By
Maxwell Awumah, GNA Correspondent, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe, Feb 26, GNA – President Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe has
called on member states of Africa to continue to build strong institutions at
all levels, entrench democracy and good governance as a prerequisite for peace
and development.
He said failure for
these could only divert the resources that member States would need to embark
on conscious development projects and programmes to quench the thirst of its
teeming youth for jobs, health and education.
President Mnangagwa
said these at the official opening of the Sixth Session of the Africa Regional
Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-6), which kickstarted Monday at
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
The overall
objective of the sixth session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable
Development is to conduct a regional follow-up and review progress made,
facilitate peer learning and advance transformative solutions and actions to
accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063
goals.
These messages serve
as Africa’s collective regional input to the High-level Political Forum on
Sustainable Development convened annually under the auspices of the Economic
and Social Council.
President Mnangagwa
said climate change and its effects on the environment needed prioritisation in
line with the Paris Agreement as countries continue to experience the
devastation brought about by drought that deserved urgent action.
He said climate
change could derail all the gains that had been made as a continent and the time
to act was now.
He said there was
need for Africa to craft Africa’s own data on SDGs to tell its narration and
demands an accurate and credible data for purposes of monitoring and evaluation
and therefore commended the ECA for rising to occasion and providing national
views and positions.
President Mnangagwa
said the Zimbabwean government was accelerating resource mobilisation and
called on multinational agencies to support address the funding gaps in Africa.
He said his
administration was pursuing a smart and precision agriculture to retool and
invigorate the sector with support from the private sector geared towards food
sufficiency.
Ms Amina J.
Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of UN said the principles that saw Africa
record moderate successes in the health front should be scaled up to achieve
the SDGs and refusing to leave anyone behind.
She said the scope
of task was immense but with more ambition, more mobilisation, collective
efforts and harnessing national financing for all frameworks has the capacity
to deliver the expectation of all.
She said “with
leadership full of energy and exhibiting transparency the next future, our
future is now,” adding that national actions should be aligned.
Ambassador Kwesi
Quartey, Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission said the call for action
was a clarion one to work towards silencing the guns as the lack of peace and
security made development elusive.
He said the time to
join resources both human and material to deliver on the twin agendas of 2030
and 2063 was now and without a delay.
He said the ARFSD
was an intergovernmental platform aimed to review progress, share experiences
and lessons learned, and build consensus on recommendations in the form of key
messages to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
and Agenda 2063 of the African Union.
Madam Nezha El
Ouafi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation and the outgoing
Bureau Chief called on the UN systems and the World Bank to continue to support
the realisation of the SDG goals.
She said systems and
partnerships should be strengthened in a South South Cooperation with special
aid going to vulnerable groups especially women and children.
Dr Vera Songwe,
Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of UN Economic Commission for
Africa said environmental consequences could disengage and distract the
delivery of prosperous Africa if “We failed to collectively harness the
resources of the continent.
She said the youth
have declared their readiness to create their own jobs demanding the creation
of a conducive environment for a takeoff.
A youth climate
change ambassador and advocate, Master Kiso Lati, appealed to Heads of State to
act now as danger of environmental consequences loomed.
He suggested the
creation of knowledge hubs for the youth, the mainstream advocacy.
GNA