Malawi, 2007

I am happy to have this

opportunity to address the General Assembly at its

sixty-second session. I convey my congratulations

Mr. Kerim on his election as President of the Assembly

at this session. The Malawi Government would like to

assure him of our support in carrying out his duties as

President.

I also take this opportunity to thank our hosts,

President George W. Bush and the Government and the

people of the United States of America, for the

hospitality accorded to me and my delegation since our

arrival in the state of New York.

I commend the previous President of the

Assembly, Her Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed

Al Khalifa, for the sterling leadership, direction and

guidance she gave in steering the Assembly at its sixty-

first session.

I wish to focus my address on Malawi’s efforts to

meet the objectives of the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs). Malawi believes that the MDGs are the

tools for enhancing growth and development and for

improving the livelihood of people in the poor

countries of the world. I am pleased to state that my

country is making steady progress in the

implementation of the MDGs. We have adopted the

Malawi Growth and Development Strategy as a home-

grown overarching national policy for creating new

wealth, for achieving sustainable economic growth and

development and for combating the poverty that still

engulfs many of our people.

The people of Malawi share a common vision to

eliminate poverty in the shortest period possible by

transforming the country from a predominantly

importing and consuming to a predominantly

manufacturing and exporting economy. That, we

believe, will enable our country to position itself

within the global economy and to compete favourably

in the world markets.

To achieve that vision, we are implementing a

sound system of economic governance in both the

public and private sectors. That includes fighting

corruption, reform of the public and private sectors,

safeguarding human rights and the rule of law,

increasing social protection for vulnerable groups, and

developing infrastructure for development. My

Government has also placed research, science and

technology, including information and communications

technology, gender empowerment and environmental

protection, at the top of our development paradigm.

Based on the limitation of our resources, financial

and human alike, we have identified six priorities

within priorities that we believe can pull Malawi out of

the poverty trap. Those include agricultural

development and food security, irrigation and water

development, transport and communications

infrastructure development, energy and power,

integrated rural development, and management and

prevention of HIV and AIDS. I am pleased to report

that the Malawi Government began to implement those

priorities in 2004 and that, by 2006, we had achieved a

phenomenal growth rate of 8.5 per cent. We therefore

believe that the selection of these top priorities is a

good one. We are also implementing an effective

system of income distribution targeting the rural poor. I

can therefore boldly say that the Malawi Government

is confident that most of the Millennium Development

Goals will be met or even surpassed by the year 2015.

I now wish to briefly review some of the

Millennium Development Goals. For instance, we are

certain to decrease by half the proportion of the

population that suffers from extreme poverty and

hunger, and to improve their nutritional status by the

year 2015. Malawi has also made significant progress

in the past three years in reducing poverty. In 1998, for

instance, people living below the poverty line

represented 53.9 per cent of the total population. That

number was reduced to 45 per cent in 2006.

For the past two years, Malawi has achieved a

high rate of agricultural production and food security.

Presently, Malawi has a food surplus amounting to 1.4

million metric tons over and above our national food

requirement. We are now able to export food to other

countries in southern Africa.

Malawi has one of the highest budgetary

allocations to agriculture and food security. We are

empowering smallholder farmers to access essential

farm inputs, mainly seeds and fertilizer, through a

subsidy programme. We also support the development

of viable small-, medium- and large-scale irrigation

schemes to reduce dependence on rain-fed agriculture.

The other aspect of the MDGs that Malawi

considers critical is the reduction in maternal and child

mortality. Here again, my country has achieved

remarkable progress, largely through the adoption of

the Essential Health Package as the main strategy for

the delivery of a cost-effective package of health

services through a donor-funded sector-wide approach

programme. We are also addressing the challenge to

reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds by

the year 2015 and to reduce the maternal mortality

ratio by three quarters.

We have identified several highly preventable and

treatable diseases, such as malaria, pneumonia,

diarrhoea and malnutrition. Malawi is therefore on

track towards attaining the Millennium Development

Goals. We have reduced the rate of child deaths per

1,000 from 189 live births in 2000 to 133 in 2006.

In the fight against malaria, Malawi has so far

distributed about 5 million insecticide-treated mosquito

nets to various households. The percentage of pregnant

women and children under five sleeping under treated

nets increased from 8 per cent in 2000 to 20 per cent in

2006. In 2007, we plan to give out 3 million more

mosquito nets with support from the Global Fund and

President George Bush’s Malaria Initiative in that area.

One of Malawi’s biggest challenges is the

management and prevention of tuberculosis, whose

prevalence rate is very high, especially with regard to

patients having HIV and AIDS. The Malawi

Government has therefore declared tuberculosis to be

an emergency and launched a five-year plan for

addressing the problem.

I am pleased to state that Malawi is one of the

few African countries that have been successful in

meeting the challenges of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Malawi has also been successful in its public

awareness campaign about the HIV/AIDS epidemic

and its consequences. In 2004, Malawi had 14

voluntary counselling and testing centres, and those

have now been increased to 250. Over 5 million people

within Malawi have been tested within a period of less

than three years. With the support of the Bill Clinton

Foundation, Malawi now has over 130,000 people

receiving free antiretroviral drugs. Additionally, in the

prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and

AIDS, we are now reaching over 60 per cent of

pregnant women in Malawi. The General Assembly

may wish to note that the Malawi national HIV and

AIDS and antiretroviral therapy programmes are

among the fastest growing in the world and that the

pandemic is showing signs of a decline.

I wish to reiterate the statement I made to this

Assembly in 2006 that we should regard HIV and

AIDS not only as a medical crisis, but also as having

economic, socio-cultural and political dimensions. That

being the case, the solution to the crisis must be

comprehensive and holistic. I have therefore

established a Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS

in my Office as a technical arm in implementing the

Millennium Development Goals. I am also pleased to

report that, from 2004 to date, Malawi has developed a

national nutrition policy and accompanying documents

as a guide for action. As a result, 350,000 orphans are

now getting nutrition support. That has reduced the

negative impacts of malnutrition, HIV and AIDS, such

as absenteeism, and many of those affected now return

to work quickly and are reintegrated into the economy.

The Government of Malawi recognizes that water

is life. We have therefore placed high priority on the

development of our water resources. We are

rehabilitating water-supply schemes and are

constructing many earthen dams country-wide to allow

rural communities access to clean water. Currently,

about 66 per cent of the population has access to safe

and clean water. Malawi is therefore confident that the

MDG on access to water for all will be achieved before

2015.

In the area of universal primary education, the

MDGs have set the target for universal primary

education for both boys and girls. Malawi has a very

high budget allocation for education, science and

technology, in order to meet the relevant MDG. To

date, 60 per cent of Malawi’s children are enrolled in

primary schools. We are also creating a conductive

teaching and learning environment in order to reduce

absenteeism, poor performance and drop-out rates.

Malawi is on the right path to achieving the Goal

on the management of natural resources and

environmental sustainability. We have reviewed our

natural resources policies, legislation and programmes

to curb the misuse and abuse of natural resources and

to prevent environmental degradation. My Government

is involving rural communities in the management of

such existing resources as forestry, as well as in annual

national tree planting for reforestation and the

prevention of soil erosion and desertification.

Furthermore, the Government is implementing

management programmes for the sequestration of

carbon, as well as other ecosystem services to

encourage the extensive planting of trees.

In the area of gender equality the MDGs set out

to promote gender equality and the empowerment of

women by integrating targeted programmes for women

to enable them to become part of economic growth.

Malawi has a high level of female adult illiteracy,

namely, 48 per cent as compared to 24 per cent for

men. However, girls in Malawi also have a high drop-

out rate from the formal schooling system, as well as

high vulnerability to HIV and AIDS infection. We are

addressing those problems.

My Government is also empowering women in

the political, economic and social areas. In the past

three years, there have been more women in ministerial

and other management positions than ever before. The

following key positions are now held by women: the

posts of attorney-general, deputy governor of the

Reserve Bank of Malawi, five full Cabinet ministers,

one deputy minister, chairperson of the human rights

commission, clerk of Parliament and several

ambassadors, principal secretaries and chairpersons of

statutory corporations.

I would like to conclude by stating that Malawi

has successfully positioned itself to attain the MDGs.

We are optimistic that many of those objectives will be

attained. We therefore appeal to the United Nations to

recognize Malawi’s heroic efforts and assist us to

maintain the development momentum.

I would also like to appeal to our development

partners to support Malawi’s policy to manufacture

new goods and to provide new services to meet the

MDGs. We need support to conduct our own research

and to apply science and technology including

information and communication technology to

create new wealth, to build new capacity and to move

Malawi from poverty to prosperity.