REGINALD CHAPFUNGA
For governments choosing between servicing debt and funding schools, hospitals and electricity, the success of the United Nations Pact for the Future will not be measured by declarations. It will depend on whether the agreement produces financing, jobs and services that people can experience in their daily lives.
African leaders say progress has begun since the Pact was adopted in 2024, but its promises on development finance, digital inclusion, youth empowerment and global governance have yet to translate into change at the required scale.
“I have engaged with finance officials facing difficult choices between servicing debt and funding schools, power and health,” United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Executive Secretary Claver Gatete said. “And I have met farmers who need climate information, irrigation, insurance and access to markets.”
The Pact for the Future contains 56 actions covering peace and security, sustainable development, financing, science and technology, youth, future generations and reform of global governance. It was adopted alongside the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.
Africa played a significant role in negotiating the agreement. Namibia co-facilitated the Pact, Zambia co-facilitated the Global Digital Compact and African states supported calls for reform of the international financial system.
H.E. President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of Namibia said Africa’s experience would provide an important test of the agreement’s credibility.
“The Pact aligns with Africa’s Agenda 2063, presenting an opportunity to advance the continent’s developmental priorities as it also focuses on peace, stability, inclusive growth and digital transformation,” President Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
Progress, but not at sufficient scale
Some steps have been taken globally. The UN General Assembly established a dialogue on artificial intelligence governance and an independent international scientific panel on AI. Governments have also begun discussing measurements of development that go beyond gross domestic product to include wellbeing, resilience and long-term sustainability.
The African Union Commission said the continent had connected 50 million more people to electricity within two years and developed new mechanisms to advance digital transformation. The Africa 2035 digital implementation roadmap was also presented as a framework for accelerating the continent’s digital development.
However, African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi said the meaningful test was whether the Pact changed Africa’s ability to finance development and created opportunities for young people.
“It is whether the Pact’s commitments are changing the way Africa finances its development and whether the economy that this finance builds offers young Africans a future,” Haddadi said.
Namibia has introduced free tertiary education, including tuition and registration fees, after decades of providing free primary and secondary education. It has also established a National Youth Development Fund to support young entrepreneurs and address unemployment.
President Nandi-Ndaitwah said domestic resource mobilisation had supported some of these interventions, but external financing remained a significant challenge.
“Africa is not asking for free money,” she said. “Africa wants fairness. We want justice for us to develop.”
Debt limits investment in services
High borrowing costs and debt repayments continue to reduce the money available for infrastructure, education, healthcare and employment programmes.
The Pact calls for reform of the international financial architecture, including measures addressing debt, the cost of capital, access to affordable long-term finance and the representation of developing countries in global institutions.
Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said these reforms would determine whether African governments could invest in economic transformation.
“For Africa, these reforms determine our capacity to invest in infrastructure, education, health, jobs and economic transformation,” the minister said.
H.E. President William Ruto of Kenya called for a consolidated African implementation report, jointly prepared by the African Union and ECA, to measure progress and identify areas requiring further action.
“Our task is to turn its commitments into implementation, financing of our development and results that Africans can see and feel in their own lives,” President Ruto said.
Gatete also proposed an annual Africa-focused dashboard linking the Pact’s commitments with Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Success will not be measured by the number of meetings we hold, but by whether jobs are being created,” he said.
Digital promise meets connectivity gap
The Global Digital Compact offers African countries an opportunity to participate in international decisions on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Yet limited internet access may prevent millions of people from benefiting.
With only 36 per cent of Africa’s population online, Zambia’s representative said connectivity remained the first gateway to participation in the AI economy.
“Africa therefore needs investment in digital infrastructure, computing capacity and skills to participate, not merely as a consumer, but as a shaper of emerging technologies,” he said.
The digital divide is particularly important on a continent where more than 60 per cent of the population is young. By 2050, one in every four people globally is expected to be African.
African leaders said youth participation must consequently extend beyond representation at international meetings to measurable access to education, skills, finance, entrepreneurship and decent employment.
The Pact’s implementation will be formally reviewed in stages, culminating in a high-level review in 2028. African representatives said those reviews should establish where commitments had produced results, where gaps remained and what still needed financing.
The discussion, titled Two Years After the Pact for the Future: Progress on Implementation, Challenges and Opportunities for Africa, was held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
