The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) released its 2024 annual report on Monday, highlighting significant milestones in peace, security, integration, and sustainable development throughout the region.
The report indicates that IGAD strengthened food systems resilience, improved natural resource management, enhanced the capacity to withstand climate change impacts, fostered a favorable trade environment, supported vulnerable communities, and established peace and security in the region while enhancing service delivery.
IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu remarked that while the year faced enormous challenges, it also brought a glimmer of hope and tangible progress.
“The year 2024 will be remembered as a pivotal period for the IGAD region—a time when the interconnected crises of conflict, climate change, food insecurity, public health threats, and economic instability tested the fabric of our societies. Yet, it is also a year when collective action, guided by the principles of solidarity, cooperation, and innovation, paved the way for hope and tangible progress,” Workneh said in his opening speech.
According to sustainable financial hub, protracted drought in 2023 exposed 23.4 million people in the IGAD region to food insecurity including 2.7 million displaced.
Gebeyehu assured that IGAD will persist in its mission to elevate the living standards of vulnerable populations within the region.
The IGAD region encompasses a total area of 5.2 million square kilometers and is home to over 221.3 million individuals across its eight member nations, which include Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
In 2018, the regional organization facilitated a peace accord between the South Sudanese government and opposition factions, which led to the establishment of the current revitalized agreement aimed at resolving the South Sudan conflict.
However, following a recent resurgence of violence due to clashes in Nasir, located in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State, opposition groups and some critics assert that the peace accord is at risk of collapsing.
Since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan on April 15, 2023, IGAD has initiated a mediation process to resolve the situation. Yet, numerous efforts to bring about peace in Sudan have yet to yield successful results, as violence persists and thousands have been displaced into neighboring countries.
