UNRC Briefing to Member States

Excellencies,

Ambassadors,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I want to express my sincere words of appreciation to the UN Resident Coordinator for his full and strong support.

China was built by the Chinese.

Europe was rebuilt by the Europeans.

So, I ask you, who will build Africa?

The Africa of today is a far cry from the Africa of past decades.

Thanks to a new generation of leadership and an emerging cohort of young people uplifted through the transformative power of education, Africa is on the cusp of achieving its own rapid, sustainable development.

According to the World Economic Forum, two in every five children in the world will be born in Africa by 2050.

Young people in Africa are taking charge of their futures in a rising tide of entrepreneurship, technology, IT, innovation, and small and medium enterprises, sweeping across the continent while creating new jobs and opportunities.

The ageing demographic in many Western and Asian economies means increasing demand for skilled labour from regions with younger populations, including Africa.

Economies worldwide are seeking to benefit from the growth of a rapidly expanding African middle class, with consumer spending in Africa projected to reach US $2.5 trillion by 2030, according to the Brookings Institute.

But many of Africa’s young people remain trapped in poverty that is reflected in multiple dimensions, education, access to quality health care, malnutrition, and lack of job opportunities.

While the world faces unprecedented challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic and the threats of climate change, a brighter future still lies ahead.

Indeed, the UN Secretary-General himself has said, “Africa is a home for hope.”

This was made clear in our FOCAC follow-up symposium, held under the theme “Towards a greener, more prosperous, and healthier future together", co-hosted with the UN in China’s support.

The organization of this Symposium was unique in the history of the FOCAC process, traditionally a bilateral process, by including the UN in China for the first time.

Following my initiative, as acting Dean of the African Ambassadors Group in China, the Chinese side also agreed to include the UN in China in the Symposium, to see how they can offer support to African States in the framework of capacity building and operationalization of FOCAC projects, to give momentum to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Our ambition is to amplify this initiative, better deepen, reflect on how to cooperate, and benefit from the assistance, technical support, and expertise of the UN in China in terms of capacity building of African States and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Based on the discussions at the symposium and in our following outcome document shall be released soon, we discussed how to operationalize action in the following key areas as health and post-pandemic public health systems, investment and trade, industrialization, agriculture modernization and climate change responses.

We have to work and reflect on ways to add value and deepen this initiative so that the Chinese side, the African side and the UN can take advantage of the FOCAC outcomes.

So, what can the UN bring in itself in this spirit of China-Africa cooperation?

The challenges we face now are critical, including the health crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know full well that COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic.

It is thus necessary to ensure our pharmaceutical and medical sovereignty in order to meet our essential needs and better face future pandemics.

It is imperative that the UN and the WHO prioritize public health because today, we have seen the challenges faced even by large countries with universal health coverage.

For young women and girls, lack of access to health services deprives them of their rights and ability to make decisions about their bodies and plan their families.

This adversely affects their education and employment opportunities, costing sub-Saharan Africa US$ 95 billion annually in lost revenue, according to UNDP.

Accordingly, women’s empowerment and gender equality need to be the highest priority of all national development plans.

We have the challenge of climate change with consequences such as floods, drought, thirst, and hunger.

But today, Africa accounts for less than 2% of global solar capacity, while China accounts for 36%, underscoring the critical need for low-carbon energy infrastructure in Africa through building renewable energy infrastructure and local manufacturing of green energy.

Between 10 and 12 million people join the African labour force each year, yet the continent creates only 3.7 million jobs annually. 

The issue of food security is a top priority for us when drought is cyclical, and we cannot understate the potential of agriculture to Africa’s maintaining and boosting of its high growth rates, creating more jobs, overcoming poor health and malnutrition while significantly reducing poverty.

This reminds us of the urgency of achieving our food sovereignty through sustainable agriculture, livestock, and fishing production.

The issue of terrorism and insecurity stems from poverty, with the World Bank saying that 40% of people who join rebel movements are motivated by a lack of economic opportunity.

We note that targeting SMEs, who form 90% of the businesses employing 60% of the workforce in Africa, will play a crucial role in supporting job creation, women and young entrepreneurs who often have challenges accessing affordable credit and loans.

Going forwards, we saw several potential new mechanisms discussed at the symposium.

For Africa, we propose encouraging more coordination on the key goals and ideas raised, through new issue-specific forums, closer collaboration with the Government of China to identify critical infrastructure priorities, and a renewed focus on programmes that empower women and girls in Africa.

For China, we propose the increased inclusion of African institutions in the delivery of the FOCAC action plan, encouraging the diversification of actors involved in the process, including the private sector and youth, and promoting the better collection of data to understand the unique situation of African countries.

It’s really our dream to boosting common development and nurturing new drivers for expanding mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Africa.

The UN in China offers its support to both parties by providing its capacity and expertise to advance new initiatives, ensure alignment to international norms and standards, and use its role as a convenor, connector, and catalyser while looking to the potential of collaboration with UN Country Teams in African countries.

While these new China-Africa-UN efforts present exciting potential areas for cooperation and collaboration, a few key questions remain.

How do we operationalize the ideas on the ground?

How do we continue the momentum of these new partnerships?

And how do we keep these initiatives alive?

What can the United Nations bring in itself in this spirit of China-Africa cooperation? It will be necessary to deepen this dynamic and draw avenues of reflection because it is not something that can be stopped overnight.

Here, the role of Governments, the private sector, and foundations from all corners of the globe will continue to be crucial, as demonstrated in my home of Djibouti.

Africa is not the domain of any single partner alone, and its’ complex challenges present incredible opportunities to forge a range of public-private partnerships bridging the North-South, and East-West divides.

Africa is the future, and its development requires coordinated and global efforts.

With the population of Africa expected to approach 2.5 billion by the middle of the century, the world’s prosperity will depend on the prosperity of the African continent in realizing its demographic dividend.

But it will only be through placing Africa at the centre of these new partnerships, in the spirit of win-win cooperation, will Africans be able to build Africa so the world can achieve a greener, more prosperous, and healthier future.

Thank you.