Head of the Moroccan section within the Francophone Parliamentary Assembly (APF), Mohamed Ghayate, affirmed, Tuesday in Abidjan, that South-South cooperation is the backbone of the proactive continental policy led by His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
Intervening on behalf of the Moroccan delegation of the House of Representatives partaking in the proceedings of the 14th Conference of Presidents of Assemblies and Sections of the African Regional Assembly of the Francophone Parliamentary Assembly, held between April 3 and 4, Ghayate stated that South-South cooperation aims to create a more balanced relation with Northern countries, based on enhanced partnership and co-development instead of assistance and conditional aid.
According to Ghayate, solidarity between African countries and international exposure will allow Africa to become the future continent.
“We dare to believe that solidarity is not a sacrifice or a concession, it is in fact a winning bet and a guarantee for the future because we will never outpace the slowest among us,” stated Ghayate, who also presides the National Rally of Independents (RNI) group in the House of Representatives.
Recalling the holding of the work of the Network of Women Parliamentarians and the Parliamentary Affairs Committee of the Francophone Parliamentary Assembly (APF) in Rabat in March, Ghayate emphasized that “the Francophone Parliamentary Assembly (APF) represents for us a framework for consultation and coordination since its establishment in the mid-1960s, even though the interaction between our peoples is a deep-rooted tradition that has been characterizing our fraternal relations for centuries.”
Ghayate recalled, in this context, that for ages, the caravaneers crossing Africa from Timbuktu to Fez, through Sijilmassa and Marrakech interacted with the inhabitants of the areas they were crossing at the time, even though they did not understand their languages, yet they all shared a common faith and a high sense of honor, dignity, and promise.
Regarding the challenges of democratic governance in Francophone Africa, Ghayate said that sustained efforts must be invested in promoting the ownership of democratic practice by our citizens and our youth, adding that in order to be sustainable, democratic governance must shift from the constitutional and regulatory framework to the customs and habits of citizens in their daily lives.
The Moroccan official further emphasized that democratic governance in Morocco is based on four essential pillars, namely transparency and the implementation of participatory democracy, the charter of decentralization, administrative modernization, the national strategy to fight corruption and the acceleration of digital transformation.
“A viable and sustainable democratic governance must have as an extension a moral code regulating the relations between our States based on the supremacy of the rule of law, mutual respect and the sovereign equality of States, whether they are small or large, rich or poor, developed or developing,” noted the President of the National Rally of Independence (RNI) group.
In a similar context, Ghayate mentioned that security must go hand in hand with economic and social development knowing that insecurity feeds on the deficit in development and the precariousness of the living conditions of the populations, noting that security must be a shared achievement because no country can ensure its security autonomously.
Ghayate also shed light on food sovereignty in Africa, recalling that Morocco, “being a phosphate power and a large producer of fertilizer, is voluntarily working to share its expertise with its fellow African countries in order to rehabilitate the African food chain whose importance is undeniable.”
Referring to climate change, the official stressed that climate change is a major issue and a structural reform that requires significant efforts of anticipation and adaptation at the global level.
