Adesina to join world leaders at UNGA

The President of African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina would join other world leaders for the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Communication and External Relations Department, AfDB on Tuesday.

Adesina would discuss global issues such as the impact of climate change, Russia’s war in Ukraine and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the statement, this is the first time in two years that the general assembly is being held in person due to the pandemic.

The assembly’s theme this year is, “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”.

It reflects the urgent and unprecedented need for global cooperation to confront these issues.

The AfDB delegation, led by its president, is expected to participate in a number of high-level meetings.

These include the Global Food Security Summit, and a high-level meeting on the Sahel jointly organised by the UN and the African Union.

Others are a presidential dialogue group on nutrition, a meeting of the Global Crisis Response Group on food, energy, and finance, and an inaugural meeting.

The inaugural meeting would be the Global Leadership Council for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet.

Adesina is expected to meet with the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the President of the Rockefeller Foundation Raj Shah, and other development partners.

He would also attend the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum, a conference for international business investment.

Other participants expected to attend include President Muhammadu Buhari, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation and Aliko Dangote, the President Dangote Group.

Also, Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mark Zuckerberg, the Chief Executive Officer of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and Satya Nadella, Chairman, Microsoft Corp, would participate.