Secretary-General, Attending African Union Summit, Applauds Region’s Generosity in Keeping Borders Open to Refugees as Developed Countries Shut Them Out

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s remarks to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa today:

I am honoured to be with you.

I humbly join you in profound solidarity and respect.  As the late Samora Machel, the first President of the independent Mozambique, once said, solidarity “is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objectives.  The foremost of these objectives is to assist in the development of humanity to the highest level possible”.

The African Union is working every day for unity, peace and progress for all people in every corner of this great continent.  I congratulate President Idriss Déby Itno for his leadership over the past 12 months, and I also commend the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, her Deputy, Erastus Mwencha, and the African Union Commissioners for their efforts to promote Africa’s socioeconomic transformation.  I wish Madame Dlamini-Zuma all the best in her future endeavours.  I look forward to working closely with her successor.

The United Nations is proud to be your partner.  And I am proud to be your partner.  I am convinced we have much to gain from African wisdom, African ideas, African solutions.  It is that spirit of possibility and partnership that draws me here.

I also come with a deep sense of gratitude.  Africa provides the majority of United Nations peacekeepers around the world.  Yesterday, during our breakfast meeting, I took good note of your concerns about the challenges faced by several peacekeeping missions in countries where there is effectively no peace to keep, and also by the [statement] by several African countries and subregional organizations to be ready for peace-enforcing operations, provided that they have the appropriate mandate from the Security Council and the resources that are necessary to implement those operations.

African nations are also among the world’s largest and most generous hosts of refugees.  African borders remain open for those in need of protection, when so many borders are being closed, even in the most developed countries in the world.

Africa also includes some of the world’s fastest growing economies.  And so I am here to listen to you, learn from you and work with you for the people of Africa and the wider world.

Notre rencontre se tient à un moment critique.

Le monde vit la deuxième année du Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030.

L’Afrique a adopté un plan qui est encore plus ambitieux et de portée plus vaste, l’Agenda 2063.

Pour que les populations africaines tirent pleinement parti du partenariat mondial pour le développement durable, ces deux plans doivent faire l’objet d’un alignement stratégique.

Ces 10 dernières années, une bonne partie de l’Afrique a fait d’ailleurs des progrès sensibles sur le plan socioéconomique.

Mais bien entendu, il reste également des défis à relever.  Nous ne les ignorons pas.

Mais avant tout, ce que je vois, c’est cette grande promesse et ce vaste potentiel que représente l’Afrique.  Je veux travailler avec vous pour en tirer le meilleur parti.

Commençons par la prévention.

Notre monde doit passer aujourd’hui de la gestion des crises à leur prévention.

Trop souvent, nous intervenons trop tard et trop peu.

Je compte étudier avec vous les moyens de rompre ce cycle.

Partout dans le monde, les conflits d’aujourd’hui sont pour la plupart des conflits internes.

Ils résultent d’une course au pouvoir et d’une compétition pour les ressources, des inégalités, de la marginalisation et des divisions sectaires.

Souvent, ils sont attisés par l’extrémisme violent ou l’alimentent.

Ici, à l’Union africaine, vous vous employez à trouver des solutions.

Vous avez pris l’initiative de mettre en place des cadres ambitieux comme l’Architecture africaine de paix et de sécurité.

Vous avez fixé des normes ambitieuses comme l’Architecture africaine de gouvernance, le principe de l’Union africaine contre les changements anticonstitutionnels de gouvernement, le Mécanisme africain d’évaluation par les pairs et le Groupe des Sages.

Vous pouvez compter sur le soutien indéfectible de l’Organisation des Nations Unies dans tous les efforts que vous menez pour renforcer les institutions nationales, préserver l’état de droit, favoriser l’esprit de responsabilité, promouvoir la bonne gouvernance, faciliter la transition pacifique du pouvoir en prévenant l’extrémisme violent.

Nous travaillerons avec vous main dans la main partout où la stabilité et le bien-être des populations seront mis en danger par un conflit ou la menace d’un conflit.

Nous ne ménagerons aucun effort pour vous apporter plus systématiquement l’assistance dont vous avez besoin pour renforcer vos moyens de lutte contre le terrorisme, et nous nous tenons prêts à vos côtés pour relever le défi plus général de la prévention de l’extrémisme violent.

Mais la prévention ne saurait se réduire uniquement aux conflits.

Le moyen de prévention le plus efficace et la voie la plus sûre pour parvenir à une paix durable est le développement inclusif et durable.

Plusieurs stratégies peuvent nous y mener: au niveau mondial, nous avons le Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030, l’Accord de Paris sur les changements climatiques et le Programme d’action d’Addis-Abeba pour le financement du développement.

Il y a là un certain nombre d’engagements pris par le monde et la communauté internationale qu’il faut à tout prix faire respecter parce que l’Afrique a besoin de la solidarité internationale mais l’Afrique mérite cette solidarité par les efforts que vous faites en garantissant votre développement.

Ici en Afrique, vous avez l’Agenda 2063 et le Nouveau Partenariat pour le développement de l’Afrique.

Ces efforts concourent au même objectif.

Nos équipes de pays des Nations Unies sont à votre disposition pour mettre en adéquation le plus efficacement possible les stratégies convenues au niveau mondial et votre vision et vos plans continentaux, fondés sur les priorités définies par les gouvernements et les populations africaines.

Excelências,

Em todos os nossos esforços é fundamental que façamos mais para proporcionar aos jovens oportunidades e esperança.

Felicito-vos por terem designado 2017 como o ano do “Aproveitamento do Dividendo Demográfico Através do Investimento na Juventude”.

Atualmente, como foi dito, mais de três em cada cinco africanos têm menos de 35 anos de idade.

Para tirarmos partido deste tremendo potencial precisamos de mais investimento em educação, em formação, em trabalho decente, e também teremos que envolver os jovens na construção do seu próprio futuro.

Mas investir na juventude é não apenas essencial para assegurar o bem-estar dos jovens, para garantir o desenvolvimento dos Estados, é também hoje um factor de prevenção indispensável para evitar que os movimentos terroristas possam fazer um recrutamento fácil de jovens quando eles não têm quaisquer oportunidades de futuro.

Investir nos jovens é também garantir a nossa segurança coletiva.

E para isso, podem contar com o total apoio do Sistema das Nações Unidas.

Espero também poder trabalhar convosco pelo empoderamento das mulheres, para que as mulheres possam desempenhar cabalmente o seu papel no desenvolvimento e na paz sustentáveis.  Tenho, ao longo da minha vida testemunhado este facto: quando empoderamos as mulheres, empoderamos o mundo.  E foi por isso que fiz da paridade de género e do empoderamento das mulheres uma prioridade ao nivel das Nações Unidas.

I am proud to have selected Amina Mohammed of Nigeria as Deputy Secretary-General.  She is an accomplished leader in international development and will give an extremely important contribution to the management of the United Nations Secretariat.  I sincerely thank President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria for his generosity in availing her to serve in this important global role.

Looking forward, I welcome your ideas on how to best strengthen our cooperation and partnership based on the priorities and the needs of the people of Africa.  I see several areas ripe for discussion.

First, by raising the level of our strategic partnership — in implementing Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda, and in promoting peace and security and human rights together; second, we look forward to working with you to enhance the UN’s partnership with Africa’s eight regional economic communities.  They have been at the forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security on the continent and they are driving forces for achieving Africa’s development aims.

The extraordinary union showed by ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] is even a lesson to the world.  It was so fair and so just [from Chairperson Dlamini-Zuma] to acknowledge it — when recognizing that at the present moment, when we see so many conflicts multiplying, the only way to allow the international community to be able to address those conflicts, the only way to allow the international community to act boldly, is with unity of the countries of the region, able to serve together and in the same universal principles.

Third, the African Governance Architecture, including the African Peer Review Mechanism, has contributed to improved governance in many countries.  The United Nations will step up its support to further promote good governance and reinforce the nexus between peace, security and development.  Fourth, the United Nations will support African efforts to realize your initiative to “Silence the Guns by 2020”, or even before, including by strengthening support for the African Peace and Security Architecture.

I intend to work with the African Union to present a set of concrete proposals to the Security Council on predictable, reliable and sustainable financing for African Union peace operations.  It is also very important that we are able to promote long-term thinking and commitment to building and maintaining peace after conflict ends to prevent backsliding.

Fifth, the United Nations will support regional integration, including efforts to establish the Continental Free Trade Area.  I know you have identified this as vital for achieving Agenda 2063.

I am here as your partner and as your friend.  I am here in gratitude for Africa’s enormous contributions to a better world.  And I am here to pledge my full commitment to work with you in solidarity and respect to advance peace and security on the continent and realize the vision of Agenda 2063 and its promise of building “the Africa we want”.

Thank you.