Malawi, 2002

On behalf of the

Government of the Republic of Malawi and on my own

behalf, I would like to congratulate President Kavan

most warmly on his unanimous election as President of

the fifty-seventh regular session of the General

Assembly. I am confident that under his able

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leadership, buttressed by a pragmatic approach to the

proceedings of the session, we will be able to further

consolidate past gains on a variety of issues, and also

mobilize renewed international resolve and political

will to reinvigorate our continued search for viable

responses and solutions to the many pressing

challenges that threaten the very survival of

humankind.

I take this opportunity also to pay special tribute

to his predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo of the Republic

of Korea, for the able manner in which he handled the

work of the General Assembly during his tenure of

office.

Further, I would like to register my country's vote

of thanks for and special recognition of the invaluable

contribution made by the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, in injecting fresh impetus and a sharper sense

of purpose and direction into the work of the United

Nations. His informative and insightful annual reports

on the work of the United Nations clearly point to an

organization that is moving in the direction that it

should and is much more focused on the quest for

accelerated growth and socio-economic progress of the

disadvantaged poor nations.

A number of developments have taken place

around the world since the last general debate. While

some of these are relatively positive and are, thus far, a

cause for optimism, yet others, a majority, are, at best,

disheartening and tend to cast a long shadow on

prospects for long term progress, especially in our part

of the world.

As I speak now, for example, six southern Africa

countries, including Malawi, are in the throes of a

severe and life-threatening food crisis brought on by

drought-related deficits in grain harvests. Up to 13

million people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,

Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing severe

food shortage, which has already given rise to a threat

of widespread famine and a rise in famine-related

health problems. What we are clearly seeing here is a

further deterioration in the general poverty situation

and the humanitarian plight of the rural masses in these

countries. Chances of the food insecurity translating

into a serious region-wide security and health

catastrophe cannot be over-emphasized, especially

given that southern Africa is already the epicentre of

the global implosion caused by HIV/AIDS. The current

food crisis in the sub-region stands out as the severest

in many years. It is poised to inflict incalculable

damage on the social, economic and cultural fabric of

whole communities, and it endangers the efficacy of

the financial and economic sustainability of the

institutional and public policy frameworks for

sustainable development currently under

implementation.

Indeed, southern Africa is facing uniquely

different multifaceted humanitarian crises arising not

only from civil wars, but also from social and

economic factors and other natural disasters. The crisis

is certain to roll back numerous past gains in many

sectors, particularly because of the centrality of

agricultural production to the gross domestic product

and rural employment of most of the affected countries.

The food shortage has placed further serious

strains on the already low revenue collection capacities

of the affected countries, especially to the extent that

budgetary allocations are having to be appropriated

from critical social sector services to fund massive

grain imports necessary to supplement inadequate local

grain stocks, thereby financially starving other equally

urgent sectoral needs. Sadly, however, the next harvest,

due in eight months, may not hold much promise

either, unless the drought cycle, which is the major

contributing factor, does not recur.

Initially, Malawi faced a grain deficit of 600,000

tons caused by two years of a paradoxical combination

of drought and devastating torrential rains and floods.

This tonnage was urgently required to stave off a

rapidly deteriorating famine situation that is expected

to affect 3.2 million people. The President, His

Excellency Dr. Bakili Muluzi, declared the current food

shortages a national disaster on 28 February 2002, and

a vigorous national appeal for emergency relief has

been under way since then.

The response to this appeal by the donor

community, both local and international, has been very

encouraging. On behalf of the Government of Malawi,

I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude

and deep appreciation to the local and international

humanitarian organizations and Governments, such as

those of the European Union, the Governments of Italy,

the United Kingdom and the United States of America,

and other friendly Governments, which together have

financed nearly 75 per cent of the emergency relief

supplies received so far in Malawi. We also wish to

thank the United Nations funds and programmes for

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their timely assistance, in particular the Food and

Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the

World Food Programme and the Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as well

as resident United Nations agencies, for providing

relief coordination and procurement services during

this critical hour of need.

In a special way, and on behalf of the six

Southern African Development Community (SADC)

countries affected by the famine, the Government of

Malawi wishes to thank the Secretary-General and the

United Nations family for successfully organizing the

Consolidated National Appeals for the Humanitarian

Crisis in Southern Africa, which took place on 18 July

2002, here at United Nations Headquarters. We are

grateful for the outcome of the appeal, and we would

like to extend similar sentiments of appreciation to all

Governments and donor organizations that made

pledges and commitments towards the funding

requirements of the appeal.

In addition, we welcome and applaud the

Secretary-General's timely appointment of the

Executive Director of the World Food Programme,

Mr. James Morris, as his Special Envoy for the

southern African humanitarian crisis. Mr. Morris's

personal meetings and consultations with the Heads of

State and Government of the six southern African

countries and his tour of the subregion have led to

useful high-level exchanges that will form an important

basis for tackling the problem of food insecurity in

future. We undertake to work with him and give him all

the support and cooperation necessary for the

fulfilment of his mandate.

The high levels of poverty and the deepening

scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other

transmissible diseases afflicting our people continue to

ravage populations in the developing countries,

particularly those of Africa. We take no relief from the

annual reports for the year 2002 released by United

Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the

World Health Organization, whose graphic statistical

data and hard facts portray an unabating, vicious and

complex interplay between structural poverty and a

startlingly high HIV/AIDS prevalence in poor

countries. The resulting humanitarian crisis threatens

millions more lives over the next few years.

As home to one of the largest numbers of victims

of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world, southern

Africa needs closer attention and concrete actions, as

well as deeper resource commitments by the

international community, to help build sustainable

capacity to address the critical poverty issues and

excessive mortality from HIV/AIDS, malaria,

tuberculosis and other diseases. These are extremely

sensitive issues, and the international donor community

should consider, on an emergency basis, the difficult

moral issues and the choices involved.

It is extremely troubling that some Member States

and donor institutions have suddenly taken a

minimalist approach to the central role played by

United Nations funds and programmes in tackling

health problems in the developing countries. It is

needless to remind this Assembly that the work of the

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in tackling

the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in the implementation of the

Programme of Action adopted at the International

Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)

and in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/

AIDS is very crucial. We call upon donors and

multinational institutions to reconsider their decision

and to restore funding to UNFPA.

Further, we call upon multilateral donor

institutions and industrialized countries to grant deeper

debt relief and forgiveness. Transnational

organizations, which extract huge profits from their

business operations in poor countries, have the moral

responsibility to invest in HIV/AIDS prevention, care,

support and treatment. International pharmaceutical

corporations, too, ought to show more compassion by

expanding access to antiretroviral drugs and other life-

sustaining medicines, including meaningful

concessions on price reduction and voluntary

donations. We note with gratitude the positive steps

taken by some pharmaceutical companies in that

direction.

My Government acknowledges the important role

played by the United Nations in mobilizing support and

resources for the development process in the poor

countries. It is not enough, however, to hold one

conference after another without effective follow-up

and implementation mechanisms. There is therefore a

need for supportive global processes that would ensure

shorter time lags between the adoption of programmes

of action and their implementation.

It is our hope that the establishment of the Office

of the High Representative for the Least Developed

30

Countries in the United Nations Secretariat will

promote regular consultations and closer follow-up of

agreed programmes of action to ensure their fulfilment.

Such programmes of action include the Brussels

Declaration and Programme of Action of the Third

United Nations Conference on the Least Developed

Countries, the International Conference on Financing

for Development and other commitments flowing from

the recent General Assembly special sessions on HIV/

AIDS and children. An earnest attempt is necessary to

link up the commitments and agreed outcomes of the

Brussels Programme of Action and the Monterrey

Consensus in order to create a rich resource base for

the implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of Action

for sustainable development.

Other major problems and challenges that are

faced by poor countries and stifle their progress have

previously been extensively covered and debated in the

Assembly and in various other international forums.

But some of them need to be mentioned again. The

transition of poor countries from continued dependence

on international charity to self-reliance is contingent on

certain factors such as free and open trade. Agricultural

and other commodities from developing countries need

to gain access to Western markets without unnecessary

barriers. It is ironic and morally unacceptable that

products from the West are freely offloaded onto our

markets but not the other way round. Fair trade is a

two-way transaction, and every endeavour must be

made to ensure that it remains so.

On an optimistic note, we welcome the

commendable progress that has been achieved in an

effort to bring some conflicts in Africa to resolution.

This engenders the hope for the eventual restoration of

stability and a chance for decisive peace on the

continent. The ceasefire agreement reached on 4 April

this year in Angola and the peace agreement signed on

30 July between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic

of the Congo represent notable historic milestones in

bringing to an end the conflicts in the Great Lakes

region. I am confident that the United Nations will use

that opening to step forward, as it always has, to

strengthen its involvement and that of the international

community to consolidate those agreements and closely

monitor their implementation.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the people

and the Government of East Timor on their attainment

of independence after many decades of dehumanizing

subjugation. My Government also welcomes East

Timor's coming membership in the United Nations.

In the same vein, I congratulate Switzerland on

its admission to the membership of the United Nations.

The significance of this historic development to the

world body cannot be over-emphasized, especially

given the invaluable contribution the Government and

people of Switzerland have made over the years to the

progressive development of international humanitarian

and human rights affairs.

My Government is concerned at the unrelenting

bloodletting in the Middle East, particularly the

senseless carnage among innocent civilians. We

encourage both the Israeli Government and the

Palestinian Authority to give peace a chance through

dialogue. We call, in particular, for the cessation of

hostilities, provocation and incitement, which only

serve to inflame the delicate conflict situation.

Malawi believes in the principle of universality of

human rights. One of the basic rights that every

member of the global community can expect to enjoy is

the right to freedom of association. It is on the basis of

that, and in a spirit of reconciliation, that Malawi

believes that the United Nations should seriously

reconsider the question of the readmission of the

Republic of China. The more than 21 million people of

Taiwan should be allowed to freely participate in the

affairs of the United Nations without any hindrance, as

that is what this Organization stands for. After all,

Taiwan, through its rapid growth in the economic,

political and social sectors has demonstrated that it has

a lot to offer for the good of humanity through the

United Nations.

Africa is on the threshold of a new beginning

aimed at making a lasting clean break with the errors

and political missteps of the last five decades. The

promulgation of a development blueprint, the New

Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD),

provides a very comprehensive, clear focused road map

for economic revitalization of the African continent.

NEPAD, as a framework for development, contains

broad-ranging measures and actions that are reflective

of a new vision for long-term development

requirements, as well as constructive and beneficial

participation in regional, international and other

multilateral processes for effective integration of

Africa into the global political and economic order.

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It is gratifying, therefore, that the international

community is willing to support this newly emerging

pragmatic framework for partnership and ownership of

development on the continent. I would like, once again,

to encourage our development partners to join in and

support Africa's new quest for economic recovery and

sustainable development.

In conclusion, Malawi, along with other African

countries, would like to express deep gratitude to the

leaders of the Group of 8 countries for voicing

unequivocal support for NEPAD. We are thankful for

the creation of the Group of 8 Africa Action Plan

adopted at the recent Summit in Kananaskis in Canada,

which will operate as the platform for enhanced

cooperation and partnership between Africa and the

industrialized Group of 8 countries. We are confident

that strong international networking and support for

NEPAD will provide a solid basis for growth and

progress, as well as decisive peace and political

stability in Africa.