«The strategy is vaccination, which has considerably improved the situation, and also compliance with the rules. The protocols, the distancing, the masks: all we have learned to do in this year and a half with severe and terrible lessons, which we hope to forget ». These are the words of the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, on the sidelines of the Paris summit on the financing of African economies. Europe and the United States do not want to forget the African continent. The G20 and the World Bank will take care of it. The working hypothesis involves debt restructuring. «The EU and the US – explained Draghi in Paris – have responded to the devastation of the pandemic through funding to repair the economies and build the future. All with great solidarity and ensuring access to vaccinations for all. There is none of this in Africa. This summit begins to organize responses for Africa like those of Europe and the USA ».
For Draghi «there must necessarily be a global response. The proposals discussed in Paris today will be resumed and supported at the G20. They will be supported in all multilateral institutions in the world: from the distribution of special drawing rights to debt restructuring. This is very important. Until Ida, the World Bank organization for the poorest countries. The cause of Africa must be supported within the Ida ».
The summit organized by French President Macron proposes a ‘New Deal’ for Africa through the creation of new lines of credit to support African countries in terms of loans on preferential terms, better coordination between the creditors of the Paris Club and of the G20 on the issue of African debt, support for private sector development and a greater international financial commitment to foster digital connectivity and access to renewable energy in Africa. The event follows the April 2020 appeal, signed by 18 European and African leaders, on the financial impact of the health crisis in Africa. The work was divided into two sessions. The first, dedicated to the issues of external financing and debt treatment, the second to the development of the African private sector and the infrastructure sector.