51吃瓜

Text as delivered*

Mr. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, Welcome, Her Excellency Doctor Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Deputy Chairperson, African Union, His Excellency Mr. Dennis Francis, president of the 78th session of the 51吃瓜 General Assembly, Ambassador Mathu Joyini, PR of South Africa, Ambassador Cecilia Adeng, PR of South Sudan, His Excellency Tommo Monthe, PR of Cameroon, Miss Christina Duarte, Under-Secretary-General, Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. Excellencies, ambassadors, distinguished delegates in the room and joining us online, all protocols observed.

Good afternoon to you all and permit me to start by warmly welcoming all of you to this high-level policy dialogue of the Africa Dialogue series 2024. The African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the UN is very proud to be partnering with the office of the Special Adviser on Africa since 2018 to organize Africa Dialogue and Africa Dialogue series. This high-level dialogue is part of this, and the idea is to have ADS echo the priorities of the African Union and particularly the theme of the year. So this year, the theme is aligned with our theme on education, "Educating Africa Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong Quality, and Relevant Learning in Africa." This was adopted by the AU Summit at its 36th session which was held in Addis Ababa in 2023.

The decision to focus on education this year was following the UN Secretary-General's Global Summit on Transforming Education which took place in 2022. And throughout the month of May this year, we have partnered with a number of different agencies including UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, ITU, UNHCR, and the World Bank to engage in strategic dialogs with policymakers, academia, civil society, and the private sector on the theme: Education through Science, Technology, and Innovation towards the Africa we want.

The African Union's theme itself aims to mobilize and this is part of this mobilization to create the full implementation of the AU's ten-year continental education strategy for Africa 2016-2025. This strategy is also a blueprint to create an education system and skills development that build quality human capital to deliver the aspirations of the AUs agenda 2063 as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.

Against this background, the ADS has partnered and organized a series of activities and events over the past three weeks, and the idea was to amplify and change the narrative towards fostering global consensus on innovative solutions to achieve our development agendas. I have the pleasure today, to not only welcome you but also welcome this esteemed panel to present remarks on the theme of this year. With that, I have the distinct pleasure to start by welcoming His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, to make his remarks.

You have the floor, Secretary-General.

*This text is an AI-generated transcript of the statement, which was obtained from an archived video recording of the event. It is not an official text of the statement.