Egyptian president to Chair NEPAD Summit in January 2025

CAIRO – 31 October 2024: Personal Representative of the Egyptian President at the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Ashraf Sweilam chaired on October 28-29 the 70th meetings of the Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee that convened in South Africa.

The convention included coordination on holding the NEPAD Summit to be chaired by President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi in January, and the African Union (AU) Summit in February 2025.

The meetings reviewed all the programmes, projects and activities of the African Union Development Agency during the past year, most notably providing support to African countries in implementing the second 10-year plan for Agenda 2063, and their efforts in mobilizing funding to implement the plan, as well as continental and regional infrastructure projects, including the maritime connectivity project between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Victoria, and the road project linking Cairo and Cape Town.

The meeting touched on the agency's role in strengthening and building national capacities in the fields of agriculture and industry, dealing with climate change, human development, science, technology and creativity.

The committee reviewed the financial position of the agency and the efforts made by the secretariat to mobilize funding for its projects, including the project on the link between peace, security and development, which is hosted by the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Preservation and Peacebuilding, in cooperation with the African Union Center for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development, which is hosted by Cairo. Within the framework of the leadership of the President of the Republic on this file in the African Union.

The meeting discussed the current position of launching work at the NEPAD African Center of Excellence for Climate Resilience and Adaptation, which is hosted by Cairo, and whose activities are expected to begin at the beginning of next year 2025, after the signing of the agreement to host the headquarters between the agency and the Ministry of Environment on the sidelines of the recent COP28 climate summit