President Paul Kagame has highlighted the continent’s pressing issues as he concludes his term as the Chair of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) on February 15. He made the highlights during the 40th Session of AUDA-NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee that he attended virtually. NEPAD is the agency that coordinates and executes priority regional and continental development projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realization of Agenda 2063 – Africa’s vision and action plan. The meeting aimed at discussing health and infrastructure financing in Africa. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt was elected the new Chair of the African Union Development Agency. Kagame commended the agency for working closely with regional economic communities and member states to set up regional health financing hubs and highlighted three key challenges that need to be addressed as shared during the G20 and the Effective Development Cooperation Summit. ALSO READ: Kagame rallies private investments in Africa’s infrastructure development Deepening Africa’s debt burden He mentioned that higher borrowing costs are deepening Africa's debt burden, however, there are available tools to get economies back on track. Examples being the International Monetary Fund's new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), and the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, he said. Rwanda is the first African country to secure $310 million climate funding under the new IMF’s facility to build climate adaptability and resilience. It is estimated that Africa needs about $2.5 trillion of climate finance by 2030, of which the gap has been widened by other economic urgencies such as inflation, high interest rates, among others. “Our continent has been disproportionally affected by the rise in food and fertilizer prices,” Kagame said. Lagging pharmaceutical production Africa continues to lag behind in terms of pharmaceutical production, Kagame said. “Africa's efforts to bridge this gap are crucial to our health security.” Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the need for Africa’s public health self-sufficiency was brought on the spotlight as it was put back on the queue to acquire life-saving vaccines. This pushed leaders to improve on vaccine manufacturing capacity and to quickly establish the African Medicines Agency (AMA), a specialised agency of the African Union (AU) intended to facilitate the harmonisation of medical products regulation throughout the AU in order to improve access to quality, safe and efficacious medical products on the continent. Geopolitical conflicts Kagame also reiterated that when it comes to ongoing geopolitical conflict, what Africa wants is peace. These include insecurity threats in different parts of the continent such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, Central Africa Republic, eastern DR Congo, among other countries. To better support the implementation of AUDA-NEPAD programs, the agency needs to be financed in a predictable and sustainable manner. Overall, the budget has fallen significantly as voluntary contributions have declined. This increases dependency on development partners. “These issues need to be addressed. Otherwise, it is like saying that we do not need the work which AUDA-NEPAD is charged with doing, on our behalf.”
