STORY: African leaders urge global financial system reform to address debt, climate risks
SHOOTING TIME: May 27, 2024
DATELINE: May 30, 2024
LENGTH: 00:03:28
LOCATION: Nairobi
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of establishments of the conference
2. various of African leaders at the conference
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): WILLIAM RUTO, Kenyan President
4. various of African Presidents at the conference
5. various of delegates
6. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): AKINWUMI ADESINA, President of African Development Bank

STORYLINE:

African leaders on Wednesday renewed calls for reforms to the global financial architecture, emphasizing the need for it to be more responsive to the continent's destabilizing debt and climate vulnerabilities.
   
Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the leaders said there is a need for changes as African countries are struggling with high financing interest rates, climate shocks and constrained government revenues.
   
SOUNDBITE 1 (English): WILLIAM RUTO, Kenyan President
"A better, more responsive, and fairer international (development) financial architecture is urgently needed, and time here is of the essence. The financial architecture we advocate for as Africa today should integrate the continent's most challenging development issues of debt sustainability and climate vulnerabilities to enable the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 commitments to be achieved."

The five-day meeting, which brought together heads of state of regional countries, senior officials and experts, included high-level plenary sessions and thematic knowledge events to address Africa's challenges and opportunities.
   
Ruto said that African economies continue to bear the burden of rising costs of servicing huge national debts, partly caused by high global interest rates and external shocks. He added that while Africa needs to raise resources to invest in infrastructure and industrialization for rapid economic growth, it faces the rigid barrier of a global financial architecture that is fundamentally misaligned with the continent's aspirations.
   
Rwandan President Paul Kagame emphasized the need for a new global financial architecture that addresses the continent's interests, saying that through continental unity, Africa can lower the cost of funds flowing into the region.
   
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that Africa typically borrows from international markets at rates far above those paid by the rest of the world, and the debt problems faced by many African countries, which consume the largest share of national resources and hinder the development agenda, are a result of an unjust financial architecture.
   
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, also called for reforms in the global financial architecture to better cater to Africa's development needs, noting that the African lender is already undertaking similar reforms.
   
Adesina said the AfDB is progressing toward its goal of mobilizing 25 billion U.S. dollars for climate financing. "Last year, we devoted 45 percent of our total lending to climate financing," he said.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): AKINWUMI ADESINA, President of African Development Bank
"The African Development Bank group strongly supports African economies. In 2023 our financing totaled 10 billion dollars across all of our high five priorities, to light up and power up Africa, to feed Africa, to industrialize Africa, to integrate Africa and improve the quality of life of the people of Africa. These high fives, your excellency's ladies and gentlemen, are the accelerators of Africa's development. The bottom line is that the African Development Bank delivers."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Nairobi.
(XHTV)