Togo, 2013

At the outset,

I would like, on behalf of the Head of State, the Head of

Government and the people of Togo, to congratulate the

General Assembly on the occasion of its sixty-eighth

session. I wish to warmly congratulate you, Sir, on your

el..ti.n to the presidency of the General Assembly

and to assure you of Togo’s full willingness to support

your actions throughout your mandate. I also take this

opportunity to pay tribute to Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon, who continues to take bold initiatives to

enable the Organization to effectively fulfil its mandate

in promoting peace and sustainable development.

The theme that you have chosen for the sixty-eighth

session, “The post-2015 development agenda: setting

the stage”, is indicative of the particular attention that

the countries of the South give to development issues.

At the same time, it is an invitation to the United

Nations not only to keep sight of that concern, but also

to implement a sustainable development programme for

all countries. The Millennium Declaration (resolution

55/2) set forth specific Goals that each country should

attain by 2015 in order to usher in a world in which

every individual can live in dignity. On the eve of that

deadline, it is appropriate to reflect on the progress

made since the Millennium Summit and to discuss

new prospects for shoring up the progress that has

been achieved in combating hunger, malnutrition and

disease.

The United Nations has the primary responsibility

for the maintenance of international peace and security.

However, those objectives can be sustainably achieved

only if abject poverty does not become a breeding

ground for all sorts of societal ills. That is why, when

we embark on a collective discussion of what should

happen post-2015, we must think above all about ways

to increase the economic and social development and

prosperity of nations and to prevent conflicts before

they even occur. That applies to all countries, but

particularly to African nations that have been weakened

by recurrent crises and are now facing various threats.

More than a decade after the launch of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), when

efforts have been made to achieve the Goals, it is

clear, as the deadline of 2015 approaches, that many

challenges remain, in particular for developing

countries. For those countries continue to experience

the impacts of the financial, energy and food crises

of previous years, given their economies’ dependence

on external sources — crises that unfortunately have

been exacerbated by climate change. The net result is

to reduce their chances of achieving the Millennium

Development Goals within the set time frame.

Moreover, the various initiatives and commitments

undertaken by the leaders of this world in the context

of the great international forums are far from achieving

the desired results. The arrival of official development

assistance in pledged proportions has been delayed. That

is the reason why, at the United Nations Conference on

Sustainable Development, the international community

was called upon to uphold its commitments, in

particular those made in the Millennium Declaration,

the Monterrey Consensus, the Johannesburg Plan of

Implementation and the United Nations declarations on

the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

At the same time, the Heads of State and

Government reiterated the need for their States to adjust

their policies in order to further integrate economic,

social and environmental factors at all levels and across

all disciplines, to ensure sustainable development

across the board. And indeed, to achieve sustainable

development, there must be, at the national and

international levels, conditions conducive to continuing

and strengthening international cooperation in areas

such as debt, trade, technology transfer, innovation and

entrepreneurship and capacity-building .

Achieving the MDGs is one of the Togolese

Government’s priorities. Enormous efforts have been

made to significantly reduce poverty in the country. In

the field of education, the introduction of free primary

education since 2008 has encouraged an increase in

school enrolment, especially among young girls.

With regard to health issues, the HIV/AIDS

prevalence rate has been reduced by half. The care

of infected people has improved considerably, and

more than 26,000 patients are cared for by the State.

The integrated programme providing vaccination, the

distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and

improved nutrition has yielded promising results in the

area of maternal and child health.

In addition, significant progress has been made

in other areas of development, including agriculture,

which, thanks to a far-reaching and ambitious national

agricultural investment programme and food security,

has contributed to reducing poverty, hunger and food

insecurity.

The progress achieved by Togo received recognition

from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations (FAO) in the form of an award made

by that Organization during the thirty-eighth FAO

Conference in June in Rome.

On the social front, for some years now the

Government of Togo has been taking proactive measures

enabling us to tackle in a sustained way the problems of

joblessness and underemployment among young people

and their marginalization in decision-making. Among

them I can point to a national youth council, a national

volunteer programme, the creation of a support fund for

youth economic initiatives and a support programme

for the integration and development of employment

opportunities.

The Government of Togo, aware of the great

challenges of the twenty-first century, is continuing to

work with faith and determination to gradually build

a democratic society capable of guaranteeing to every

citizen, without exception, the peace, harmony, well-

being, justice and freedom that are prerequisites for our

society’s full flourishing and that must go hand in hand

with our economic and social development goals.

For nearly a decade, the Government of Togo

has adopted a policy of dialogue and consensus in

managing State affairs. It is in that context that it has

continued to urge the country’s political class to engage

in dialogue in order to ensure that election processes are

definitively free of violence and that the new cycle of

peaceful political life becomes more solidly entrenched.

Thus, in addition to the reshuffling that has taken place

since May 2012, following the recommendations of the

electoral observation missions, particularly that of the

European Union, new measures have been adopted.

They have to do with the reorganization of the national

independent electoral commission, the new electoral

code and laws on electoral districting, the financing

of political parties and the status of the opposition.

Those measures enabled us to hold free, democratic,

transparent and calm elections to the legislature on

25 July.

This is the moment for me to thank all the partners

who supported my country throughout the process, as

well as the various observation missions, which, on the

completion of their work, expressed their satisfaction

with the good conduct of the elections. The new

Parliament that emerged from the elections will continue

with the institutional and constitutional reforms

stipulated in the global political agreement signed in

Lomé in August 2006 between the Government and the

political parties, in order to ensure that Togo will finally

possess an institutional framework that strengthens

democracy and the rule of law and consolidates our

economic and social gains. Similarly, the Government

elected in the legislative elections of 25 July has been

given the primary mandate of stepping up its work in

priority social areas such as health, education, access

to safe drinking water and sanitation, and youth

employment.

That road map keeps the 2015 deadline in view as

it seeks first and foremost to continue Togo’s efforts

to meet the Millennium Development Goals in the

established time frame. Our new frame of reference

for development in the medium term, the strategy

for accelerated growth and job promotion, reflects

that determination to focus squarely on the MDGs.

Togo is fully aware that effective achievement of the

MDGs requires resources. That is why we are actively

committed to promoting good governance.

Under that heading fall our strategic plan for

mobilizing the Togolese diaspora, our accession to

the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative,

the establishment of a regulatory authority for public

contracts in order to improve the business climate,

the restructuring of public enterprises and the finance

sector and especially the establishment of a revenue

office responsible for the collection of both customs

and tax receipts. None of this progress and success

would have been possible for Togo without the support

of our development partners, whom we would like to

thank once again, and to whom we turn for increased

support within the framework of the partnerships that

bind us together.

Togo remains deeply convinced that our efforts to

meet the targets we set ourselves through the MDGs

cannot succeed in isolation. While every State has its

own challenges, the international community must

commit to working on them collectively, owing to the

interdependence that is the hallmark of today’s world.

In the face of accelerating global change, worsening

insecurity and the urgency of finding a collective

solution to the challenges our Organization is dealing

with, I can assure the Assembly that Togo remains

committed to seeking a vision of a united, integrated

world where every State must cooperate to promote

peaceful coexistence and good neighbourliness and to

combat poverty and underdevelopment in all its forms,

as well as political, ideological, ethnic and religious

intolerance.

Here I would like to touch on the case of Mali, where

the danger represented by terrorist groups and extremist

jihadists, coupled with a serious humanitarian crisis,

prompted the United Nations to action with a speedy

military intervention and peacekeeping operation. In

that regard, the adoption of an integrated United Nations

strategy for the Sahel, in the months after Security

Council resolution 2100 (2013) established the United

Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization

Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), has been crucial. The

holding of the presidential elections on 28 July and

3 August was an unquestionable success not only for

the Malian people and their leaders but also for the

international community.

Togo is pleased that regional and subregional

organizations, along with the international community,

were able to speak with one voice and coordinate their

actions in order to achieve the results we welcome

today. From this rostrum, Togo, which is currently

chairing the West African Economic and Monetary

Union, of which Mali is a member, would like to

reiterate the community’s pleasure at this success of

the highly diverse Malian people, who demonstrated

their political maturity and the ability to overcome their

differences in the national interest.

In accordance with its ongoing commitment to

peace, security and stability, internationally and in the

West African subregion in particular, Togo continues

to work within the entities and institutions of which it

is a member and, through its MINUSMA contingent,

to contribute to helping the Government of Mali. That

is why my country invites the community of nations to

continue to support Mali on the road to rebuilding both

the infrastructure that was destroyed in the north of

the country and its economic development, which was

severely damaged in the crisis.

There are other situations in Africa that deserve our

close attention by reason of the degree to which they

contribute to the continent’s insecurity and undermine

our efforts to achieve the MDGs. The Central African

Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

Libya and many other countries are currently sources

of concern, since peace and security are still tenuous

in those brotherly countries. While we commend the

bold actions that have already been taken to halt those

conflicts, we would like to urge the international

community to continue to work to that end alongside

the African Union, which has made extraordinary

efforts to overcome all the obstacles to the continent’s

economic rebirth.

Among the scourges that have the potential to slow

African States’ development is that of transnational

organized crime, whose pernicious impact on our

economies is clear. Where the States of the Gulf of

Guinea are concerned, piracy and armed robbery

on the high seas have recently become a new type of

scourge that is more and more worrying and whose

seriousness demands general involvement and a strong,

firm and uncompromising response on the part of the

international community as a whole, as well as the

countries concerned.

In that regard, my country, which is currently

a member of the Security Council, welcomes the

commitment whereby the Council has included the

issue in its agenda, on the initiative of our States. The

Council’s position has enabled the United Nations

Office for Central Africa and the United Nations Office

for West Africa to be a strong presence in the quest for

solutions to the problem, through the Summit of Heads

of State and Government of the Economic Community

of Central African States and the Economic Community

of West African States on maritime safety and security.

The summit that was held in Yaoundé on 24 and

25 June led to the adoption of a code of conduct for the

prevention and suppression of acts of piracy and armed

robbery against ships and illegal maritime activities.

The fight against those scourges calls for enhanced

international cooperation, in particular among United

Nations and regional and subregional organizations, in

line with the Charter of the United Nations. However,

regional and subregional organizations will not be able

to effectively tackle those current major challenges if

they are not granted substantial resources.

The Syrian conflict continues with its atrocities

and daily tragedies, which culminated in the use of

chemical weapons on 21 August. The international

community has long stood by, powerless, as the conflict

has taken its gruesome toll. However, we express the

hope that Security Council resolution 2118 (2013)

will open up promising new prospects for peace and

an inclusive political transition in Syria. That means

that the international community must do more on the

humanitarian front by providing aid to Syrians in need,

both inside and outside the country. In that regard,

we ardently hope that the holding of the “Geneva II”

conference will provide an opportunity for ending

the crisis through the establishment of a transitional

Government based on consensus and an inclusive

process.

I cannot fail to mention the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict by welcoming the resumption of direct

negotiations between the two parties, thanks to the

sustained efforts of President Barack Obama. Togo calls

on the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to negotiate in

good faith to reach, in the shortest possible time, an

agreement that finally allows for the creation of two

States living side by side in peace and security and

within internationally recognized borders.

The challenges facing our States are numerous

and vast, but we believe in the ability of the United

Nations to deal with them. It is therefore important that

we re-establish the United Nations on the basis of the

values that led to its creation, which are, essentially, the

maintenance of international peace and security and

the strengthening of international cooperation.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize, with

regard to the MDGs, the need to stay the course,

regardless of the results achieved by each individual

State. Better yet, the international community must be

more ambitious in the goals that it will establish for

the post-2015 period, because, given the challenges of

the contemporary world, it is no longer simply a matter

of reducing the proportion of persons suffering from

hunger, malnutrition and endemic diseases. Our aim

must be to eradicate them. Only by mobilizing all our

efforts in the pursuit of those very important goals will

we increase our chances of actually achieving them.