Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to hold a virtual meeting on
June 3, 2020 with leaders from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions.
PHOTO | PSCU
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Wednesday hold a
virtual meeting with leaders from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions.
The meeting will discuss how to revive economies, and find alternative sources of funds in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The
meeting seeks to “assess the current global situation of Covid-19”,
according to a dispatch circulated last week by the organisers.
ONLINE MEETING
Collectively
known as the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States
(OACPS), the leaders will be holding an online meeting for the first
time.
The meeting is officially known as Intersessional Summit on Transcending Covid-19 Pandemic.
While the pandemic has reached nearly every
country, organisers say the effects on OACPS members will form the main
discussions, including impacts beyond health.
President
Kenyatta is the OACPS’s President-in-Office, a title given to hosts of
the organisation’s previous Summit to lead the implementation of
outcomes of those meetings.
Kenya
hosted the 9th Summit in December last year where leaders agreed to
strengthen good governance, peace and security, environmental
sustainability and climate change, as well as socio-economic
development.
With more than 101, 400
infections and 2739 reported deaths among its members, organisers say
the meeting should reflect on whether those goals can be achieved.
THREATS
“A
coordinated approach is required in efforts to control and manage the
multiplicity of threats, including economic and humanitarian challenges
posed by the pandemic,” a statement said.
OACPS
has about 30 small island nations as members and officials say they
could be most affected by the pandemic, especially since they already
face problems from climate change. Most of those island nations, as well
as some countries in mainland Africa are also considered least
developed and rely on aid from richer countries.
“Climate
change, food insecurity, disruption of supply chains, reduced trade
flows, suppressed tourism, reduced remittances, reduced government
revenues and high debt levels are key challenges that the OACPS Members
States will need to address during and after the pandemic,” a statement
from organisers said.
Traditionally,
the OACPS (formed in 1975 as ACP Group of States) had an arrangement
with the European Union through the Cotonou Agreement, where poorer
countries in the OACPS get favoured treatment to help elevate their
economies through less restricted exports to the EU markets, as well as
significant aid into their territories.
WEAKENING ECONOMIES
With
the pandemic weakening economies of these donors, it means economies of
the OACPS could take a beating as there are little exports.
Wednesday’s
meeting, themed “Transcending the COVID-19 Pandemic: Building
Resilience through Global Solidarity”, will see President Kenyatta lead
talks on keeping economies running and “rebooting for a strong recovery,
and boosting global solidarity and deepening partnerships.”
Last
week, State House indicated the meeting “makes specific pronouncements
on intended collective and collaborative approaches that will ensure
that the effects of the pandemic have minimal disruptions to our
economic and social activities and especially our productive sectors.”
Ahead
of the Summit, Angolan diplomat Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, the
Secretary-General of OACPS said member states will discuss solutions on
how to protect weaker states.
“The
Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to ravage – in some cases – already
vulnerable member states of the OACPS,” he said in a statement.
“Crises
like these can have a disproportionate effect on OACPS countries and we
are committed to seeing how best we can support our members to contain
this fallout and secure the well-being of their citizens.”
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