Address of Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami Speaker of the House of Representatives at Opening of the Pan-African Parliament’s Youth Dialogue

Honorable Ennam Mayara, Speaker of the House of Councilors and dear colleague, 

Honorable Fortune Charumbira, President of the Pan-African Parliament and dear colleague, 

Honorable Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, 

Distinguished fellow parliamentarians, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

I feel special joy as I inaugurate, alongside you, this parliamentary dialogue in its second edition, which you demanded, as the Youth Caucus within the Pan-African Parliament, to be free and open. The primary reason behind this joy is that this is an African gathering that covers vital issues in the current African and international context, and that the category that carries this continental concern, in this case, is young African people involved in politics and committed to public affairs. 

Allow me, first of all, to renew my welcoming to you on the soil of the Kingdom of Morocco, the deep-rooted African country that is committed under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify him, to work on addressing Africa’s vital questions, and contribute to the continent’s renaissance, development, and rights. 

Allow me also to commend you, girls and boys, as representatives of young African people who believe in the nobility of participation in public affairs, engage in politics, believe in the efficiency and relevance of political and institutional action, and defend their continent’s causes in an era when restoring the concept of commitment is most needed. 

Honorable Speakers, 

Honorable Minister, 

Distinguished fellow parliamentarians, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

We gather today within the framework of an open dialogue to tackle pressing and vital issues for our continent. In this respect, food security has become a challenge of geopolitical nature, and the rise in food prices is today one of the elements of pressure and negotiation in unbalanced, nay unfair international relations. However, allow me first to pose the question that many of you might be raising: What does Africa lack to ensure its food security? Does Africa not have enormous potential to satisfy its needs for food and those of a number of its friends? Is Africa not the continent that owns 60% of the arable lands of the world?

It is indeed factual that several of our continent’s countries suffer from desertification and drought. However, numerous others have enormous water resources that must be mobilized, valued, and optimally exploited. 

Although Africa does not lack agricultural traditions and culture, working force, skills, and human resources, it, though, still needs, in several cases, good governance and mainly modern technologies produced by industrial powers who carry a political and ethical responsibility of assisting Africa on the basis of institutionalized equitable partnerships, as they, on their part, benefit from several expensive African primary resources, particularly minerals. 

While Africa does not lack energy, nor the conditions to produce energy from renewable sources, it has, though, the most precious capital, that is human resources, workers, and brains, knowing that the most important capital for sustainable development, particularly its agricultural aspect, is the human capital, to which diversified and rich African cultures contribute. 

In the same respect, the continent has abundant marine resources, which are undoubtedly a strategic food reservoir. In this regard, our continent has 13 million square kilometers of seabed, 6.5 million square kilometers of continental shelf, and 26,000 kilometers of coastline. In addition to the resources it encloses, this maritime area constitutes a platform for immense activities and intense and fruitful continental and international commercial exchanges. 

Yet, the big question remains: How to transform these resources into wealth? 

There is no doubt that the answer to this question lies within the trust of Africa, as people, elites, and institutions, in these resources, and within the collective determination to invest such resources in favor of Africa’s interests and to direct spending towards the projects of construction, development, and towards people’s happiness, instead of allocating spending to accumulating depressed weapons and sowing illusions amongst peoples.

Honorable Speakers, 

Honorable Minister, 

Distinguished fellow parliamentarians, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Famine is not the only challenge that our continent faces. On the contrary, our continent is the victim of climate imbalances it has no responsibility for, nor does it have the wealth or resources generated by the polluting industries that cause it (Africa is only responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions). It is also the victim of instability in several regions, the rise in the cost of external debt, and an unfair global economic system that shows no solidarity with it. These factors all add up to aggravate poverty, vulnerability, and food shortage.

Although our continent is amidst fierce international competition, it does not benefit from the international trade that bears fruit to prosperity in other corners of the world, which dictates the development of exchanges between African countries. 

Our continent also needs financial allocations and investments in agriculture to produce food and guarantee food security, and it should not content itself with the aspiration of combatting famine. As several countries of the North and prosperous countries of other continents enjoy abundant food, numerous others suffer from famine and malnutrition. Sadly, around one billion tons of food is thrown away yearly, an amount that would suffice to feed one billion people. 

We are not talking about charity here, but such manifestations indeed question the values and slogans like “solidarity,” “partnership,” and “international cooperation” and put the “international conscience” to the test. It also questions the African identity, which was evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Africa was left alone to fight it using its moderate resources, and during which patriotic egocentric trends arose in countries with resources and capabilities. 

In this regard, we are all called upon to defend climate and food justice for Africa at the international level and to demand equitable partnerships, the sharing of technologies that ease agricultural production, the non-exploitation of patents as a means for pressure and financial and political blackmail, and to transfer capitals in order to finance the tremendous and strategic African agricultural projects. 

Within Africa, we need rational planning for modern and sustainable agriculture, partnerships between the private and public sectors, the opening of African markets and consolidation of environmental exchanges, the reinforcement of solidarity agricultural economy, and the financing of small projects in African rural areas. All these factors would contribute to providing both food and decent jobs.

Honorable Speakers, 

Honorable Minister, 

Distinguished fellow parliamentarians, 

The Kingdom of Morocco is an African agricultural country par excellence that does not and will not skimp on putting its experiences at the disposal of its African brothers. Besides, it is keen to pursue cooperation and support its brothers for intensive and eco-friendly African agriculture. 

In this respect, we should recall the Adaptation of African Agriculture Initiative, known as the triple-A Initiative, launched by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify him, with several of his African brothers during the Climate Change Conference (COP 22), held in November 2016 in Marrakech. The said Initiative aims to contribute to the increase of food security that His Majesty had previously noted as the major challenge Africa faces. 

In this respect, His Majesty the King says: "As we know, basic food needs cannot be met with gas or oil. But is food security not the major challenge facing Africa?

This is the core objective of the Initiative for the Adaptation of African Agriculture, or the Triple A Initiative, which we promoted during COP22. It is an innovative and highly concrete response to the common challenges posed by climate change.

As soon as it was launched, the Initiative was backed by around thirty African countries.

The "Triple A Initiative" is aimed at providing more significant funding for the Adaptation of small-scale African Agriculture. It will also support the structuring and acceleration of agricultural projects in Africa through four programs:

-      Rational management of soils;

-      Sustainable management of agricultural water;

-      Climate-related risk management; and

-      Solidarity-based funding for small project owners."

Here ends the citation of His Majesty the King, who summarized more than five years ago the Kingdom's proactive vision of the timeliness of the food problem, and the levers to the rise of African agriculture that we today need most to see concretized to protect Africa from famine and poverty. 

In support of this orientation, the Kingdom of Morocco deploys the immense resources it has in fertilization to advance African agriculture through the projects of the Cherifian Office of Phosphates, African farmhouses, and putting Moroccan abilities at the disposal of several brothers. 

In this regard, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify him, chaired yesterday the presentation ceremony of the new green investment program of the OCP Group (2023-2027) and the signing of the relevant protocol agreement between the government and OCP Group, an investment that amounts to 13$ billion over the next four years with a view to increasing the production capacity of agricultural fertilizers and transitioning towards clean green production. This program will enable the Kingdom of Morocco and its brother countries, especially in Africa, to access fertilizers during the next period until 2040, which would contribute to guaranteeing food security in Africa and providing foodstuff under the lowest environmental, financial, and human costs.

Distinguished fellow parliamentarians, 

African youth are a driving force of development, just as His Majesty the King noted before the African leaders in 2017, “Africa’s future depends on its youth,” which stresses “the pressing imperative to utilize this demographic capital in the continent’s takeoff.”

There is no doubt that we all agree that unemployment among African youth is one of the continent’s dilemmas and hinders the utilization of such treasured capital. Unfortunately, it is also a phenomenon exploited by extremist, terrorist, and separatist groups, who form another challenge our countries face. 

The achievements of migrant African youth and brains in sciences, culture, and sports, are a lesson to us all to value the potential of our youth, who are urged to further civic and political commitment to contribute to State and institutional construction and to consolidate democracy in the continent. However, this process must consider our historical contexts, backgrounds, and African customs and culture. It must also be voluntary and accepted by the people, who would embrace it on the basis of accumulation. 

Distinguished fellow parliamentarians, 

You, African youth, and its political elites are entrusted with the responsibility for the African renaissance and the construction of a new Africa, the Africa of the future, and you have before you the lessons from African history that would motivate you to reach this goal. In this regard, following the achievements of African independence leaders, the late Their Majesties King Mohammed V and King Hassan II, and the late Sédar Senghor, Ahmed Sékou Touré, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Houphouët Boigny, and others, a new generation of young African leaders have risen to carry the reform in the early third millennium. 

Fighting famine, poverty, marginalization, and containing conflicts are political tasks par excellence, more than just a climate issue. Famine is not an inevitable fate but the result of a relations system, of the distribution of bounties, of imbalances, and of policies that we must willingly redress, as Africans, out of respect for our history and faith in our capabilities and to move together towards the future with independent African determination. In this regard, there is no doubt that the achievements of African youth and their sports skills shown in the Football World Cup are the best proof that African youth are capable of standing up to challenges. 

Thank you for your keen listening.