Special Dialogue: Coordinating on Regional Infrastructure Projects Under the African Union (AU)’s Program for Infrastructure Development for Africa (PIDA)

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H.E. Mr. Rahamtalla Mohammed Osman, African Union Ambassador to China

Ms. Hannah Ryder, Founder and CEO, Development Reimagined

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon!

I want to thank Ambassador Osman for hosting us, and I am grateful for the rich and insightful discussions from distinguished speakers and guests from China and Africa over the past two days.

The dialogue conveyed a strong and clear message: infrastructure is key to future Africa’s development. Through infrastructure, Africa can break through the bottlenecks of its challenging economic geography to lower transactional costs, generate employment and achieve regional integration. This is also why infrastructure development is embedded in the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, the latter of which designates 5 out of 12 of its flagship initiatives towards the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

I wish to commend the African Union Commission and its partners for launching PIDA a decade ago and successfully completing its first Priority Action Plan. This is a solid foundation for the next phase of PIDA, which was adopted last year. As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, Africa is “a home for hope”, and it is the AU that “has helped bring this hope to life to realize the continent’s enormous potential” [1].

However, Africa’s future development is also overshadowed by a series of global crises: growing conflicts, the worsening climate crisis, and the persistent impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world is seeing an increasing number of conflicts, including where they were least expected, such as in Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic and the uneven distribution of vaccines have put public health systems under tremendous pressure.

Many of the worst impacts of the climate have already manifested themselves in Africa, even though the continent contributes to only 3 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Rising energy and food prices are now also threatening the livelihoods of ordinary people.

Under these circumstances, it is of great importance for Africa to endure, connect and forge partnerships that can help the continent emerge from these crises to create a better and more resilient future.

Here in China, a proverb says, “If you want to get rich, build roads first.” This is also a fair way of representing China’s miraculous economic advancements over the past four decades. The astonishing network of highways, bullet trains and ICT facilities have connected people across the nation and generated a new synergy that has lifted nearly 800 million people out of abject poverty while allowing China to become the second-largest economy in the world.

China is now a leader in promoting infrastructure development around the world, especially in Africa. In my previous job as the UN RC in Kenya, I have seen firsthand how partnerships around infrastructure have transformed remote parts of Northern Kenya. A spectacular highway constructed by a Chinese company was built in record time, connecting Isiolo town in Kenya to Ethiopia. It is proving central to regional integration and unlocking economic potential in the entire East African region. Most importantly, the road has reduced the travelling distance between Nairobi and Moyale (a town on the Kenya-Ethiopia border) to 7 hours. Previously, travel on this route was torturous, with days spent on unforgiving bumpy terrain.

The year 2022 is the first year for the implementation of the second phase of PIDA and the Dakar Action Plan adopted at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) conference last year. Today and yesterday’s dialogue have shown immense opportunities for China and international stakeholders to support PIDA going forward. Looking ahead, I believe there are three critical areas that we should work on to ensure greater success for PIDA in phase II.

Firstly, political will. PIDA is an ambitious regional agenda that requires strong coordination between continental, regional, national institutions and international counterparts. We need strong political will across the continent to ensure PIDA is also high on the agenda, of national governments, sub-regional and regional institutions, especially in times of challenge and turbulence when other priorities may erode progress on infrastructure and connectivity. The UN is committed to partnering with the AU to build and maintain the political will in support of Africa’s ambitious development visions, including PIDA. For example, the UN in China is proposing an International Center of Excellence for Applied Sustainable Development Solutions in Africa, which could partner on applied research for sustainable development in line with the priorities expressed by the Agenda 2063, the 2030 Agenda and the Cooperation Framework between the UN and each of the countries to be involved. The Center of Excellence could also serve as an essential intellectual powerhouse to strengthen the preparation, implementation, and monitoring capacity of the infrastructure projects in Africa.  As you are aware, there have been a series of engagements between the UN and African countries since the FOCAC follow-up symposium in January, and we will continue to convene, connect, and catalyze the political will needed to operationalize scalable investments in Africa.

Secondly, partnerships. Infrastructure development requires sufficient and consistent funding for projects to be completed and maintained. Therefore, the best way to strengthen the financial security of the US$160 billion worth of projects in PIDA’s second phase is to bring in a diverse portfolio of partners to build public-private partnerships that could generate stable and reliable funding streams. The UN in China is in close conversations with the private sector, governments and the UN system in both China and African countries to advocate for an SDG partnership platform that aims to bring together all relevant stakeholders working towards rural revitalization and food systems transformation. Such mechanisms could also be applied in infrastructure development to offer expertise, capacity building support to identify blended financing as well as potential markets to advance new initiatives, especially with PIDA. I am happy to see my friend Eric Wang from CABC joining us here today, who is a critical partner in identifying and implementing scalable projects in Africa.

Thirdly, we need to closely incorporate key principles of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, including gender inclusivity, climate resilience and decent employment, into the second phase of PIDA projects. Before the 8th Ministerial Conference of FOCAC last year, the UN Country Team in China provided technical inputs to African countries through the Co-chair Senegal on the outcome documents. For the first time in its 20-year history, FOCAC included gender equality and women empowerment in the Dakar Action Plan (2022-2024), and both sides issued the China-Africa Declaration on Climate Change Cooperation. As part of strategic China-Africa-UN partnerships on FOCAC, the UN in China stands ready to bring in technical expertise for PIDA projects, to ensure they align with relevant international norms, standards, and best practices, and deliver the best results for every African country.

Ladies and gentlemen, roads, internet, water, and energy…modern infrastructure symbolizes the vision of humanity to break barriers, connect and pursue a better life together. Hence, forging partnerships in infrastructure development is not just an exchange of technologies and financing, but a demonstration of our common goal to build a peaceful and prosperous future. I sincerely hope and firmly believe that the development collaboration between China, Africa and other stakeholders, including the UN, towards PIDA, is the starting point for deeper engagements in our pursuit to realize the 2030 Agenda and the AU Agenda 2063.

Thank you!

[1] Secretary-General's video message to the 35th Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union, available at https://www.un.org/sg/en/node/261748