Macky Sall: "The rules that govern the United Nations are not in the interest of Africa"

The 3rd edition of the Paris Peace Forum was held entirely digitally, from November 11 to 13. The "city of light" again confined had placed the multi-actor response to the pandemic at the center of these meetings which brought together many "headliners". President Macron was indeed expecting dozens of Heads of State and representatives of international institutions, but also personalities from all sectors and geographical backgrounds. From Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General to Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the IMF and Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, via John Kerry, the former US Secretary of State (2013-2017) , Melinda Gates or even the philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, the poster was prestigious and the dual objective of a return to multilateralism and a common response to the climate-compatible Covid-19, ambitious.

While biomedical research is accelerating and the prospect of a vaccine seems within reach (the American Pfizer has announced the discovery of a vaccine with 90% effectiveness), is it time to return multilateralism? It is in any case, with this in mind that the Forum for Peace 2020 has chosen to tackle the search for a common response to SARS-CoV-2, which has revealed serious flaws in terms of international solidarity. at the height of the crisis... In March 2020, while the coronavirus was ravaging northern Italy, the daily La Repubblica described how the Czech Republic had stolen thousands of masks from it while France was amazed that the masks ordered in China had been bought by the United States on the tarmac of airports. In the global health war, the "historic ally" of the Europeans had opted for "America First Again" causing serious multilateral cracks in passing. But it was time for optimism with the political change announced in the country of Uncle Sam, during this 3rd edition of the Forum for Peace.

A Forum marked by the return to multilateralism

“More than ever, we must remain united, and to defeat Covid-19, also make the post-Covid world fairer, more balanced, more sustainable,” declared President Macron on November 12 during the ACT- A du Forum, recalling that the Covid-19 pandemic which has already "caused the death of more than a million people and which has seriously affected our lives and our economies" represents a "planetary challenge" which requires "cooperation and -international solidarity". Returning to the ACT-A device, the ambition of which is to make the vaccine a "global public good", he added that "the results obtained are impressive: the first rapid tests, the first treatments are now available in all countries, rich or poor. I am also thinking of the COVAX facility, which should make it possible to provide two billion doses of vaccine, half of which to developing countries”. Emmanuel Macron underlined the essential role of the WHO, also confirming that France would contribute 100 million euros to COVAX, as soon as a vaccine is available and that it would provide an additional 50 million euros to the WHO. Finally, the French president insisted on the need to quickly adopt an ACT-A charter to operationalize a common response to Covid-19.

The fight against Covid-19 will be global or it will not be, also considers Louise Mushikiwabo, the Secretary General of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), who called for the overhaul of international cooperation, while returning to the need to “reduce the weight of the debt which affects the most fragile States”, adding that “in the longer term, it is necessary to envisage its restructuring”, because “the urgency is to build a renewed, strengthened and effective multilateralism. » Chinese President Xi Jinping also pledged by videoconference to "support multilateralism and oppose unilateralism, hegemony and power politics"...

For their part, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, and Pascal Lamy, President of the Executive Council of the Paris Peace Forum, mobilized against all isolationist temptations, recalled in a joint interview granted to the newspaper Le Monde on November 11 , that "the promotion of peace and the prevention of Covid-19 cannot exist without each other". However, this desire to strengthen multilateralism against the background of a pandemic, has not eluded the sensitive question of the representativeness of the countries of the South in international institutions, vigorously supported this year by Macky Sall, the President of Senegal...

For Macky Sall, we must review the outdated rules of the UN

“The rules which govern the United Nations are not in the interest of Africa [...] There are parts of the world which were not there in 1945, they were under colonies. We were not there when we formed the United Nations so the rules that are there and that govern the United Nations are not in our interest [...] All of Africa, 54 States and none is a permanent member of the Security Council, while the bulk of the agenda is Africa: conflicts, diseases, terrorism”, launched Macky Sall, during the opening of the Forum. "We must question these rules which are outdated," he continued.

Alongside Africa's lack of representation within the United Nations, the President of Senegal returned to the thorny issue of security and the fight against violent extremism, while warning that any confusion should be avoided. “The Islam that we know, in Senegal, which is an Islam of tolerance that we assume cannot go in this direction ["violence", given the recent attacks in France, note]. We also want there to be tolerance towards tolerant Islam. We must fight together against these extremisms, but we must also respect the difference, ”he said, a few days after the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty, on October 16 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. and the attack on the Basilica of Nice on November 1, which were followed by statements by a French president touching on religious sensitivities, well beyond national borders...

On the sidelines of the Forum for Peace, the Finance in Common Summit, a high-level meeting organized by the French Development Agency (AFD), also aroused real interest by bringing together more than 450 development banks and some 200 panelists, including Chinese, French and Senegalese Heads of State. In total, 3 billion dollars have been mobilized to support African SMEs impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, by 2021. The Chinese president participated in the Summit, displaying unfailing medical solidarity. As a reminder, China has particularly distinguished itself in the fight against the pandemic on the continent, by sending to each of the 54 African countries some 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 protective suits for medical use as well as than face shields, through tycoon Jack Ma.

Global governance: between health emergency and climate challenge

This 2020 edition of the Paris Peace Forum gave pride of place to the environment. John Kerry, the former American Secretary of State in the maneuver in the Paris Agreement with former President Obama) had moved to the French capital, promising a "new America" ​​with the imminent arrival of Joe Biden to the White House. “It will not be an America, I can tell you for sure, that acts with the arrogance of the past four years, that launches trade wars, that walks out of everything from the Iran nuclear deal, of the Paris agreement, of the trans-Pacific partnership agreement, and so on... Without reason, without coherence and without foundation. How could other nations take us seriously if we don't help them take the technological leap promised to them in Paris? We need political will! At the G20 last year, what did we achieve? $2 million for the Amazon that was burning. It is an insult ! We are talking about the G20, which represents 85% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This institution must push itself from the collar. We are in a period of transition, it will take 20 or 30 years, we all know that. But the only way to do that is to fund worthwhile projects and causes. Not those of the past which are part of the problem” declared John Kerry from Paris, while the public development banks, meeting in a high-level Summit, were working on the development of a climate-compatible financing framework.

For his part, António Guterres recalled the imperative of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Less alarmist than John Kerry, but more threatening, he stressed that "encouraging signals" were multiplying, but that it was necessary “Put a price on carbon [...] We need to shift the tax burden from taxpayers to polluters. Financial reporting relating to exposure to climate risks must be made compulsory,” he warned on 12 November. "Adaptation should not be the poor relation of climate action", he continued, before concluding on funding "which, today, is lacking", recalling that at a time of Covid-19, “Three quarters of new infectious diseases are zoonotic [disease caused in humans by the intermediary of an animal and vice versa, nldr]”.

Ultimately, several Heads of State and Government have pledged to pay nearly half a billion euros to allow developing countries access to future vaccines against Covid-19. The war was sanitary during the last Paris Peace Forum, where there was ultimately little question of restoring, maintaining or consolidating peace. Yet several deadly conflicts continue to strike civilians, sometimes in deafening silence. This is the case in Yemen where, despite the pandemic, the war continues and where nearly 24 million people, or two thirds of the population, are today dependent on humanitarian aid according to the UN. In Africa, peace has also been weakened following recent electoral tensions, terrorist attacks or territorial tensions, as the forces of Tigray have come to remind us in recent days in the East of the continent.

10 mins

Share :