José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission, has given a speech entitled “Africa’s development needs: state of implementation of various commitments challenges and the way forward” at the High Level Meeting on Africa’s Development Needs on the 22nd of September in New York.
In the speech, he underlined European Union’s role in development cooperation compromising 60% of world’s aid to developing countries.
Barroso sees three major global challenges: the current food crisis, climate change and energy that have to be tackled in the upcoming years.
With regard to the current food crisis, action is needed to support agriculture in developing countries – to enable African farmers to grow more food for Africans. The EU has already stepped in with short term measures worth an additional €550 million in 2008, with a further €250 million to come in 2009. Now the Commission has proposed a new €1 billion Food Facility, promoting agricultural production by improving poor farmers’ access to inputs such as fertilizers and seed. Barosso underlines that this initiative is entirely in line with Africa’s own objectives for developing agriculture, and hopes the Facility will soon be agreed inside the European Union.
Climate change is hitting hardest the poorest countries of the world, with severe droughts, desertification, lack of water, and other natural disasters. It threatens to undermine the promising 6% African growth rates and it could be a major threat to peace and security.
The upcoming conferences in Poznan at the end of 2008 and in Copenhagen in 2009 should be the moment when the EU builds a new international consensus. To achieve that, it will be essential for Europe and Africa to work very closely together in the coming months to develop a strong partnership based in particular on adaptation, the key question for Africa. It was with this in mind that the Commission launched the Global Climate Change Alliance between the European Union on the one hand, and poor and vulnerable developing countries on the other, he says in the High Level Meeting in New York.
Another aspect of the partnership concerns the struggle against deforestation, which is a major concern in Africa. The EU plans to prevent the illegal exploitations of rainforest, and support sustainable management of the forests. A prime example of that is the forest partnership that is being established in the Congo basin.
The third area is energy, the EU and Africa must look to develop together a sustainable future. There is a need to establish energy security for both continents; better interconnections both between, and within, Africa and Europe; better governance and use of oil and gas revenues; and finally, they must cooperate closely to tackle the inter-linked issues of poverty, deforestation and climate change. All of these issues will be addressed in the Africa-EU Energy Partnership launched last year.
In conclusion, Barroso stressed that he is proud of the European Union’s record in working together with Africa on the crucial mission of development. But the reality is that Africa is getting to its own two feet – building stronger rates of growth, using its rich natural resources more effectively, strengthening good governance. When we in Europe say that we want to be partners with Africa, we will continue to take our responsibilities. But Africa’s future must ultimately lie in African hands, he underlined at the end.
