Zambia, 2012

I am greatly honoured to deliver my

inaugural address to the General Assembly. Allow me

to begin by congratulating the President on his election

to oversee the sixty-seventh session of the Assembly,

and to wish him every success in his position. His great

country, Serbia, has historically enjoyed close ties with

Zambia. We are therefore delighted to see him in that

important seat.

I would also like to thank His Excellency Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon for the steady manner in which

he has continued to steer our global Organization. In

Zambia we are particularly appreciative that, despite

his busy schedule, the Secretary-General made time to

visit our country earlier this year to undertake some

important programmes.

About a year ago, I ended my decade-long career

as an opposition politician when the people of Zambia

overwhelmingly chose to change their political

leadership through a democratic and peaceful electoral

transition that ushered me into office as the fifth

President of the Republic. I am indebted to the people

of Zambia for once again undertaking that process in a

peaceful manner.

It is my desire to utilize my experience at both

ends of the leadership spectrum to make a worthwhile

contribution to our democracy. I trust that Zambia will

be able to share its lessons, as well as to learn from those

with longer and even better democratic experiences.

As the Assembly is aware, we still face considerable

challenges with respect to meeting the basic needs of

the majority of the Zambian people. Shortly before I

took office, there was much publicity about our positive macroeconomic indicators, but those results did not

trickle down to the average citizen.

In the quest to develop at the micro level, the focus

of my new Government is on enhancing agricultural

productivity and access to markets for peasants and

small-scale farmers, providing improved health

services as close to the families as possible, improving

the quality of education and facilitating access to decent

housing and accommodation.

As we draw closer to the 2015 deadline for meeting

the Millennium Development Goals, the international

community needs to maximize its efforts towards

achieving all eight goals. Zambia has made steady

progress in achieving some of them.That is most visible

in the education sector, which has seen an increase in

the net enrolment of children in primary schools, while

the health sector has seen reductions in the prevalence

of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Notwithstanding our progress in tackling

communicable diseases, Zambia is also attempting

to address non-communicable diseases such as

hypertension, diabetes and cancer.

While still considering matters related to the

health sector, allow me to mention that my Government

recently reviewed statistics that indicate that Zambia

now has the second-highest rate of cervical cancer in

the world. From 22 to 24 July, our capital, Lusaka,

hosted the sixth annual Stop Cervical Cancer in Africa

Conference, made up by the Forum of African First

Ladies against Breast and Cervical Cancer and the

African Parliamentarians and Health Ministers against

Cancer. Just last year, former United States President

George W. Bush travelled to Lusaka to launch the

Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon campaign against breast and

cervical cancer. He has since facilitated some generous

contributions for the facilities now in place to fight the

diseases. I would like to express the Zambian people’s

deep appreciation for all those efforts. However, the

challenges in the health sector and elsewhere do not end

there, and by no means have we stood by with folded

arms.

Since my Government assumed power, in September

2011, our country has seen reasonable improvements

in our economy, with an inflation rate that is down to

6.6 per cent and a gross domestic product growth rate

of about 6 per cent, in spite of slow global economic

trends. That has been attributed to enhancement of the

investment policy framework and to improvement of the infrastructure and to human capital development.

Despite those efforts, however, 60.5 per cent of the

Zambian people continue to live in poverty.

My Government attaches similar importance to

promoting good governance. As such, we have put

in place a robust anti-corruption programme with

improved and increased resources, which should

set a new stage for our development. In addition, for

the first time, Zambia has entrusted the governance

of our legislative and judicial institutions to our

women. The Inspector-General of Police, the Chief

Justice and the Deputy Chief Justice, the chair of the

anti-corruption commission and the commissioner of

the drug enforcement commission are all women. I

remain convinced that they will improve our record and

surpass the nation’s expectations.

Our national programmes are also focused on

creating employment for our youth. Despite our vast

natural resources, unemployment continues to be the

most pressing problem for the younger generation. We

are therefore looking to improve partnership with the

various United Nations agencies and the rest of the

international community to harness best practices from

across the world. After all, it is the youth of 2012 who

have made Zambia the African football champion.

Our Government has recognized that without the

rule of law, social justice and an independent judicial

system Zambia will not be able to attain sustainable

social and economic development. As an initial step in

that regard, our Government is currently undertaking

a constitutional review process that is intended to

ensure the primacy of the individual citizen and his

liberties. We further wish to speed up the process of

domesticating the international conventions that seek

to bridge the gaps for minorities. Special emphasis will

also be placed on improving the treatment of people

with mental and physical challenges.

Zambia participated in the process leading to the

Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development. Over the years, we have learned to

appreciate the transboundary nature of matters such

as our common environment. I would like to express

appreciation to the Government of Brazil, the Chair of

the Conference and all who made tremendous efforts

to bring about the final outcome document of that

historic conference. We are concerned, however, that

as States Members of the United Nations we missed

the opportunity to develop a formidable international process for promoting sustainable development.

The failure to commit any funds to the means of

implementation, and indeed the little progress in

outlining the sustainable development goals, has

underscored the lack of ambition in addressing our

deteriorating environment, worsening inequality and

a growing global population that shares the Earth’s

limited resources. In that instance, we failed the test for

global solidarity.

Today, Zambia is encouraged that three committed

global citizens have been appointed as co-Chairs of the

Secretary-General’s high-level panel to advise on the

post-2015 global development agenda. We therefore

would like to congratulate His Excellency President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Her

Excellency President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia

and His Excellency Prime Minister David Cameron of

the United Kingdom. We wish them every success as

they take on that onerous task. We must support the

high-level panel to help recoup the lost opportunities of

the recent past. As I indicated earlier, we are still a long

way from attaining the Millenium Development Goals.

Discarding them entirely would be to the detriment of

the poorer nations. I trust that the Secretary-General’s

panel will take that into consideration.

The theme for this year’s session of the General

Assembly, “Bringing about adjustment or settlement of

international disputes or situations by peaceful means”,

is undeniably significant in the wake of the turmoil that

continues to threaten international peace and security

with the persistent conflict situations on the African

continent in places such as the Sudan, South Sudan,

Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Somalia. I therefore wish to

report that our Government has in certain instances

supported measures to help mitigate the humanitarian

situation. I urge the international community to

redouble its efforts in bringing peace to those troubled

regions.

Farther afield, but no less important, is the

situation in Syria, which has seen the indiscriminate

killing of many innocent people. There is a need for

concerted efforts to utilize peaceful means, such as

mediation and negotiation, to put a halt to the killings

and to restore peace to the country. Humanity has again

been embarrassed by the unnecessary carnage. Despite

the trouble spots, Zambia remains convinced that the

United Nations has since 1945 performed quite well.

However, circumstances have since changed greatly, and we need only look at the sovereign representation

in this Hall to prove that.

It is therefore imperative that ongoing efforts to

reform the United Nations be approached with renewed

vigour. We are concerned that a seemingly difficult

deadlock has been created in the reform process of the

United Nations.

In addition, I wish to reiterate that despite the slow

process of the reform of the Security Council, Africa

should not relent or become frustrated. We should

stand up and be counted. As enshrined in the Ezulwini

Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, Africa must be

given two permanent seats with a veto immediately

exercisable and two non-permanent seats to correct

the historical injustice that the continent has suffered

and also adhere to the geopolitical realities of modern

times. Furthermore, the Council should improve its

working methods.

I wish to appeal to all nations to renew their

commitment and to strive for new common ground

where individual national interests take a back seat.

Just as many international conventions have been

subject to innovative translations in the recent past, we

must plan to be as flexible in creating a new United

Nations, sooner rather than later. To ignore this need

for transformation would be tantamount to killing the

Organization.