by Cosimo Graziani
Addis Ababa – On February 13, the Symposium of Bishops’ Conferences of Africa and Madagascar and the African Union renewed their memorandum of intent, originally signed in 2015. The renewal took place at the headquarters of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa at a symbolically significant time: shortly before the 39th General Assembly of the African Union, held from February 13 to 15, and following the meeting on Sustainability and Water Sanitation, which the two organizations had jointly hosted on February 7 and which also included the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.
Following the first memorandum, the new document envisions cooperation between SECAM and the AU in areas such as promoting and protecting human rights, developing governance and the rule of law, and strengthening peace efforts to support reconciliation and social cohesion across the continent.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kinshasa and current President of SECAM, expressed his delight at the signing of the document. The Cardinal referred to the document’s objectives using the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan as a metaphor, emphasizing that these goals cannot be achieved by individuals alone but require the participation of everyone—states, continental institutions, international actors, and faith communities and their institutions. He thanked the African Union for recognizing SECAM’s role in civil society as a faith-based organization that can make a concrete contribution to achieving the development goals set by the AU for 2063.
The 2063 Agenda is the African Union’s development program, adopted in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of its founding. It builds upon the Pan-Africanist ideals that formed its foundation and continue to do so, aiming to foster a prosperous and peaceful Africa, shaped by its own citizens and playing a significant role internationally. This project was conceived by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, and other African leaders who spearheaded decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s. The program has been adapted to the continent’s evolving needs, in a context that, even a decade ago, seemed to be facing new challenges for all African nations and peoples. The Agenda comprises 72 program points. The goals are diverse and similarly structured to the Sustainable Development Goals , although the latter were not officially adopted until two years later. Key objectives include eradicating poverty on the continent, in part through investments to boost productivity and create jobs. Another pressing concern of the Agenda is the management of the continent’s resources—an issue of ever-increasing importance. Given that the continent possesses these resources and is at a disadvantage in the race for Africa’s mineral and agricultural raw materials, the Agenda aims to establish access to these resources and their controlled management by African actors as the foundation for the continent’s economic development. This will be achieved not only at the governance level through the development of ad hoc strategies, but also with regard to so-called “soft” infrastructure, such as revenue monitoring and the fight against illicit financial flows. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 also addresses issues that have a more immediate and direct impact on people’s lives, such as the availability of housing and potential reforms to improve access to education across the continent. As Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu also emphasized, the ecclesial communities of the continent, thanks to their networks of educational institutions, hospitals, social centers, and various commissions dedicated to expanding and maintaining peace, healing, and overcoming the conflicts that tear the continent apart, can make a valuable contribution to the common good of African nations.
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