From February 24th to 27th, Paul Zakariya, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU), already a member of the WFO Working Groups on Value Chain and Livestock attended on behalf of the World Farmers’ Organisation, the Sixth Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD 2020) in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

ARFSD 2020 was co-organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Government of Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the AU Commission (AUC), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UN system. It brought together nearly 3,000 delegates in plenary and parallel sessions over the four days, holding more than 60 preparatory and side events.

As Africa’s official preparatory event for the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), the Forum theme was aligned to the 2020 HLPF theme, ‘Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.’

The Forum was designed to provide an action-oriented, multi-stakeholder platform to rally member states and partners to explore, gain insight into, share and agree on sets of concrete and workable solutions actions to achieve the aspiration of “leaving no one behind” and creating an inclusive, resilient and sustainable world.

According to an integrated approach to the review of the 17 SDGs, the discussions were clustered around five sub-themes, dubbed “the five Ps”: People (SDGs 1-5); Prosperity (SDGs 10-11); Planet (SDGs 6, 12, 13 and 15); Peace (SDG16); and Partnerships (SDG 17).

The Forum culminated with the adoption of the ‘Victoria Falls Declaration on the UN Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development in Africa,‘ as well as an outcome summary report and key messages containing Africa’s priorities and policy measures to speed up implementation of the SDGs.