Abou El-Enein: It's Time to Give Africa Its Right

In a session entitled “RESILIENCE IN FOOD SECURITY IN AFRICA” on the sidelines of COP27, Egyptian parliament deputy speaker Mohamed Abou El Enein talked about many important issues in Africa. 

Mr. Abou El Enein, the moderator of the session, welcomed the attendees saying: “It is my pleasure to welcome you all, I am very glad that you are coming from different continents , I see that the most of the attendees are youth”.

He said: “Today we have a great opportunity to discuss the most important issues in Africa , Africa is our continent , Africa is wealthy and has a lot of natural sources, it has 1.2 billion inhabitants which represent a great force and most of them are youth , 65% are youth , but unfortunately it is the poorest continent”.

He added: “In this conference (COP27) we should think together , this conference is very important for the life of the people in Africa , in this conference we can do a lot and assist the other continents with energy, food , law materials, supply chains”.

“The participation of Africa in the carbon emissions worldwide is 3% and most of the other continents produce 97% (the rest) so it is the time to give Africa its right to maximize and create the ideal added value for the national resources”, the parliament deputy speaker noted.

He said: “today we are going to open a discussion to see what we can do especially that our continent can do a lot, an action plan is required and we should carry out this action plan, we should have determination to go ahead very quickly “.

He stressed that the AU has been starting to promote African champion which is a collective of a business community around African continent, “for this tomorrow in Cleopatra resort we will have a meeting on the African champion”.

“As a politician, and as you understand the story of climate change has been started more than 10 years when the vice president of America Al Gore was making his studies and warned against climate change but people didn’t believe in his warnings”.

Abou El Enein stressed that Africa is receiving the major danger , it has been affected a lot by the carbon emissions, poverty, hunger , and floods.

He added that The African land represents 930 million hectare of land, this area is suitable for agriculture this can be represent 60% of worldwide demand of food. 

He revealed that “600 million inhabitants of Africa live without electricity, and Africa now has 1.2 billion inhabitants and this number is going to be 2.5 billion by 2050 and this is the real problem .

The moderator of the session noted that Africa has a lot of raw materials but the investors go to particular places and until now a lot of opportunities that can help the situation is not moved yet so we need a study, and a vision of how the African union present themselves, how to market the demand how to market what we are need to the financial institutions, united nations , and the national banks.

He asserted: " we need a vision and a political will to attract the private sector we need need initiatives , advantages, privileges."

“I am glad that people start talking about the changing of the international financing system as we need to talk with IMF, international bank financial institutions”, Abou El Enein said. 

He added: “Last year was the highest year in carbon emissions as after the covid -19 and Russian-Ukrainian war people returned to coak, petrol and natural gas as sources of traditional sources for energy and this is very danger”.

“So Africa has to draw its vision, market its issue, start to set a real plan for agriculture not only for Africa but the whole world to attract the people , we have also to talk about the infrastructure of Africa and to see the mega projects between the south and north and west and east, we need to study how to move with these countries we need to open the borders to encourage the movement of trade and invetements , a lot of things sould be done, a lot of information has to be published, a lot of encouragements are required".

Abou El Enein said: "I  hope, in this conference, to carry out something , we need 4 trillion dollar to reach zero-carbon emissions in 2050 and Africa needs $300 billion per year for many sectors," adding:"  to encourage people to do this you need big effort otherwise we will not achive the goal and all the planet will be in danger".

in the same context, Kenyan Speaker from PACJA said that an average farmer in Kenya is 60 years.

"We are facing famine and drought that has led to hunger and food insecurity in Kenya", the speaker added

"We  need to establish our own research data banks and facilities so that we can rely on our own resources."

"Extension  services to build capacities for farmers locally so that we do not ensure food security and sovereignty but also sustainability through resilience."

On the other hand, the Moroccan Speaker said: "we can not continue to talk about food systems without talking about the energy and water sector. We need a holistic and integrated approach so that we ensure we do not achieve food security at the expense of the above two crucial sectors."

He added: "We  still have over 20% hungry people in Africa."

He noted that The current food system is contributing to 29% of greenhouse emissions, stressing: "We need a transformation to change this trend and renewable energy can ensure that is achieved."

"If  we avoid food wastage we need renewable energy for storage facilities, and desalination in order to produce clean and right water for the farmers."

He concluded :"The role of youth and women is essential. Most of the agriculture in Africa is done by women and they need to be empowered."

Moreover, the Tunisian Speaker stressed: "We cannot keep talking about food security and resilience while there is still unsustainable water usage."

"Since  women are already engaging in agriculture, we need to teach them about resilience and how to adapt through gender empowerment."

"Enable  women to get access to more sustainable financing and build their capacities to be resilient."

The tunsian speaker added that Indigenous knowledge is very rich in cultural and traditional systems that were used in farming and relating with the land. This needs to be integrated into research and implementation leading to food security.