Mozambique, 2006

On behalf of

the people and Government of the Republic of

Mozambique, and indeed on my own behalf, I would

like to place on record our congratulations to the

President on her election to preside over the sixty-first

session of the General Assembly. We are delighted to

see a distinguished daughter of Bahrain in the

stewardship of the highest organ of the United Nations.

We reiterate our congratulations to her

predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, Minister for Foreign

11 06-52988

Affairs of Sweden, for his leadership during the

sixtieth session. We congratulate him once again on the

commendable work done during his tenure of office.

We would also like to pay a glowing tribute to

Mr. Kofi Annan for his accomplishments during his

mandate as Secretary-General. We commend the

devotion and tireless efforts of this son of Africa, our

continent, for his work for the promotion of

international peace, security and development, as well

as for having created the solid foundations for wide-

ranging reforms of the United Nations.

One of the issues on which our debate focused

last year related to development. We noted with

concern then that there was a substantive lack of

progress in forging partnerships. In this regard, we

salute the President for bringing the theme

“Implementing a global partnership for development”

for debate at this session.

We live in a very unbalanced world, in which

developing countries find themselves in a vicious cycle

of dependency and vulnerability. This plight

undermines our efforts to address, speedily and

successfully, the challenges that prevent our enjoying

sounder economic and social growth and weaken our

capacity to deal, more effectively and with greater

impact, with the various manifestations of poverty and

to fight, more vigorously, diseases such as malaria,

tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Given our state of

development, more often than not we are powerless to

prevent or mitigate the impact of natural disasters and

environmental degradation. Consequently, poverty

prevents the part of our humanity located in developing

countries from enjoying the freedom of choice and

action that the other part of mankind takes for granted.

The merit of the theme that the President has put

forward for our debate is that it gives us yet another

opportunity to reflect on issues that we have dealt with

in the past in seeking solutions for the remaining

challenges imposed by underdevelopment. It also lends

itself to a debate of at least three important issues

related to the problem of underdevelopment.

The first is that no country alone, however

resourceful it may be, can successfully overcome these

challenges on its own, at least not in the medium term,

because these are challenges noted for their complexity

and interrelationships with other global problems and

phenomena.

The second point that can be inferred from this

theme is that, while underdevelopment can be

attributed to or identified with a given country, its

consequences transcend national borders. They go

beyond geographical boundaries to, on the one hand,

affect national security and demography in other

countries and, on the other, raise moral obligations of

new dimensions, as well as material challenges in other

societies.

The third issue relates to a static view of poverty.

The poor need to regain their self-confidence so that,

like people in other parts of the world, they too can rid

themselves of the shackles of poverty. By the same

token, those who can assist also need to overcome the

deep-rooted view that the poor will not escape from

poverty, as they are destined to remain poor. On the

other hand, they also need to overcome the

preconceived idea that development must be imposed

from the outside.

This discussion brings us back to our realization

that, given the global nature of the challenges facing us

today, we have no choice but to weave together and

strengthen the national, regional and global

partnerships. As a result of this realization, we adopted

the Monterrey Consensus, as well as the Johannesburg

Plan of Implementation and the Millennium

Declaration. The expectation was that these

consensuses would translate, in concrete terms, into

our commitment to forge global partnerships for

development. Regrettably, little has been achieved so

far. Abject poverty remains a common feature of the

majority of developing countries.

Therefore, I urge that we need to reiterate our

commitment to work together at various levels for the

well-being of humanity. Mankind is not a far-fetched

concept. For example, the very fact that the language I

am using now can be translated into the other

languages of the planet is a clear demonstration of how

we belong to the same humanity. Let us, therefore,

redouble our efforts so as not to frustrate the

expectations of billions of citizens worldwide, in the

developed and the developing countries alike. All of

them are longing for a fairer, prosperous and peaceful

world. Through these partnerships we can also, more

effectively, contribute to conflict resolution in Africa,

in the Middle East and in the world at large.

At this juncture, we would like to share with the

Assembly our experience and views on the role and

06-52988 12

place of partnerships to overcome the challenges

before us today.

At the national level, we are of the view that the

development projects must be owned and driven by

their primary and ultimate beneficiaries. In this regard,

the Government creates and promotes an environment

that facilitates the honing of self-esteem, promotes

recourse to individual creativity and supports

incremental development. At the same time, the

Government encourages and sustains partnerships with

other collective development actors, such as civil

society organizations, the private sector and

international partners in cooperation. The products of

this approach to governance include, for example: the

second Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute

Poverty for the period 2006-2009, drawn up with the

active participation of civil society organizations;

annual meetings with the private sector; meetings of

the social partners, with the participation of the

Government, trade unions and employers; the national

forum for the African Peer Review Mechanism; and the

joint review meetings between the Government and the

development partners involved in direct budget

support.

These partnerships are held together by our

adherence to open and inclusive governance. They are

also sustained by the collective commitment of various

stakeholders engaged in the development of

Mozambique to reduce the incidence of absolute

poverty from 54 per cent in 2003 to 45 per cent in

2009. The environment of peace and stability in which

we live and which we promote also contributes to

enhancing these partnerships.

Regional cooperation plays an important role in

building and sustaining partnerships for development.

The Southern African Development Community

(SADC) is a case in point. Since its birth, SADC has

been playing a crucial role in promoting the political,

economic and social integration of countries and

peoples of the region. At the same time, SADC allows

a given number of its member states to take initiatives

that further its ultimate objective of a more prosperous

region. In accordance with this principle, last August

Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe launched

the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a project that

aims to transform an area of approximately 35,000

square kilometres, rich in biodiversity, into a

development hub.

Viewed as one of the building blocks of the

African Union, SADC plays an important role in

promoting the New Partnership for Africa’s

Development (NEPAD), the African Union road map

towards prosperity. We take this opportunity to

commend the international community for aligning its

assistance ever more closely with the NEPAD

priorities. We would also encourage our development

partners to increase their support for NEPAD.

By deciding last week in Havana on the

continuation of the Non-Aligned Movement’s

revitalization process, the Non-Aligned Summit put

greater emphasis on the role the Movement should play

in forging partnerships among the countries of the

South, as part of the global partnerships. Thus, the

Non-Aligned Movement reinvigorated the Bandung

spirit, which, as we all know, inspired the

establishment of the New Asian-African Strategic

Partnership.

In addition to the Monterrey Consensus, we

advocate an increase in international financial support,

including official development assistance and foreign

direct investment for countries such as ours that have

potential for agriculture, agro-industry and tourism.

Similarly, we are in favour of the establishment

of a fairer and more favourable global trading system

that is more conducive to sustainable development in

developing countries. In this context, we regret the lack

of progress in the Doha Development Round, and we

urge developed countries to be more flexible, within

the framework of the World Trade Organization, in

their approach to the needs of developing countries. We

reiterate this appeal because we are convinced that our

partners do not want to witness the perpetuation of the

marginalization of developing countries from the

global economy.

The assessment made in 2005 indicates that a

number of developing countries are making progress

towards the attainment of the Millennium Development

Goals. Mozambique is part of this positive trend.

However, to ensure that it is irreversible, we call upon

our development partners to continue to provide

substantial and timely support for the priorities

identified by the recipient countries. We believe that

our partners are also touched, in their souls and in their

spirit, by the poverty that still afflicts that part of

humanity.

13 06-52988

In conclusion, we join previous speakers in

emphasizing the need for the United Nations reforms to

move forward. We all recognize the United Nations

potential to forge effective partnerships for

development. Therefore, we reaffirm the commitment

of the Government of the Republic of Mozambique to

contribute to the success of this reform process, always

bearing in mind the need to safeguard the

intergovernmental nature of the United Nations.

Mozambique is proud that its Prime Minister,

Mrs. Luísa Diogo, is one of the Co-Chairs of the High-

level Panel on System-Wide Coherence in the areas of

development, humanitarian assistance and the

environment, established by the Secretary-General. It

is our belief that the Panel’s report will contribute to

the success of the United Nations reforms. A reformed

United Nations will be better placed to respond to the

international challenges imposed by the need to

strengthen international law and multilateralism and to

promote partnerships for development and peace

worldwide.