El Salvador, 2013

It

is an honour to join other speakers in addressing the

General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. This

year the Assembly has as its theme “The post-2015

development agenda: setting the stage”. These annual

meetings are thus an opportunity to consider and reflect

on the course that each of our countries is following to

achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

There can be no doubt that recent events have posed

a major challenge to the achievement of prosperity,

development and progress, especially in those regions

of the world that have suffered most from the effects of

the international economic crisis and of climate change.

El Salvador has been no exception.

When, on 1 June 2009, the Government that I head

took power, the nation’s economic growth rate was at

negative 3 per cent, with 40,000 jobs lost. There had

been a considerable drop in exports, especially to the

United States, our principal market. Income from taxes

and family remittances had decreased, and broad sectors

of the population were impoverished or excluded from

the benefits of public policies.

But that harsh reality was not just a product of the

crisis. It was the result of decades of the implementation

of economic and social models that excluded the great

majority and promoted backwardness and injustice. As

from June 2009, with the process of political alternation

in El Salvador, that reality began to shift.

As soon as our Government took power, we made a

commitment to achieving the Millennium Development

Goals and to use them as a road map. The Government’s

five-year plan states that our strategic plan is to have

a healthy, educated and productive population with

the capacity and appropriate opportunities to fully

develop its potential to become the foundation of our

development. The Government’s plan incorporates

strategic instruments and policies aimed at achieving

the MDGs over the short and medium term. We took

the strategic decision not to shift the costs of the crisis

onto the poorest segments of the population, as had

been the habit in the past.

For that reason, we devised and implemented

policies aimed at combating poverty, reducing

inequality, achieving a process of social inclusion and

creating new institutional mechanisms that would make

it possible to more equitably distribute wealth and the

benefits of economic growth.

Our Government put an end to the old concept

of the patrimonial State, which defended only the

interests of small political and economic groups.

Now the Salvadoran State is at the service of the

most underprivileged. That shift in public policy has

translated into an increasingly modern and effective

State that is fighting poverty, social exclusion, violence

and corruption. Thus this new type of governance,

which is based on the implementation of best practices,

transparent and increasingly participatory, has already

begun to have a positive impact on the achievement of

the MDGs, as demonstrated by the following results.

El Salvador has made great progress towards

eliminating poverty and hunger. In the past year, we

not only achieved but exceeded the goal of reducing the

number of households living in extreme poverty. We

also made major achievements when it comes to access

to education. In 1991, the net coverage for primary

education was 75 per cent of the population; last year it

was 93 per cent. We have gained almost 20 percentage

points in those years.

Since the beginning of my Administration,

all students in public schools — some 1.3 million

children and young people — have received free shoes,

uniforms and school supplies. The impact of this was

immediately noticeable, as we increased enrolment

while dramatically reducing the dropout rate. Twenty

years ago, 85 per cent of the population of working

age was literate, but this rate has now reached almost

100 per cent. Over for the past four years alone, the

Government has managed to reduce the illiteracy rate

by 5 per cent. With the help of thousands of volunteers,

we are teaching over 170,000 adults to read.

In terms of health, one of the achievements we are

most proud of is related to the significant reduction in

maternal mortality, one of the two sections of Millennium

Development Goal 5. With the health-care reform

undertaken by my Administration, we have increased

access to health services by hiring more doctors,

nurses and specialists and establishing new women’s

centres. Pursuant to the Millennium Development

Goals, the objective is to achieve a maternal mortality

rate that is equal to or below 52.8 maternal deaths per

100,000 inhabitants by 2015. We have reached that

goal in El Salvador and even exceeded expectations by

reducing the rate to 41.9 maternal deaths per 100,000,

or 11 fewer than the target for this Goal.

The comprehensive health-care reform initiative

that we launched has been tasked with bringing health-

care services to the most remote corners of our country

that, historically, have been isolated from economic

and social development. This firm commitment of

our Government has led us to increase the health-care

budget by 60 per cent over a period of four years. That

has allowed us to increase the supply of medicines in

hospitals and public health clinics by between 50 to

82 per cent in that time and to significantly expand

the proportion of the population who are immunized.

Similarly, free health consultations mandated by our

Government have contributed to a 40 per cent increase

in demand for such services, which represents a

significant step in our goal to extend that service to the

majority of the population.

I cannot speak of advances in health care

without talking about access to and improvement

of basic services such as drinking water. Our efforts

have gradually borne fruit in the areas under our

responsibility in this respect. We have met the target

of 71 per cent of households having treated water piped

into their houses. In 2011, under our Government, this

was already true of 72 per cent of households. Sanitation

is covered by another Millennium Development Goal,

which set the target of 89 per cent of households having

this service by 2015. As of two years ago, 96 per cent of

Salvadoran households had access to sanitation.

In summary, great efforts have been undertaken

to achieve the best possible outcome on each of the

indicators, leading to enhanced well-being for all

Salvadorans. I believe that the time has come to conceive

of social programmes for people as an investment and

not as an expense, or even worse as a waste, as some

leaders in the country mistakenly continue to believe,

stuck as they are in their stingy and outdated ways of

thinking.

It is clear that the gains we have made in my

country in recent years have not been the result of

chance. El Salvador is going through a period of great

change. This profound transformation has occurred

first through a change in the economic model that has

set a different course for our nation. We are working

primarily on restoring the vitality of our countryside

in order to make it once again a central engine for

economic development.

Thanks to our family agriculture plan, which

provides small and medium-sized farms with free

delivery of improved seed packets and fertilizer,

training and access to technology and credit, last

year we had record food-crop harvests and were still

able to keep the price of basic grains within reach of

the entire population of El Salvador. We have also

successfully implemented school lunch programmes,

so that children receive at school fresh, healthy food

grown on Salvadoran farms. Today, more than 800,000

poor Salvadoran children receive two glasses of fresh

milk a week in school as part of their diet. All these

efforts have brought more prosperity to Salvadorans,

especially the poorest.

But in addition to poverty, there are other scourges

such as violence, drug trafficking and organized crime

that deprive our people of well-being and happiness.

With this in mind, we have implemented public policies

to reduce violence and fight crime.

The Government has created new police units,

overseen the graduation of 4,000 new agents and

redoubled operational plans to curb crime. At the same

time, a non-aggression pact between the two main youth

gangs was agreed on two years ago. The Government

was only a facilitator of that pact, which has established

the minimal conditions to reduce gang violence levels

in the areas most affected by that phenomenon. Thus,

ongoing crime suppression and prevention efforts have

resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in homicides. The

Government’s security policy has also dealt a heavy

blow to organized crime gangs, allowing for significant

seizures of drug shipments.

We know, however, that huge challenges remain.

There are major obstacles to development that will not

be overcome in my new Administration’s four years in

power. I would highlight in particular the challenges

represented by climate change and the resulting need

to protect and safeguard the lives of tens of thousands

of Salvadorans. We are a region exposed to extreme

weather phenomena, at least five of which El Salvador

has experienced in recent years. They have had the

greatest impact on the most vulnerable parts of the

population and the country’s infrastructure, causing

losses in the billions of dollars.

A major challenge is to build a sufficiently fair and

democratic society that is respectful of those who make

up the majority of the population — women. El Salvador

has undertaken serious efforts to achieve goals derived

from the Millennium Development Goals in the area

of gender equality and the prevention, punishment and

eradication of violence against women.

In addition to establishing a confidential call

centre for reporting gender violence, the Government

has approved the first national policy against human

trafficking and achieved a considerable decrease in

women’s deaths by homicide. Without a doubt, the

most valuable contribution in this area lies in the City

of Women initiative, through which we have created

four comprehensive care centres for women and are

on track to create two more, scheduled to open later

this year. This initiative is already considered by

international organizations and world leaders a model

of public management. It is a comprehensive and

integrated system of specialized services for women in

the areas of sexual and reproductive health, economic

empowerment — through both formal employment

and support for entrepreneurship — and prevention

and treatment of gender-based violence. It also helps

to focus the priorities and attention of my Government

on women.

Another tangible demonstration of the ongoing

process is the dialogue undertaken to achieve reparations

for victims of gross violations of human rights and the

vindication of the rights of war veterans. With regard

to the latter, we have succeeded in repaying a debt that

adminstrations prior to ours had failed for years to

recognize and to repay. Moreover, my Government has

promoted a reconciliation process without precedent in

the nation’s history and a recognition of the human rights

atrocities committed in El Salvador. As Head of State, I

asked forgiveness for the disappearances, murders and

torture, and from all those who experienced the brunt

of such abuses during our civil war. I ordered a dialogue

with organizations representing the victims of serious

human rights violations. As a result of this process, in

the days to come I will announce a national reparations

programme, which will include the ratification of

various treaties human rights adopted by the General

Assembly and a guarantee that such violations will

never recur.

The right to food, education and welfare must be

ensured in order to achieve sustainable development

and eradicate poverty. In that respect, all the efforts

of national Governments must be complemented and

strengthened with the support of the international

community and the United Nations system.

Radical change is needed in the global economic

system, which is based on financial speculation

and consumerism and not only has an impact on the

most developed economies of the world, but also

and especially makes the least developed countries

even poorer. International cooperation must seek

fundamentally to improve the productive capacities of

our countries and to invest in people suffering from

poverty and exclusion. My Government believes that

the path to growth is investment in the poor and their

transformation into a middle class with access to health

care and education.

I invoke international solidarity and the agenda of

the General Assembly in which we are gathered here

today in order to advocate once again for the lifting

of the blockade against Cuba. I have made this same

request in my previous statements before this forum,

as I believe that Cuba is part of the American soul and

that the blockade is a relic of the past. The brotherly

people of Cuba, like all peoples of the world, have

the right to seek development and well-being through

comprehensive integration.

Similarly, we support diplomatic efforts seeking

a swift peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria. We

condemn the use of chemical weapons, and we support

the agreement between Russia and the United States

whereby Syria’s chemical weapons would be destroyed

under the supervision of the United Nations.

Before I conclude, I should like to express my firm

belief that the United Nations will take the necessary

steps to guarantee the development and implementation

of a comprehensive post-2015 agenda. In that context, I

believe that we will realize a better and fairer world for

all of humankind.

In El Salvador, we are preparing to implement that

agenda. We are happy to be among the few countries

in Latin America working on multidimensional

poverty measurement. Next year we hope to use these

statistics to complement our income-based poverty

measurement. We will thereby be in a better position

to implement comprehensive policies that will allow us

to eradicate poverty in a definitive and lasting way. I

thank the United Nations for its invaluable cooperation

in the pursuit of our major aspirations as a nation, and

the Assembly for its attention.