Mozambique, 2009

It is a great honour for

me to have this opportunity to address the General

Assembly at its sixty-fourth session to share the views

and offer the contribution of the Republic of

Mozambique on some of the challenges facing the

world today.

I would like, on behalf of my delegation, to

congratulate His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki

on his unanimous election to preside over this session

of the General Assembly. I assure him of the full

support and collaboration of Mozambique for the

successful discharge of his noble mission.

We pay tribute to his predecessor, Father Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann — a great sponsor of popular

liberation — for the resolute manner in which he

presided over the General Assembly at its sixty-third

session, and for his tireless efforts in favour of and

devotion to the poorest and most disadvantaged. Father

Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann’s engagement as an

advocate for those suffering in the Palestinian

territories and his strong leadership, demonstrated by

bringing together the 192 Member States of the United

Nations to address the financial and economic crisis,

have given us a vivid example of how commitment and

generosity, combined with vision and resolve, can

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make a difference in bringing the international

community together in the search for solutions to

current global problems.

I wish to convey to this gathering the warmest

greetings of His Excellency President Armando Emílio

Guebuza, who could not be present today due to

pressing national commitments. Indeed, on 28 October

this year, Mozambique will hold its fourth general

election. There will also be elections for provincial

parliaments for the first time in the country’s history.

These elections attest to our strong political will and

commitment to further strengthening democracy in the

country, where the rule of law and the promotion and

protection of the human rights of all Mozambicans

unite us in our fight against absolute poverty and for

peace, stability and sustainable development.

As a result of this enabling political environment,

Mozambique has recorded steady economic

performance and signals of economic stability over the

past five years, with an average gross domestic product

growth rate of 7.8 per cent. Poverty levels decreased

from 69.4 per cent in 1997 to 54.1 per cent in 2003. As

a result of our discernible progress in education,

health, water and sanitation, we expect to reduce

poverty to 45 per cent by the end of the current year.

However, the current global financial and economic

crisis is constraining our progress towards that goal; it

was recently forecast that our economic growth may

slow to 4.3 per cent in 2009.

In this context, the Government’s focus is to

ensure that the effects of the crisis, combined with

cyclical natural disasters, as well as diseases like

pandemic HIV/AIDS and endemic malaria and

tuberculosis, are not deepened and do not create

conditions that would prevent our return to the

economic and social growth I just described.

Mozambique welcomes the launching, here at the

United Nations on 23 September 2009, of the African

Leaders Malaria Alliance, and pledges to play an active

role in support of this new mechanism aimed at

coordinating our responses to the scourge of malaria.

Climate change is another pressing challenge.

Therefore, we cannot afford to fail to seal the deal in

December at the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to

the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change, in Copenhagen. It is our hope that the

commitments made during the Summit on Climate

Change, held on 22 September, will inspire the

deliberations in Copenhagen.

In southern Africa, we continue our efforts

towards regional economic integration, the

consolidation of democracy, good governance and

political stability. It is within this framework that

progress has been made in the implementation of the

Free Trade Area in the Southern African Development

Community (SADC), and that free and fair elections

have been held in a number of countries in the region.

In spite of these advances, we continue to face

challenges in many areas that still demand our

attention, in particular those of peace, security and

stability. In this regard, Mozambique, in its capacity as

chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and

Security Cooperation, will strive to ensure the success

of the common regional efforts to eradicate pockets of

instability so as to enable our countries to concentrate

on achieving the social and economic development

goals that our peoples are longing for.

We are encouraged by the progress made in the

implementation of the Global Political Agreement in

Zimbabwe, which is enabling the country to move

towards an atmosphere of political and social stability

conducive to permanent dialogue, reconstruction and

economic recovery. The economic challenges facing

Zimbabwe, associated with the current global

economic crisis and the continued sanctions applied by

some international development partners, make the

desired rapid economic recovery hard to achieve. We

therefore reiterate the SADC call for the removal of all

sanctions against Zimbabwe.

We are concerned by the attempts to undermine

the agreements signed in Maputo by all Malagasy

political movements on 9 August 2009, and we

condemn any unilateral decision that violates the spirit

of the agreements. We reaffirm our support for the

ongoing political dialogue in Madagascar and urge all

political stakeholders to fully implement the Maputo

agreements.

In addition to the subregional efforts to address

the current situation of conflicts in Africa, a special

session of the African Union was convened in August

in Tripoli to consider a wide range of conflicts with a

view to finding solutions and establishing consolidated

and sustainable peace, security and stability on the

continent. It is in this spirit that Mozambique

commends and supports the ongoing initiatives at the

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regional and continental levels aimed at promoting

durable and sustainable peace and stability in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur and

Somalia, among other areas.

With regard to the Middle East, Mozambique is

encouraged by the prospects for an effective, viable

and durable two-State solution for the Palestinians and

Israelis, as well as for broader Arab-Israeli

normalization as a result of the commitments made by

relevant stakeholders during this general debate.

The time has come for us to act together at the

national, regional and international levels to ensure the

speedy and full implementation of the internationally

agreed development goals, including the Millennium

Development Goals. We reiterate our recognition of the

vital role played by the United Nations in coordinating

international efforts in the search for sustainable

responses to the problems facing the world today.

In this regard, it is worth recalling the urgent

need to accelerate the ongoing reform of the United

Nations, including the reform of the Security Council,

the revitalization of the General Assembly, and the

process of reforming the United Nations system to

make it more effective, efficient and coherent and thus

more responsive to the development needs of

developing countries. Indeed, as one of the eight pilot

countries testing the Delivering as One initiative,

Mozambique is fully engaged in the reform of the

United Nations system at the country level.

Mozambique strongly believes in multilateralism,

and that the United Nations is at the centre of it. We

also believe that the United Nations is a special forum

that brings together the universal aspirations for a

peaceful, secure, stable and prosperous world, where

the values of tolerance, respect for human rights and

international cooperation for development are upheld.

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate Mozambique’s

commitment to continuing to engage in international

efforts to address issues of global concern, in particular

the fight against poverty, the negative impact of

climate change, and the promotion of sustainable

development.