Addis Ababa — The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Carlos Lopes traveled to Delhi from 6-8 February to participate in the 2014 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organized under the auspices of the Energy and Resources Institute. While in Delhi, Mr. Lopes met with a variety of representatives from the Indian Government, as well as international and national organizations.
In his key note address at the Summit, he called for deliberate action on green industrialization as a means to tackle the continent's energy, water and food security challenges, which are being accentuated by the negative impacts of climate change. He also proposed a six-point strategy for Africa's' green industrialization path'. Mr. Lopes also participated in a Ministerial Panel with seven African Ministers from Benin, the Republic of Congo, Djibouti, The Gambia; Mozambique, Seychelles and Uganda. on the theme, "Tackling the Energy, Water & Food Security Challenge in Africa".
In his meetings with the Indian Government, the Executive Secretary held talks with representatives from three key ministries with interests in Africa. The discussions focused on the current trade balance between India and Africa, which is currently in Africa's favour. As this trend is likely to remain sustained for some time to come, the discussions touched on the need to deepen collaboration and partnership between Africa and India. The discussions also looked at ways in which the ECA and the Government of India could collaborate in the preparations for the upcoming India-Africa Summit to be held later this year. Further, they explored ideas around opportunities for processing African exports through value addition, in order to generate more modern jobs and sustain Africa's economic growth trends. Other bilateral meetings, some of which included exploring potential collaboration with the ECA's policy streams, were held with Dr. Rajendra K Pachauri, Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute; Mr. Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP; Professor Radha Kumar, Director General of the Delhi Policy Group; Professor François Mancebo of Rheims University; Ambassador Joao Gomes Cravinho, Head of the EU Delegation in India; and former UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan.
