Statement by Ambassador Richard S.
Williamson, Alternate U.S. Representative for Special
Political Affairs, to the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of
the General Assembly for the Final Review and Appraisal of
the Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the
Development of Africa in the 1990s, September 25, 2002
President George Bush and Secretary of
State Powell have made clear that the United States is
committed to supporting African efforts to improve the lives
of African people through lasting economic growth and
development. We have demonstrated that commitment each day
through our efforts to end conflict in Africa, through our
leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS, through our
support for food security and agricultural development, and
through opening our markets to more of Africa’s products.
The United States supports the
principles of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NePAD, as a solid basis for African-led development. As
President Bush and his G-8 partners noted in the
G-8 Africa
Action Plan, “The NePAD offers an historic opportunity to
overcome obstacles to development in Africa.” We hope that
its bold rhetoric and commitments are reflected in concrete
action for change and greater well-being.
At the heart of NePAD’s vision is the
understanding that development begins at home. We will be
strong and willing partners in support of that vision.
With our G-8 partners in
Kananaskis, we have already pledged
to develop deeper partnerships with countries whose actions
and policies reflect the commitments in NePAD, including by
providing enhanced assistance to those that do so.
The challenge we face today is to
consider how the United Nations and its Funds and Programs
can best support Africa’s development goals and the efforts
of African nations to accelerate growth. The U.N. should
learn lessons from its experiences with the U.N.’s
New
Agenda for the Development of Africa in order to best support NePAD.
Consistent with the
Millennium
Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus, the UN should
concentrate on the most effective use of its resources to
achieve concrete results. As
President Bush said in
Monterrey, “Our new approach for development places
responsibility on developing nations and on all nations. We
must build the institutions of freedom, not subsidize the
failures of the past. We must do more than just feel good
about what we are doing, we must do good.” In the regard,
we are heartened by the Secretary-General’s call to
streamline and focus the UN’s work in Africa to make it more
effective.
Although it has become a cliché to call
for a coordinated, coherent approach in which all
stakeholders focus on their comparative advantages,
nevertheless, this truth remains a formidable challenge to
realize. Development partners can all improve their
efforts in this regard. Such a focus will maximize the
impact of aid resources, make development programs more
effective, and limit the burden placed on recipient
countries -- an issue highlighted by the expert report.
But coherence is not a donor
imperative, it is a development imperative. It rests
heavily upon the establishment of clear, sound development
priorities by the countries themselves. Therefore, one
specific area where the UN can support increased coherence
is through continued emphasis on cooperating with African
governments, civil society and the Bretton Woods
Institutions in the
Poverty Reductions Strategy Paper
process. This will not only build capacity in Africa, it
will also help identify appropriate divisions of labor in
the context of a country-led process.
Mr. President,
As several speakers have stressed
during this debate, the most fundamental requirement for
realization of Africa’s development goals is peace. Over
the past decade too much of Africa has been essentially off
limits to the development process due to civil war and other
conflicts. It is here that the UN system has and should
continue to make a vital contribution.
Peace throughout the continent is
crucial for development of regional markets and
infrastructure, which are essential for Africa’s sustainable
development. Regional development simply can’t happen if
large portions of the region are in conflict and cannot
participate.
Therefore, the real progress in Sierre
Leone, from years of civil war to free and fair elections,
thanks to the commitment of the Sierre Leone people and, in
part, due to the continuing contribution of
UNAMSIL, is
extremely encouraging. Also encouraging are recent
developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
including, but not limited to the Sun City Agreement, the Pretoria Agreement and the current withdrawal of Rwandan
armed forces from the eastern Congo. These are reasons for
hope, and the United States remains a committed partner with
our African friends to find real, sustainable peace wherever
conflicts rage. This, in turn, sets a necessary
precondition for economic growth and progress.
We welcome and will support work being
done by the Economic Commission of Africa to assist African
efforts on governance and peer review, both centerpieces of NePAD. This work will represent a strong base on which to
energize efforts by African countries to achieve the higher
standards of political and economic governance outlined in
NePAD as critical to development success. The ECA is also
making strong analytical contributions on economic
development.
We also recognize the strong catalytic
role and leadership the United Nations is playing in the
fight against HIV/AIDS around the globe, but in particular
in Africa. The United States will continue to make fighting
the epidemic a major foreign policy priority, and we shall
wage this war through bilateral, regional and multilateral
partnerships.
Similarly, we welcome UN action on food
security and agricultural development and productivity being
carried out by the WFP,
FAO,
IFAD, and
UNDP. Even more
needs to be done. Agriculture is the bedrock of the African
economy and the growth rates necessary to meet poverty
reduction goals cannot be met without strong sustained
growth in African agricultural productivity. This growth
can be achieved through investment in rural development,
including extension services, research, biotechnology
development, as well as a policy environment such as land
tenure policies that respect the rule of law to enable
farmers to reap the rewards of their work. The US
initiative announced to support African agricultural
development and productivity will complement these efforts.
More generally, the UN has a far
broader presence in Africa than any single bilateral or
multilateral donor. It is therefore able to reach and
help build capacity in places that may otherwise fall
through the cracks of other donor mechanisms. As noted in
the experts’ report capacity building is essential and is an
area that we and G-8 partners are devoting increasing
attention.
Mr. President,
The United States encourages the UN to
focus its support for NePAD on achieving results at national
and regional levels to achieve the international development
goals of the
Millennium Declaration, and we welcome the
Secretary-General’s call for stronger regional
cooperation. NePAD provides a framework and an approach
for development but it needs to be translated into action at
the national and regional levels, not by building an
unwieldy NePAD bureaucracy.
Mr. President,
NePAD represents an African-developed
vision of that great continent’s future. We urge the United
Nations to work to help Africans transform their vision into
an early reality.
President Bush reminded us in Monterrey
that “We fight against poverty because opportunity is a
fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against
poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands
it. And we fight against poverty with a growing conviction
that major progress is within our reach.
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