Seychelles, 2010

May I take this

opportunity to join those who have come before me in

congratulating His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss on his

election as President of our Assembly and on his

diligent stewardship of the proceedings thus far. I also

thank and congratulate His Excellency Mr. Ali

Abdussalam Treki for his leadership and drive at the

head of the sixty-fourth session of the Assembly.

We spent the first three days last week debating

the progress made — or not made, as the case may

be — in attaining the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) by 2015. For many of us, there are still

formidable struggles ahead. For Seychelles, while we

have made huge strides forward towards meeting these

Goals, we are also pedalling furiously so as not to slip

back on what we have already worked hard to achieve.

This brings to mind the question: Are the MDGs an end

in themselves? The task does not end in 2015. It cannot

end in 2015. What happens, and where are we headed

after that?

Those of us that are middle-income countries, and

that includes many small island developing States

(SIDS), already know the different set of challenges

that these questions bring — questions that other

countries will also have to face as they achieve and

move beyond the MDGs. The debate needs to start

now, as we fast approach 2015, on how countries will

access the affordable financing they will need not just

to move beyond the MDGs, but to ensure that they

keep and do not lose what they have achieved.

That is why Seychelles announced at the MDG

summit that we will be engaging with the United

Nations system to enter into new commitments towards

setting MDG-plus targets, the overall objective being

to make sustainable development a reality beyond the

Millennium Development Goals and the next

generation.

We are all aware of the differences among us in

our sizes and populations. The needs of every Member

of the United Nations are different. We have learned a

lot about development over the years, and today we all

know that one-size-fits-all does not work. At the

United Nations and other development organizations,

we have created development categories to facilitate

access for those most in need of the appropriate

resources. Resources are always stretched, and, as we

move beyond 2015, we must make sure that

development categories truly facilitate development.

Such categories must not become a way to punish those

that succeed in development.

And we must not allow small island developing

States to fall through the cracks between the categories.

Middle-income SIDS face special problems that the

international development architecture does not

currently make provision for. The funding that is

available to SIDS is fragmented. There is no reliable

funding to them. Even on issues where SIDS are most

affected, such as climate change, there are many

barriers to our ability to access funding, not least the

use of gross domestic product per capita criteria to

define eligibility for funding.

The question that will come up increasingly as we

try to answer the question of how to fund development

beyond 2015 is where SIDS can go to finance their

development. The answer is that we need to define a

specific development category for SIDS to be used by

all development partners.

That is why small island developing States say

“let us start at home” by requesting the Secretary-

General to initiate a system-wide review of how

effectively the United Nations and its various agencies

49 10-55122

are actually supporting SIDS, and how that can be

improved. This could be done by an inter-agency

working group that would provide concrete

recommendations to this sixty-fifth session of the

General Assembly as to how the United Nations system

could better support the specific needs of SIDS. The

world economic and financial crisis has reinforced the

vulnerability of island States to external shocks. More

than ever, it has illustrated that islands need as much

support as possible if they are to be able to pursue

development successfully.

As I have already highlighted, there are gaps in

the existing development system. Those gaps mean that

we must be prepared to be innovative in meeting the

development challenges that are looming. We welcome

the efforts of several countries and of the Secretary-

General to adopt new and innovative means to finance

development. In Seychelles, the pressures of the food,

fuel and financial crises meant that in 2008 we had to

engage in wide-ranging macroeconomic reform with

the support of the Bretton Woods institutions, the Asian

Development Bank and our Paris Club creditors. We

are most grateful to all our partners for their support.

I think it is interesting to note that while we were

restructuring our old debt, our economy began to grow

thanks to new foreign direct investment, most of it

from the developing world — the Gulf, Africa and

Asia. There are many new channels for development

that remain relatively unexplored and unstructured.

I would like also to brief the Assembly on a

groundbreaking renewable energy project being

undertaken in Seychelles with the support of the

United Arab Emirates Government. This project is an

example of how a small island can have access to

affordable financing to reduce its dependence on fossil

fuels — one of the things that make islands most

vulnerable. These South-South dynamics are often

overlooked in the traditional dynamics of the United

Nations. Often, we also waste a lot of time on

ideological debates that further obscure the true

objectives of development. We need to be pragmatic

and we need to act.

Climate change, and in particular sea-level rise,

remain by far the greatest threats to small islands.

Much more ambitious global action needs to be taken

to significantly reduce emissions and implement

adaptation in a manner that will ensure the

development aspirations and survival of all countries,

small islands in particular. We need to ensure that fast-

start funding is also available for disbursement as

quickly as possible.

I must stress the concern of small islands that

much of the funding available to adapt to climate

change is being channelled through traditional funding

channels. This means that most SIDS will miss out on

funds because of our middle-income status. Climate

change requires funding mechanisms that do not rely

only on business as usual. We need a real fast start. For

the moment, we are still stuck at the starting block.

While we reflect on the governance of the United

Nations, we must also spare no effort to ensure that we

can be effective in resolving conflict in those areas

where human suffering is at its worst. In the Horn of

Africa, we remain deeply concerned about the ongoing

situation in Somalia. We convey our solidarity to the

Somali people and the Transitional Federal

Government that is trying to restore peace and security.

We fully support the efforts of the African Union,

through the African Union Mission in Somalia, and of

the United Nations.

It is clear, however, that we must now be

prepared to move beyond what we have already tried

and tested. The ongoing problems associated with the

situation in Somalia also continue, unfortunately, to

hamper the conditions for development in the region.

The threat of terrorism is rising, while the scourge of

piracy continues to spread further afield, as far east as

Maldives and as far south as Madagascar.

Seychelles has worked hard to ensure that our

maritime zones remain safe, and we thank all our

partners for their support. Nonetheless, piracy has led

to direct losses in our economy of over 4 per cent of

gross domestic product. We welcome the new regional

project on piracy being developed by the Indian Ocean

Commission and the Common Market for Eastern and

Southern Africa, with the support of the European

Union. This project approaches the problem from

several angles simultaneously as we attempt to

strengthen the regional capacity for patrols and

surveillance, strengthen the legal and judicial capacity

of our countries, and mitigate the negative effects on

our economies.

I would like to thank our friends and neighbours

for their support on this issue. It is an issue that

depends on all countries working together, both from

within the region and beyond. We must also continue to

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engage with the Somalia to strengthen its ability to

build its own institutions.

Seychelles also strongly believes that the

international community must strengthen its efforts to

tackle transnational crimes that are often linked to

instability and insecurity, from money-laundering to

people trafficking. In the Indian Ocean region, we are

determined to work with all partners to ensure that we

can address these issues effectively.

We are all part of the United Nations because we

believe that we must work together to achieve

development. Development is a collaborative process.

We need to strengthen this collaboration. We need to

make more efforts to ensure that there is more

innovative financing to fund development. We need to

be more pragmatic in our approach. We know it will

not be easy, but that only strengthens our resolve. We

are ready to move forward together.