By Winifred Bulus
United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has called on humanity towards early detection of crises instead of trying to manage them.
He made this known on the ‘Africa Day’ 2017. He also urged humanity to listen and learn with the Afrcian Continent and called for growth and development for the continent as well as the United Nations.
“All of humanity will benefit by listening, learning and working with the people of Africa. It starts with prevention. Our world needs to move from managing crises to preventing them in the first place. We need to break the cycle of responding too late and too little,” said Mr. Guterres in his message commemorating Africa Day.
The UN chief also critisised the perpetrators of violence who according to him were competing for power and creating internal conflict to that effect. Human rights to him are not respected and are trampled on by violent extremists or fueled by them. But prevention goes far beyond focusing solely on conflict.
“The best means of prevention and the surest path to durable peace is inclusive and sustainable development. It is critical to continue building more effective and accountable institutions to address governance challenges, advance the rule of law and promote civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights,” he stressed.
As the international community has entered the second year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to tackle global poverty, inequality, instability and injustice, Mr. Guterres highlighted that Africa has adopted its own complementary and ambitious plan: Agenda 2063.
“For the people of Africa to fully benefit from these important efforts, these two agendas need to be strategically aligned,” he said.
All of humanity will benefit by listening, learning and working with the people of Africa
We can speed progress by doing more to provide opportunities and hope to young people.
Recently, there was a first UN-African union annual conference which Mr. Guterres referred to as a unique opportunity to strengthen our partnership and establish a higher platform of cooperation,” saying, “Our work is based on four driving principles: mutual respect, solidarity, complementarity and interdependence.
Mr. Guterres said that the UN partnership with Africa was also rooted in a deep sense of gratitude.
“Africa provides the majority of United Nations peacekeepers around the world. African nations are among the world’s largest and most generous hosts of refugees. Africa includes some of the world’s fastest-growing economies,” he elaborated.
He called on youths to be a part of the journey to progress, saying, “We can speed progress by doing more to provide opportunities and hope to young people. More than three out of five Africans are under 35 years of age. Making the most of this tremendous asset means more investment in education, training, decent work and engaging young people in shaping their future.
“We must also do our utmost to empower women so they can play a full role in sustainable development and sustainable peace. I am pleased that the African Union has consistently placed a special focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“Crises represent at best a partial view. But, from a higher platform of cooperation, we can see the whole picture – one that recognizes the enormous potential and remarkable success stories throughout the African continent.”
