By: Helmut Mahogo
General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Claver Gatete, called for domestic resource mobilisation as the foundation of Africa’s economic transformation.
Gatete said this as he addressed the 49th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union that commenced on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The event is being held under the theme: “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063.”
In reference to the ECA, Gatete said, “we are helping Member States to strengthen tax administration, digitise revenue systems, combat illicit financial flows, deepen domestic capital markets, mobilise innovative financing, and build stronger fiscal institutions to finance industrial development.”
“Yes, resources matter, but so does how we deploy them; for Africa, the implications are unmistakable,” said Gatete.
He drew attention to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
The current conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran has led to the unpredictable state of the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to the global oil supply chokehold compounding the challenges that Africa needs to navigate on its way to industrialisation.
“Our response therefore must be as integrated as the challenges themselves,” Getete said.
On the need for water availability and sanitation, Gatete said, “Today more than 400 million Africans still lack access to basic drinking water, while over 700 million people remain without safely managed sanitation.”
A 2025 World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report, which tracked water supply, sanitation and hygiene data FROM 2000-2024, recorded slow progress in access to water, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the report, 840 million people or 68% of the region’s population, had access to at least basic water services in 2024, which was 59% higher compared to figures seen in 2014.
The number of people with this level of access to water is still very low, especially in rural areas, at only 53% in 2024, which was up from 44% in 2014. The slow progress has been attributed to the inability to keep up with demographic growth.
One of the reasons behind this mismatch is “service delivery failure, lack of sector prioritisation and weak governance,” according to the World Bank.
SADC’s Integrated Water Resources Development and Management Phase V, which ran from 2021-2025, records that the bloc’s population comprises a large rural population with 70% of its rural population relying on groundwater and thus underscoring the need to manage both surface and groundwater resources in the region.
According to the Plan, SADC’s population in 2018 was recorded at 345.2 million, and 2 years before that in 2016, SADC estimates provided that 37% of SADC’s population lack access to adequate safe drinking water whilst a staggering 63% lack access to adequate sanitation services.
“These deficits undermine health, productivity, food security and human dignity, while slowing progress towards Agenda 2063. Africa’s future depends not on pursuing isolated priorities, but on connecting water security, industrialization, climate action, finance and regional integration into a single development agenda.” Gatete stated as he concluded.
