Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Ms Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF,
Mr David Malpass, President of the World Bank,
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization,
Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission,
Honourable Governors of the IMF and the World Bank,

Thank you for the invitation to address this High-Level Africa Meeting. 

This meeting takes place at a time when Africa is confronted by a double challenge in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have to both save human lives and protect the livelihoods of our citizens. 

This moment requires bold, courageous and unconventional responses from the global community. 

Over the past month, I have convened two meetings of African leaders to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the continent. 

We are determined that Africa should speak with one voice and that our response to this pandemic should be continent-wide.

Our immediate task is to confront the grave public health emergency.

But we also need to address the pandemic’s direct impact on the incomes of households and companies and its negative consequences for investment.

Cushioning the decline in the immediate term should establish a solid platform for economic recovery once the health crisis has passed. 

As African leaders, we are therefore urgently calling for the mobilisation of US$200 billion for the African Continent as an emergency response to the pandemic.

A large part of this would be earmarked for immediate debt relief. 

In this regard, we welcome the coordinated approach agreed by the G20 and the Paris Club, supported by the IMF and World Bank, for time-bound debt suspension by bilateral official creditors for low income countries that request forbearance.

We also request your assistance in engaging multilateral development banks and private sector creditors to follow suite. 

We stress that the coordinated approach is imperative to ensure that countries that are already in distress can contain the additional negative impact.

We welcome the measures taken by the IMF and World Bank for the strengthening of processes to speed up disbursements and increase access limits of emergency financing facilities.

This includes the decision this week by the IMF Executive Board to provide immediate debt service relief to 25 countries – most of which are in Africa.

We are encouraged by the pledges made by IMFC members yesterday to replenish both the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust. 

We also welcome the World Bank’s support to COVID-19 responses in at least 15 African countries.

The positive message from the Managing Director that middle income countries will not be left behind is very important.

We also welcome the openness of the IMFC to explore additional financial measures to support the evolving needs of countries. 

We hope that this would include rallying the membership around a possible increase in the allocation of Special Drawing Rights if required. 

It is significant and commendable that the African Development Bank has also established a COVID-19 Response Facility to help finance governments and private sector.

As the African Union, we have agreed to have a central depository for all mobilised resources in the form of the AU COVID-19 Response Fund. 

This instrument will be capitalised through contributions by members of the African Union and its development partners.

Several AU Member States have between them already committed around US$12.5 million to the Fund. 

In the coming months, more resources are expected, to allow for the necessary procurement of medical supplies, test kits, masks, protective gear, ventilators and, in time, vaccines. 

We believe no country should be left behind. We are therefore calling for sanctions against countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe to be lifted so that they are free to combat the effects of Covid-19. 

We further urge the international community to heed the call of the United Nations at the G20 in March 2020. 

We need to realise the goal of deploying US$ 500 billion aid under the UN’s envisaged ‘Marshall Plan’ to countries in distress. 

The initiatives taken in the past few days are welcome and provide a firm basis for an extraordinary support and stimulus programme for Africa that is equal to the extraordinary and grave circumstances in which this pandemic has placed our continent.

This programme must be informed by the principles of urgency, scale and sustainability beyond the health crisis.

Through such measures we will be able to turn the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic, protect the livelihoods of our people and establish the foundation for economic recovery.

I thank you.