ACADEMIA’S GRASP OF GLOBAL ISSUES CAN HELP SHAPE CONCRETE RESPONSES TO PRESENT,

FUTURE NEEDS, DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IN REMARKS AT HER ALMA MATER

Following is the text of Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks at the University of Dar es Salaam today, 29 July:

Being here today is a genuine homecoming for me.  This university is where I started my professional career -- and it is also where I gained the inspiration to pursue a life of service.  I owe a debt of gratitude to this institution, professors and colleagues who helped to shape my formative years and the person I am today.

I would like to speak today about the United Nations vision and the challenges we face.  I’d also like to explore where the academic community fits into all of this.

I will resist the urge to fall into my professor role and lecture you on the history of the United Nations.  You are all familiar with the core values enshrined in the UN Charter.  You are all aware of the Organization’s fundamental belief in international solidarity, peace and security, and human rights and development.

I took office early last year at a time of great transition, not only at the United Nations, but the world at large.  No matter how you viewed the emerging challenges -- from population movements to economic woes to security threats -- they all had one feature in common: these were global challenges that could only be resolved through global cooperation.

The United Nations, as the premier international forum for resolving problems across international lines, is the ideal place to tackle these global issues.

In short, expectations have never been higher.  Even in the heady days following the end of the cold war, when the Security Council was united after many long years of stalemate, we did not have as many peacekeepers deployed across the world as we do today.

The United Nations is open as never before to partnerships on the ground with corporations, grass-roots organizations, religious groups, the scientific community, technological innovators and -- most emphatically -- academics.  We need an international coalition, because the challenges to peace, development and human rights are formidable.  We must bring together all countries and partners of goodwill.  And we at the United Nations are doing our best to mobilize action to protect present and future generations, and even our planet itself.

We know how to meet these challenges.  We have specific plans but they are not yet fully realized.  Political will, backed by commensurate resources, will bring us closer to our universally agreed upon goals.

Take the Millennium Development Goals.  When these ambitious targets were set in 2000 at an unprecedented gathering of world leaders, there was a great deal of hope.

And there has been tremendous progress since then.  But we are still far from confident that the Goals will be achieved without a major push forward in the years ahead.

Right now, we are facing a triple threat: the food and fuel crisis, climate change and the development crisis.  If we don’t immediately respond to all three in tandem, the consequences could be devastating.

One hundred million more people could slide deeper into poverty -- on top of the more than 800 million already struggling against severe hunger.  Unrest is likely to increase and instability could well follow.  There will be more migrants driven across borders, inflation will worsen and economic growth will stagnate.

Future generations, already compromised from a lack of adequate food and other basic needs, will have to cope with even greater problems than we face today.

This is a scenario the world simply cannot afford.

This is why Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a series of steps that could collectively set us on course to a long-term solution.  He urged aid to those in peril; an increase in official development assistance; an improvement in free trade; more investment in agriculture; stronger global commodity markets; and a reassessment of subsidies and tariff protection for biofuel production.

The challenges before us transcend borders and concern us all.  They require a persistent, collective international response.  But we should not lose sight of the fact that countries have the first responsibility to chart the course of their own development.  Every country has to follow through on its commitments.

On the United Nations side, we are working to provide more coherent support to Governments in their efforts to reduce poverty and achieve economic, social and political growth.

The Secretary-General has paid specific attention to Africa’s development needs.  He established the MDG Africa Steering Group comprising principals of the leading multilateral institutions dedicated to the continent’s advancement.

I am honoured to chair the working group that supports his effort.  The Steering Group recently announced a set of concrete measures aimed at enhancing international support for the Goals in Africa.

Success is not a matter of new plans of action -- the Millennium Development Goals are a carefully crafted set of realistic and achievable targets that represent over a decade of work to hammer out an international consensus on development.

No -- it’s a matter of will and resources, as I said before.  And so, Secretary-General Ban is going to take advantage of our busy season this September, when national leaders from around the world will gather at United Nations Headquarters for the General Assembly.  At that time, he will convene a high-level meeting aimed at pushing for progress on the Millennium Development Goals.

Political will from the top is critical.  But no less important is the support from all of our partners -- especially you, here in academia.  Beyond the transmission of institutional knowledge, your work and your grasp of the global issues that we grapple with can help shape concrete responses to meet the needs of present and future generations.  You have already done so, often with limited budgets.

We are called to do more.  The world, ever more complex, is laden with an abundance of information.  You can serve as a filter on the kind of knowledge that is relevant to the lives of ordinary Tanzanians.

Knowledge for knowledge’s own sake will not feed the people.  You have a responsibility to advise Governments on a broad spectrum of issues that impact national development.  Academia can serve as a powerful clearinghouse that customizes general knowledge to respond to issues specific to Tanzania and beyond.

The United Nations vision and that of institutes of excellence make a perfect fit.  The two ultimately strive to help people achieve their optimal potential.  They both subscribe to the values of peaceful relations among mankind, tolerance and understanding.  And it is true that education is the cornerstone of development.

It was my own background at this very university that brought me into public service.  A path that eventually led me to the United Nations, where I support the Secretary-General in serving the combined interests of 192 countries, and -- more importantly -- the “peoples” of the world in whose name the United Nations Charter was adopted.

In fact, technically, I am only away from you on leave without pay -- my contract still runs to 2010.  So allow me to close with some reflections on my experience here, and how it informs my work on the global stage.

I accepted the unique privilege to serve as the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations because of a deep and sincere desire to contribute to society.  And this desire was nurtured in me right here, during my formative years.

My training at the Faculty of Law gave me a solid foundation of knowledge that I draw on to this day.  But even more important, my involvement in Legal Aid opened my eyes to the day-to-day struggles of needy men, women and children who were fighting against the odds.

When I first came here, I was a young lady who had her head in her books, but I grew to be a woman who understood a depth of human suffering I could never learn just by studying.  The cases I worked on were not spectacular from a legal point of view, but they were a matter of life or death for the victim seeking justice, or the daughter trying to claim her inheritance, or the numerous others facing problems of a social, economic or administrative nature that weighed like chains around their necks.

I felt, from that time, that I had a responsibility to use my education for the greater public good.  This is exactly what the late President Nyerere, himself a teacher, called on us to do.  He pointed out that the educated amongst us are like those from a hungry village who are given what little food is available, so they can go out and help the others.

I am still one of you, still a teacher at heart.  And I feel that you, like me, are part of the mission of the United Nations, and that you and your students will continue to contribute to the nation and the world.

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