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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

THE 6th session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (AFRFSD) opens in Victoria Falls on Monday with President  Mnangagwa expected to officiate at the event the following day.

African Union deputy chairperson Ambassador Kwesi Quartey, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Ms Vera Songwe and UN deputy Secretary-General Ms Amina Mohamed, who is expected to visit Hwange National Park today as part of her climate change visits to selected areas, are among high ranking delegates who will attend.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima is also expected in Victoria Falls today.

Representatives of regional and international bodies such as the African Peer Review Mechanism, AU Commission, Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs) of the African Union, Southern African Development Community (SADC), African Development Bank (AfDB) and development partners are expected at the summit.

Each member state is expected to send at least two ministers.

Some delegates started arriving yesterday with the majority expected today and tomorrow for the four-day summit which seeks to review progress made by the continent in implementing and monitoring the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Chief Director in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Mr Clifford Matorera recently said 1 400 delegates from Africa and beyond will attend the forum.

The summit seeks to conduct a regional follow-up and review of progress made, facilitate peer learning and advance transformative solutions and actions to accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063 goals.

It will be a high-level indaba compared to the previous five editions as, for first time, all the SDGs will be discussed in one meeting.

According to the programme, the summit will kick off with a special session of the Regional Co-ordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa) on Monday before a youth engagement forum whose aim is to inspire African youths to actively participate and contribute to the continent’s present and future economies.

There will also be a workshop to review and strengthen the voluntary integrated national report for Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Agenda 2063 on Monday.

President Mnangagwa will officially open the summit on Tuesday morning followed by panel discussions by Ministers representing different SDG goals. The panel discussions are spread between Monday and Thursday.

Zimbabwe will also assume leadership of AFRFSD during the conference making the country the voice of the continent. — @ncubeleon