Mayara, chairing ASSECAA's ninth consultative meeting held in Burundi's Bujumbura, stressed that Arab and African governments are called upon to create and expand social protection systems to guarantee an adequate standard of living for every member of society, including the right to food and social security, in order to respond to COVID-19 repercussions and the impact Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

The upper house speaker noted that the effects of COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis have caused inflation to rise to record levels, and exacerbated poverty and food insecurity in a number of Arab and African countries, noting that this situation could lead to security risks and instability in these regions.

Mayara said that at a time when the world was preparing to emerge from the tunnel of the COVID-19 crisis, the Russian-Ukrainian crisis has aggravated the situation in terms of energy, food, fertilizers and global supply chains, which has complicated the recovery process of world economy in general and Arab-African economy in particular.

He stressed, in this context, the need for Arab and African countries to increase domestic production and reduce imports, in addition to taking all measures to cope with the effects and repercussions of this crisis.