ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL LAUNCHES BID FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

FOR POST-CONFLICT RECOVERY EFFORTS IN GUINEA-BISSAU

Fact-Finding Mission Will Determine Country’s Humanitarian Needs

The first implementation of an initiative by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to assist countries emerging from conflict took shape today, at a meeting of the Council’s Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Guinea-Bissau.

The Advisory Group is the first to be established under the auspices of ECOSOC resolution E/2002/1.  The resolution authorizes the creation, at the request of an African country emerging from conflict, of a limited but flexible ambassadorial-level body to examine the humanitarian and economic needs of that country, to engage broad international support and to facilitate coordinated action.

The Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Guinea-Bissau is chaired by Ambassador Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo (South Africa), the Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council.  Other members of the group include representatives of Guinea-Bissau, Brazil, the Netherlands and Portugal.  The Permanent Representatives of Mauritius and Gambia will also participate in their capacities as chairs, respectively, of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Security Council on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa and of the Group of Friends of Guinea-Bissau.  The President of ECOSOC, Ivan Simonovic (Croatia), will participate ex officio.

Members of the Group are expected to leave on 8 November for a fact-finding visit to Guinea-Bissau, the first country to request establishment of an ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on its behalf.  They are due to issue a preliminary report in mid-December 2002.

The Advisory Group will carry out consultations in Guinea-Bissau, with Government officials, civil society organizations, UN system organizations, donors and the Bretton Woods institutions.  A report of the Group will be submitted to the organizational session of ECOSOC in January 2003, and a resolution on Guinea-Bissau is likely to be adopted in February 2003.  The Council can forward recommendations to other relevant bodies, under the terms of resolution E/2002/1.

The goal is to build on a still-fragile peace and to help prevent the relapse of Guinea-Bissau into conflict, while building a long-term programme of support for Guinea-Bissau that addresses the gaps between relief and development and provides adequate and well-coordinated development assistance. 

Background

The ECOSOC deems that the situation in Guinea-Bissau requires urgent action.

The nation, one of the smallest in West Africa, has faced numerous challenges arising from a prolonged war of liberation (1963-74) and an attempt to establish a centrally planned economy. 

An internal armed conflict broke out in June 1998, between forces loyal to President Joao Bernardino Vieira and supporters of former Army Chief of Staff General Ansumane Mane.  The fighting, which displaced one third of the population, was the result of the President’s dismissal of General Mane over allegations relating to the smuggling of arms to separatist rebels in neighbouring Senegal.  On President Vieira’s request, Senegal and Guinea sent troops to Guinea-Bissau in his support.

A peace agreement was signed on 1 November 1998 between President Vieira and General Mane under the auspices of the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS).  President Vieira, however, was forcibly removed from office by a military junta in 1999.  Since then, national elections have been held, as a result of which Koumba Yala became President, but no political party holds a clear majority in the national legislature.  Tensions continue among contending political actors, as well as with the military.  Further exacerbating the situation is the difficulty of the Government in meeting even short-term social needs, the slow pace of demobilization, subregional instability and the effects of a drought.

The 2002 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranks Guinea-Bissau 167th out of 173 countries. 

Life expectancy at birth in Guinea-Bissau is 44.8 years compared to 48.7 for sub-Saharan Africa and 51.9 for least developed countries overall.  Adult literacy is 38.5 per cent compared to 61.5 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 52.8 per cent for the least developed countries.  The combined primary, secondary and tertiary education gross enrolment ratio of 31 per cent contrasts with 42 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 38 per cent in the least developed countries.  The share of the population using improved water resources, at 49 per cent, is less than 54 per cent for sub-Saharan Africa and 63 per cent in the least developed countries.  Only 13 per cent of the population in the capital has such access.  The infant mortality rate is 130 per 1000, compared to 92 per 1000 in the sub-continent.  The situation of women in Guinea-Bissau is particularly critical.  The literacy rate for women is 17 per cent (against 56 per cent for men), and the maternal mortality rate is 90 per 1000.

Note:  More information available from:   Tim Wall, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel:  (212) 963-5851, e-mail:  wallt@un.org.

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