The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) have reached a major milestone in their joint efforts to promote environmentally sustainable trade in Africa. During the 72nd ARSO Council Meeting, held from 23 to 24 June 2025 in Zanzibar as part of the 31st ARSO General Assembly, ten new African Sustainability Standards were officially approved—representing a significant output of the ongoing Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between ECA and ARSO.

The ten newly approved standards provide comprehensive guidance on ecolabelling and sustainability practices across key sectors—including construction, textiles, fashion, mining, tourism, and agriculture. These standards were developed by ARSO’s Technical Committee (TC61) on sustainability standards and are aligned with international principles of standardization, ensuring credibility, transparency, and broad applicability.

With just five years left to meet global and continental development targets, African governments are shifting the way they plan and finance national priorities. The focus is turning toward long-term, integrated planning that links policy ambition with realistic budgeting and resource strategies.

This evolving approach was the focus of a side event at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), co-organized by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), UN DESA and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The session explored how African countries are applying future-oriented planning methods to address persistent financing challenges and accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063.

Rather than tackling development bottlenecks in isolation, participants stressed the importance of systems thinking, looking at the broader structures that give rise to gaps in infrastructure, development financing and social spending. Linking planning with budgeting, implementation and institutional capacity was presented as essential for making better use of limited resources

“Long-term planning pushes countries to think beyond the immediate, ensuring that development strategies are more adaptive, coordinated and resilient,” said Nassim Oulmane, Chief of the Green and Blue Economy Section at ECA.

Reports of troop movements and sporadic clashes in northern Ethiopia have emerged in recent months, feeding concern that a fragile calm could soon collapse. The region is still reeling from the brutal two-year civil war between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal government forces — a conflict that claimed an estimated 600,000 lives before it ended with the Pretoria peace agreement in November 2022…During that war, Eritrean troops supported Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s campaign against the TPLF. But critics warned at the time that peace would remain fragile without Eritrea at the negotiating table. President Isaias Afwerki, who has ruled Eritrea for decades, was notably absent from the talks in the South African’s administrative capital, Pretoria. Now, growing fears of renewed violence point towards Eritrea’s involvement. Another destabilizing factor is the political turmoil within Tigray itself. The once-dominant TPLF has fractured after internal power struggles — a vulnerability Eritrea could potentially exploit…The Eritrean military is reportedly strengthening its positions near the Tigray border and may have advanced up to 10 kilometers into Ethiopian territory, according to The Sentry. DW

South Sudan’s main opposition party on Thursday dismissed a presidential call for dialogue to avoid the country slipping back into a civil war due to stalled peace talks. Pal Mai Deng, a spokesperson for the opposition SPLM-IO, said President Salva Kiir “must release political and military leaders of the SPLM-IO who are in detention to show his seriousness about the dialogue.” During the reopening of parliament on Wednesday, Kiir said there was a need for unity and national reconciliation, adding that the “doors of peace remain open.” “The suffering of our people must not be prolonged by the continued rejection of dialogue,” he said. The situation in South Sudan remains tense after Vice President Riek Machar — Kiir’s former rival — was placed under house arrest following an attack on army bases in March. Several members of the SPLM-IO opposition party have gone into exile fearing arrests. South Sudan signed a peace agreement in 2018, ending a five-year civil war in which nearly 400,000 people died as forces loyal to Kiir and Machar clashed…The United Nation warned last month that a 2018 peace agreement was on the verge of collapse due to escalating violence, political repression, and foreign military involvement. AP