About the Conference

AKADEMIYA2063 is an international Africa-based non-profit research organization with headquarters in Kigali, Rwanda, and a regional office in Dakar, Senegal. Inspired by the ambitions of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and grounded in the recognition of the central importance of strong knowledge and evidence-based systems, the vision of AKADEMIYA2063 is an Africa with the expertise we need for the Africa we want. This expertise must be responsive to the continent’s needs for data and analysis to ensure high-quality policy design and execution. Inclusive, evidence-informed policymaking is key to meeting the continent’s development aspirations, creating wealth, and changing livelihoods for the better.

AKADEMIYA2063’s overall mission is to create, across Africa and led from its headquarters in Rwanda, state-of-the-art technical capacities to support the efforts by the Member States of the African Union to achieve the key goals of Agenda 2063 of transforming national economies to boost economic growth and prosperity.

Following from its vision and mission, the main goal of AKADEMIYA2063 is to help meet Africa’s needs at the continental, regional and national levels in terms of data, analytics, and mutual learning for the effective implementation of Agenda 2063 and the realization of its outcomes by a critical mass of countries. AKADEMIYA2063 strives to meet its goals through programs organized under five strategic areas—policy innovation, knowledge systems, capacity creation and deployment, operational support, and data management, digital products, and technology—as well as innovative partnerships and outreach activities. For more information, please visit: www.akademiya2063.org.

The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE) of the African Union Commission is mandated to boost AU Member States’ rural development and contributing to boosting economic growth, bringing down poverty and raising standards of living through agricultural productivity, improving food security and nutrition, exploring and developing the potential of the largest sectors of the Blue Economy, promoting technology transfer and strengthening resilience and adaptation to extreme climatic changes.

The Department’s mode of delivery is to support the adoption of measures, strategies, policies, and programs related and tied with these areas and their implementation within continental frameworks and policy areas endorsed by AU Policy Organs, and in pursuance of the First Aspiration of the AU Agenda 2063: “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”. The Department is mandated and has been assigned responsibility to lead, coordinate, support, facilitate and work closely with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the AU Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and other partners with similar mandate and mission.

ARBE’s Strategic Objective is to enhance economic transformation, sustainable growth, climate change action and investment in the African People. The Department developed its 2023-2025 Action Plan that aims to achieve on 25 priority areas. Visit: https://au.int/en/arbe.

The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) is a Moroccan think tank aiming to contribute to the improvement of economic and social public policies that challenge Morocco and the rest of Africa as integral parts of the global South. The PCNS pleads for an open, accountable, and enterprising “new South” that defines its own narratives and mental maps around the Mediterranean and South Atlantic basins, as part of a forward-looking relationship with the rest of the world. Through its analytical endeavors, the think tank aims to support the development of public policies in Africa and to give the floor to experts from the South. This stance is focused on dialogue and partnership and aims to cultivate African expertise and excellence needed for the accurate analysis of African and global challenges and the suggestion of appropriate solutions.

As such, the PCNS brings together researchers, publishes their work and capitalizes on a network of renowned partners, representative of different regions of the world. The PCNS hosts a series of gatherings of different formats and scales throughout the year, the most important being the annual international conferences “The Atlantic Dialogues” and “African Peace and Security Annual Conference” (APSACO).

Finally, the think tank is developing a community of young leaders through the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program(ADEL) a space for cooperation and networking between a new generation of decision-makers from the government, business, and civil society sectors. Through this initiative, which already counts more than 300 members, the Policy Center for the New South contributes to intergenerational dialogue and the emergence of tomorrow’s leaders. Visit: https://www.policycenter.ma/.