UN secretary-general António Guterres. Picture: File.
Johannesburg - Delivering his remarks at the AU Summit yesterday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, UN secretary-general António Guterres expressed his support for an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.
He praised the many AU initiatives aimed at bringing about this vision for the continent — including Agenda 2063, a blueprint for the Africa of the future, and the Decade of Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion — and the decision to focus on the African Continental Free Trade Area at the summit.
“This represents a truly transformative pathway to job creation and new sources of prosperity for Africans, especially the youth,” he said.
He added that he underestimated the “enormous tests” Africa was facing, crises that are “greater than any in our lifetimes” and demanded action.
Economically, Guterres called for more financial support for a continent that is, he said, being hit by a dysfunctional and unfair financial system, inequalities in the availability of resources for the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Guterres said the financial system routinely denied African countries debt relief and charged extortionate interest rates, starving them of investment in vital areas such as health, education and social protection.
The answer, according to Guterres, was a radical transformation of the international financial system, centred on the needs of developing countries.
The UN chief said his hope for the continent in the 21st century was that this could be Africa’s century and that it was also the determination of the UN to work with each African country in order to free the continent’s enormous potential and overcome the obstacles that are blocking its path.
Guterres also announced that the UN would allocate $250 million (about R4.5 billion) from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to combat famine and address underfunded emergencies.
This is the largest CERF allocation, and it comes in response to a 25% increase in the number of people in need of humanitarian aid, which stands at some 339 million. Twelve of the 18 countries to receive funding are on the African continent.
The Star
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