The two-day event will evaluate, identify, and explore regulatory and structural enablers to achieve democratic governance, peace, and security in the continent.

According to the AU, Africa is gifted with natural resources, but its most important source of development is its people. It is Africans who bring to reality the fulfillment of achieving Agenda 2063 driven by the organization.

The region’s leaders prioritized the need to boost trade between countries to reduce their vulnerability and improve trade and economic performance with the vision of making the continent a global power.

The AFCFTA was founded for this purpose and came into force on May 30, 2019. It is known as the largest free trade area in the world, and was created to remove barriers and boost trade between member states, promote the exchange of value-added production in all service sectors of the African economy, contribute to the establishment of value chains, and enable investment and job creation, promoting industrialization and the development of scientific and human capital, thereby improving Africa’s competitiveness.

It is expected that when the AFCFTA becomes fully operational it can lift more than 30 million people out of extreme poverty and boost intra-African trade up to 450 billion dollars by 2035.

Despite these aspirations, the AU warned of the lack of good governance, challenges to peace, security, and stability, impunity, human rights violations and disregard for the rule of law and justice that are leading the continent on a destructive path.

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