Sierra Leone Telegraph: 9 July 2022:
African Heads of State and Government have reaffirmed their commitment to seize key opportunities to respond to multiple crises and steer their economies to transformative paths, in partnership with the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).
The leaders convened at the IDA for Africa Summit in Dakar, Senegal on Thursday 7th July 2022, to champion a strong start to IDA’s twentieth financing cycle (IDA20). They noted that the continent is experiencing reversals of development gains triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and compounded by climate change, food insecurity, conflict in the region, and the war in Ukraine.
The Heads of State therefore welcomed the IDA20 financing package of US$93 billion to help all countries supported by IDA recover on a greener, more resilient, and inclusive path.
President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal who hosted the event said: “We are convening this Summit in a context of deep crisis, marked by the double impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. While we have exponentially increased our spending to respond to the health crisis and foster the economic and social resilience of our people, our fiscal space has shrunk dramatically, and debt vulnerabilities were exacerbated”.
“Faced with these challenges and priorities, optimizing the use of IDA resources is key. I would like to reiterate our appreciation for the constant support of the World Bank Group in our efforts to mobilize all available means to provide our populations with better living conditions,” he also said.
The Dakar summit was attended by leaders from Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Equatorial, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, the Union of Comoros, and Zimbabwe. They were joined by World Bank Group leadership, heads of regional and UN institutions, and representatives of IDA donor governments.
This convening comes a year after the 2021 Summit in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where African leaders advocated for the ambitious replenishment of IDA20 to support their recovery agenda.
“The World Bank cares deeply about Africa. We are focused on its success in achieving its development goals and building a better future for all people,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Managing Director for Operations. “We are therefore investing about two-thirds of IDA20 financing in Africa, to help the continent make a huge leap forward in creating jobs, and improving access to services such as education, health care, electricity, and others.”
To fulfil the agenda to transform their economies, the leaders endorsed a call to action which they said will require strong leadership and political commitment. In this context, they called for the optimal use of IDA20 resources to achieve development goals, including by strengthening coordination mechanisms at the continental level. Following are the key undertakings they committed to in partnership with IDA:
Accelerate economic transformation to better respond to future shocks
This will require action on creating a conducive environment such as good governance, security and peace, crisis preparedness, and removal of bottlenecks to cross-border investments in economic infrastructure.
Invest in people
Protect, improve, and increase investment in people. This will include more spending on education and skills development, building pandemic-ready health systems, expanding safety nets, and strengthening national data collection systems for measuring human capital progress.
Speed up energy transition
Take actions to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. These actions will include mobilizing public and private investment, strengthening regional markets for energy trade, and promoting investments in low-carbon energy.
Accelerate digitalization
Scale-up efforts and strive for universal access to broadband connectivity by 2030 by investing in infrastructure and policy and regulatory reforms. They reaffirmed that cross-cutting projects on the digital economy to be financed by IDA20 must foster strong private sector involvement.
Strengthen response mechanisms to address food security
Actions will include tackling challenges such as fragility, climate change, environmental degradation, revitalizing ecosystems, and improving agricultural productivity and value chains. The goal is for Africa to produce, sell, and export affordable, climate-resilient food, and depend less on food imports.
Step-up implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area
Place a strong emphasis on intra-African trade, eliminating bottlenecks and fostering cross-border investment in transport and energy infrastructure.
The IDA20 financing cycle runs from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2025, with a focus on Building Back Better from the Crisis: Towards a Green, Resilient and Inclusive Future. This overarching theme is supported by five special themes and four cross-cutting issues.
The special themes are Human Capital; Climate Change; Gender and Development; Fragility, Conflict, and Violence; and Jobs and Economic Transformation. The four cross-cutting issues are Crisis Preparedness; Governance and Institutions; Debt; and Technology.
The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is one of the largest sources of funding for fighting extreme poverty in the world’s lowest-income countries. IDA provides grants and zero- or low-interest loans to countries for projects and programs that boost economic growth, build resilience, and improve the lives of poor people around the world.
Africa is IDA’s biggest beneficiary with 39 countries and has made significant headway in improving development indicators during six decades of partnership with the World Bank. Since 1960, IDA has provided about $458 billion for investments in 114 countries.
“The Heads of state therefore welcomed the world Banks IDA 20(International development Association) financing package of $93 billion to help all countries supported by IDA recover on Greener ,more resilient and inclusive path “. By all account this aid package is a tiny drop in the ocean of over flowing problems facing Africa, if one is to compare the recent Europen Union and other Western creditors donor conference held on behalf of Ukrain that the country will need to deal with the aftermath of the unprovoked war from Russia .According to international financial institutions like the workd bank and western governments estimates Ukrain with a population of 44 million people, 2020 population report will need a colossal $700billion to recover from the war damaged inflicted on that country .This is by no means trying to play down Putin’s war on Ukrain and the damaged it has done to it’s economy , infrastructure and it’s people , but when we compared the amount our corrupt African leaders are celebrateing for an African population closer to 1.216 billion people , one has to wonder how the world bank and other international financial institutions works out their figures about which countries deserve more help compared to some African countries that have never known peace since they were granted independence in the sixties .
DRC , Mali , Nigeria ,CAR , Cameroon, Mozambique,South Sudan , the wars in Somalia , Ethiopia, and many others still recovering from wars, like Angola Sierra Leone , Liberia, Ivory Coast, Chad ,and Dafur.According to recent estimate by African Development Bank governor the Dr Akinwumi Adesina Africa will need $424 billion dollars to recover from the covid 19 pandemic devastation. President Volodymiyr Zelensky told western governments that are supporting his government that is facing down the Russian bear , his government needs$7billon dollars a month just to fight the war and support his people .That tells you a lot about the way different leaders approach problems facing their countries. African leaders have shown very little appetite to govern in the interest of their people .And that is not even factoring the security challenges and high level of corruption in these countries.Today Africa is faced with riskier external and internal environmental factors that have slammed the emergency brakes on the economic growths we were witnessing before Covid 19 makes it’s land falls in the continent as a whole at the back end of 2019 .
Now the War in Ukrain have exacerbated the economic downturn and put inflationary pressures on economies around the world .And sub-Saharan African countries , were caught off balance hence the negative impacts on growth and the cost of living crisis gripping the continent .For Africa to able to make any economic headways in times like this , African leaders must adopt strategies for a resilient recovery post Covid and after the war in Ukraine. We need a government that can plan ahead that will withstands any future shocks .Bio and his government have been put through the test of leadership and coming up with solutions for our country but they have turned out to be a massive failures .Whatever happened to the mantra my government will fight corruption ?The jury is still out .