations and Africa in the areas of peace, security and governance;
• Share insights and experiences on Africa’s existing strategic partnership arrangements, and explore measures for further deepening the transformative and mutual benefits of these partnerships in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063, and
• Identify entry points for enhancing public-private partnerships and collaboration with the private sector, civil society and the Diaspora in mobilizing and sharing knowledge, expertise, technologies and financial resources to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Africa.

Africa’s Strategic Partners

Strategic partnerships are at the core of the implementation of both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Agenda 2063 envisions the continent “as a strong, united, resilient and influential global player and partner”, and similarly the 17th Sustainable Development Goal emphasises the critical need for partnerships.

Africa Week 2016 will highlight some of Africa’s strategic partnerships, including partnerships that are well-established, such as with the USA, the European Union and Japan as well as partnerships with new and emerging partners, such as Brazil, China, Republic of Korea, India and Turkey, who held Summits in recent years to strengthen their relations with Africa.

Africa’s strategic partners continue to invest heavily in supporting a range of Africa’s aspirations and goals, including in peace and security, democracy, good governance, human rights, human development, agricultural development, infrastructure development, humanitarian assistance, and the promotion of resilient and quality health systems, among others. Their increasing engagements present significant opportunities for Africa’s realization of both its transformative agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Africa Week 2016 will highlight some of these transformative benefits as well as lessons learned and opportunities to further enhance the collaboration between Africa and its strategic partners.

To illustrate some of the important work that Africa and its strategic partners undertake, please see the following links, which provides further information sources or details of specific partnership programmes. This list is by no means exhaustive or representative of all of Africa’s strategic partnerships, but highlights some of the existing partnership initiatives on the continent.