Report on the follow-up on the Ouagadougou 2004 summit: employment, poverty eradication and inclusive development in Africa

In 2004, the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Governments of the African Union adopted a Declaration and a Plan of Action on Employment and Poverty Alleviation, with their Follow-Up Mechanism. After ten years of implementation, the challenges of high levels of unemployment and underemployment are still prevalent. The assessment of the Ouagadougou 2004 Extraordinary Summit highlights the following: the implementation was limited by the weak institutional capacity at national regional and continental levels, limited financial resources, lack of capacity building and the wide range of Key Priority Areas contained in the Plan of Action. Other factors relate to the absence of targets and indicators which would facilitate the planning and follow up by Member States, and to the weak coordination with the undertakings by international development partners.