The discussions centered on a UN report that offered recommendations to strengthen collaboration in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa, especially in financing for development and affordable green energy.
The report reveals that almost 600 million people on the continent still do not have access to sustainable energy due to two main challenges: insufficient energy infrastructure on the one hand, and poor regulatory frameworks combined with limited planning processes on the other.
Solidarity in Africa
In his opening remarks, the President of the UN General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi called for “unwavering African unity”, both from within the continent and from the international community.
“The unity is based on the understanding that the prosperity of our world, and the security of our world cannot be complete without the sustainability of Africa,” he said.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the UN Amina Mohammed noted that despite international agreements, the commitment of funding for development is limited due to internal and external factors.
Inefficiency and unfairness
“From the point of view of internal factors, the lack of efficient and transparent mechanisms to support revenue administrations and public financial management results in hundreds of billions lost every year in bad financial flows and inefficiency,” he said.
“From an external perspective, internal factors are mixed with an unequal international financial architecture that keeps African countries in a marginal position, making them more vulnerable to debt distress,” he added.
He highlighted how resource mobilization challenges are limiting African countries from being able to make the massive investments needed to access energy and other critical areas.
“As highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, energy is an essential ingredient for achieving stability. And stability is essential to ensure the sustainability of development efforts,” he said.
“Without stability, the next global crisis will undo all the progress we made in the coming years, in the same way that the pandemic did not disappear in just one year of progress obtained through decades of work.”
Reverse the trend
Ms. Mohammed outlined five steps to help reverse the current negative trend, starting with strengthening institutions, including through the digitalization of domestic resource mobilization systems.
He cited the example of Angola, where customs revenue increased by 44 percent just one year after the digitization of the customs process through support from the UN trade agency, UNCTAD.
Governments should also increase efforts to establish reliable policy and regulatory frameworks, while support for data-based energy planning exercises in all African countries is also needed.
Meanwhile, technology transfers and technical cooperation should be increased, along with Official Development Assistance (ODA) from governments for institution building.
Finally, the international financial architecture must be reformed to give African countries “breathing space in the short term”, he said, through measures such as the UN’s call for a plan to stimulate the SDG.