This is a regional strategy based on a long process of consultations with
the countries of the Great Lakes region, with all concerned United Nations entities
and other stakeholders working in the region.
This consultation process has given us a real consensus on the political,
security, and socio-economic development priorities of the region.
Today, the countries of the Great Lakes region fully own this strategy,
its priorities and the accompanying action plan.
The countries of the Great Lakes region,
pan-African sub-regional organizations, United Nations entities
and other stakeholders are fully mobilized to work towards
the achievement of these objectives, which are both ambitious and realistic.
In our opinion, better development, through cooperation and regional integration,
will provide a satisfactory response to the expectations of the population for a better life.
This more ambitious development will give more means to the countries of the Great Lakes region
to better ensure peace and security.
And therefore, what we encourage and what we try to do to accompany and
support the countries of the Great Lakes region is to help them progressively enter
a virtuous circle: Better ensured peace and security for better development.
The achievements of this more robust, more substantial development will then give
ever stronger means to better ensure peace and security.
The transparent and sustainable management of natural resources
is an objective that all countries in the region are pursuing in close collaboration
with the international community.
The exploitation of and illicit trade in natural resources is one of the major challenges and
root causes of instability in the Great Lakes region.
To better ensure peace and security, it is necessary to seek and find
more global, more comprehensive, more relevant solutions to put an end to these criminal activities
around natural resources.
In our opinion, the countries of the Great Lakes region have a great deal of responsibility
to achieve a responsible, transparent and sustainable management of natural resources.
To this end, they are fully determined to take greater ownership of the mechanism
developed by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)
to ensure better management of natural resources.
. It is also up to us, the United Nations and other stakeholders, to take our share of responsibility
and help the countries putting in place a mechanism
for accountability of all actors.
This system, this mechanism should allow us to clearly identify the actors who are involved
in this value chain at all stages. And it is from there, with this
mapping of the actors, that we will be able to define, to identify the share of responsibility
of all actors.
The countries of the Great Lakes region were quick and determined to take the first steps
to face the challenges of this pandemic.
They have resumed their approach to
political cooperation, security and military cooperation, economic and trade cooperation.
This is what we have seen with regard to the progress achieved by the quadripartite process
for the rapprochement between Uganda and Rwanda, thanks to the good offices and mediation
Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Today, the countries of the region are waiting for a larger delivery of vaccines.
And for our part, the United Nations entities in the Great Lakes region
are here to work closely with the countries of the Great Lakes region
to ensure better delivery of these vaccines to all segments of the population.