UNdemocracy - General Assembly Session 63 meeting 3

Date	22 September 2008
Started	09:00
Ended	10:50

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A-63-PV.3 2008-09-22 09:00 22 September 2008 [[22 September]] [[2008]] /

The President: Mr. D'Escoto Brockmann (Nicaragua)

The meeting was called to order at 9.10 a.m.

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Statement by the President

The President

It is a privilege for me to welcome participants to this first substantive meeting of the sixty-third session of the General Assembly. I am particularly pleased that we are beginning our collective work with an issue as urgent as Africa's development needs, the status of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward.

At the Millennium Summit we decided to devote special attention to Africa's development needs because, to a great extent, throughout history the African continent has endured sacrifice, plunder, slaughter and, finally, oblivion. Considering the irreparable injustices of history and the inherent ravages of colonization, in September 2000 we made a collective commitment to our African sisters and brothers.

Almost a decade later, it is time to assess the progress made towards the goals we set in the Millennium Declaration. In that regard, Africa has undeniably made considerable democratic advances with the holding of elections and the establishment of elected Governments all across that fair continent.

I would especially like to welcome the establishment of the African Union in 2000 and the launching of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, which were undoubtedly milestones in Africa's history and in the empowerment of its own political, economic and social development process.

Without listing Africa's many achievements in good governance, which are described in detail in the Secretary-General's report (A/63/130), I would like to highlight the African Peer Review Mechanism, a self-monitoring instrument in which African leaders are reviewed by their peers on all aspects of good governance, human rights, macroeconomic policies and so forth.

I also want to stress that Africa, in addition to ratifying the United Nations Convention against Corruption, has adopted the African Union Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, which has now been ratified by all African Union members.

Africa has amply fulfilled its own political, economic and social commitments. However, if it is to consolidate the progress made and reach our goal of empowering Africa to meet the development challenges it faces, the international community, especially donor countries and the Bretton Woods institutions, must fully honour their commitments and substantially complement the efforts of the African nations.

Africa's challenges are indeed still enormous. Brave as its nations may be -- and we know that they are -- Africa cannot move ahead on its own. The African countries' gains in terms of economic growth are real, but they must be decisively strengthened through concrete actions, such as the provision of more substantial external debt relief. The relative progress made in that area cannot obscure the unfair conditionalities that the Bretton Woods institutions and creditor countries continue to impose. Those conditionalities have the perverse effect not only of preventing the effective implementation of poverty reduction programmes, but also of eroding the living conditions of tens of millions of people, driving them deeper into the poverty from which those institutions were supposed to save them.

Africa's integration into the global economy also requires that it be guaranteed access to the international market. Beyond modest aid-for-trade efforts, the key to providing full access to trade lies in eliminating the developed countries' practice of subsidizing their industries, and especially their agricultural producers.

The failure of the Doha trade talks clearly illustrates the limits of that free-market doctrine, to which a few players have subjected the rest of the world. Those same proponents of extreme liberalism change their tune at the first sign that their economic might could be at risk and that their citizens could suffer the pain they inflict on others.

I therefore once again call for us to work together in fraternal solidarity to eliminate the market distortions generated by the subsidies of developed countries, as these have played a key role in worsening the global food crisis we are experiencing. We must join forces to eliminate those and other structural factors that are endangering the lives of millions of people.

Of course, that crisis has had a terrible impact on African populations and has extinguished what little hope there was of halving by 2015 the proportion of people on the African continent suffering from hunger. In that connection, it is imperative to transfer the necessary technology to give African countries new instruments to guarantee food for life, food security and food sovereignty. Such transfers are equally urgent for ensuring that the African countries' adaptation to the devastating consequences of climate change is not just a hope but a reality.

I would also like to recall that the principle of shared but differentiated responsibility is a cornerstone of the international commitments concerning sustainable development. That principle places developed countries under a moral and legal obligation to honour their many sustainable development commitments, including those relating to the transfer of technology. From an ethical standpoint, that need is all the more pressing in that it is completely at odds with the massive and astonishing wealth that multinational extractive industries generate from African land, flesh and blood, without producing diversified foreign direct investment in return for that wealth and at times the pillaging of those assets.

Helping Africa to boost its capacity to combat infectious diseases, I am certain, must begin with measures to give the entire population access to clean drinking water. Water purification and universal access would curb the spread of many diseases and reduce the number of children and women who die each day for lack of clean water.

Given that there are nearly 25 million people living with AIDS in Africa, saying that Africa has made progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS is cold comfort, but it should nonetheless encourage us to continue to mobilize international efforts to step up prevention initiatives and extend universal access to antiretroviral treatment throughout Africa. Preventing Africa's decimation by the AIDS pandemic is not only a sine qua non for its future development; it is also a moral obligation that all humankind has towards Africa.

In the light of the comments I have just made, I would like to recall that the commitments in the area of financing for development entered into in the sisterly city of Monterrey, especially those pertaining to official development assistance, are still in force and are undeniably urgent. I therefore call upon the world's rich countries to redouble their efforts to bring official development assistance -- which dropped from 0.33 per cent of gross domestic product in 2005 to 0.28 per cent in 2007 -- closer to the Monterrey commitment of 0.7 per cent. I wish to remind members that that goal was first proposed by the Assembly itself in 1970. In the same vein, given the current levels of disbursement, I ask the members of the Group of Eight, with all the force of my position as President of the General Assembly, to deliver on the pledge they made at Gleneagles in 2005 to double official development assistance for Africa by 2010.

The cry of Africa's peoples, who yearn not only to survive but to live lives of dignity in decent conditions, does not require that we make new commitments, but only that we simply have the courage to live up to the words we have spoken many times over at the Rio, Copenhagen, Beijing, Cairo, New York and Monterrey summits. It is time to move from promises to concrete action. What we are witnessing is a state of emergency. Let us answer this challenge with the steadfastness and courage that the African peoples are asking of us.

I now give the floor to His Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Secretary-General

I am grateful to the many heads of State or Government and other high-level representatives for attending this very historic meeting. The event is important in itself, but it is also critical to our preparations for the high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be held on Thursday and the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development, which will start in Qatar in late November.

No one is more alarmed than the members of the General Assembly at the current trends, which indicate that no African country will achieve all the Goals by 2015. But I am convinced that, through concerted action by African Governments and their development partners, the MDGs remain achievable in Africa. That is one of my highest priorities as Secretary-General. I convened the MDG Africa Steering Group in 2007 to galvanize international support, bringing together eight of the main multilateral institutions working on development with Africa.

Through the work of the Steering Group and other efforts, we now have a good idea of what is needed. It will cost about $72 billion per year in external financing to achieve the Goals by 2015. That price tag may look daunting. But it is affordable and falls within existing aid commitments. Just consider the fact that member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent an estimated $267 billion last year on agricultural subsidies alone.

In this context, the cost of solving the food crisis, addressing global warming and pulling millions out of extreme poverty in Africa looks like good value. I appeal to all donors to implement the 2005 Gleneagles summit pledge to more than double aid to Africa.

We need to provide insecticide-treated bednets. We must improve maternal health, the slowest-moving of the MDGs. We must make sure every child has access to free primary education.

I also urge all Member States to agree on clear steps to follow up on the outcome of this high-level event.

spoke in French

The Secretary-General

Increasingly volatile weather conditions are taking their toll on African agriculture. Ethiopia is a case in point. The country is currently facing a severe drought in its south-eastern regions and severe flooding in its south-western regions. That implies that the effects of climate change are already with us. It is sadly ironic that the poor -- who contribute the least to global warming -- suffer most from its ill effects. Climate change is also leading to competition and conflict over natural resources. Many of these conflicts are local for the moment, but if unchecked, they could spin out of control.

Tackling these challenges is not just a moral imperative. The recent spate of conflicts over food and natural resources shows that our security depends on building prosperity in the developing world. Peace, development and respect for basic human rights go hand in hand. As we seek to build roads, bridges and schools, we also work to prevent war and build peace.

We are exploring new ways to stabilize fragile peace processes in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan. The Peacebuilding Commission has provided support for Sierra Leone, Burundi and Liberia. Development can now progress in those countries, where only recently prospects were indeed dim.

spoke in English

The Secretary-General

Achieving peace and building trust require patience and perseverance. Let me pay tribute to the people of Zimbabwe for negotiating a Government of national unity. Similar perseverance is needed to resolve other crises, such as those in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.

Crucially, the United Nations is strengthening and deepening cooperation with the African Union in peace and security, mediation and conflict prevention. The joint African Union-United Nations Panel on Peacekeeping has started exploring how the international community can support peace operations in Africa. We welcome the ongoing efforts to establish an African standby force.

But at the same time, multiple challenges continue to take a terrible toll: the impact of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; the millions of school-age children deprived of basic education; the widespread violence against women; and the suffering of innocent people in Darfur and Somalia. Extreme poverty is still causing needless deaths and stopping millions of promising young Africans from fulfilling their potential.

We have before us several reports indicating that Africa's progress is not on track. We also have several reports telling us what needs to be done for Africa to change its course. Let this be the day when we begin implementing those recommendations in earnest. Let us leave this Hall with a strengthened commitment to change the course of history and bring hope and development to Africa and the entire world.

The President

I thank the Secretary-General for his statement.

Members will recall that in operative paragraph 4 of resolution 62/242 of 4 March 2008, the Assembly requested the President of the General Assembly to finalize the organizational arrangements for the meeting.