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STORY: UN / REGIONAL AND SUBREGIONAL COOPERATION
TRT: 3:58
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 28 OCTOBER 2021, NEW YORK CITY
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN headquarters exterior
28 OCTOBER 2021, NEW YORK CITY
2. Multiple screens, participants in virtual Security Council meeting
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Despite these worrisome developments, the people of Africa are determined to work relentlessly for a more prosperous, sustainable and peaceful continent. One based on shared values and the universal principles of human rights. The Secretary-General’s annual report on the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union contains a number of hopeful developments. This includes a peaceful and inclusive election in Burkina Faso. And peaceful transfers of power in Niger and Zambia following presidential elections. Throughout, we’re seeing growing cooperation between the United Nations, the African Union, and sub-regional organizations on sustainable development, elections and peace processes.”
4. Multiple screens, participants in virtual Security Council meeting
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Kaberuka, High Representative for the Peace Fund, African Union (AU):
“The financing of AU-mandated, led operations in a predictable and sustainable manner remains one of the most important strategic challenges facing both the AU and the UN. This Council has always shown flexibility and innovation, such as in Darfur and in Somalia. However, the Council has always regarded these cases as exceptions. Yet, it is now clear that these exceptions now represent a new landscape and probably an enduring requirement. By recognizing this reality, we can build partnerships to support the effectiveness of these interventions in a systematic and institutionalized manner.”
6. Multiple screens, participants in virtual Security Council meeting
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Uhuru Kenyatta, President, Kenya:
“Africa is not facing its problems passively. It has deployed a standing architecture for conflict prevention, management, and resolution, as well as post conflict reconstruction. This architecture has delivered multiple peace agreements and pushed back against terrorist groups in different parts of our continent.”
8. Multiple screens, participants in virtual Security Council meeting
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Uhuru Kenyatta, President, Kenya:
“This is not just a challenge of and for Africa. Globally, multilateral responses are falling short in overcoming the pandemic, overcoming climate change, economic crisis, and terrorism. Indeed, as the Secretary General reminded us in his recent call to action, we must, and I quote “breakthrough or breakdown.” This moment calls for bold vision, action that rises above narrow self-interest and which drives concerted and sustained multilateral responses.”
10. Multiple screens, participants in virtual Security Council meeting
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Uhuru Kenyatta, President, Kenya:
“We are, excellencies, in a do-or-die moment. If the Green Agenda does not deliver green growth and green jobs in Africa, then globally it will also fail. The rapidly growing population of Africa will eventually contribute to climate change, which we must confront to save Africa. In this context, the forthcoming COP 26 in Glasgow needs to produce tangible and transformative investments in climate adaptation that will allow for strong Green Growth in Africa.”
12. Multiple screens, participants in virtual Security Council meeting
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said, despite worrisome developments, “the people of Africa are determined to work relentlessly for a more prosperous, sustainable and peaceful continent,” and noted a “growing cooperation between the United Nations, the African Union, and sub-regional organizations on sustainable development, elections and peace processes.”
At a high-level virtual meeting of the Security Council today (28 Oct), Mohammed said a number of worrying trends were emerging across the continent. She said COVID-19 created additions social and economic burdens on countries’ efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and too many places are witnessing a rise in seizures of power by force.
The Deputy Secretary-General said, “Despite these worrisome developments, the people of Africa are determined to work relentlessly for a more prosperous, sustainable and peaceful continent. One based on shared values and the universal principles of human rights. The Secretary-General’s annual report on the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union contains a number of hopeful developments. This includes a peaceful and inclusive election in Burkina Faso. And peaceful transfers of power in Niger and Zambia following presidential elections. Throughout, we’re seeing growing cooperation between the United Nations, the African Union, and sub-regional organizations on sustainable development, elections and peace processes.”
Mohammed said UN special political missions, peacekeeping missions, and country teams in Africa continue to provide support to peace initiatives and political transitions, including in the Cameroon, Chad, DRC, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
While partnership between UN and AU and subregional organizations is a necessary condition for peace, security, development and justice in Africa, The Deputy Secretary-General recognized that all states need to support these efforts.
She highlighted three urgent actions that require global solidarity and support. The first, she said, is prioritizing the response to COVID-19 in Africa through accelerated vaccine distribution, strengthening national health systems, and investments in preparedness.
She also reaffirmed the need to focus on sustainable and inclusive development which is the best chance to address the root causes of conflict and achieve a future of peace and prosperity for all.
Mohammed also noted the need to continue securing adequate, predictable, and sustainable resources for development, peace and security mandates across the continent.
She said the UN will spare no effort to make its partnerships more effective to help a more inclusive, prosperous, and peaceful continent as envisaged in Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda.
Donald Kaberuka, the High Representative for the AU Peace Fund, said funding the African peace and security architecture is not simply an African priority, but also a global public good. He said the AU assembly made a decision to deepen its strategic partnerships with the UN, with a view to strengthen predictable financing for AU peace support operations.
Kaberuka said the AU and its regional organizations have demonstrated a clear advantage as first responders in undertaking offensive operations in high-risk environments as threats evolve, but stressed that it required its own mechanism with predictable and sustainable funding.
Kaberuka said funding for AU-led missions has largely been voluntary and ad hoc. HE said it has been a long journey to secure a Security Council resolution authorizing the use of assessed contributions to support such AU operations a case-by-case basis.
The AU official said the Security Council expressed its intention to give further consideration of accessing UN assessed contributions for AU-led mandated missions, adding that the time is now ripe to give further consideration to this matter.
He said, “The financing of AU-mandated, led operations in a predictable and sustainable manner remains one of the most important strategic challenges facing both the AU and the UN. This Council has always shown flexibility and innovation, such as in Darfur and in Somalia. However, the Council has always regarded these cases as exceptions. Yet, it is now clear that these exceptions now represent a new landscape and probably an enduring requirement. By recognizing this reality, we can build partnerships to support the effectiveness of these interventions in a systematic and institutionalized manner.”
Kaberuka said the AU has developed several proposals on how to build such partnerships and stressed that time is of the essence as threats continue to evolve.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the African continent is at a crossroads with bold economic reforms in intra-African trade and investment and collective responses to insecurity on one hand, and terrorism, insurgency, and a recent upsurge in coups on the other. He added that the COVID-19 pandemic also reversed economic gains and plunged a large number of Africans back into poverty.
Kenyatta said, “Africa is not facing its problems passively. It has deployed a standing architecture for conflict prevention, management, and resolution, as well as post conflict reconstruction. This architecture has delivered multiple peace agreements and pushed back against terrorist groups in different parts of our continent.”
However, the Kenya President said this architecture is under strain. He said rarely in the past have multiple crisis situations interacted as they are doing now, or producing effects that may lead to a state of continental emergency.
He said, “This is not just a challenge of and for Africa. Globally, multilateral responses are falling short in overcoming the pandemic, overcoming climate change, economic crisis, and terrorism. Indeed, as the Secretary General reminded us in his recent call to action, we must, and I quote ‘breakthrough or breakdown.’ This moment calls for bold vision, action that rises above narrow self-interest and which drives concerted and sustained multilateral responses.”
Kenyatta said the Security Council should appreciate that peacekeeping in Africa has changed fundamentally faced with sophisticated international terrorist groups and requiring more military capacity and resources.
He also noted that inclusivity is an essential component of sustainable peacekeeping. He said the peaceful and inclusive management of diversity must become the core of nation building and state stabilization.
The Kenyan President said the partnership between the UN, the AU and sub-regional organizations must enable the production of plentiful jobs that harness the energy and skills of African youth.
He said, “We are, excellencies, in a do-or-die moment. If the Green Agenda does not deliver green growth and green jobs in Africa, then globally it will also fail. The rapidly growing population of Africa will eventually contribute to climate change, which we must confront to save Africa. In this context, the forthcoming COP 26 in Glasgow needs to produce tangible and transformative investments in climate adaptation that will allow for strong Green Growth in Africa.”
Kenyatta also said African multinational peace enforcement missions, including the G5 Sahel and the African Union Mission in Somalia, are delivering a critical service to international peace and security. He called for a structured dialogue on how to make missions in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and Central Africa fit for purpose.
