Deputy Secretary-General's remarks at School of Oriental and African Studies - Africa Development Forum [as prepared for delivery].

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for inviting me to this gathering.

I am especially inspired to know that this forum, now in its eighth year, is a student-driven undertaking. 30 years ago, my friend brought me here to listen to various African activist.

Let me start by thanking my friend and former colleague Baroness Valerie Amos for her leadership at SOAS and previously at the United Nations when she headed our relief operations.

We were together during a period when the world faced multiple humanitarian crises and also when the international community was shaping the Sustainable Development Goals. Her voice was invaluable across the board.

Let me also welcome the good ties between SOAS and the United Nations. As you know Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was here in November 2017 to deliver a major speech on preventing terrorism.

So I am pleased to be with you and feel very much at home.

You are focusing today on 'in.security' in Africa - insecurity in the broadest sense, not only in terms of armed conflict but also matters such as food, jobs, climate change, natural resources and the digital world.

Africans are taking determined steps to boost security in these and many other dimensions.

There is enormous dynamism across the continent, not least thanks to young people.

Entrepreneurship is up, and e-commerce is expanding.

More women are serving in parliaments.

Africans have set forth their own vision in the African Union's Agenda 2063 -- a blueprint aligned with but more ambitious than the 2030 Agenda -- for building an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, 'the Africa we want'.

The African Continental Free Trade Area will advance economic empowerment and create one of the world's largest markets, with 1.2 billion consumers,

Africans have also committed to 'silencing the guns' by 2020.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have reached a historic peace agreement. Peace processes in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, along with peaceful elections in Madagascar and Guinea Bissau, are encouraging signs of progress.

Long-running peacekeeping missions have closed down in Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia, marking a new phase in the transition of those countries out of conflict. A peacekeeping mission in Darfur, which not too long ago was the largest in the world, is gradually drawing down, reflecting a marked decrease in violent conflict in the area.

Indeed, this is why the Secretary-General talks about 'strong winds of hope' blowing across the African continent and has taken strong steps to strengthen ties with the African Union.

Africa shows remarkable generosity and solidarity in hosting nearly a third of the world's refugees and internally displaced persons - far...