Burundi, 2014

On behalf of His Excellency Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza,

President of Burundi, and the people of Burundi as a

whole, I would first like to offer warm congratulations

to you, Sam Kutesa, a son of Africa, for your election

by acclamation on 11 June as President of the General

Assembly at its current session. I would also like to

acknowledge the remarkable work of His Excellency

Mr. John Ashe, who presided over the Assembly at

its sixty-eighth session, which he closed in this newly

renovated Hall. And I take this opportunity to reiterate

our gratitude to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

for his untiring efforts to improve the functioning

of the Organization and for the results attained in a

particularly difficult socioeconomic context.

At this important moment, when delegations from

many different parts of the globe have come together,

we would like to express our appreciation for the

theme of the sixty-ninth session, “Delivering on and

implementing a transformative post-2015 development

agenda”. It comes at just the right time, since we are

slowly but surely and inexorably approaching the

deadline for achieving the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs).

Beyond that, I would also like to welcome the

priorities that you have already set, Mr. President,

which focus on eradicating poverty and hunger and

promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

As the authors of the report of the high-level group

established to make recommendations on the post-

2015 development programme put it, the theme chosen

and your priorities are simultaneously ambitious and

pragmatic. The report cites intense discussions in every

region and in many sectors, especially on those living

in poverty. The same team fosters the hope that our

generation will be able to produce the transformations

needed to end the poverty that is devastating people all

over our planet.

We should therefore emphasize that however

ambitious the group’s recommendations may be, they

should also take into account the realities on the ground

and the fact that the transformative changes linked to

the goals and indicative targets — those coming out

of discussions with 5,000 civil society organizations,

250 leaders of major businesses and the scientific and

academic communities, along with national, regional

and international consultations — can contribute

to reducing hunger and poverty around the world by

generating tangible economic growth that can be

equitably shared in order to achieve the well-being we

seek.

The Millennium Development Goals were a pact of

global socioeconomic solidarity for our countries. Like

other nations in Africa and elsewhere, Burundi has

great respect for those Goals. As the aforementioned

group has rightly pointed out, the fastest reduction in

poverty in the history of the world occurred during the

first 13 years of the new millennium. The same group

notes that the number of people living on $1.25 a day

has fallen, and child mortality has declined by 30 per

cent since the 2000 Millennium Declaration (resolution

55/2), while deaths attributable to malaria have been

reduced by one quarter.

While we should note that not every country can

boast the same progress, Burundi shares the belief that

it would be wrong for us to abandon the MDGs and start

over at zero. On the contrary, we should continue the

reforms that have produced the unprecedented progress,

which is unquestionably the result of improved policies

and commitment on a global scale aimed at meeting the

Millennium Development Goals. We should therefore

capitalize on them in order to profit further. We also

subscribe to the other declared priorities, including

the adoption of a post-2015 development agenda, the

strengthening of cooperation and reforming the United

Nations, as well as strengthening partnerships between

the United Nations and other bodies.

Although at the moment it seems clear that Burundi

will not be able to fully meet the established Goals, I

should point out that we have made undeniable progress

in the areas of education and health, thanks in particular

to our programmes of free education and medical care

for children under five and new mothers. Besides the

3,000 classrooms and many health centres built over the

past few years, we have seen positive results in other

sectors, too.

In the area of education, many young Burundians,

including girls, who had no access to schooling in the

past are now attending school. In the area of health care,

we have reduced child and maternal mortality, and we

are working on stabilizing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS

and meeting the eligibility requirements for the Global

Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We

delivered accounts of those efforts at the Assembly’s

sixty-eighth session, as well as of the reduction of

deaths due to malaria.

On the political front, as we indicated in our address

to the Assembly at the sixty-eighth session, Burundi has

been working on the process we committed to months

ago for holding presidential and general elections,

scheduled to begin in May 2015. In that regard, it is

important to note that after the holding of successive

elections in 2005 and 2010, with support from the

United Nations and other partners, the entire political

class, through the leaders of the authorized political

parties and other parties, agreed in March 2013 on a

road map for the next elections.

In that regard, one must add that, thanks to

that extremely valuable instrument, which should

help the Burundian political parties in the holding

of transparent, free and democratic elections, the

Burundian Parliament adopted the electoral code by

consensus. Subsequently, the Head of State promulgated

it, as prescribed by our Constitution, which is the fruit

of the Arusha Agreement of 2000, to which Burundi

attaches great importance. Moreover, the electoral

calendar was announced last June by the Independent

National Electoral Commission, itself established after

consultations and agreement among the political parties

involved in the matter.

We can therefore say that things are moving

and progressing well in my country. I also wish to

reaffirm loud and clear what the Head of State, His

Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, often reiterates, that

the 2015 elections will be held in better conditions than

previous elections and that success will be complete.

The Burundian people have suffered so much from the

violence that has plunged many families into mourning

that we cannot afford to relapse into the errors of the

past. Indeed, we made the firm commitment to bury

the hatchet once and for all. That is why we have made

our own the words of former Indian politician Mahatma

Gandhi: “I object to violence because when it appears

to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does

is permanent”.

With regard to good governance, my delegation

would like to return to the institutions established

during the current legislature session. The tools for

improving good governance include the National

Independent Human Rights Commmission and the

institution of the Ombudsman, whose performance is

deemed satisfactory by many of our compatriots. A

national strategy on good governance and on the fight

against poverty for 2011-2015 has been adopted and is

being implemented.

Of course, we are far from achieving the expected

results, but in Burundi and elsewhere it is a long-

term undertaking. What is important is that there

is the political will to always move forward and

meet the challenge of zero tolerance in this area

eventually. In addition, performance contracts have

been signed by members of the Government and by the

senior Government officials in order to improve the

functioning of our Administration. The establishment

of the Burundi Revenue Authority has improved State

revenues and reduced corruption, which was also once a

common practice in our tax administration and business

circles. Here too, one must point out that perfection is

not yet at hand, but there is the determination and the

will to resolve the scourge of corruption for good.

As for the Truth and Recon.iliation Commission

envisaged by the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation

Accord, the relevant law has already been passed by

Parliament. Consultations are under way to elect its

11 commissioners, on the understanding that the filing

of nominations was closed in July 2014, and an ad hoc

committee for the selection of candidates has just been

set up by general consensus.

Concerning the participation of women in political

life, we have strengthened the number of women in

the country’s institutions, even going beyond the

constitutional provisions in that area. The Burundian

delegation provided the figures in its statement last

year.

With respect to the peacebuilding programme in

Burundi, the coordination mechanisms, such as the

coordination group of partners, hold their meetings

through appropriate structures, such as clusters,

strategic forums and policy forums. The same is true

for the coordination of assistance, for which Burundi

adopted the same structures.

The mandate of the United Nations Office in

Burundi will end on 31 December, and the Office will

transfer its responsibilities to a United Nations country

team in Burundi, preparations for which are in full

swing. A joint transition programme was presented to

the appropriate body on 14 May in the United Nations

Office. Also, a joint steering committee and a technical

transition team were established and are functioning

according to their mandate.

Finally, also in the context of peace consolidation,

a third phase of that programme, coverning the period

2014 to 2016, will soon become operational. The themes

of the programme have already been adopted by the

relevant authorities.

On the economic front, Burundi has held two

sectoral conferences on priority areas, one in July

2013 and the other in October. Their purpose was to

decide, together with bilateral partners, on ways and

means to implement the commitments made by each

at the conference of Burundi’s development partners

held in Geneva in October 2012. The areas deemed

priorities were drawn from two strategic instruments:

the Burundi Vision 2025 and the Strategic Framework

for Growth and the Fight against Corruption, Second

Generation.

The first instrument is for long-term development

planning and projects Burundi’s image in 2025. It

should guide policies and strategies for sustainable

development from the perspective of meeting the

needs of present generations without hampering

or compromising future generations. The second

instrument — the Strategic Framework for Growth

and the Fight against Poverty, Second Generation — is

anchored in Vision 2025. It is the unifying framework

for all sectoral and multisectoral policies, breaking the

strategic pillars of the Vision Burundi 2025 down into

projects and programmes.

The results obtained in the economic sphere are

rather mixed. That is why the Government would

again like to make an urgent appeal from this rostrum

to the partners represented here that they honour the

commitments made at the Geneva conference of 2012.

Regarding Burundi’s post-2015 development

programme, the following areas have been identified.

They are: governance, inequalities, conflicts and

fragility; economic growth and employment; energy,

water and environmental sustainability; access to basic

social services; and population dynamics and food

security. That agenda was the result of an extensive

national consultation that included all segments of the

population. On its face, it can be seen to be a programme

rooted in the continuity of change, well grounded in the

transformative development of the lives of our people

and consistent with the theme for this session of the

Assembly.

Even if regional integration does not seem to be

explicitly laid out in the programme, I would like to

convey to all present that regional integration is a matter

to which Burundi is firmly committed and which it

considers to be a common thread linking the various

policy areas, with the potential to provide appropriate

responses to the challenges that our country faces.

At the international level, conflicts continue to

tear a number of countries apart and to undermine

development efforts in many others. We must mobilize

our energies and work in synergy to end and eliminate

such threats as terrorism, transnational organized

crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and others.

In that regard, Burundi is striving, as much as possible,

to do its part to help maintain peace and security in the

world.

Burundi was one of two countries in Africa and

the world that decided to intervene in Somalia as part

of the African Union Mission in 2008, and we continue

to strive to contribute to the stabilization of that

country to this day. In that regard, Burundi is proud

of the progress made towards normalization in Somali,

which promises a better future for Somalia. However,

the success achieved should not obscure the enormous

challenges still facing Somalia. Burundi is committed

to working with the other partners to address them.

Burundi has also participated in peacekeeping

operations in other countries, including the Central

African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, the Sudan and

Syria, to name but a few.

With regard to Mali, we are greatly satisfied that

territorial integrity has been restored in that country

and that the presidential elections held there were a

success.

Regarding the conflict in the Middle East, Burundi,

like other members of the international community,

is deeply concerned about the deteriorating security

situation in the region observed in recent weeks. That is

why we urge all parties to stop armed attacks, to avoid

the loss of human life and to seek negotiated settlements

to their disputes.

Finally, with regard to the Ebola crisis, we, like

other African countries, are very concerned about

the rapid spread of the Ebola virus, as was vividly

described by many representatives during the Security

Council meeting of 18 September (see S/PV.7268).

We congratulate the Council on its adoption on

18 September of resolution 2177 (2014) on the Ebola

crisis, at the initiative of the United States of America.

My delegation is proud to have sponsored the resolution,

along with 134 other States, early in its development.

With regard to South Sudan, we urgently call on

all parties to the conflict to break the cycle of violence

and resolve their differences through political dialogue.

In that connection, we are pleased to announce that

Burundi has promised an infantry battalion of 850 men

to help that young State to restore peace and security.

I also wish to inform the Assembly that Burundi

has made progress regarding the implementation

of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in

general and in the areas of education and health in

particular. However, despite my country’s efforts to

accelerate actions to honour the commitments made

at the Millennium Summit in 2000, the international

economic climate, and that in Burundi in particular,

has not been favourable for their attainment. The

Government of Burundi remains committed, however,

to the development goals programme and will continue

to work beyond 2015 to redouble its efforts to safeguard

and strengthen the principles and values contained in

the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2), which

is a solid foundation for the post-2015 development

programme.