Uganda’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen Jeje Abubakher Odongo has revealed that the country supports calls for financing of the African Union Peace support operations.
Gen Jeje made the remarks during the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on Saturday in the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
“We therefore support the call, for financing the African Union Peace Support Operations through the use of UN Assessed contributions,” Gen Odongo said.
TICAD IS taking place in Africa for the second time after Kenya hosted one in 2016.
It was launched in 1993 by the Government of Japan, to promote Africa’s development, peace and security, through the strengthening of relations in multilateral cooperation and partnership.
BELOW IS MINISTER JEJE’S FULL SPEECH
Your Excellencies,
- I extend to you the fraternal greetings from your Colleague and Brother H.E. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, who for unforeseen circumstances could not attend and whom I am here to represent.
- I thank the Co-Chairs for the excellent manner in which this meeting is being conducted. I wish to extend our appreciation to the Government of Tunisia for the warm hospitality extended to my delegation since our arrival in Tunis, and for hosting this important meeting.
- As TICAD marks its 30th anniversary next year, we believe this Summit provides the opportunity to strengthen our cooperation and enhance the continent’s capacity to deal with several challenges. In Uganda, a number of tangible projects, under the TICAD Framework, have been delivered, and others are ongoing implementation. This has significantly contributed to Uganda’s transformation. These include in the areas of energy, health, and infrastructure development etc.
- Since 2007, Uganda has focused on sustainable growth, wealth creation and structural change in order to reduce poverty. Our approach has been aimed at triggering the key priority areas of the economy such as Agriculture and Agro Processing; Energy development; Value Addition in Mineral Development; Development of critical Infrastructure; and ICT. Foreign Direct Investment, should, therefore be channeled to the aforementioned areas.
- Covid-19 has had a negative effect on the continent. Africa’s financing needs are estimated between USD 285bn-400bn between now and 2025. Yet Africa was only allocated USD 33bn by the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). We urge our Partners to reallocate part of their own SDRs to Africa. This will be vital in bridging our financing needs. The reallocation should be in form of grants, and or, concessional long-term financing and it should consider a country’s specific needs.
- The lack of equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines was a good lesson for Africa which has now realized the need to build local capacity to develop and manufacture vaccines including fast tracking research and development of therapeutics and diagnostics. What we also seek from our Partners is for pathogens to support our endeavors. We support the call to increase African vaccine manufacturing from the current 1% to at least 60 % by 2040.
- Peace, Security and Stability is the overarching framework for inclusive and sustainable development and socio- economic transformation of Africa. However, without a sustainable and predictable way of funding the AU Peace Support Operations, it is likely, we may not be able to preserve the gains made thus far. Terrorism, if not contained, has a tendency of achieving a universal character with un-intended consequences. The UN Security Council (UNSC) has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. We therefore support the call, for financing the African Union Peace Support Operations through the use of UN Assessed contributions.
- I wish to conclude by reiterating Uganda’s appreciation for the continued partnership and stronger cooperation under the TICAD framework, and to re-affirm our commitment to jointly advance the implementation of the TICAD-8 Tunis Declaration.
I thank you
