On June 21, 2022, Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, representing it, attended the launch event of the third edition of the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development – at the Marriott Hotel Zamalek – as one of the important initiatives launched by Egypt during its chairmanship of the African Union in 2019, to discuss the challenges facing African continent, and put forward comprehensive responses that strengthen the relationship between peace, security and sustainable development. The conference was inaugurated by Mr. Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the President of the Republic, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi addressed the Forum, noting that the forum this year is taking place at a very critical timing, in which the international community suffers from increasing tensions, which have far-reaching consequences for the various political, economic and developmental levels, and which effects are also reflected on African countries, especially on food and energy security, to be added to the total health, social and economic repercussions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, which the countries of the continent are still suffering from its negative effects. Hence, President El-Sisi called for the necessity of enhancing joint efforts in order to confront these challenges, thus to achieve peace, security and sustainable development across the continent.

In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal, the current Chairperson of the African Union, the Minister of Agriculture of South Sudan, the Minister of Agriculture of Ivory Coast, and Ms. Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, participated in the Forum. The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed a message to the Forum, in which he referred to the tense international conditions due to the war in Ukraine and its devastating repercussions on food security and climate throughout the world, praising the Aswan Forum as a high-level platform that produces useful conclusions that can be used in tackling the crises and challenges facing the African continent.

In a related context, it should be noted that the agenda of the Aswan Forum includes the repercussions of climate change on peace, security and development. It also included, for the first time during this Forum, organizing a youth dialogue with the aim of discussing ways to activate the participation of African youth to advance resilient societies able to achieve sustainable peace and development, especially against climate change. In the framework of Egypt’s leadership in post-conflict reconstruction and development in Africa, it is expected that the rich discussions during the Forum will have a positive impact on the work of the relevant African Union Center, which was launched in December 2021 in Cairo.