Cairo- President Abdel Fattah El Sisi stressed Tuesday that the current challenges facing Africa requires enhancing joint efforts among the African countries through a number of initiatives that aim to reach active and out-of-the-box solutions to help the continent surpass the current conditions.
Addressing, via videoconference, the 3rd Awan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development, launched here under the rubric “Africa in an era of successive risks and climate vulnerability: Pathways to a peaceful, resilient and sustainable continent, President Sisi said Egypt is keen on establishing a Sahel and Sahara anti-terrorism center to serve peoples in the region in facing the consequences of such phenomenon.
Egypt also seeks to support African institutions in afflicted areas particularly in the Sahel region through offering training courses to the African peace-keeping forces, he added.
Egypt has launched the African Union Centre for Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) to play an active role in setting up necessary programs and activities to support countries that have gone through conflicts to help them reach stability, security and development and avoid other conflicts, the president said.
President Sisi welcomed the participants in the event, considered an African platform that has proven day by day, since its launch during Egypt’s presidency of the African Union in 2019, that it is an effective and inclusive African forum that tackles the various threats and challenges facing the continent and “seeks through it to crystallize common visions that strengthen relations between peace and sustainable development, and enhance cooperation among us and with various international partners.”
President Sisi said that the forum is being held this year at a very critical time as the international community is suffering from increasing tensions that have far-reaching consequences on various political, economic and development levels, and whose effects are also reflected on the African countries, especially on food and energy security.
The health, social and economic repercussions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic require concerted joint efforts in order to overcome the challenges and promote resilience in the continent, the president said.
The president highlighted in particular the food crisis that the African continent is currently witnessing, saying it may have serious repercussions on the safety and stability of our societies, which requires taking a package of urgent and effective measures in coordination with international partners and the international community to support African countries in containing its effects. This can be done through diversifying sources of food and securing supply chains for countries of the continent, he said.
The president called for taking measures to maintain food security by providing advanced technology in the field of agriculture to African countries, as well as intensifying efforts to increase the production of agricultural crops in an effort to reach the stage of self-sufficiency.
President Sisi stressed that the focus of this year’s theme of the African Union on “increasing resilience in the field of food and food security” reflects the extent of attention our countries pay to food security challenges and the need to provide food to the people in our African continent given challenges related to water scarcity and hiking prices. Therefore, it is necessary to find quick solutions to overcome this global crisis, he stressed.
Convening of the third edition of the forum coincides with Egypt’s upcoming hosting of the 27th session of the World Climate Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, where your discussions during the next two days will represent an important opportunity to shed light on the role that climate change plays in multiplying the challenges of peace and security in Africa, especially that our continent is considered the most vulnerable to its negative effects due to the problems of desertification and scarcity of water and natural resources, and the undermining of development efforts, he added.
This requires accelerating the implementation of international commitments and commitments towards our continent to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, doubling the international funding allocated to it, and enhancing resilience, which would directly and effectively contribute to peacebuilding efforts and ensure its sustainability, the president said.
The President stressed that the convening of the Aswan Forum this year provides an important opportunity to continue to convey the voice of the African continent to all partners and actors at the international level and to push for its issues to remain high on the international community’s priorities at a very complex international time in which priorities and concerns shift in connection with successive changes.
The president also stressed that enhancing the role of women in peace and security in Africa, as well as benefiting from the energies and visions of young people towards making the future of our countries, remains a basic pillar that should be adhered to in the face of successive crises and intertwined challenges.
President Sisi said that despite the real effort and the achievements we made together in Africa during the past period, the exceptional circumstances that our world is witnessing today continue to confirm that there is still a long way to go to achieve the hopes of our peoples. This requires all of us to unite, and continue to work with full responsibility and a firm determination and a firm belief that we are able together to overcome these difficulties towards a better future for our African continent.
President Sisi voiced confidence that deliberations during the forum would be an appreciable contribution towards formulating and crystallizing specific visions that would enhance our joint efforts and light the way towards a better future for all.
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