STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT OF ECOSOC AT OPENING OF HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

ECOSOC
16 July 2001






Allow me first of all to bid you a cordial welcome to the high-level discussion of the Economic and Social Council on the subject of the development of Africa and the role of the United Nations.

In preparation therefore, a series of round tables were organized in New York on a whole range of questions related to the topic of the discussion, namely, health, poverty in the rural world, food security, governance, education and HIV/AIDS. The conclusions and recommendations thus formulated appear in a session document that you have before you.

Mr. Secretary-General, I should like especially, and deem it an honour, to greet you and welcome your presence among us today at this particular moment of concern for the Economic and Social Council.

It so happens, as a result of the calendar of conferences, that this session is the very first meeting of a principal organ of the United Nations in which you are participating since your unprecedented reappointment at the head of the United Nations General Secretariat. The Economic and Social Council is more than flattered thereby.

On behalf of the Member States of the Council and all the delegations here present, I reiterate to you our most hearty and sincere congratulations.

Your unanimous re-election by the General Assembly attests to the high regard of the Member States for the strictness, competence, sense of commitment and devotion that you have shown in carrying out your mission; it reflects their satisfaction at your untiring efforts in the service of the international community and the considerable results achieved during your first term of office.

For Africa, your confirmation as upholder of the Charter of the United Nations is a source both of pride for its peoples and of optimism in facing the challenge of establishing its place on the international stage. Africa knows that, with your re-election, it can rest assured that the efforts and contributions of the United Nations system to assist it will be continued and broadened.

Rest assured, Sir, of our unswerving support throughout your new term of office.

In hoping for and dreaming of a better world, men often have recourse to images that help them to perceive more distinctly the way to translate their desires into reality. In that regard, there is no formula that better provides a vision of hope than that of the “global village” which defines the advent of globalization.

The ideal covered by this term has yet to be implemented, however. The construction of the “global village” is, in fact, still encountering many obstacles, disparities and divergences among the regions of the world, which make it, particularly in Africa, a village building site at the best of estimates, but a blasted or even derelict site at the worst.

We are convinced that, so long as such laceration and slippage persist, the progress and balance of the world will be handicapped. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the international community as a whole is clearly aware of the umbilical link of the world’s collective destiny to that of Africa. It remains for it, therefore, to show the desire for willing solidarity and to produce the requisite vigorous action needed to help the Africans hoist their continent to the legitimate place it should hold in the world.

In the face of the African challenge, the United Nations, as the principal actor and instrument of international cooperation, has a major responsibility. As for the Economic and Social Council, it must be one of the essential relays which guide, inspire, direct and drive the activities and programmes of the United Nations system towards Africa.

There can be no question that the series of conferences initiated by the United Nations system on topics of concern to Africa is to be welcomed. To mention the most recent conferences: the World Conference on Education held at Dakar, under the aegis of UNESCO; the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held at Brussels under the aegis of UNCTAD; and the General Assembly’s special session on infectious diseases in Africa. To these should also be added the World Conference against Racism to be held at Durban and the General Assembly’s special session on children.

The specific theme for each of these conferences tackles in depth one of the facets of the main difficulties facing Africa. All these themes have, as their corollary poverty.

Poverty, inequality and the violation of human rights go hand in hand.


Clearly, the integration of Africa into the “global village” depends more than ever on the eradication of poverty and those factors which aggravate it, namely, disease and armed conflict. Integration also demands the continent’s economic revival. Achievement of these objectives requires, on the one hand, an unremitting mobilization of the international community and, on the other, a consolidation of democracy and good governance on the part of the African countries. In this connection, we welcome the decision taken by the last OAU Summit at Lusaka to promote a new development strategy underpinned by a new form of partnership between Africa and the rest of the world.

This programme, known as the New African Initiative, is based on an acknowledgment that Africa holds the keys to its own development. It is for Africa to take charge, to reappropriate its own development and shape its own destiny. It is for Africa to propose a reliable framework and action programmes in order to elicit the essential support of the international community for its development efforts.

This manifesto of a new African order of development and cooperation thus constitutes a challenge.

A challenge that Africa has made to itself, wagering its own credibility and capacity to mold its own fate.

It is also a challenge by Africa to the international community, to the United Nations and its Member States, calling upon them to provide, on behalf of the development of the continent, the means that are required to match the needs and above all the undertakings made to Africa by the Heads of State and Government of the Member States at the Millennium Summit.

There can be no disagreement with the immediate priorities set in the New African Initiative, which Africa is determined to set itself with the support of the United Nations system and its development partners: infrastructure, human development with special emphasis on education and health, in particular the fight against AIDS, malaria and other contagious diseases, agriculture, export diversification through wider market access, and new information and communication technologies.

I am convinced already of the positive contribution that each and every one of you will make in the course of these three working days to determining ways and means of assisting Africa to succeed in its wager. We shall have to find answers to the basic questions on our agenda:

- How can better integration be achieved between the assistance provided by the United Nations system and development policies and programmes carried out at the level of the African States?

- How can the United Nations system’s assistance to capacity-building in Africa be enhanced?

- How can the system’s capacity to promote and encourage public-private partnership be increased to the advantage of African development?


- How can the African countries be helped to improve governance and the management of public affairs, and to establish transparent and responsible institutions while at the same time strengthening the organizations of civil society?

- What measures must the international community adopt to find a long-term solution to the external debt problem?

- What type of help should the United Nations system and the other development partners provide to the African countries in their national and regional strategies for the integration and diversification of their economies?

- How can the Economic and Social Council help the General Assembly to evaluate the implementation of the objectives for Africa set in the Millennium Declaration, with particular respect to poverty eradication and sustainable development, debt alleviation, market access, official development aid, foreign investment flows and technology transfer?

These are some of the things at stake which we must debate and to which we must provide answers, genuine answers which reflect and are inspired by the spirit of the Millennium Summit.

It is my fervent hope that our meeting, with its purpose thus defined, as the path towards the integration of Africa into the “global village”, will be an occasion for enhanced dialogue among all the actors working towards this objective. Africa and its many problems deserve urgent attention. Let us together show boldness in finding solutions to the grave problems before us.”



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