Ban Ki Moon

The United Nations would continue to support African leaders to end poverty and usher in a better future the people, Secretary-General of the world body, 
Ban Ki-Moon said on Saturday.
 
Ban gave the remark at a high-level joint event entitled "Operationalization of the 2030 Agenda for Africa's Industrialization’’, organized by UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in New York.
 
The other joint organisers of the event were the African Union Commission (AUC), the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
 
``With the commitment already demonstrated by African leaders and continued good partnership between the UN and AU commission, we can enable people across Africa to end poverty.
 
``We can also usher in a better future for all,'' he said.
 
The UN Chief said that the adoption of the new agenda was a major step in UN’s shared work towards ending poverty and promoting prosperity while protecting the environment.
 
He said that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognized the importance of “building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation”.
 
He pointed out that Africa was seeking its own paradigm shift through Agenda 2063, saying that African countries were ready to promote structural transformation, technological change and innovation to address poverty, inequality and youth unemployment.
 
``They are determined to pursue modern industrial policies and intra-African trade and value chains.
 
``Africa’s development partners, including the development agencies, financial institutions and the private sector, are ready to help.
 
``UNIDO’s new Programme for Country Partnership provides a concrete model of how to mobilize multi-stakeholder coalitions to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development,” he said.
 
Ban explained that the UNIDO’s programme was launched less than a year ago in Ethiopia and Senegal, adding, ``we are already seeing results''.
 
President Muhammadu Buhari and his counterparts of Senegal, Macky Sall; Mulatu Teshome of Ethiopia and Edgar Lungu of Zambia are attending the high-level event.
 
They are to discuss concrete partnerships for the effective operationalization of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in Africa, and particularly as related to ‘’SDG nine’’ on “resilient infrastructure, inclusive, sustainable industrialization and innovation”.
 
The leaders are expected to rally the political support of and commitment from key stakeholders for Africa’s development priorities in the area of inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
 
They are also expected to discuss how to forge stronger regional, inter-regional and global cooperation for inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
 
Deriving recommendations for appropriate mechanisms to facilitate such cooperation, including through South-South cooperation and new partnership models, are also expected to be discussed by the leaders.