Press Releases: Africa Faith Leaders’ Summit on Sustainable Development

Press Releases: Africa Faith Leaders’ Summit on Sustainable Development

Africa Faith Leaders’ Summit on Sustainable Development and the Post 2015 Development Agenda

Theme: Enhancing Faith Communities’ engagement on the post-2015 Development Agenda in the context of a rising Africa”

Summit Venue: Speke Resort Munyonyo

Dates: 1st – 2nd July 2014

Introduction

  1. A new charter on development – a successor to the MDGs is under development. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) that have been a hallmark of the global and national development agenda since 2000 expire in 2015. At the 2010 MDG summit, the UN Secretary General was tasked with the responsibility to take forward new thinking on global development agenda beyond 2015. Subsequently the UN has actively facilitated a global conversation and dialogue on a successor framework to the MDG’s.
  2. The development of the new charter is premised on a participatory consultative process that takes into account the priorities for wellbeing from citizens across the world. This participatory consultation is multifaceted and geared to enable a wide range of expert and stakeholder input. In Africa, the process has provided for pan-African political, economic and civic institutions and their representatives from government, business, the academia and civil society to seek consensus on the architecture and route map for an African renaissance, deepening regional integration and development agendas that go to the root of challenges and aspirations of the continent. This consensus has led to an African Common Position on the Post 2015 Development Agenda.Justification3.  Faith and religion play a critical role in the lives and cultures of majority of peoples in Africa. . Faith based institutions have a long history of action on     development and often deliver a multiplicity of services to individuals and communities blighted by poverty, conflict, humanitarian and natural disaster. As key actors in promoting wellbeing, it is essential that they are engaged and take an active role in the development of a new successor charter to the Millennium Development Goals.4. The process of generating a new development charter presents opportunity to faith leaders across Africa to bring their individual and collective voice as well as shape the frame and character of the successor framework. As a result of this engagement, hopefully, the new charter on development can speak to the realities of the millions of adherents of these faith communities, who would be the primary beneficiaries of such a charter. Moreover, as a result of this engagement, the tapestry of the new charter will have benefited from the ethical and moral outlook of the African faith community.5. The release of the Report of the High Level Panel on the post 2015 Development Agenda on May 30th 2013, presents a critical point for faith communities to strategically engage the process culminating to the adoption of a formal text and charter in 2014. Such opportunity includes engaging the Open Working Group, My World Survey, the 68th Session of the General Assembly and other upcoming General Assemblies.The African Faith Leaders’ Summit on Sustainable Development Goals and the Post 2015 Development Agenda has been called in this context of participatory consultation and voice. The summit aims to learn from and take forward the work of the Millennium Development Goals as well as engage in the conversation on the new charter and its outcomes.  The summit and its follow up programme of action presents African Faith Leaders with opportunity to engage African governments and institutions to embrace policies and practice that promote economic and social emancipation, social integration and reconciliation, and other advancement that advances the dignity and wellbeing of their citizens.

    6. Goal

    The broad aim of the African Faith Leaders’ Summit on Sustainable Development Goals and the Post 2015 Development Agenda is to escalate the engagement of Faith Communities and Faith Leaders in shaping the Post 2015 Development Agenda.

    7. Objectives

    SO 1: To provide African Faith Communities and Leaders a common platform to harness their resourcefulness in engaging and influencing the conversation on the post 2015 Development Agenda and it’s outcomes.

    SO 2: To enhance the leadership and capacity of African faith leaders in order to engage and contribute effectively to the prevailing discourses on development and the architecture of sustainable development after 2015.

    SO 3: To generate coordinated and programmatic actions that enables African Faith Communities to bring their voice and organization to the formulation and implementation of public policy and programmes in connection to the new charter on development.

    8. GOAL, OBJECTS AND RESULTS MATRIX

    GOAL: To strengthen and scale up the engagement of Faith Communities and Faith Leaders in shaping the Post 2015 Development Agenda
    Objectives Intermediate and Longer term results
    To provide African Faith Communities and Leaders a common platform to harness their resourcefulness in engaging and influencing the conversation on the post 2015 Development Agenda and it’s outcomes. The African Faith Community has adequate and quality resources to initiate and sustain policy dialogue and advocacy initiatives that best advance her moral conviction and voice on the centrality of human dignity and the wellbeing of all;The African Faith Community has adequate and professionally trained and equipped human resources to lead its engagement in the public sphere and especially in the post-MDGs process at all levels;

    The African Faith Community promotes creative resource generation, mobilization, management, and utilization and increasingly relies on locally generated resources in the implementation of its programmes.

    The African Faith Community’s human, material and financial resources are shared within and across countries and regions to ensure self-efficacy, and effective resource utilization and solidarity;

    To enhance the leadership and capacity of the African faith leaders in relation to prevailing and discourses on development and the content, and architecture of sustainable development goals after 2015. The African Faith Leaders acquire new capacity to effectively engage in public policy debates and especially in the post-MDGs process at all levels.
    To generate coordinated and programmatic actions that enable African Faith Communities to bring their voice and organization to the formulation and implementation of public policy and programmes in connection to the new charter on development. The African Faith Community asserts its role as a key player in framing global development issues concerning Africa;The African Faith Community deploys its structures to ensure that her voice and perspectives on all matters of human development inform the post-2015 Development process and programs at all levels;

    The African Faith Community undertakes joint programs with sister bodies and International Faith Based Organizations on local and global issues that affect humanity.

    9. Summit deliverables

    • An African Faith Communities’ Position Paper on the Post -2015 Development Framework  and the African Vision 2063;
    • Strategic dissemination and diffusion of the  African Faith Communities’ Position Paper on the Post- 2015 development framework  ahead of and during the UN General Assembly on the post-MDGs in New York in September 2014;
    • A Common African Faith Based Leaders Advocacy Strategy on the post-2015 agenda  is developed and shared within the Faith Based Communities across Africa and the respective bodies involved in the post MDGs process;
    • A clear roadmap (Action Plans) on the Participation and the engagement of the African Faith Communities in the post-2015 Development Agenda & Sustainable Development Goals is developed;

    10. Who will attend?

    • Sixty African Faith Leaders representing all the Majors Religions and Regions in Africa;
    • Thirty expert representatives of all the Majors Religions and Regions in Africa;
    • Ten representatives of the faith communities from the Host Country;
    • Twenty resource persons and partner organizations.