General Assembly Session 57 meeting 10

The President

The General Assembly will begin, pursuant to General Assembly resolutions 56/218 of 21 December 2001 and 56/511 of 15 August 2002, its high-level plenary meeting to consider how to support the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

I am pleased to be able to take this opportunity to make a statement at this high-level plenary meeting.

This year, we will be conducting the final review and appraisal of the implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF). The New Agenda for the Development of Africa has played a very positive role in focusing the attention of the international community on various aspects of development in Africa. During the past decade, much has been accomplished and many difficult issues have been addressed, including those relating to poverty eradication, sustainable development and fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Many lessons have been learned from 10 years of implementation of UN-NADAF. It has been reconfirmed that, first, conflict and development are mortal enemies; secondly, that accelerated development cooperation with Africa requires a new orientation, especially in conducting multilateral and bilateral programmes; thirdly, that commitments made by the parties involved need to be honoured; fourthly, that there is a need for sustained advocacy for African development; and lastly, and perhaps most important, that the results of the interim evaluations carried out during the implementation of UN-NADAF highlighted the need for coordination and collaboration among United Nations agencies in their development activities in Africa.

Although a number of corrective measures and steps were undertaken during the implementation of the New Agenda, not all the issues on its agenda were resolved. Africa remains a continent suffering from widespread problems, such as extensive poverty, HIV/AIDS, inadequate access to education, deficiencies in water distribution and insufficient sanitation. In addition to those pre-existing problems, new challenges posed by globalization continue to emerge.

With the NEPAD initiative, a new approach has been set in motion. For the first time, development needs and objectives have been identified and defined by African countries themselves. The NEPAD initiative, incorporating a complex matrix of key social, economic and political priorities, is a collective pledge by the leaders of Africa. It is based on a common vision and a firm and shared belief that they have a duty to address the development challenges facing their individual countries and the continent as a whole.

The discussion, concurrently, of UN-NADAF and NEPAD during the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly gives us a unique opportunity to learn from the lessons of UN-NADAF and to outline the conditions required for the success of the new initiative.

Today, during this high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the New Partnership for Africa's Development, we will hear from representatives of Member States, who will express their views on how the international community, including the United Nations, can participate in the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

During informal panel discussions in the afternoon, panellists from the countries that initiated NEPAD will relate their first-hand experiences and set out their views on the potential for cooperation between the African countries and the United Nations.

I hope that members have a fruitful discussion, and I wish them success in their deliberations.

I now give the floor to the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan.

The Secretary-General

I am delighted to join the Assembly for this important meeting dedicated to exploring ways in which the international community can support the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), so as to bring the maximum benefit to the people of Africa.

This partnership is first and foremost a partnership between African leaders and their peoples, and among States within Africa. In addition, NEPAD envisages a new partnership between Africa and the international community -- especially the highly industrialized countries -- based on mutual respect and interdependence as well as on transparency and accountability, including peer review and performance monitoring among both African countries and international partners.

NEPAD has adopted the millennium development goals as the centrepiece of Africa's development agenda. I warmly welcome that decision, because I believe there is a symbiotic relationship between NEPAD and the millennium development goals. NEPAD will not be a success if Africa fails to achieve the millennium development goals -- and the world as a whole cannot achieve the millennium development goals unless they are achieved in Africa.

Two separate, but related, priorities -- combating HIV/AIDS and promoting girls' education -- are particularly central to achieving the millennium development goals and to realizing the promise that NEPAD holds for all of Africa. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has now become the greatest threat to Africa's development. It is a threat not just to people's health, but also, in many African countries, to the national security and very survival of those countries. HIV/AIDS has reversed the major gains in child survival and socio-economic progress achieved during the past two to three decades. It has exacerbated the problems of poverty, discrimination, malnutrition and sexual exploitation of girls and women. It is devastating the education system, as teachers are dying or becoming disabled more quickly than they can be replaced.

Conversely, the social benefits of girls' education include increased family incomes, delayed marriage, reduced fertility, lower infant and maternal mortality, better-nourished and healthier children, greater opportunities and life chances for women, and greater participation by women in political, social and economic decision-making.

Besides being key millennium development goals in their own right, the promotion of girls' education and the control of HIV/AIDS would be the most powerful enablers for the achievement of all the other millennium development goals in Africa.

By framing its aims around the millennium development goals, NEPAD challenges Africa's development partners to deepen their commitment to global poverty reduction. NEPAD's stated objective is to achieve the overall 7-per-cent annual growth necessary for Africa to meet one of the millennium development goals: halving poverty by 2015. Meeting that target requires more than doubling Africa's recent growth rates.

What now remains is for the principles of NEPAD to be converted into action, so that NEPAD makes a real difference for ordinary people in Africa. The implementation of NEPAD can benefit from two of the lessons learned by the United Nations and others involved in Africa's development over the past decade.

First, peace and security are vital to development. Economic programmes and projects devised by the New Partnership must be combined with real progress towards ending conflicts and deepening the roots of peace.

Secondly, development cooperation requires a new orientation. Through NEPAD, African leaders have shown that they consider political and economic reforms to be essential if lasting development is to be achieved. They have stressed human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy. They have reaffirmed the importance of government with the consent and the authority of the governed. Increasingly, African leadership has itself spoken out against corruption and bad governance, and there is a growing emphasis on ensuring accountability and transparency. The international community must strengthen its support for this effort. That is what the partnership should mean.

Africa's future will be determined by Africans. To build this future, to end conflicts, to cure the diseases and to alleviate the multiple hardships that have held it back, Africa will need all the wisdom, political will and creativity it can muster.

It will also need the support of the developed world in an effort that is grounded in a sober and realistic assessment of what needs to be done. In this age of globalization, even the richest and the most powerful countries ignore the challenges and crises of other parts of the world at their own peril. At the same time, opportunities for growth and innovation exist everywhere -- and all of us can benefit from one another's success. Let us make NEPAD a shining example of this global truth.

The President

Before giving the floor to the first speaker in the debate, I should like to remind members that, in accordance with resolution 56/511, there will be two plenary meetings today: this morning's plenary meeting, until 1 p.m., and a plenary meeting that will start at 3 p.m. and last until 7 p.m., as well as a separate informal panel, to be held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

As decided by the General Assembly, the theme of the informal panel is "The international community's partnership with the New Partnership for Africa's Development". The President of Nigeria will orally present to the General Assembly a summary of the discussions in the informal panel at the end of the debate in plenary meeting.

I should like to inform members that, in a letter dated 14 September 2002 and addressed to me, the President of the Economic and Social Council requests to participate in the debate on the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

In the absence of any objection, may I take it that the General Assembly agrees to hear a statement by the President of the Economic and Social Council in the debate?

The President

The President of the Economic and Social Council will be given the floor after all Member States wishing to speak in the debate on NEPAD have done so.

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

President Obasanjo (Nigeria)

This high-level meeting is taking place at a time when we, as African leaders, are seriously addressing the issues of poverty and underdevelopment in our continent. Essentially, we have launched the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), an all-embracing programme of African development.

NEPAD is a holistic and integrated development initiative for the sustainable development of Africa launched by the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, at its summit in Lusaka in July 2001. Since then, NEPAD has received widespread international support, including from the G8, the European Union and other developed partners. The initiative has the following goals: the restoration of peace and security in Africa, as well as the management and prevention of conflict; good governance; the eradication of widespread poverty and acute income disparity between the rich and the poor; the promotion of accelerated growth and sustainable development; and putting a halt to the marginalization of Africa.

We are aware that ownership begets responsibility. In this regard, we, as peoples and Governments in Africa, have resolved to take our destiny in our own hands by drawing critical lessons from our past development efforts and putting such lessons to effect in the NEPAD initiative. We are determined to succeed in our desire to make the twenty-first century the century of Africa.

The NEPAD partnership operates at different levels; at the global level, between Africa and the international community, including multilateral institutions, donor agencies and development partners. In this connection, we acknowledge the support of the G8 at its most recent Summit in Kananaskis, Canada. At that Summit, the members approved a total of 112 specific actions that will go some way towards addressing the issues that face Africa. They also pledged to assess progress in Africa at their next Summit in France in 2003.

At the regional level, NEPAD is involved in framework cooperation between African States and regional institutions in joint ventures that will accelerate the process of integration. At the subregional level, NEPAD is utilizing the regional economic communities as building blocks for growth and economic development, all with the objective of fostering continental integration. And, at the national level, there is a growing partnership between the public and the non-governmental sector, such as the private sector, the informal sector and civil society, particularly the non-governmental organizations, aimed at revitalizing public/private sector partnership, as well as a meaningful and dynamic relationship with civil society organizations. We also call on African civil society to fully embrace NEPAD and to establish structures to promote its objectives.

In order to achieve the laudable objectives of NEPAD, a plan of action was recently adopted at the inaugural Summit of the African Union in Durban, South Africa. The first phase of the action plan focuses on specific actions and programmes based on a three-pronged strategy. First, it seeks to establish conditions for sustainable development so as to enhance and strengthen effective States and regional cooperation in order to enhance Africa's competitiveness. Secondly, it identifies and itemizes actions on priority sectors that could speed up the integration of Africa. Thirdly, it identifies the means of mobilizing resources from within and outside the continent for the effective implementation of policies, programmes and projects.

I would like to emphasize here that the development of an African Peer Review Mechanism under NEPAD marks a revolutionary innovation in Africa. It is essentially a system of self-assessment based on standard and internationally accepted codes and best practices, which aims at increased accountability and transparency in our Governments. It is our decision as African leaders to be accountable to our peoples. We are not afraid to set very high standards for ourselves, as our people expect this of us.

I wish to acknowledge the noble efforts of the Secretary-General, who has worked tirelessly to mobilize support for NEPAD within the United Nations and the international community.

In our collective effort to reduce by half the population of Africans who are living below the poverty line by the year 2015, Africa needs about $64 billion annually to prosecute NEPAD programmes and projects. Africa cannot bridge this resource gap alone. It requires concerted action on the part of all of us gathered here today. One solution is to tackle the issue of external debt squarely. Africa is severely crippled by its external debt burden. Therefore, the issue of debt cancellation should be considered as part of the priority action which the continent rightly deserves. I urge members to join hands with us and use the NEPAD initiative to tackle the critical issues affecting Africa.

Nigeria welcomes the recommendation, contained in the report of the Panel of Eminent Personalities on the review and final appraisal of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, that the United Nations adopt NEPAD as the successor policy framework for Africa's development. This will complement the efforts of African leaders at the national and subregional levels. In addition, we expect an office under the Secretary-General to coordinate the actions of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Food Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme for NEPAD, while a United Nations system-wide concerted effort should allocate senior officials from each to NEPAD. We sincerely believe that Africa deserves this support and trust that the United Nations and the international community will urgently adopt measures that will add value to these efforts.

The President

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Thabo Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa.

President Mbeki (South Africa)

I am pleased to join the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the Heads of State Implementation Committee of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), President Olusegun Obasanjo, in commending the New Partnership to the General Assembly.

At its inaugural meeting two months ago, the African Union confirmed the decision of the 2001 meeting of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) that the New Partnership for Africa's Development constitutes its programme for the socio-economic regeneration of Africa.

Accordingly, the African Union hopes that the United Nations will support the peoples of Africa as we engage in a historic struggle for the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment on our continent. In that context, I would like to express Africa's appreciation of the adoption by the General Assembly, a decade ago, of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF).

The New Partnership is designed radically to change the paradigm that has driven international programmes for African development. To indicate that change, we reaffirm that we, the Africans, are the architects of the NEPAD renewal plan. As Africans, we now own Africa's development agenda.

Secondly, we are determined to move forward on the basis of a partnership among the peoples of Africa, for the victory of the African renaissance. We are resolved to act together as Governments, as the masses we represent and as civil society.

Thirdly, we seek to ensure that we move away from the donor-recipient relationship with the developed world to a new partnership based on mutual respect, as well as shared responsibility and accountability.

Fourthly, we are committed to translate our words into a practical programme that actually changes the lives of the African masses, away from despair to a common future of hope and human dignity for all Africans.

The success that we must and will achieve in Africa will be a victory for all humanity, because the poverty of any people in any part of the globe is the poverty of all humanity.

In that context, all of us need to admit openly that what failed the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s was the absence of resources to translate its words into deeds. This is the challenge to which this Assembly and this Organization must respond, to affirm the commitment made in the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development less than two weeks ago that the representatives of the peoples of the world gathered here are not merely sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.

The objectives and action plans enunciated in NEPAD are consistent with a part of the targets contained in the millennium development goals, as well as those spelled out in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. It is, therefore, important that the current process of review, re-prioritization and realignment of UN-NADAF should take on board the objectives and programmes of NEPAD.

The United Nations and its agencies have a critical role to play in the implementation of the required programme of action. However, for the United Nations to fulfil this responsibility, it will need to give itself the institutional capacity to ensure that it responds to Africa's challenges in an effective, efficient and coordinated way. The United Nations will have to agree on an appropriate mechanism that will enable close monitoring of the implementation of its collective agreements in favour of African development.

Today, as Africans, we stand in front of the peoples of the world to make the pledge that we will honour the commitment we have made to ourselves and to the world that we will act firmly to extricate Africa from its long night of misery.

We value the readiness of the international community to enter into partnership with us, confident that together we will end the marginalization of our continent, ensuring that the sun truly shines over the peoples of Africa.

Let this be the message that issues from this high-level meeting of the General Assembly on NEPAD. From here, together, we must make the solemn statement that Africa's time has come.

The President

The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.

President Bouteflika (Algeria)

Let me first congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of this session of the General Assembly.

The present meeting, devoted to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), bears witness to the willingness of the international community and the United Nations system to be actively associated with Africa's development process. As members know, NEPAD is the project around which Africa has gathered so as to take an active part in the current changes, to integrate itself successfully into globalization and to secure the command of its own future.

This project is the result of a long process of maturation. It was conceived in the light of the experience of the decades following our independence, and it thus reflects Africa's determination to embark on a new development path, the goals and course of which will be set forth by the Africans themselves.

Africa was increasingly marginalized within the global economy because of the proliferation of conflicts, the spread and aggravation of poverty, and the HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis pandemics. Therefore, it became necessary to move off the beaten track and identify a new approach, with new premises, bases, objectives and new steps of implementation. Through this approach, African peoples are the masters of their development process. Peace, security, democracy, good governance and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are laid down as essential requirements for liberating peoples' creative powers and ensuring the full integration of women and young people.

Africa has chosen to reform its socio-political systems, through qualitative change in State structures, the redistribution of responsibilities, dedication to political and civil-society pluralism and the promotion of partnership between public powers and all the components of the society, because it has become clear to all that addressing the political dimension is a prerequisite to any viable development process.

The concept of economic development has also been reconsidered. It is regarded now as a multisectoral undertaking, bringing together the economic, social and ecological aspects. The private sector stands as the driving force of economic activity and is an essential vehicle for growth. Moreover, the development approach is part of a vision of regional and continental integration.

Africa is launching the necessary reforms in these fields in order to ensure interaction between sector-related policies at the domestic level and to reorganize the regional and continental economic space.

In addition, a new international partnership is required, based on the principles of mutual commitment and shared responsibility among all State and private bodies interested in such an undertaking. This partnership aims to achieve Africa's integration into the globalization process, which would help to improve the pace and stability of global economic growth.

Hence, what is at stake is to establish mutually beneficial common interests and to build new complementarities by broadening and diversifying economic relations and cooperation between Africa and its partners.

Moved by a global strategy, NEPAD has defined interdependent axes for action in priority areas for reviving African development.

The African Union has launched a process to rationalize its mechanisms for action aimed at restoring peace and security on the continent. It has decided to create a Council of Peace and Security and an African Academy for Peace.

That peace endeavour, in which several African heads of State have been personally involved, will have a positive impact on the continent's stability. It implies a political, financial, technical and logistical commitment from the international community and the United Nations system, in order to support and complete the efforts of Africans in that field.

Political and economic good governance is also at the core of the programme. Africa has achieved within the last few years undeniable progress towards that aim. An African mechanism for peer review has already been set up. A declaration on democracy, political, economic and enterprise good governance has been drawn up on the basis of universally established norms. The declaration will serve as a frame of reference for assessment of the state of governance in Africa.

Human development, being the key of political, economic and social revival, is accorded priority attention in the NEPAD programme. Measures have been recommended to address Africa's tremendous education and health challenges, where considerable efforts are made to increase the resources allotted to human development and to reform the educational and health-care system.

In order to achieve the Millennium Declaration goals in terms of human development, further efforts are needed from Africa's partners, particularly with regard to combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Agricultural and rural development, economic diversification and environmental protection are the other basic elements of NEPAD, for which African efforts need to be backed by international cooperation.

Financial mobilization and investment are essential to the success of NEPAD goals in terms of growth and poverty reduction. To that end, it will be necessary to improve the investment environment and to perfect the processes of banking, customs and fiscal restructuring and of creating and developing financial markets.

Africa's partners should contribute to the fulfilment of an integrated approach embracing trade, official development assistance and investment. Hence, lifting barriers in terms of access to world markets would definitely have a motivating effect on investors.

Improving official development assistance and its modalities is also necessary as a lever to boost investment.

Finally, creative financing mechanisms and appropriate guarantee schemes are vital for encouraging investments aimed at reducing Africa's deficits in infrastructure.

The dialogue begun a year ago with several official partners, as well as the private sector, the United Nations and civil society, has reaffirmed NEPAD's solid foundation. It has already come up with ideas, guidelines and initiatives to support its implementation. In that regard, the G-8 Action Plan for Africa constitutes a highly significant progress.

While NEPAD is in its implementation phase, I do not doubt that today's meeting will take advantage of this opportunity to open prospects for a genuine partnership between Africa and the world.

Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has assured us of his full support since the inception of NEPAD. His commitment has helped mobilize the entire United Nations system and is part of his untiring action for international peace and security. I wish to express to him all our gratitude and respect.

It is now acknowledged that Africa's development is a global necessity. Africa, in cooperation with the international community, can change the course of its evolution. Other regions of the world that used to face similar problems have been able to adapt to the conditions of a world marked by the market economy and formidable progress in science and technology. Therefore, there is no reason why Africa cannot emerge from its isolation and underdevelopment.

The essence of NEPAD is to place Africa in a position to meet those challenges. The ambition of NEPAD is to ensure that democracy, economic revitalization and social progress take root in all African countries. The international community cannot overlook such a commitment because it is its duty to encourage and support it.

The President

I wish to thank the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, who is also a former President of the General Assembly.

The Assembly will now have an address by His Excellency Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal.

Mr. Wade (Senegal)

The world has its eyes fixed on America one year after the terrorist attacks against New York. On behalf of the Senegalese people and on my own behalf, I would like to express strong solidarity with the American people.

Mr. Wade (Senegal)

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