Rwandan President Paul Kagame has called on African countries to be assertive and build better using Agenda 2063 as a blueprint despite many challenges that have reversed the continent’s development gains.
Despite the impact of COVID-19 on the economic and health sectors in Africa, the continent can achieve sustainable development, said the president according to a statement released on Wednesday by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Kagame made the call at the conclusion of the 8th Session of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) held recently in Kigali, Rwanda.
“Africa should view the pandemic not as a setback but a springboard to recover and build better on its development programmes. Africa must build multilateral partnerships and strengthen capacities in the manufacturing of vaccines and pharmaceuticals, Kagame was quoted as saying.
“Africa should prioritize domestic resource mobilization to finance its development particularly its national health care system,” said Kagame, whose country has vaccinated 70 percent of its population.
“Building the Africa we want is up to us,” Kagame noted, emphasizing that strong mechanisms are needed to monitor and change the implementation of the SDGs,” he said.
“We have to own and lead the process and support one another. That’s why these agendas [2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063] are important because they are about achieving the stability and sustainability of our continent.”
UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed on the occasion noted that the pandemic had caused disappointment for global solidarity and African economies, especially in education and health systems, worsened by insufficient access to the Internet and sustainable, affordable energy.
Mohamed called on member States to focus on the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063, highlighting five priority areas for action including ending the pandemic and building resilience to future shocks and scaling up climate resilience.
Addressing the Forum, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA, Vera Songwe, highlighted that despite the impact of COVID -19 on Africa’s recovery efforts, the continent was poised for many wins.
Citing that African countries suffered vaccine apartheid and had to look within for success, she mentioned that 53 percent of African countries have vaccines and 7 countries on the continent have succeeded in vaccinating 70 percent of their population.
“Our economies will not recover if we do not vaccinate,” Songwe said, commending Rwanda’s vaccination success.
MG/as/APA