Seeking African Solutions
The 35th AU Summit calls for renewed approaches to key issues
Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and security topped the African Union (AU) Summit agenda this year, despite the theme being “Building Resilience in Nutrition on the African Continent: Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development.” African heads of state and government held their 35th session at the African Union Commission (AUC) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 5-6. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the AU.
AUC Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat called for a new approach in addressing security on the continent. He warned that no part of the international community can be reassured about its fate when all the other parts are not, adding that the crisis of multilateralism is real and significant in this respect.
Senegalese President Macky Sall, who took over as the new AU chairperson, wants to focus on peace in the continent during his one-year term and yet he said the problems of unemployment, insecurity and terrorism are issues affecting the entire world, and are not a reason for the military to take up arms and carry out coups and regime changes in Africa.
In July last year, the 55-member AU bloc launched a continental Green Recovery Action Plan 2021-27 to facilitate a recovery that is both inclusive and environmentally friendly, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The AU Commission for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment estimates that about 30-40 million Africans fell into hunger as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a rise of 270-280 million hungry Africans.
According to Sall, Africa has come a long way in development and integration. “We have made major strides, but the journey is still long for us to reach our common objectives. Agenda 2063 has set the foundation and set the goals,” he said.
Revisiting international partnerships
Although there is increased interest in the continent, the AU observed that this interest has not yet translated into substantial development in favor of Africa.
“The AU needs to revisit its approach to partnerships,” said Faki, adding that such partnerships should focus
on concrete, transformative and integrating mega projects in the five priority areas of peace and security, infrastructure and energy, climate change, innovative development financing, and training youth and women’s empowerment.
With more than 1.3 billion inhabitants, Africa has more than 30 million square km of land. Sall recited the continent’s potential that includes important reserves of water, 60 percent of the world’s arable land, hydrocarbon and 40 percent of the world’s gold reserves. He also said that Africa has 85 to 95 percent of the world’s metal reserves, including chrome platinum, more than 50 percent of cobalt and a third in the reserves of oxide.
Despite all this potential, Sall said Africa’s economy is severely underfinanced, due to the rules and rigid procedures of international financial institutions that impedes the access of crucial finance for development.
The chairperson also stated that the perception of investment risk in Africa remains higher than the real risk on the ground, which in fact increases the interest rate that penalizes the competitiveness of African economies. Sall called on AU members to concentrate their efforts to reform international economic and financial governance.
Amany Asfour, President of the Africa Business Council, which represents the African private sector, told Chinafrica that dealing with international partners has to be done on an equal basis in a win-win situation. “Investment from international partners within the continent should be based on value addition and job creation, transfer of technology, as well as value addition to the raw materials.”
It is very important to identify “what are our needs, and what are the investment opportunities so that the international partners can invest in accordance to our agenda,” said Asfour.
Speaking to Chinafrica, Mabingué Ngom, Senior Advisor to Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Director of the UNFPA Representation Office to the AU, sees opportunities for the continent in finding powerful solutions to move the African agenda forward.
“The summit was a unique opportunity for the leadership of the continent to find quality ways to address peace and security, development issues and the needs of the people,” said Ngom, who is optimistic that in the future Africa will find better partnerships that will accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2063 – the AU’S blueprint for a prosperous Africa.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a message to the summit, also expressed his commitment that China stands ready to work with the Africa to actively implement Agenda 2063 and the building of the African Continental Free Trade Area, so as to bring China-africa cooperation to a higher level, with more extensive fields.
The summit was a unique opportunity for the leadership of the continent to find quality ways to address peace and security, development issues and the needs of the people.
MABINGUÉ NGOM Senior Advisor to Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund and Director of UNFPA Representation Office to the AU
Response to pandemic
Although the AU says it has been working hard to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through high level ministerial meetings to raise awareness, leaders’ raised concerns about unavailability of vaccines for most Africans.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the African Medicines Agency (AMA) are charged to play leading roles in promoting Africa’s public health strategy and leading the implementation of the AU strategy of resistance, and future triumph against the pandemic and other public health issues.
At the summit, where access to vaccine was one of the major topics, the acquisition of vaccines and their manufacture in Africa is high points on the agenda of the continental strategy. A number of countries have expressed interest to manufacture the vaccines by themselves.
Faki asked the African leaders to support the Africa CDC, and said the impact of COVID-19 resulted in a contraction in growth of 2.1 percent in 2020 and an increase in the debt ratio by 10 points of GDP, necessitating a continental strategy that will focus on the identification of innovative sources of financing, debt cancellation and reducing the harmful effects of the pandemic on economies.
Ngom is confident about the ongoing work being done by the AU to make positive changes to vaccine roll-outs, but also believes how the continent makes itself better prepared for future pandemics. Meanwhile, Asfour said Africa needs to build the capacity of the private sector, with reference to manufacturing vaccines, where only less than 2 percent of people are vaccinated.
“We need to see how we build the industry of our pharmaceuticals to meet demands,” she said, adding that it must also be seen that African countries make investments in order to build the capacity to cope with the pandemic.