Promoting the Development of African Industrial Chain and Enhancing the Added Value of African Products – Seminar and Proposal Meeting of “Report on Chinese Investment in Africa 2023”

Ambassador Wu Peng, Director General, the Department of African Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China,

H.E. Ibrahima Sory Sylla, FOCAC Co-Chair and Ambassador of the Republic of Senegal to China

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank Ambassador Wu Peng for inviting me to address this important event on Promoting the Development of African Industrial Chain and Enhancing the Added Value of African Products – Seminar and Proposal Meeting of “Chinese Investment in Africa Report 2023”.

Partnerships and South-South Cooperation, including with African countries, are a central priority of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for the People’s Republic of China, the guidance document for UN-China collaboration, covering the period of 2021 to 2025. My office, together with my counterparts in countries throughout Africa and our regional leadership, has launched a China-Africa-UN transformative partnerships initiative (TPI) that is currently underway in collaboration with a broad range of partners, including the government, international community, private sector, academia, and foundations. I am glad to see some of our TPI collaborators present at today’s event, including the China Africa Business Council and the China Africa Development Fund.

The TPI started one year ago, in January 2022, when China, Africa and the United Nations co-convened a Symposium following the 8th Ministerial Conference on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC): Towards a greener, more prosperous and healthier future together.

Ambassador Wu Peng, I quote your inspiring remarks that the post-FOCAC symposium “marks the first time in 20 years of FOCAC’s history that the United Nations Development System is engaged in FOCAC as a strategic partner”. From there, we have convened a series of events and discussions, focusing on identifying concrete solutions to address food security and accelerate agricultural development in the Horn of Africa, which has been hit the most by droughts, the severity of which has been unseen in four decades.

This initiative embodies the UN’s commitment to offer technical support and expertise, and to convene, connect and catalyze partnerships and resources for African countries, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and all other international norms and standards. Our discussions and concrete work will continue in the years ahead.

We have good examples of how this has worked in the past, and we need to build on these and rapidly increase the number of these partnerships moving forward. I would like to share an experience from my time in Kenya, where I served as head of the UN Population Fund and later as Resident Coordinator – and where I met and got acquainted with Ambassador Wu Peng. Kenya faces one of the highest maternal death rates in the world. Tackling this challenge with support from the Government of Kenya, the UN family sought to break the orthodoxy by bringing in five companies: Huawei from China, Merck from the USA, GSK from the UK, Phillips from the Netherlands and Safaricom from Kenya to partner with the UN and the Government of Kenya to address maternal mortality in six high-burden counties in Kenya.

In less than three years, this partnership led to a one-third reduction in maternal mortality in those counties, progress which would generally take anywhere from 10 to 15 years. This modality of partnership also unlocked a USD 15 million trust fund to generate sustainable impact through the development of telehealth infrastructure. These achievements were highlighted through an invitation to the World Economic Forum in January 2017. I have seen firsthand the transformative effect of such partnerships. The road linking Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to the port of Lamu in Kenya stands out as a unique example. Built by a Chinese company in record time, this road was jointly funded by the African Development Bank, European Union and the Ethiopian and Kenyan Government to improve transport between Addis Ababa, Lamu and Nairobi. It has transformed lives and livelihoods.

The potential in these forms of Public-Private Partnerships for development is unlimited. Currently, the UN in China is proposing a new SDG Partnership Platform that can leverage the experiences and resources of China to promote rural revitalization, agribusiness development and other priority areas for the SDGs, especially in Africa.

2023 will be ripe with opportunities for the UN in China and our partners. Looking ahead, partnerships remain at the core of UN efforts for this year. Our most urgent priority is the establishment of a Joint SDG Fund, in response to the call of the UN Secretary-General to arrange for such mechanisms in each of the countries in which the Organization operates. The Joint SDG Fund will collect contributions from UN stakeholders, including Member States, businesses, foundations and others, to incentivize joint efforts of the UN agencies operating in China, for the purposes specified in the Cooperation Framework. Support for China’s South-South cooperation with African countries will be a priority of this Fund, including in areas such as youth, agricultural development and food security, climate change and public health, among others.

The UN Secretary-General said that Africa is “a source of hope” for the world. Think about the enormous potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Decade of Financial and Economic Inclusion for African Women, and Africa’s total population, which will reach nearly 2.5 billion by 2050. The future is in locally-driven engagement with Africa, in supporting the sustainable development goals of the dynamic countries that populate the continent.

The success of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area will be determined by how well Africa is connected, physically and digitally. That will be key to the free movement of goods, services and people. For this to succeed we need countries and private enterprises from across the world to prepare Africa to be the largest market of consumers and producers by 2050. After all their population will be 2.5 billion people by then. With the youngest population in the world, we must ensure Africa reaps a demographic dividend. The huge African youth boom in a world of ageing and shrinking populations, Africa’s demographic bulge could be an asset. So it would be wise “to make their lives attractive” not just out of “pure human caring”. Invest in Africa’s young, their human capital, health and education, support more productive agriculture, protect subsistence farmers against climate change and see how self-interest blends with good works.

We extend the invitation to all of you present today to join us in this exciting journey towards the future.

As the UN Resident Coordinator, I remain committed to leading the UN family in China to deliver concrete results, including through impactful and effective partnerships. I look forward to continued support and collaboration from all of you. I wish you a fruitful discussion.