Victor Uzoho
As Africa’s most vulnerable communities confront the triple challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, conflict and climate change, experts have projected that an estimated 39 million Africans could slip into extreme poverty by the end of 2021.
This, they said, is because countries are facing higher fiscal costs, reducing capacity for the critical investments required to deliver on ambitions such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The experts spoke at the ongoing fourth edition of the Africa Resilience Forum, a flagship event of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which commenced on Tuesday, bringing together key stakeholders across government, civil society, the private sector, and international partners, to reflect on the continent’s conflict prevention, peace, and state-building initiatives.
Sharing successes from his country that could be useful in the current crisis, the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, represented by Senegal’s Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation, Amadou Hott, said the country adopted a legal framework that provides for flexible and secure public-private partnerships.
He said the crisis “reminds us of the need to reorganise our priorities, to strengthen the social protection of our populations and to establish a more endogenous development.”
The hydra-headed challenges of this pandemic, insecurity, and climate change, continue to impact young men, women, and children the most.
In his remarks, AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, said across Africa, rising expenditures on defence and security has increasingly displaced development financing on essential services such as education, health, water, sanitation, and affordable housing.
According to him, this compromises the long-term resilience needed to bounce back better. “The hydra-headed challenges of this pandemic, insecurity, and climate change, continue to impact young men, women, and children the most.”
Going forward, Adesina said the Bank would work closely with regional member countries on security-indexed bonds to address the root causes of insecurity by protecting investments and livelihoods.
He highlighted the Bank’s work in climate finance and landmark green projects, including the $20 billion Desert to Power Solar Energy Programme, which will provide clean energy to up to 250 million people across 11 countries in the Sahel region.
Remarking, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said the continent’s wealth of natural resources and historic solidarity could “lay the groundwork for resilience.”
He added: “The Covid pandemic made it possible to identify vulnerabilities and required a new vision for reform.”
