STANLEY KAKUBO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zambia, said that the cost of war, be it in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or in the heart of Sudan, or between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, has at its best led to the displacement of innocent women and children, and at worst led to the demise of many.  “Humanity must win the war against war.  Neither must we lose the race to save our planet,” he emphasized.  Urging to guarantee access to cheaper and fair financing for nations burdened with debt, he said that international financial institutions and multilateral development banks should scale up concessional financing to least developed countries and this financing should be under improved terms of lending.  “In fact, Africa bears the heaviest burden of these crippling capital costs,” he stressed, commending France and other partners for successfully hosting the summit for a new global financial pact in Paris in June 2023, as well as the official creditor committee of the G20 for reaching an important agreement to restructure Zambia’s significant debt burden.  He also called for the reform of the international financial architecture to develop such critical sectors as renewable energy, social protection, health care, quality education, food security systems, resilient infrastructure, artificial intelligence and information technology.

“There is a need to scale up partnerships and collaboration so that we can have a unified effort in strengthening the inclusiveness and effectiveness of international tax cooperation for the world to combat illicit financial flows,” he said, also reiterating the need to honour the annual $100 billion pledge for climate finance, with greater emphasis on adaptation.  He also called for leveraging the transformative capabilities of digital technology, especially artificial intelligence, adding:  “Imagine using AI [artificial intelligence] to deliver lifesaving medicines to that seemingly forgotten grandmother in a village in Africa or the grand transformation we can achieve in harnessing the fertile soils of Zambia using the technology of precision irrigation.”

Turning to the empowerment of women and girls, he stressed that his country will continue to enhance collaboration in preventing and wiping out the scourge of early and child marriages.  He also reported about the historic abolishment of the death penalty in Zambia and the end of the criminal offence of defamation of its President.  “In 2021, our economy achieved a commendable growth rate of 4.7 per cent from a contraction of 2.8 per cent in 2020, and in 2022 the economy demonstrated resilience and maintained a positive growth of 3.7 per cent,” he said, also highlighting the reduction of inflation to 9.9 per cent in 2022.