Building forward for an African green recovery

Despite its satisfactory response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa has lost over 30 million jobs, poverties are once again on the rise, and debt pressures are mounting. A swift and bold response is needed to address the devastating impact of the climate, health and economic crises. African finance ministers have called for an injection of external assistance of $100 billion each year for the next three years to close the financing gap of more than $345 billion identified by the IMF. Finally, for climate, health, and the economy, one thing is clear: the entire international community must cooperate to reset and rebuild a stronger multilateral framework to respond to global crises and provide equitable, just and transparent processes and systems for the management and implementation of rapid, monitorable solutions. Without such an approach, African development aspirations, as set out in national development plans, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 of the African Union, will not be attained.