The Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo has asked partners of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) to reallocate part of their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to Africa.
The SDR is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1969 to supplement the official reserves of its member countries.
While representing President Museveni at the 8th TICAD Conference in Tunis, Tunisia on Saturday, Odongo said that TICAD partners allocating their reserves to Africa will be vital in bridging Africa’s financing needs, and fighting COVID-19
“Covid-19 has had a negative effect on the continent. Africa’s financing needs are estimated between 285 billion dollars to 400 billion dollars between now and 2025. Yet Africa was only allocated 33 billion dollars 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,” said Jeje Odongo.
TICAD is an open forum in which not only African countries but also international organizations, the private sector, and civil society engaging in Africa’s development, discuss efforts that will lead to the development of Africa continent.
Japan is a co-host of TICAD conferences. However, there are other co-organizers of TICAD which include; the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa (UN-OSAA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and African Union Commission (AUC).
Meanwhile, Odongo said that the lack of equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines was a good lesson for Africa, noting that the continent 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,” he added.
On the other hand, Odongo called on TICAD member countries and partners to strengthen their cooperation and enhance the continent’s capacity to deal with several challenges.
In Uganda, Odongo said that a number of tangible projects under the TICAD Framework have been delivered, adding that others are ongoing implementation, significantly contributing to Uganda’s transformation.
These, Odongo said are in the areas of energy, health, and infrastructure development among others, and called for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to be channeled towards these sectors.
“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,” he said.
On matters Peace, Security and Stability, Odongo said it is the overarching framework for inclusive and sustainable development and socio- economic transformation of Africa.
However, he added that without a sustainable and predictable way of funding the African Union Peace Support Operations, it is likely, TICAD Member States and partners 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,” he said.