In July 2018, the African Union (AU) Assembly through Dec.691(XXXI endorsed the reform of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) into the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD). As Africa’s first-ever continental technical and development agency of the AU, AUDA-NEPAD aims to accelerate the implementation of Africa’s 50-year development framework—Agenda 2063 towards a prosperous Africa which is driven by its own citizens and is globally competitive. The foundation of AUDA-NEPAD is built on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). NEPAD was established as Africa’s continental renewal and development programme by the OAU (now AU) Heads of State and Government Summit in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia, and championed through the then NEPAD Secretariat, based in Midrand, South Africa. 

The NEPAD vision represented a pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision and shared conviction, to eradicate poverty and foster Africa’s sustainable economic growth and development through the promotion of regional and continental integration; halt the marginalisation of Africa in global processes and enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy; and accelerate the empowerment of socially disadvantaged groups, such as women and children. 

Embracing the ever-evolving demands and complexities of Africa in the 21st Century and the need to fully respond to country-needs, the 2010 AU Summit (Assembly/AU/Dec.283(XIV)), transformed the NEPAD Secretariat into the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency). This included a change in the mandate, with the Agency formally flagged as the AU’s technical implementation support agency and integrated into AU systems and processes. 

AUDA-NEPAD has therefore been undergoing a complete transition into the Development Agency of the AU to lead the accelerated implementation of Agenda 2063 and the emerging second Ten-Year Plan of Agenda 2063 towards re-imagining innovation-led models that are people-centred and inclusive. The approach builds on key lessons from the execution of the first ten-years of Agenda 2063 while gearing itself to systematically facilitate the mitigation of risks by Member States to stabilise inclusive growth. Within the ambitions of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) geared to position Africa as a major production hub strategically, the challenge now is to rapidly foster discovery and scale up the best of African solutions and innovations. The Agency is therefore seeking to consolidate efforts towards a critical pathway that strikes a balance to simultaneously help address short-term demands while pursuing long-term goals through industrialisation to spur socio-economic transformation.