NEW
YORK, United Nations
Kenya’s
president, Uhuru Kenyatta, on Wednesday September 23 challenged the world to
see Africa as an investment partner rather than a charity case amid global
efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.President Uhuru Kenyatta in a recorded video address to the SDG Moment side meeting of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA76) on September 23, 2021.
“We must make
concerted, structural changes that will enable a quantum increase in investment
and technology transfers, not as charity. A fast-developing Africa will offer
the entire world the benefit of its demographic dividend of youth and vast
economic opportunities,” he said, adding that the continent can become an engine
of sustainable global growth.
In a pre-recorded
speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the President said the
world will need to recraft its policies to ensure that they are environmentally
sound, create jobs and encourage innovation, as part of lessons from the
pandemic.
President Kenyatta
also reckons that the pandemic had shown that the existing multilateral system
was flawed and that it was erroneous to leave the continent behind.
Pandemic agenda,
US vaccine donation
At this year’s
76th UNGA session, talk of the pandemic was on every leader’s lips even though
the theme of the gathering was climate change.
Earlier, US
President Joe Biden had, during a sidelines summit on Covid-19, made more
proposals to “build back better” from the pandemic, pledging 500 million more
doses of Pfizer vaccines to poor countries and an investment of more than $1
billion to support vaccine distribution and the work of GAVI, the global
vaccine alliance.
President Biden
also promised to promote local vaccine production in South Africa to help
supply jabs to the continent.
But for President
Kenyatta, he noted that Africa’s recovery, along with the rest of the world,
will require adopting policies that target both health protection, economic
recovery, peace and security, and conservation to manage climate change.
“We must put equitable vaccine access at the core of building back better from this Covid-19. We need to provide tangible financial support to developing countries and ensure that a significant portion of green manufacturing is located in developing countries,” he said.
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