This background paper highlights Africa’s uneven trajectory toward achieving the SDGs by 2030, where progress in areas such as health and renewable energy contrasts with persistent challenges of poverty, food insecurity, and education, compounded by climate shocks, global inequities, and the COVID-19 pandemic. With Sub-Saharan Africa lagging behind global averages, the paper argues that the UN’s traditional, externally driven approaches have often misaligned with Africa’s needs, emphasizing the need for sustainable, locally led solutions. It positions the UN 2.0 framework as a timely opportunity to reconceive the Africa-UN partnership by equipping the UN with the skills and tools to foster African leadership, strengthen domestic resource mobilization, and embed inclusive, future-ready strategies into Africa’s development ecosystem, while reinforcing the continent’s central role in shaping global governance.
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