Implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and cooperation with Africa will be on the menu of the next G20 summit under a German presidency. These subjects provided a backdrop for the meeting of foreign affairs ministers from the G20 countries, which was dominated, in Bonn on 16-17 February, by the need to focus on the deep-rooted causes of the violent conflicts, humanitarian crises, forced migration, armed conflicts and terrorism that are often the product of a lack of economic and social development (see other article).
"No country in the world can alone tackle the major international problems of our time. Terrorism, the shortage of water, forced migration and humanitarian emergencies cannot be solved through isolationism. Climate change cannot be tackled by putting up barbed-wire walls", Sigmar Gabriel, the German minister hosting the G20 meeting, stated.
EU and Bill Gates on same lines for SDGs and external investment plan. During a meeting in Brussels on Thursday 16 February, Bill Gates, the co-president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini underlined their convergence of views on this point.
"We share the work on the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The best means of building security for our citizens is to invest in development in the rest of the world. Our priorities are the same: cooperation and partnership, and the improvement of people's living conditions", Mogherini told press at the end of her meeting with Gates.
She paid tribute to "the impressive work" of his foundation, and stated that the EU and its member states are "the top providers in the world of public development aid and humanitarian aid, and also a major actor in Africa". Her meeting with Gates enabled her to tell him about the EU's external investment plan, which can go "further" in mobilising public and private funding to stimulate investment in the most fragile countries, particularly in Africa. Mogherini stated that in this regard, as a major actor in the private sector, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be a privileged partner.
Bill Gates, whose foundation invests heavily in vaccinations, underlined the importance of investing in research, and he insisted on the need to put development cooperation "into a long-term perspective". The eradication of polio and the strengthening of development cooperation were at the centre of Gates' meeting the same day with European Commissioner for Development Neven Mimica. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)