As part of the commitments to support rapid progress of Africa’s sustainable development and the full achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, African and global leaders in government, business, academia and civil society will meet in January next year for the official launch of the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A) headquarters in Kigali.

The launch will be part of the activities scheduled alongside the ‘Expediting the Implementation of Africa’s 2030’ international conference scheduled from January 27-28 at the Kigali Marriott Hotel.

At media breakfast last week, the Director General of (SDGC/A) Dr. Belay Begashaw told journalists that the SDGC/A works towards building upon the existing successes of the African continent focusing on education, policy and innovation by bringing together people, ideas, and innovation from across the world to collectively build a more sustainable future.

"The Sustainable Development Goals are 17, and that’s too many as compared to Millennium Development Goals but we are going to have focal institutions for SDGs in all countries and so far, we have established offices in about 15 countries and are working on finalising in the rest of the countries in the near future,” he said.

Begashaw said that there was need to rethink some strategies about how to improve on sectors like agriculture which employs 80 percent of the population in Africa. He pointed out that although 65 percent of the world’s arid land is in Africa, the continent is still importing agricultural products to a tune of about $35 billion a year.

"Agriculture is still the major employer and yet, it still has its limitations. The issue of food security will get worse by 2050 because our food consumption will increase by 50 percent due to an increase of the population. There is a challenge ahead and we have to start finding ways of doing things differently, how to improve on productivity, how to use the best technology to change the agricultural situation in Africa,” he said.

The Kigali office will be the headquarters of the center with regional offices in South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya.

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