Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has called for strengthened cooperation in political, economic, and social spheres within the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Member States.
Mudavadi who is Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs affirmed that the NAM Member States continue to be guided by the objectives that reaffirm their commitment to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.
Despite the precarious and perilous global environment compounded by the advent of the Covid 19, Mudavadi says member states continue to strive for a stronger and United Non-Aligned Movement that contributes to a better world for all.
“There are immense opportunities to collectively lead not only to protect and defend the multilateral system but also make it work better for us all,” said Mudavadi.
He spoke during the ministerial session on the sidelines of the 19th Non-Aligned Movement Summit that is underway in Kampala, Uganda.
He urged all States to defend, preserve, and promote the principles of international law.
He called on NAM to re-invigorate its leadership in multilateral efforts to address the evolving multi-faceted threats to international peace and security.
Focus he said should be on effective and accelerated implementation of instruments for international disarmament; harmonizing NAM’s positions and taking a collaborative approach in negotiating normative frameworks, providing the responsible development and use of new technologies including Artificial Intelligence especially in military and security contexts.
“We must inject a much-needed sense of urgency to reform the UN Security Council to be more inclusive, representative, democratic, and genuinely responsive to today’s global security challenges,” he said regretting that great power rivalry, unjustifiable sanctions, terrorism, violent extremism, and other transnational organized crimes continue to undermine global peace, security, and stability globally.
He noted that the United Nations-based multilateral system is unable to deliver sustainable peace, stability, and development to all, in the face of increased polarization, consequently, worsening the effects of pervasive armed conflict and other multiple and multifaceted threats to international peace and security including the climate crisis which is reverberating through declining social, -economic and humanitarian situations across the world.
Mudavadi emphasized the need for NAM to collectively seek the social and economic empowerment of her people citing that the achievement of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals continues to encounter challenges stemming from dysfunctionalities in the multilateral system and related and interconnected global issues.
“NAM should therefore persist in advocating for solutions to overcome the barriers to financial access in developing countries by calling for reforms in the international financial architecture, debt relief, concessional finance, grants, and de-risking lending instruments to boost investment in critical sectors,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi also noted with concern the increasing gap with new technologies, in particular environmentally sound technologies and renewable energies, and the potential negative impact of this gap on efforts to achieve sustainable development in developing countries.
Echoing concerns about the increased tendency of developed countries to use the environment as a justification to impose policies and conditionalities that increase inequality and negatively impact the efforts of developing countries to eradicate poverty and achieve development, cognizant of the increasing impacts of climate change on the sustainability of communities and their livelihoods in developing countries that are lacking or have limited resilience capacities and capabilities.
“NAM should join in keeping the climate agenda alive and robust. Continued inaction and lack of ambition will inevitably expose all of our countries to the worsening devastations of climate change, including its implications on our economies, peace, and security.” urged Mudavadi.
“As demonstrated by the Nairobi Declaration of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit held in Kenya in September 2023 as well as the discussion from COP28, there still exist practical ways to marshal and direct resources and action to ameliorate the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.” he further noted.
The Prime CS reaffirmed Kenya’s commitment to upholding and promoting the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as the NAM principles.
He said Kenya supports the incoming Chair, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni in championing and defending the interests of NAM which seeks to accelerate the realization of the set goals.
He noted that it is imperative to strengthen multilateralism and comprehensive reform of the multilateral global governance architecture, including the United Nations and international financial architecture, international financial institutions,s, and multilateral development banks.
This he said will make them fit for purpose, democratic, equitable, representative, and responsive to the current global realities and the needs and aspirations of the developing countries.
The 19th NAM Summit will provide a unique opportunity for Member States to take stock of major global affairs with the Heads of State and government expected to ratify the declaration reached by member states on Friday.
The theme of the 19th NAM Summit is ‘Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence.’
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