The President of the UN General Assembly Mr Sam Kutesa has been requested to use his tenure to articulate more on the African owned initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) so that the narrative of Africa’s development can be more profound.

Mrs Fatuma Nyirakobwa Chairperson of the Africa Peer Review Panel of Eminent persons made the call when she and the CEO of NEPAD Dr Ibrahim Mayaki held a meeting with Mr Kutesa, focused on exploring areas of cooperation with the UN. Mr Kutesa, Uganda’s former Foreign Minister was elected president of the General Assembly in September 2014.

Dr Mayaki gave a status update on a number of regional infrastructure projects in Africa and the multi-stakeholder partnership with the Africa Development Bank, African Union Commission and other development entities to have these projects implemented.

He said that the crucial issue regarding infrastructure projects as not necessarily lack of financing, but the absence of bankable projects.

On the Post 2015 Agenda, they reaffirmed the Common Africa Position on the global development debate saying that it was crucial for Africa’s priorities to well-accounted for in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline of 2015 approaching, few of these targets have been achieved, and there is now a robust repositioning on a post 2015 deadline agenda.Seventeen SDG’s with 169 targets that are action oriented are now being presented to replace MDGs.

These development targets will be discussed by the African Union in Addis Ababa next July, before finally be adopted by the United Nations in September 2105