Tunis, President Adama Barrow on Saturday said that poverty and inequality continue to ruin communities in Africa, stressing that the undue stress on their economies and disruption of international trade and governance have complicated matters further.
He made the statement at the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Tunisia on Saturday
The Gambian leader said also worrying are the issues of nationalism, unequal disaster financing, tougher terms of lending and other drivers of under-development.
Consequently, the need to strengthen international solidarity around resilience building and sound integrated approaches to development financing is more pressing now than ever.
“As a vigorous growing region, Africa certainly presents unique opportunities for closer cooperation with the world, but we must build enough capacity to sustainably finance and drive our development,” President Barrow said.
He added that while “wise management” of Africa’s natural resource base, biodiversity, and ecosystem services is essential, sharing best practices across the globe is vital to overcome the development hurdles.
“I urge that the Summit contributes to transforming our challenges into opportunities for the realisation of our priorities and commitments,” he said.
President Barrow said at present, Africa is expanding and strengthening partnerships to fully harness the enormous potential of the continent’s youthful and diverse population.
“Yet, it is a population that urgently needs start-up support to explore green businesses and other development opportunities.”
He said amid such concerns and the current global crises, Africa applauds the Government and People of Japan for “assuming greater prominence in the collective endeavour to build resilient economies, communities, and environmental systems”.
