The fifth 5th Africities summit opened on Wednesday in Marrakech, Morocco with Kenya’s deputy Prime Minister, Musalia Mudavadi saying that the global financial crisis portends a grim picture for Africa due to her disadvantaged position in the world economy.
Mudavadi said that the crisis threatens to derail the progress made so far towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
“Apart from the obvious historical reasons including colonialism, our continent continues to lag behind in development as our economies remain fragile. This calls for some special soul searching and more importantly, expeditious intervention against the global economic meltdown threatening to further complicate matters for our continent,” said Mudavadi.
The five-day summit is been held under the theme “African Regional and Local Governments’ Response to Global crisis : promotion of sustainable local development and employment.”
He said in a statement issued in Nairobi that the crunch calls for new strategy especially for Africa and urged countries to be more proactive in planning against the odds.
Mudavadi said that many countries economies are dependent on rain fed agriculture and the onset of global warming will impede Africa’s quest for quality living and food security.
“I am confident that with concerted efforts through co-operation by all African states, regional or local governments, we are capable of reversing the unfolding scenario which may downgrade the livelihood of our people,” he said.
Around 4,000 delegates from African countries are attending the Summit to dialogue on decentralization and local development in Africa.
Kenya hosted the 4th Africities summit in September 2006.
Source African Press Agency
