The quality of elections in Africa is on the decline, accompanied by an increase in human rights violations, as reported by Dr. Franklin Oduro, the Ethiopian Country Director for the National Democratic Institute.

Dr. Oduro made this statement during a meeting held to assess the 10-year progress of the African Union's Agenda 2063 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

He referenced multiple Afrobarometer publications and good governance reports, which he claimed showed that the provision of democracy fell short of the citizens' deserving demand on the continent.

"We [Africa] cannot achieve our developmental goals if we don’t put a good governance system to manage the issue….in the next 10 years, we must look at how we can reverse the decline of good governance, democracy, respect for human right and rule of law," he said.

Agenda 2063, a 50-year transformational plan, encapsulates Africa’s Aspirations for the Future and identifies key Flagship Programmes that can boost Africa’s economic growth and development and lead to the rapid transformation of the continent.

One of the key expectations of the first ten years of Agenda 2063 implementation strategy is entrenched democratic practices, human rights and the rule of law.

Dr. Oduro argued that whereas the Agenda is comprehensive with steps taken to make it actionable, Africa does not have the leadership to drive its agenda 2063 and defend the interest of Africa.

Adding that “I think the quality of leadership we have in Africa today speaks about whether this plan will succeed or not”.  

He observed also that political parties on the continent do not contextualize their manifestoes citing the African agenda, agenda 2063 saying “those who seek to govern are not even aware of the aspirations of the continent”.

Dr. Oduro recommended domestication and citizenship ownership of the plan which he said continues to be a challenge.

The meeting was organized by the All Africa Conference of Churches, in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the African Union ECOSOCC.