Addis Ababa, 1 June 2015 (ECA) - The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr Carlos Lopes participated, as Head of the ECA Delegation in the African Development Bank 2015 Annual Meetings from 25 to 27 May at the invitation of the outgoing President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Donald Kaberuka. During the two-day event, the Executive Secretary participated, as a high level panelist, in three panels on the themes: “Are we ready for the next Epidemic? Fixing Africa’s Primary Healthcare” (May 25); “Climate Change: The last mile to Paris (May 26); “Financing Africa’s Transformation: Billions to Trillions” (May 27).
On the panel themed, “Are we ready for the next Epidemic? Fixing Africa’s Primary Healthcare”, the Executive Secretary’s main statements pointed to the fact that the Ebola epidemic turned out to be “a competition for communication.” He stated that the next steps towards fixing epidemics require African countries to deal with processes and to avoid dealing with panic as was the case during the Ebola outbreak. In addition, he stressed that Africa needs to think of long-term solutions.
During the panel session on, “Climate Change: The last mile to Paris”, the Executive Secretary highlighted that the question of climate justice is currently relegated to the area of financing and that as a late comer to industrialization, the continent can be part of the climate change solution. This, he said can be done by taking advantage of the green economy and "leapfrogging to adopt the latest clean technologies." When asked about branding climate change solutions, the Executive Secretary stated that Africa can add value in this regard by investing in implementation. "The focus must be on the green economy potential rather than on the discussion on the reduction of emissions," he said.
On his last panel, “Financing Africa’s Transformation: Billions to Trillions”, the Executive Secretary stressed three crucial issues: the need to formalize trade and services to boost the national GDP revenues of African countries; the need to divert development assistance to development activities that unleash domestic resources; the urgency of creating/improving the quality of the fiscal machinery of the African countries.
During his time in Abidjan, the Executive Secretary held bilateral meetings with the Director of OECD Development Centre, Mr. Mario Pezzini, the Founder of Mara Group, Mr. Ashish Thakkar, the Executive Director of the Africa Group of the World Bank, Mr. Mohamed Sikieh Kayad, the Vice President of Global Partnerships Swiss Reinsurance Company, Mr. Tobias Meier, the President of the Graça Machel Trust, Ms. Graça Machel, and the Senior Consultant of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa, Ms. Emilliene Macauley. The Executive Secretary was also interviewed by Jeune Afrique and the Financial Times.
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