[ad_1]
Emmanuel Macron said that many African women would choose to have smaller families if they had better access to education and family planning.
The French president, who has criticized his views on Africa in the past, added that the future of the continent's young people must be to stay in a revitalized Africa and insisted that New Yorkers do well. of their life.
"One of the crucial issues in African demographics is that fertility is not chosen," Macron told the Gates Foundation's "guardian" event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. At New York.
"I always say," Introduce me the woman who has decided, being perfectly educated, to have seven, eight or nine children. Please introduce me to the girl who decided to leave school at age 10 to get married at age 12. "
He added, "It's just because a lot of girls were not properly educated, sometimes because these countries decided that the rights of these girls were not exactly the same as those of the young person." man. This is not acceptable.
Macron, who pointed out that 63% of uneducated adults are now women, has also developed plans to reform multilateral institutions, including the G7. He said that we had to find ways to get around those who want to block them and persuade voters that they are not working.
His speech was both a strong defense of multilateralism and a call for radical reform of existing post-war institutions to respond to the changing nature of economic and political power.
Presenting its three pillars for development – health, education and gender equality – Macron has reexamined the controversy surrounding its previous calls to slow the growth of the African population, including in a speech in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
He admitted that some of his initial speeches in Africa had sparked controversy and said he had made the mistake of focusing on the future of Africa and not referring to the colonial past. But he said that Africa must develop its own future, surpassing American and European technologies, be it energy or communications.
Macron said: "The future of young Africans must not be built with the distortions and mistakes of the past and, to be very simple, the future of young Africans is not to leave Africa. The future of young Africans is not to hope to become like a Europe or an America of the 80s, but like a 21st century Africa.
He stated that this would require a great change of mindset, but was nonetheless feasible.
Despite its lack of popularity at the national level, Macron is celebrated at the UN as the global flagship of multilateralism. In his speech, he outlined how he wanted to reshape the main multilateral institutions to protect them from populist obstruction. France is chairing the G7, the gathering of industrialized nations, in 2019, and has placed the issue of inequality at the heart of its agenda.
Macron said he wanted to open the subject of the G7 club by topic, so that, for example, India and China are permanently involved in climate change issues.
Likewise, he hoped that some African countries and organizations, including Ethiopia, Senegal and the African Union, would be intrinsically involved in the G7's work on gender equality, health and education.
At this year's G7 summit, chaired by Canada, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the final communiqué at the last minute, and Macron clearly reflects on how to circumvent American isolationism.
Macron said, "We have a crisis of multilateralism in terms of delivery. It could be a vicious circle. Those who doubt multilateralism block it and can say, "Look. It does not deliver it's useless. & # 39;
"We need to create a group of like-minded and similar forums to engage our audiences."
He said he hoped the future G7 releases would include forward-looking statements from countries ready to take more drastic action, rather than agreeing on more proposals. common denominator with unanimous and unambitious support.
Macron has also established plans to reform the World Trade Organization, the International Labor Organization and the powers of the United Nations General Assembly.
His staff insists that multilateral organizations will only survive Trump's ideological attack if it reforms.
