João Lourenço spoke at the general debate of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, which takes place between Monday and Tuesday in New York.
João Lourenço, who spoke as Acting President of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), considered this to be a "crucial" opportunity to assess progress in implementing the SDGs and take measures to correct what is not working. be carried out in the most appropriate way.
Regarding the SADC region, he considered that it had made "remarkable progress in implementing regional cooperation and integration priorities", despite the constraints due to the covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the instability that affected some countries in the region.
"They had a considerable negative impact on the ability of countries to more effectively fulfill the strategic plans that aim to deepen the regional integration of Southern Africa and promote its development, in a perspective in which the ambitions for the Africa we want, established in Agenda 2063 of the African Union", said the President.
For João Lourenço, the advances could have been more significant and more expressive, if it had not been necessary to deal with the global crisis and the specific crises in the region, in addition to the difficulties in accessing financial resources "in affordable conditions" for the economies of these countries, This is perhaps the main problem for carrying out some projects.
"Nothing contained in the plans, objectives and programs that we have outlined over these years can be carried out effectively and with the positive results that we all want to obtain, if we are unable to make a coordinated effort to eliminate conflicts, instability, insecurity and unpredictability, which discourages investment and takes away from our markets the credibility they need for our international partners to invest more in our economies", highlighted the head of state.
These objectives, he said, "will be achievable with a combined effort between everyone, but with much fewer constraints and obstacles" if the relationship between the region and the international community "develops without punitive unilateral measures against SADC member states as in the case of Zimbabwe".
João Lourenço also addressed the topic of climate change, highlighting the need to make financial resources available to ensure adaptation financing until 2025, to achieve the objective of recapitalizing the Green Climate Fund.
"I would like to conclude by highlighting the importance of global cooperation, solidarity and joint action to face the multiple and complex challenges that the world is currently facing, which is why I appeal to the United Nations General Assembly to put these purposes in the chapter on the priorities of your agenda for the coming times", he concluded.
The leader highlighted the interdependence between peace and development, stating that Angola will continue to develop actions with a view to the future achievement of the SADC Vision 2050, which envisages a region with political and social stability.
The SDG Summit is one of the most important events this week, as the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly takes place, bringing together dozens of heads of State and Government from around the world in the North American city.
