The United Nations at 80: UNIDO’s agenda for the fourth industrial revolution

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Before we begin, could you please state your full name and title for the recording in a sentence?

VICTOR DJEMBA: Okay. My name is Victor Djemba. I’m the Chief of UNIDO’s Bureau for Africa based in Vienna, Austria.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Victor. I am delighted to have you join me during the 80th UNGA, and I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your insightful perspective with our audience. After eighty years of the United Nations, what do you see as the organization’s most enduring achievements, and how should these be built upon for the future?

VICTOR DJEMBA: Okay. Thank you very much, Landry for this opportunity again. Let me first of all start by saying that the U.N. serves as the foremost platform, for peace, multilateral cooperation, and also, advancement of global, development I think is very important to start, with that because fundamentally in the genesis of the organization, in term of, ensuring achievements, I think, this lie in fostering international norms international standards because we cannot live in the world where each one does what you want.

In terms of a change, I think it is very important to set norms and also, achievement can also include advancing human rights and mobilizing collective action around issues that transcend borders. Because today the crises are not only national, it can start from the east and then spread to the west.

So we need the platform, a multilateral platform where we can address those issues and I think the UN in terms of achievement has done great. We can mention issues like climate change, humanitarian assistance, and also the social development. We still remember COVID-19.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Absolutely.

VICTOR DJEMBA: Let me also add, given the fact that I’m, from UNIDO side, we have the UN as a whole, but, each agency has a particular role, in this respect, for UNIDO, the role is creating a consensus. One of the enduring achievements also is the consensus around the 2030 agenda and the SDGs that have been foundational particularly in bringing industrial and sustainable development at the heart of the global development discourse. I think I could not respond to your question without bringing this, because we see a great difference between the Millenium Development Goals that started at the beginning of the century to 2015. And then one of the great improvements is the link between development and industrialization.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Absolutely.

VICTOR DJEMBA: So for us, it’s very particular, it’s very important. And, yes, this is what in terms of moving forward, I think we can build on this legacy. It’s something important.

Development in itself is in an accumulative process. We have to consider what has been done and the lesson learned. And, so moving forward, I think we can build on this legacy by making the UN system more agile, action oriented, concrete action. And also better equipped, to deliver life skills, transformative solutions. Because we talk more about the solutions, those have to be transformative and in areas where global and national priorities intersect.

Particularly we have the climate resilient industrialization. That is very key because industrialization, in fact, is at the heart of a government, but has to take into account issues like the climate. Climate resilient industrialization is key. We are in the fourth industrial revolution.

I think digital transformation is also an important aspect to consider. The competition is not within the nations; it’s within the value chains. So talking about the source, social value chain, value chain, the supply chain, we see one of the consequences of the COVID-19, the disruption of the supply chain.

That creates a lot of issues. So I think in this area, The willingness to provide concrete action, transformative solutions in those areas I mentioned are key for the UN system.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Fantastic. I really like the comprehensive perspective, connecting the dots.

Victor, how do you envision the UN as a whole, or UNIDO in particular adapting to a rapidly changing global landscape marked by new technologies, shifting power dynamics, and global crisis?

VICTOR DJEMBA: I think building on what I mentioned earlier, the agility of the UN system is key to be able to adapt by advancing innovation. I think it’s key. And also we cannot do it alone. No single actor can achieve it. A stronger partnership is very important and also, adopting a truly a systemic approach in term of government to address the crises that are complex and transnational in nature. So those conflicts are interconnected. So we talk a lot about be innovative, build strong partnerships, and to stick on those partnerships not unilateral action. I think it would be more detrimental than others.

For UNIDO, this means to align industrial government strategies with new realities. I talked about the fourth industrial revolution. To leverage digital technologies. We are in the era of artificial intelligence. This has to be taken into account and also to advance manufacturing to create value to create competitive industries ensuring green transition.

When we talk about the critical minerals to feed this green transition, energy transition, I think is important. All these things is to reconcile the climate goal and also the industrial growth goals. That supports the resilience of the country. I think, in the time in the, we are in environment where we have a lot of geopolitical economic uncertainty.

I think this adaptability is key, from UNIDO, but let me also touch a bit from the Africa Bureau perspective. In Africa, one of the key issues is structural transformation. We are, we have economy that are more or less commodity based, inherited from the colonization.

So we have to transform those economies. We should enter into a era taking advantage of all this involvement within this uncertainty to really move from the resource wealth to value addition, I think is the key value addition industries. That is a way to create wealth, to create jobs and also to ensure that people have wellbeing within the area of where they’re born or where they have they’re planning to have their future.

They can go there, they can acquire with, et cetera. So we have to move. To accelerate. I will say accelerate because the, there’s a social transformation taking place, but it’s slow. So we have to accelerate this process of structural transformation, move from this resource wealth to value addition industries.

I think this is key. And for Africa promoting regional integration. Particularly in the context of the AfCFTA that is a game changer for Africa transformation and also using technology et cetera. UNIDO is not only talking, we are piloting this approach or multi-stakeholder approaches already.

So we have to learn on the ground. I will mention the program for country partnership for multi stakeholder approach at the country level. That we are also deploying at the regional level to ensure that we take advantage of this opportunity of the AfCFTA also to be able to build a resilient regional value chains are key to provide adaptive response. Also to connect that to whatever happens at the continental level. More or less. This is what I could add on this aspect.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Fantastic. I really like the various levers from Africa, but also UNIDO and the UN itself, so a quite dynamic approach.

Victor. What unique advantages and opportunities does the multilateral system offer countries today as they seek to advance their national priorities while contributing to global public goods?

VICTOR DJEMBA: In fact, one of the key elements of the multilateral system, I think it offers something no single actor can replicate. First of all, it is about legitimacy. That’s why you see that when there will be an issue, people will be seeking more stakeholder platform where we have a neutrality. Also, I think legitimacy neutrality and also where we can provide the response at scale. Not response only for a particular region, but a response that can really consider the globe as a whole. The UN provides countries with a trusted platform to also align national priorities with regional and global agenda.

What UNIDO is doing, helping those countries and the national world to align their priorities in industrialization with the regional agenda, the continental agenda, with the agenda 2063. So this is also the work of the U.N. We ensure that the national industry policy contributes to shared goals: social, climate neutrality food security, resident value chains is important.

I will say for African countries in particular the multilateral system also offered opportunity to access finance. We have related institution. Access technology transfer, that is what UNIDO does. To facilitate and also to access markets. We have institution like the International Trade Center.

That is also the U.N. doing that. I think that needs to be recognized otherwise it would have been challenging to secure all those benefits in a unilateral way,. I think it’s very important. UNIDO adds value by turning the potential commitment to the strategic framework, the policy framework into bankable, implementable industrial project.

UNIDO is an implementing agency. We help in transforming the commitment at the policy level into bankable, implementable, and industrial projects.

We help establishing integrated agro-industrial parks. We have seen in Ethiopia, in Senegal, Morocco, in many other countries to really add value to our commodities building common agro-parks. Cross border agro-parks in the area of a green hydrogen initiative or corridor-based industrialization.

We have strategic corridors in Africa. Now we see a lot of cross border road, but now we have to transform those corridors into low carbon industrial, that we bring industrialization to the railway, to the transportation, to energy. This is what materialism allow to not only to pursue natural priorities, but also embed them into global public goods.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Amazing. Looking ahead, what key priorities and recommendations will guide UNIDO’s work during this 80th session of UNGA, and how do you hope this will shape the next phase of the United Nations role in global governance?

VICTOR DJEMBA: During the 80th session of the general assembly UNIDO’s work will be guided by four key priorities. The first one I will say is a proclamation. And the operationalization of the fourth industrial document for Africa ensuring African industrialization agenda is at the heart of the global discussion.

And also supported by strong Africa ownership and international partnership, particularly Africa being a G20 member. It’s to ensure that, demonstrate that and bring industrialization on the table at the heart of the global agenda. Yeah, usually it has been a bit marginalized. Now industrialization is at the heart of Africa, is agenda bringing on the table and given the fact that industrialization creates a mutual benefit, not only Africa and also its partners.

The other priority highlighted is driving the green and digital transition in industry. That means to help countries harness renewable energy, clean technologies, and digital innovation to create a competitive future ready economy. For this, we organize a series of side events: decarbonization of heavyweight industry like cement, bringing partners all together. And also to advance large scale bankable projects to multi stakeholder partnership approach. I already mentioned we have to scale up the program for country partnership today in Africa. We have 15 of those, is to ensure that underserved regions, particularly those landlocked countries also have a program for country partnership. And also I mentioned the transformation of transit and transformation corridors into the local industrial global. I think that is the source of growth also leveraging agglomeration economies because from there on we can grow.

the hubs, industrial hubs in Africa. And also to be able to transform the AfCFTA into a manufacturing region. The other one I mentioned is to strengthen the global suit directly for industrialization as a driver for sustainable development.

We know that at the heart, one of the constraints is the issue of financing. Financing investment is to really mobilize the global community around this. And to ensure that effective mechanisms are built even within Africa. The issue of domestic resources has to be considered. The financial market to be able to finance its own industrialization.

There’s a lot of conversation about restructuring or the financial architecture, global architecture also. All those is a part is to really, to contribute. You need to contribute in this debate. Given the fact that we are on the ground, we have the experience. And also in our normative way we can contribute in this situation.

So these are the key priorities. And then we think that by pursuing these priorities UNIDO aims to position industrialization as both a national imperative, but also as a global public good, helping the UN system demonstrate a continuous relevance in an evolving international order.

So those are the elements I could highlight in this regard.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Powerful. What a beautiful way to conclude. Thank you so much, Victor, for joining me today.

VICTOR DJEMBA: I think it’s a great pleasure. We do not always have the opportunity to talk about those things, particularly in this context and generally people consider that is for expert specialists, but it goes to really disseminate, to talk a lot more and the platforms such as yours give that opportunity. So we are available. Anytime, anywhere.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: Absolutely.

VICTOR DJEMBA: And particularly we’ll keep you informed on the different global events we are preparing. It is an opportunity to really capture what is going on, what we try to convey also to bring it to the large public, to the world. So thank you very much Landry for this opportunity and your institution also.

LANDRY SIGNÉ: We are deeply grateful. Thank you so much.