VIOLET MENGO, Lusaka
PAN African Climate Justice Alliance secretary-general Mithika Mwenda has commended the African Development Bank for coming up with initiatives aimed at developing the continent.
The AfDB during its annual meetings in Lusaka revealed some initiatives such as the High Fives, the New Deal on Energy and the Agricultural Transformation for Africa, all aimed at position the continent for significant growth.
Mr Mwenda said in an interview at the AfDB annual meetings that Africa has for a long lagged behind in development and time has come to change its story for good.
He said the development of initiatives by the banks gives the civil society an opportunity to engage with the bank, a situation he described a step in the right direction.
“Pan African institutions largely remained preserve of governments and the space for the civil society has been quite limited. We are happy that the bank is serious to change the story of Africa,” Mr Mwenda said.
He said PACJA hopes that the momentum which the bank is carrying will be sustained and that more opportunities will be opened to engage with African governments processes.
“This is because we believe that the only way we can have sustainable development on the continent is through engaging people and the bank’s initiatives create opportunities that will allow civil society participation,” Mr Mwenda said.
And Mr Mwenda appealed to African governments to ensure that they implement all policies that they develop.
“African governments are good in policy proclamations and not implementation. As civil society, our role is following on ensuring that governments implement what they initiate, and now, our interest is to see how the Paris Agreement will be implemented,” He said.
Meanwhile, Mr Mwenda said Africa should pursue the energy mix of using both the renewable and non-renewable energy as the continent develops itself.