By Amin Kef-Ranger
India hosted the Second Edition of Voice of Global South Summit which was held on 17 November 2023 virtually. The Inaugural Leaders’ Session of the Summit was chaired by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
The Summit is an initiative of the Government of India aimed at providing a common platform for the countries of Global South to share their perspectives and priorities. The overarching theme of the Summit was “Together, for Everyone’s Growth, with Everyone’s Trust”. India hosted the first ever Voice of Global South Summit on 12-13 January 2023 with the theme, ‘Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose’.
H.E. Francess Piagie Alghali, Hon. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Sierra Leone participated in the 2nd Foreign Minister’s Session with the theme “Global South and One Development”, chaired by Dr. S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India.
Hon’ble Deputy Minister, in delivering her statement, expressed gratitude to the Government of India for organizing such a laudable forum in the bid to provide global leadership to countries of the Global South. She also appreciated India to provide such a platform through the Summit for articulating common challenges and also most importantly to pull out collective strength of the countries of the Global South for making proposals to enhance living conditions and development.
She further stated that the world continues to face many challenges which are impacting negatively on the Global South, from climate change to food insecurity.
Many of these challenges, such as climate change, are not created by the Global South, yet these countries suffer proportionately by their effects. She mentioned that many countries of the Global South, specially from Africa, are advocating for Just Energy Transition.
She also stated that conditions of these countries necessitates to abridge the enormous gap between the developed and developing countries which would allow these countries to advance towards common development, peace and respect of all human rights for all, including the right to development in the context of human dignity for every country and every people. She said that the countries of the Global South need to focus seriously on development issues including eradication of poverty, reforming the International financial architecture and establishing measures going beyond GDP to ensure a more inclusive approach to International cooperation and the reform of the peace and security architecture of the multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.
In her statement, the Hon’ble Deputy Minister also conveyed sincere thanks to the Government and People of India for their continued support for Sierra Leone’s development priorities, including education and agriculture.
She mentioned that India and Sierra Leone enjoy friendly and cooperative relations since both countries gained Independence in mid 20thcentury adding that India is one of the largest trading partner of Sierra Leone and Indian companies have invested heavily in Sierra Loene’s different sectors.
Francess Piagie Alghali furthered that India has been a major provider of development assistance to Sierra Leone having provided over US $ 300 Million to the country so far.
She stated that India has also played a significant role in peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone during the civil war. India contributed troops to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone from 2000-2001.
The Deputy Minister ended expressing hope that partnerships of both countries would be further strengthened.
