Stopping spread of HIV key to meeting most Millennium Development Goals,

Deputy Secretary-General says in address to African Union summit

 

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s Address to the Summit of the African Union as Delivered in Accra, Ghana, yesterday, 1 July:

Let me first thank our hosts, the current Chairperson of the African Union, President John Kufuor, and the people of Ghana, for their warm welcome and generous hospitality.  I would also like to pay tribute to the Chairperson of the Commission, His Excellency Mr. Alpha Oumar Konaré, for the outstanding vision and leadership he continues to provide to this organization.

I bring with me warm regards and best wishes from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who unfortunately could not be with you today.

It is an honour for me to address Your Excellencies so early on in my capacity as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.  I deeply appreciate the strong support you have shown for me, and I hope that our collaboration will continue to go from strength to strength.

The focus of discussion at this Summit, on the proposed Union Government for Africa, is a timely one.  It comes at a moment when the African Union is re-focusing attention on progress towards its ultimate goal -- that of full political and economic integration.

The United Nations is a long-standing supporter of regional integration in Africa.  We remain committed to assisting this process.  We will continue to do so by helping to identify ways to accelerate integration, by monitoring the progress being made in the various regional economic communities, and by supporting efforts to overcoming obstacles to closer union.

I believe it is also healthy for the African Union itself to deliberate on the modalities and pace of integration in Africa.  Through this process, Member States will gain a stronger sense of ownership of any eventual agreement that emerges. 

In our competitive and increasingly globalized world, it is crucial that we come together to address the challenges facing Africa.  Only through close collaboration -- first among the African States, but also between Africa and its international partners -- can we tackle the continent’s many challenges and realize its great potential.

We need strong partnerships to reach the time-bound targets in the Millennium Development Goals.  We need strong partnerships to resolve and manage Africa’s conflicts.  And it is through strong partnership that Africa’s capacities can be strengthened.

On the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), I know that the Governments and people of Africa are working hard to overcome the longstanding challenges of poverty.  You are doing so through the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.  And you are doing so through community-based and national programmes -- with the support of the United Nations system at the country level.

Many African Member States have already made good progress towards reaching the Goals.  Often, progress is seen not in continent-wide statistics, but in how the lives of people in specific villages and cities are being directly impacted.

It is manifested through increased agricultural productivity in Malawi’s farming communities, as a result of a successful seeds and fertilizer programme.  It is measured in the dramatic increases in student enrolment in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda following the abolition of primary school fees and other positive measures in those countries.  It is visible in better malaria control in Niger, Togo and Zambia, and in increased access to water and sanitation in Senegal.  And it is translated into greater access to basic heath care services for communities in Burundi, following the introduction of free medical care for mothers and children.

These positive examples -- and there are many others -- demonstrate how strong Government leadership, good policies and practical strategies, combined with adequate support from the international community, can lead to rapid and large-scale progress towards the Goals.  Let us draw inspiration from these examples as we work together to improve the lives and livelihoods of people throughout the African continent.

Let us also draw hope from the sustained economic growth experienced in many African countries in recent years.  African enterprises are generating stronger domestic investment and productivity gains.  And many of your countries have made further advances towards transparent and democratic governance.

However, Africa is still lagging behind the rest of the world in achieving our common development objectives.  The challenges remain daunting:

-- overall, the number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa is rising, although the increase has levelled off slightly since 1999;

-- child mortality rates have fallen, but only marginally to 166 per 1,000 live births.  This is nowhere near the objective of a two thirds reduction by 2015;

-- maternal mortality rates remain shockingly high.  A woman in Africa has a 1 in 16 chance to die in childbirth or from complications in pregnancy, compared with a likelihood of 1 in 3,800 in the developed world.

These stark figures should stir us all to scale up our efforts to achieve the Goals.  This year marks the midpoint between the adoption of the Goals and the target date of 2015 by which we have committed ourselves to achieve them.  That makes it especially important for there to be more resolute efforts, and deeper partnerships, to reduce poverty, to address the needs in health, education and other sectors and to promote gender equality.

Among the many challenges that the continent faces, we cannot win the fight for development if we do not stop the spread of HIV.  It is simply a prerequisite for meeting most of the other Millennium Development Goals.  Today, the number of new cases is rising faster than the rate at which new treatment is being offered.  We must intensify prevention efforts, along with treatment, care and support for people living with HIV.

In particular, we must address the root causes of the spread among women and girls.  Women bear a disproportionate part of the AIDS burden in Africa.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, women represent nearly 60 per cent of all people living with HIV, and nearly 3 out of 4 young people between 15-24 years old who are living with HIV are female.  Women are also more likely to be the ones caring for people infected with HIV.  We must, therefore, promote gender equality as a way to fight AIDS.

In fact, as we all know, only by empowering women and girls can we achieve true and lasting development.  Our continent is making some progress on this front, especially in the political arena.  Today, after all, marks the first time that, your own daughter, an African woman is addressing an African Union Summit on behalf of the United Nations.  I do so while standing before a distinguished audience that, only one and a half years ago celebrated the election of Africa’s first elected woman president!

But we must do much more to ensure that our women take their rightful place in society.  That means eliminating gender inequalities in primary and secondary education and ensuring free and equal rights for women to own and inherit property.  It means ensuring equal access to productive assets and resources, such as credit and technology, and equal access to labour markets and sustainable employment opportunities.  And it means doing everything in our power to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls.  Today, I would like to call on all Member States to ratify our own instrument -- the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women.

On the development front more broadly, the Secretary-General and I will make specific efforts to ensure that implementation of the MDGs is intensified.  Against this background, the Secretary-General, during last month’s G-8 summit in Germany, launched the MDG Africa Steering Group, which brings together the leaders of United Nations entities, international financial institutions and the African Union Commission.  The Steering Group will work closely with donors and developing countries to provide a vital new impetus for a continent-wide scaling up of interventions.

The United Nations is also committed to strengthening system-wide coherence by delivering as one entity, particularly at the country level.  I strongly encourage your sustained support for the “one UN” approach, especially at the country level.  This would enable us to bring the Organization’s many assets into a cohesive, integrated, and more effective whole, while strengthening national ownership of development efforts.  It would allow the United Nations to better support the endeavours of Member States to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to support Government priorities.  And it would help advance the Secretary-General’s wider reform agenda, aimed at strengthening the ability of the United Nations to meet the needs and challenges of the twenty-first century.

As we do so, we will need your consistent support and your Government’s firm commitment to develop the proper policy frameworks necessary to achieve the MDGs and other development objectives.  Many of you are already leading by example.  But if we are to meet the targets, African countries require more and better-quality official development assistance.  ODA (official development assistance) to Africa, excluding one-off debt relief and humanitarian assistance, has not increased significantly since 2004.

We in the United Nations will continue advocating for more donor assistance, more debt relief and more follow-through on previous donor commitments.  The conclusion of a genuine development package in the Doha Round and operationalizing the Aid for Trade initiative is so important for Africa.  The Secretary-General and I will be pushing hard for progress in these areas.  The global trading regime leaves too many of the poorest countries -- in Africa and beyond -- at a disadvantage, when what they need are opportunities.

And the United Nations will be Africa’s trusted partner in addressing the challenge of climate change, whose impact will fall disproportionately on some of the continent’s poorest nations.

Peace and security is another challenge, Ladies And Gentlemen,

Our collective energies must also focus on preventing conflict, on ending conflict where it has started, and on assisting countries that are emerging from war to re-establish themselves on the path toward a durable peace.  Here too, there are many encouraging trends.

In West Africa, the overall security environment continues to improve and prospects for durable regional peace appear far more promising.   Liberia has continued to make steady progress in its peace consolidation efforts, and the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire has continued to advance following the signing of the Ouagadougou Political Agreement in March.  We hope the recent incident will not derail the process.

Sierra Leone, which will hold milestone elections in August, has also made good progress on the peacebuilding front.  Next month’s elections will be the litmus test for the sustainability of the prevailing stability.  I appeal to the international community to provide all the assistance required to take Sierra Leone through the crucial elections and to address potential sources of instability.

We must also address a number of long-standing regional challenges –- such as irregular migration, human and drug trafficking, youth unemployment, proliferation of small arms and security sector reform -- in order to maintain regional stability and reinforce the positive momentum towards improved security in West Africa.  The United Nations is working with the region’s Governments, with ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), and with other partners to develop an integrated sub-regional approach to tackle these issues, and to promote peace, security and development in West Africa as a whole.

In Central Africa, we look to the Great Lakes region as an illustration of how close collaboration between the African Union and the United Nations can lead to remarkable results.  Through its multidimensional support to region-led peace efforts in both Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations has helped these two countries to overcome years of conflict and instability and to embark on the path to peace.

There have been setbacks, and many challenges remain.  But both countries hold great promise, and enjoy the support of the international community.  The continued engagement by regional and international partners in the DRC ( Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Burundi will help stabilize the Great Lakes region as a whole.

With the adoption of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development, the countries of the Great Lakes region now have a greater shared responsibility to build on the positive momentum.  They now need to translate their commitments into action.  And the international community needs to assist these efforts.

Only by working together, through genuine partnership, can we overcome the challenges that confront this rich and varied continent.

Nowhere are Africa’s peace and security challenges more evident today than in Darfur, where conflict continues to hasten an unconscionable toll on women, children and men.  The tragic cycle of violence in Darfur has been allowed to continue for far too long.  The African Union deserves enormous credit for stepping in when no-one else would. 

The African Union Mission in the Sudan has had a significant impact on the ground, but it lacks the capacity to meet the extraordinary challenges of protecting civilians and bringing stability to Darfur.  The Secretary-General appreciates the collaboration between the United Nations, the African Union and the Government of Sudan.  We are pleased that the Government of Sudan has finally accepted the African Union-United Nations hybrid operation.  We must urgently proceed with this undertaking.  The deployment of the hybrid operation will be unprecedented, and will constitute a new chapter in our joint efforts to address the continent’s peace and security challenges.

But we must also seek to resolve the root causes of the conflict in Darfur.  The African Union and the United Nations are working closely together to reinvigorate the political process and bring a negotiated solution to the Darfur crisis.

At the same time, we must not allow our efforts in Darfur to diminish our resolve to take forward the crucial Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan as a whole.

As we salute the Africa Union’s courageous role in Darfur, so too must we pay tribute to its strong determination to contribute to the stabilization of Somalia.  The deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia in such a challenging and volatile security environment is a daunting task that requires and deserves the full support of the international community.

But only through national reconciliation and a truly inclusive political process can sustainable peace in Somalia be attained.  Here too, the United Nations is working with the African Union and other regional and international partners to advance the search for lasting peace and reconciliation.

Sudan and Somalia illustrate how our collective ability to address the range of issues confronting us is increasingly being stretched.

The adoption in the year 2005 of the United Nations Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme for the African Union was followed last year by the Declaration on “Enhancing UN-AU Cooperation”.  The Programme and Declaration reflect our joint commitment to find more effective ways to advance peace and security in Africa.

The United Nations is working with the African Union to develop a standby force capable of rapid deployment.  The ultimate objective is to develop a new peace and security architecture that can contribute to preventing conflict and maintaining durable peace on the continent.

It is heartening that the Peace and Security Council of the African Union and the United Nations Security Council, meeting together in Addis Ababa just a few days ago, committed themselves to the development of a stronger and more structured relationship in the areas of conflict prevention, conflict management and resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

To more effectively address these challenges and the other pressing issues facing Africa, the United Nations system is committed to working together in ever closer partnership with you.  Together, let us redouble our efforts to advance development, to improve peace and security and to strengthen respect for human rights on the African continent.

We have built a highly fruitful collaboration in a wide range of areas, from peacekeeping to the fight against AIDS.  Let us strengthen and replicate these bonds as we strive to achieve our common objectives.

Je vous remercie. Choukran jazeelan. Muito obrigada. Muchas gracias.  Asante Sana.

Thank you very much.

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For information media • not an official record