Benin, 2006

I am taking

part personally in this session of the General Assembly

in order to reiterate Benin’s commitment to the noble

purposes and principles of the United Nations, and to

express the readiness of the Beninese delegation to

cooperate and contribute, as best it can, to the success

of these deliberations.

But first, allow me, to once again warmly

congratulate Ms. Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa on her

unanimous election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-first session, and to express our

appreciation for the remarkable way in which she

guided the work of the High-level Meeting on the

midterm comprehensive global review of the

implementation of the Programme of Action for the

Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010.

I also wish to pay tribute to the remarkable

efforts of her predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jan

Eliasson, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom

of Sweden, who had the weighty task of leading the

sixtieth session of the General Assembly, which was

focused, essentially, on the implementation of the

major decisions taken at the 2005 World Summit.

Allow me to pay a resounding tribute to my

friend Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who over the

past 10 years has wisely and skilfully led our

Organization at a time of new challenges and threats

created by changes unprecedented in the history of

humanity.

My country, Benin, believes that the future

Secretary-General should come from the continent of

Asia. We hope that the new Secretary-General will be

able to take the measures necessary to lead the

Organization towards the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

I am pleased to note that the Assembly is already

progressing in the preparation of this great endeavour:

the promotion of development is the key issue for the

general debate at the sixty-first session, focusing in

accordance with Ms. Al-Khalifa’s proposal, on the

establishment of a global partnership for development.

My country, the Republic of Benin, joins in this debate

with the conviction that we will make significant

progress in finding pragmatic ways of fulfilling the

commitments that have been adopted on many

occasions, for the promotion of economic and social

development throughout the world.

The question of development is at the heart of the

mission of the United Nations. In the Charter, Members

proclaimed their belief in the equal rights of men and

women and of nations large and small. They made the

commitment to use international institutions in order to

encourage economic and social progress for all people.

Hence, reform of the United Nations, if it is to be

viable and effective, must also help ensure that our

Organization can do better as a framework and an

instrument for development through the promotion of

the well-being of the poorest of our planet, ensuring

the economic growth of the most vulnerable members

of the community of nations, in particular the least

developed countries.

Financing for development is a factor on which

genuine partnership needs to be built between donor

countries and developing countries. In this context, the

Monterrey Consensus, as members know, continues to

be relevant. It is good to note that some donor

countries have achieved the objective of allocating

0.7 per cent of their gross national income to official

development assistance (ODA) for developing

countries, with 0.2 per cent earmarked for least

developed countries. It is also important to encourage

those who have already established a specific timetable

for achieving those objectives. Given the inadequacy

of official development assistance, it is important to

examine new sources of financing for development

activities, and some are already doing so. I would like

to take this opportunity to welcome the proposals that

have been made by some countries, such as the French

Republic and President Jacques Chirac.

Identifying new sources of financing thus

deserves special attention. We are pleased that

mobilizing the remittances of migrant workers can in

some respects also contribute to development action.

Nonetheless, it is important to facilitate those transfers

so that they can effectively contribute to improving the

living conditions of the beneficiary populations and

their impact on poverty reduction can be maximized.

But it should be stressed that the resources that come

from remittances by migrant workers cannot be

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considered part of ODA and should not be included in

ODA calculations.

We must also mobilize resources through

microcredits for the poorest sectors. The support of the

international community should contribute to

strengthening microcredit systems, which could be

extremely useful in the context of efforts to counteract

unemployment among young people and to promote

the empowerment of women in order to improve their

living conditions and enhance their contribution to the

national income of the countries concerned.

We must ensure the full insertion of developing

countries, particularly the least advanced, into

international trade so that they can be sure that,

through that mechanism appropriate resources for

financing their development are mobilized. Here we

express our disappointment at the failure of the

multilateral trade negotiations in the framework of the

Doha Round. Among other reasons, they floundered

because of the crucial question of agricultural

subsidies, which are stifling the producers in

developing countries. My country, Benin, will continue

to work with other affected countries to ensure the

abolition of those subsidies. or at least to get

compensations equal to the harm we suffer.

In order to promote development, our countries

are seeking to implement democratic reforms.

However, as I said at the opening session of the

meeting of the least developed countries, any

democracy that does not go hand in hand with

development is doomed to fail. Also, our efforts to

promote development will not bear fruit if we do not

succeed in maintaining peace in our own countries and

throughout the world.

That is why in 2005 Benin, while it was on the

Security Council, sought to contribute to the efforts to

enhance the effectiveness of that body in preventing

armed conflicts. We welcome the Secretary-General’s

prompt action through the inspired and wise

recommendations he recently submitted on questions

related to the prevention of conflicts. Resolving

various conflicts enables the affected developing

countries to resolutely get themselves back on the track

of reconstruction and national development.

From this rostrum, my country pays tribute to the

decisive action being taken by the United Nations in

the area of peacekeeping, and we repeat that we are

willing to contribute actively to it. The Government of

Benin is ready to continue participating in

peacekeeping operations in order to allow peoples

affected by armed conflicts to overcome them and to

create the conditions for stability that are necessary to

ensure the reconstruction of their countries and their

economic and social development.

For us in Benin, another word for peace is

development. This is the message that I wished to

bring, on behalf of the people of Benin and of the least

developed countries, during this general debate.