By: Derrick Senyonga

KAMPALA

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja this morning received a team from the 11th Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-11) regarding Uganda’s preparedness as host for the event that will take place in April 2025. Revealing that HE President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was happy about Uganda’s choice for the big event, the Premier underscored Uganda’s readiness to host the forum.

“Uganda is committed to ensuring that the event is not just a forum but a transformative platform that will advance the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and African Union’s Agenda of 2063. Our nation’s dedication to these goals is reflected in our leadership roles in various regional and global initiatives, including our current chairmanship (of G77 plus China and Non-Allied Movement).”

Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja the Prime Minister (centre) with Ms. Susan Ngongi Namondo (left) the UN Resident Coordinator and Mr. Antonio Pedro the the Deputy Executive Secretary (Programme Support) at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

During the courtesy visit that included the UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Susan Ngongi Namondo and Mr. Antonio M.A. Pedro, the Deputy Executive Secretary (Programme Support) at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Rt. Hon. Nabbanja reminisced of her recent meeting with Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA, Mr. Claver Gatete who commended Uganda for successfully hosting the G77 plus China and NAM summits earlier this year.

The Permanent Secretary OPM, Mr. Dunstan Balaba revealed that his office had already gone ahead and held meetings in preparation for the launch of official preparation activities for ARFSD-11.

“In addition to what you have put up right now, we have already held one meeting, an internal meeting of the technical, as we start building up the structures for the preparation. We have agreed, we shall have another meeting, so that we can now form a National Organizing Committee.

“One of the things that we agreed on in that first meeting, which will be very critical, is to ensure that the lines of communication remain open between ourselves and the team in Addis Ababa. So that we shall need a lot of information, we shall need a lot of guidance, so that we can be able to prepare very well” Balaba noted.

Ms. Susan Ngongi, who represented organizations of the United Nations System during the meeting expressed confidence in Uganda’s capacity hosting the event saying it was “very important moment” to be “discussing development issues on this continent.”

“And so to get the entire continent to come here and we can learn from them and also share what we are doing here that is good for others, it’s a good opportunity,” she said.

On his part, Mr. Antonio Pedro said that he was looking forward to building the event so that it runs out to be a transformational event as earlier alluded to by the Prime Ministers saying the forum should be an opportunity to have real conversations and discussions on SDGs as well as Agenda 2063.

“We are looking to an event that would involve all the relevant stakeholders, the private sector, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, traditional leaders, so that we can have a conversation that touches on the journey forward, understanding what the challenges are, but mostly focus on the opportunities”, said Pedro.

“We are proposing that perhaps we could, in the meeting itself, if we could have a Presidential debate, so that His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni brings his peers, perhaps better from the region, to discuss what are those factors that individually and collectively that they can work on together to ensure that East Africa continues in its path of sustainable growth,” Mr. Pedro added.

The Regional Forum is annual inter-government platform jointly convened by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the host government, in collaboration with the African Development Bank, and the organizations of the United Nations System.

END