Africa’s road to BAPA+40

This report documents a two-day workshop held in June 2018 by the Network of Southern Think Tanks (NeST) to identify African priorities and policy recommendations for the BAPA+40 conference. The discussions focused on redefining South-South Cooperation (SSC), aligning the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with Africa's Agenda 2063, improving monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks, and addressing infrastructure and economic structural transformation.

• The BAPA+40 conference, hosted by Argentina in 2019, is viewed as a critical opportunity to review South-South Cooperation (SSC) and adapt it to the 21st century's multipolar global development landscape. Participants emphasized that the conference must "go beyond the status quo" and move toward an "action-oriented outcome document" that considers regional realities and local capacities in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• There is a significant lack of a common, standardized definition and measurement system for SSC, which hinders data collection, transparency, and accountability. The NeST conceptual framework, developed in 2015, proposes a guide to measure quantity, quality, and impact, arguing that a "common definition to allow for a standard process of data collection, analysis, reporting and publishing" is essential for BAPA+40.
• African priorities for SSC are heavily linked to Agenda 2063, with a particular focus on wealth creation and the domestication of goals into national development plans. NEPAD's analysis identifies key enablers of poverty and inequality as "education, literacy and skills; science, technology and innovation, energy and water security, infrastructure, institutions and peace and security."
• Infrastructure remains a critical bottleneck for African development, with substantial funding and technical capacity gaps. In Sub-Saharan Africa, "43% of people have access to electricity (23% in rural areas), with nearly 588 million people not having access to electricity," and only 34% of rural Africans live within two kilometres of an all-season road.
• Civil society organizations (CSOs) in Africa are often "muted in SSC" due to a lack of integrated frameworks and a tendency for engagements to be "paternalistic," where CSOs play a subservient role to governments. There is a call for SSC to incorporate governance issues such as "inclusive development, democracy, human rights, transparency and accountability."
• The link between peace and development is identified as a necessary thematic area for BAPA+40, as the original 1978 BAPA document did not mention peace or security. While BRICS and Agenda 2063 recognize these links, tensions exist between the principle of "non-interference and sovereignty" and the practicalities of peacekeeping and the "responsibility to protect."

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2018). Africa’s road to BAPA+40. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NeST-Workshop-report_June2018.pdf

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Africa’s road to BAPA+40. 2018. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NeST-Workshop-report_June2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Africa’s road to BAPA+40 |date=June 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NeST-Workshop-report_June2018.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2018africas, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Africa’s road to BAPA+40}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NeST-Workshop-report_June2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }