AFRICA CAN COUNT ON UNITED NATIONS TO TACKLE CHALLENGES OF TODAY'S WORLD, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS OAU SUMMIT MEETING IN YAOUND+

8 July 1996

Press Release
SG/SM/6018

AFRICA CAN COUNT ON UNITED NATIONS TO TACKLE CHALLENGES OF TODAY'S WORLD, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS OAU SUMMIT MEETING IN YAOUNDÉ

19960708 Following is the text of the statement by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the thirty-second assembly of heads of State and government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Yaoundé today:

Allow me, at the outset, to express the great joy which I feel on the occasion of this meeting, a meeting which I have been attending each year with a sense of both honour and pride.

Honour, because I am deeply grateful to the African continent for the confidence it has placed in me by choosing me as a high-ranking representative of Africa in the world community.

And pride in the fact that I hail from this ancient continent which lies at a crossroad of civilizations and religions. This sense of belonging makes me embrace the profound values that are specific to each and every African man and woman, proud to belong to Africa and proud to devote all their efforts to the progress and prosperity of their continent.

It is truly a privilege for me to address this summit meeting of Africa.

I should like to thank President Paul Biya and, through him, the Government and people of Cameroon, for their hospitality. Mr. President Biya, we expect much from your wise presidency of the Organization of African Unity. Your experience of international affairs, your wisdom and your diplomatic competence reassure us: Africa is in good hands.

Allow me also to record my sincere gratitude to the past President of the Organization of African Unity, Mr. Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Throughout your presidency, the OAU has been able to rely on your political skills and your continuous regard for the higher interests of our continent. In you, the OAU has found a great leader, the United Nations a close friend.

Last but not least, I want to pay tribute to the dedication and the expertise of my brother Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the OAU. His commitment and his wise guidance are examples to all of us.

As an African and as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I have spoken many times on the importance of Africa, on the crucial necessity of reversing the trends towards the marginalization of Africa, on restoring Africa to its rightful place in the world community as a continent known for its wealth, its wisdom, and its moral values.

Africa, more than any other continent, has suffered from the post-cold- war tendencies of ethnic separatism.

Africa, more than any other continent, has suffered from neglect, from what I have termed "donor fatigue".

I have called, in many international forums, and most recently at the Lyon summit meeting of the "Group of Seven", for concerted international action in favour of Africa.

I believe in the potential of Africa to make an invaluable contribution to the future. Africans have shown their interest and their expertise in the context of important debates conducted by the international community. In particular, they have positively participated in wide-ranging discussions over the role and the reform of the United Nations system.

As you know, I have been instrumental in pursuing those reforms, at the conceptual and structural level.

At the conceptual level, I have favoured a global approach to world issues and I have called for a global strategy in dealing with the major problems facing us today. In this context, the United Nations has organized several world conferences: in Rio, on the environment; in Vienna, on human rights; in Cairo, on population; in Copenhagen, on social development; in Beijing, on women; and most recently, in Istanbul, on the future of our cities. Africans took the lead in organizing two of these six conferences. This cycle of global conferences and summit meetings has contributed greatly to shaping a new rationale and framework for development cooperation.

In line with this approach, the United Nations has held crucial meetings in Africa: the ninth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD IX) in South Africa; and the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), the general policy meeting of all the executive heads of United Nations bodies and institutions, at Nairobi in Kenya, a few months ago.

Today, as we debate the future of our global society, we must also reflect on the role of the Organization meant to serve it. That is why I have embarked upon reform of the United Nations, in order to adapt the Organization to meet new challenges ahead. Here, also, African contribution to reform workshops has proved invaluable.

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On the structural level, the reform of the United Nations has proceeded along two paths: consolidation and increasing cost-effectiveness.

These initiatives should be followed by reform at the intergovernmental level, and by new policy consensus among governments on the direction of the United Nations work. I believe that the OAU, as a key element of the "Group of 77" developing countries, can be a leading force in this process.

At the country level, I have insisted on a strengthened role of the Resident Coordinator and on a more extensive cooperation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Such cooperation is crucial to move from relief to development.

I cannot stress too strongly the importance of a simultaneous approach to the problems facing Africa, whether these are in the area of economics, policy-making, governance or strengthening civil society. There can be no development without peace and no lasting peace without development.

In that respect, I want to emphasize the importance of the cooperation between the OAU and the United Nations.

In the establishment of the African Economic Community, in the development of human resources and training, in the development of culture, and of science and technology, education, the implementation of the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF), in trade and investment, the implementation of Agenda 21, assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons, and the States affected by this problem, in peace, security and in democracy, the United Nations and the OAU have achieved much progress.

I particularly want to emphasize our cooperation in the field of preventive diplomacy, through the OAU's establishment, in 1993, of the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution and the participation of the OAU in peace-keeping operations.

However, peace-keeping efforts should not come at the expense of longer- term development efforts. On the contrary, peace-keeping can be an important element in promoting a new momentum for development assistance and development cooperation.

It was in this spirit that, on 15 March 1996, I launched a United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa. African men and women have been waiting for too long for the United Nations to give them absolute priority. Today, for the first time, the entire United Nations system is committed to strengthening the development of one of the regions of the world.

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All our organs and all our institutions must work together. While the World Bank has the task of raising the bulk of the resources needed for this global project, each institution has a part to play within its respective sphere of competence.

These include United Nations subsidiary organs such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Also involved are specialized agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

This is the most extensive operation ever coordinated by the United Nations. The Special Initiative is meant to promote an active partnership, not only with donor countries but also with African governments and institutions, first and foremost, among them, the Organization of African Unity.

The Special Initiative, it should be noted, is based largely on the key themes of priority intervention which you defined last year in Cairo and which, in my view, are essential if Africa is to be led firmly along the development path it has chosen.

I am as convinced as you are that it is time to "give development a chance". Like you, I am convinced that we must offer "new hope for the upcoming generation", and like you, I am convinced of the need to strengthen institutional capacities. And finally, like you, I know how much we must insist on what the Special Initiative appropriately calls "the urgency on survival issues".

I, therefore, welcome the fact that the President of the Organization of African Unity has been able to participate in the launching of our Special Initiative. By his action, he has strongly demonstrated the interest and support that African leaders are bringing to this project.

The purpose of this project over the next 10 years is not only to encourage peace and stability in Africa, but also to provide a new thrust to international efforts for the development of Africa and to enable the African continent finally to take its rightful place in the evolution of the world economy.

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I want to stress again here that the globalization of the world economy is legitimate only if it translates into a fairer, more equitable distribution of wealth, and into more equal participation by all!

In this connection, I wish once again to reaffirm that the implementation of this Special Initiative is predicated on the solution of such fundamental problems as food security, the diversification of Africa's economy and access for African goods to foreign markets, and on the urgent settlement of the debt problem.

All these factors are interdependent. And they must be dealt with as such. That, to my mind, is one of the key advantages of the Special Initiative!

But I also want to say to you, as a brother speaking to his brothers and sisters, that Africa must rely on its own devices. It must draw from itself the inner strength necessary for its own revival. It must have confidence in its own potential and in the value of its sons and daughters. It must take its destiny into its own hands and become an instrument for its own advancement!

The world needs Africa to be a winner! It needs Africa to promote its own development. It needs Africa to participate fully in tackling the challenges facing today's world. I wish to affirm most solemnly that, in this endeavour, Africa can count on me and on the entire United Nations system.

Long live the Organization of African Unity! Long live Africa!

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