Global leaders have been urged to help ensure that the progress and development of countries in the West and parts of Asia do not happen at the expense of Africa and other poor nations.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who cautioned against these unfair and manipulative practices at the sixth edition of the Paris Peace Forum last Friday in France, said it was unjust and unfair for some countries to live relatively comfortable at the expense of others who continuously live in abject or “supper poverty,” and added that “we can contemplate a world whereby all of us can live together on this planet.”
President Akufo-Addo said all countries could create a world where they all live at ease and advocated for the equitable distribution of technology and wealth and not restricted to a few.
To have a more constructive and better world, President Akufo-Addo said world leaders needed to deal with those age-old imbalances that have hindered progress and development and engendered poverty in most parts of the world, particularly in Africa.
The multiplicity of the issues confronting the world, according to President Akufo-Addo, also required a multiplicity of responses, including “money” which is at the heart of all the many talks and deliberations.
“And I think that a lot of our energies we are looking at is how we can frame a new arrangement where the multilateral institutions like the Bank, like the Fund, can play in the process of mobilising the greater resources that the world needs for its development,” he said.
On the issues of climate action, President Akufo-Addo defended the constrained position of Africa to explore its natural resources for its development after the continent was told it could no longer deploy those resources for its development.
“If, indeed, we are being told that these resources that have helped develop other parts of the world are no longer going to be available for our development, how then do we make the transition to the new source of power and development?
“That our oil, our gas resources which are there in abundance, can no longer be deployed because of its impact on climate change, is a critical issue we have to look at,” he added.
The President said whatever the reasons that had been advanced for this move, the resources for African states, “are not just there, so we have to address the issue of financing the resources for the climate transition in our parts of the world.
“And even if it is going to be a just and equitable transition, some position has to be found on how we can utilise the resources that we do have,” he stated.
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
