Senegal, 2009

We are

meeting once again, but this time at a moment when

humankind is facing many problems, each as difficult

as the others, as if they had been planned to coincide:

the agriculture crisis, the financial and economic crisis,

environmental peril and tenacious, deadly diseases. Be

that as it may, we are destined to prevail. There is

simply no other option. We must and we can succeed.

The numerous deliberations about these problems at all

levels illustrate our increasing awareness of the

dangers to us and succeeding generations.

Believing fundamentally as I do in the genius of

humankind and its capacity for imagination and

creativity in extricating itself from the most difficult

situations, I am both optimistic and aware of the price

that will have to be paid. This is what we are called on

to do here and elsewhere. The only question is how to

coordinate the numerous elements required to expedite

the rescue mission.

Before going any further, however, I should like

warmly to congratulate Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, who

has been charged with guiding the work of this sixty-

fourth session of the General Assembly. I have known

Mr. Treki for a long time, and Senegal is delighted by

his election and expresses its confidence in his human

and professional qualities, which will bolster the

success of his mission.

I also pay tribute to Mr. Miguel d’Escoto

Brockmann, President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-third session, for his contributions to the effort to

revitalize the Assembly. His commitment and

dynamism are well known. I have admired his

intelligence, his lively wit and the sensitivity he shows

in his relations with others. To Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon, Senegal reiterates its support for his delicate

task in the face of the many and urgent issues facing

the Organization.

This sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly

has begun at a time of multifaceted turmoil. The

economic and financial crisis, the scale of which has

surprised many observers, reveals above all the

deadlock in contemporary economic theory. In

highlighting the inadequacy of our analytical and

predictive abilities, it calls for a broader sense of

shared responsibility both for the management of its

immediate effects and for the search for long-term

responses. In seeking solutions, let us be careful not to

make the mistake of falling back on received wisdom

and ready-made answers. Be it in the sphere of the

environment, political and economic governance or

development, the world must find a new way of

thinking and acting, and thereby address the need to

change our outlook.

Having myself argued, often strongly, for the full

participation of Africa in the conversation on world

governance, I welcome the progressively expanded

cooperative framework of the Group of Eight (G-8)

and the Group of 20 (G-20). I only regret that my

proposal to establish a shadow G-20, made up of the

41 09-52425

world’s greatest experts but open to all those who bring

new ideas, has not yet been put into practice.

The President returned to the Chair.

Clearly, the world’s heads of State, elected on the

basis of political criteria, cannot miraculously

transform themselves into universal polymaths. They

must hold to their political and even strategic role, and

rely on the superior knowledge of experts. It is through

dialogue open to all that we will be able to grasp the

diversity of our respective situations and apply real-

world answers to real-world problems. It is therefore

fitting that the theme of this sixty-fourth session should

be “Effective responses to global crises: strengthening

multilateralism and dialogue among civilizations for

international peace, security and development”.

The current challenges, both complex and global

in nature, call strongly for innovative and concerted

solutions if we are to succeed. That is especially true

for problems of agriculture and food security. If we are

to achieve on schedule Millennium Development Goal 1,

to halve by 2015 the number of people suffering from

hunger, we must put into practice a different approach

to international cooperation, one based on support for

agriculture instead of food assistance, which should be

used only as an emergency response to exceptional

circumstances.

The development of agriculture to promote

sustainable food security in Africa necessarily involves

water management, the availability of equipment,

producers’ access to inputs and a sound organization of

chains of production, storage, processing and sales of

agricultural products. That is why Senegal hopes that

these essential questions — and others, such as the

regulation of agricultural markets and scientific

research to increase productivity — will take a

prominent place on the agenda of the Summit of the

World’s Regions on Food Security, to be held in

January 2010 in Dakar, and of the Global Partnership

for Agriculture and Food Security proposed by the G-8.

Once the right conditions are in place, there is no

reason why Africa should not be able to ensure its own

food security. Better yet, its enormous land and water

resources predispose the continent to become the

world’s breadbasket. To that end, however, we must

avoid the vicious trap of ceding land to foreigners

bearing millions of dollars. The G-8 quite rightly

expressed its concern on this subject at its most recent

summit in Italy. According to recent estimates, between

15 and 20 million hectares have changed hands over

the past three years, primarily in Africa. We Africans

should make it our vocation to become farmers tilling

our own land rather than being agricultural labourers

working for capital-rich foreign planters.

For its part, Senegal, as I have often said, cannot

accept such a course, which would without doubt

empty our countryside of newly impoverished millions,

who would swell our slums and the ranks of those ripe

for illegal emigration. On the other hand, if we exploit

our mutually complementary circumstances, we of the

North and the South can promote a win-win

partnership in which investors and local communities

join to develop African land without dispossession.

Senegal has succeeded, in record time, in responding

positively to the food crisis. For the second year in a

row, our home-grown agricultural campaign for food

and abundance, known as GOANA, has rewarded us

with excellent results.

We intend to strengthen this food self-sufficiency

option with the unionization of rural producers, on the

model of Québec. To this end, we are currently setting

up a green bank for farmers, fishers and livestock

farmers, which will support financing of these sectors.

This is a bold innovation, a green revolution that we

want very much to see succeed.

At the global level, I believe that, beyond its

adverse impacts, the current crisis has a silver lining

insofar as it stimulates creativity, initiative and a

fighting spirit. If the Secretary-General had not

launched his emotional appeal at World Food Day in

Rome two years ago, I might not have felt a challenge

so great as to demand the invention of GOANA. And

because the fate of our people is at stake, it is our

primary responsibility to establish on our own the

conditions necessary for a brighter future.

Internal efforts will continue to be futile without

a healthy global environment rid of the speculative

practices of the virtual economy and unjust asymmetric

programmes, such as subsidies and other inequitable

practices. In this context, non-oil-producing African

countries continue to feel the full brunt of the increase

in oil prices resulting from speculative practices that

we cannot mitigate because they are controlled by the

oil oligarchy. Economies such as ours, which had

hitherto posted average growth rates of 5 per cent, have

been brutally weakened by imported inflation.

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For that reason, Senegal supports and encourages

the dialogue between producers and consumers

initiated by the International Energy Forum to improve

transparency in the oil market and take effective

measures against speculative practices that devastate

the economies of importing States.

In implementing the “Wade formula”, I proposed

a fund to fight poverty funded by voluntary

contributions from African oil-producing States and oil

companies working in Africa, based on the principle of

shared social responsibility. The fund could be

managed collectively or entrusted to the World Bank.

Similarly, I welcome the extension of the Exogenous

Shocks Facility to countries benefiting from the Policy

Support Instrument.

The summit meeting on climate change

confirmed a broadly shared conclusion. If we do not

change our methods of production and consumption,

the future of mankind itself will be in peril. We must

admit that we have not taken sufficient action to

reverse these negative trends. Nature subjects us daily

to the adverse consequences of our own attacks against

it in different ways, including floods, droughts,

desertification and coastal erosion. These upheavals

foreshadow even more devastating phenomena.

International consensus is therefore urgently needed to

save the planet. In order to survive, each of us must

strive to behave more respectfully towards the

environment and to create a world with fewer

greenhouse gas emissions. According to the hopeful

statement of the Secretary-General, we now find

ourselves on the threshold of a new era — that of the

green economy. Let us have the courage to cross the

threshold for ourselves and for succeeding generations.

Africa for its part wishes to assume its share of

responsibility in this necessary environmental rebirth.

That is the essence of the Great Green Wall project that

runs from Dakar to Djibouti. Shared by all countries it

runs through, the Great Green Wall is 7,000 kilometres

long and 15 kilometres wide, and Senegal has the

responsibility of coordinating it on behalf of the

African Union.

With the assistance of experts from all over the

world, we have selected plants adapted to the fairly

arid conditions prevailing in the Sahelian-Saharan

zone. At the same time, we have decided to build

water-collection basins along the entire length of the

Great Green Wall, based on the model that we have

implemented in Senegal with some 250 basins. Every

African State involved in the construction of the Great

Green Wall organizes its implementation at the local

level through a national agency. At the continental

level, national agencies are coordinated by a pan-

African Great Green Wall agency under the auspices of

the African Union.

I cherish the hope that the United Nations will

become involved in this project, which contributes to

protecting the global environment, by mobilizing what

might be called anti-desert soldiers along the lines of

peacekeeping troops. Here, I pay tribute to the

participation of Ivorian boys and girls who, although

not directly impacted by desertification — Côte

d’Ivoire being a country of forests — spontaneously

participated in building the Senegalese section of the

Great Green Wall in Senegal. They worked voluntarily,

side by side with their comrades from Senegal. These

young people, transcending the artificial borders

created by colonization, are using self-determination to

take ownership of the struggle for Africa’s future. This

experience could serve as a prelude to the creation of a

broad movement of “youth without borders” that unites

young Africans from throughout the continent. They

could be the heralds of various causes, such as the fight

against HIV/AIDS, early marriage and female

circumcision, as they in Senegal.

While we await foreign assistance, Senegal has

already built nearly 527 kilometres of the Great Green

Wall. The project is also under way in Mali, and Chad

will follow in the near future.

Through the progressive restoration of the

Saharan ecosystem, the Great Green Wall will

contribute through greenhouse gas sequestration to the

global fight against global warming. I thank the

European Union for its pledged support, and I welcome

in particular President Sarkozy’s initiative to deploy to

this front — the only worthy front — soldiers to plant

trees and build water-collection basins. I cherish the

hope that this initiative will serve to inspire other

States with the necessary human and material resources

to support the Great Green Wall.

Given the severity of the situation, the

environmental threat, in my opinion, should be

considered a threat to international peace and security.

If it were, we might consider allocating new

international missions to national armies. In the

manner of peacekeeping operations, Senegal proposes

43 09-52425

the creation of a mechanism to save and restore the

environment based on the voluntary commitment of

armies through modalities to be determined.

In the framework of civilian and military

activities, countries wishing to do so could mobilize

contingents for specific periods to assist in

implementing major environmental projects, such as

the Great Green Wall, or what is referred to in Senegal

as the Atlantic wall against coastal erosion.

In Senegal, we are currently creating along our

coastline a concrete wall 3 to 4 metres deep and

40 centimetres wide built on an impermeable

foundation to stop the maritime erosion that threatens

many African countries. Its effectiveness is guaranteed.

The only problem is the cost — $1.5 million per

kilometre. From Casablanca to Cotonou, representing

some 5,000 kilometres of vulnerable coastline, the

overall cost would be $7.5 billion. Compared to

expenditures often seen at the global level, it certainly

is not much. Moreover, if mankind were to stop

building lethal weapons for only three months and

allocate the money thus saved to building the Atlantic

wall, the threat to that part of Africa would be

permanently removed.

For 16 years now, Security Council reform has

been an important item on our agenda. It is a paradox

that an Organization, universal in its mission, should

remain deadlocked 64 years after its creation by the

elitist nature of its principal body. The leader

Al-Qadhafi summarized our position on that issue (see

). As Africa is the only continent not

represented among the permanent members, despite the

fact that it’s the focus of 70 per cent of the Council’s

work, that historic injustice must be corrected by

granting the continent here and now, outside the

context of overall reform, one seat with the right of

veto that could be held by the Chairman-in-Office of

the African Union. Let us ensure that this session is the

one at which we finally solve the issue of Security

Council reform so that we can focus our efforts on

other important issues.

Those important issues still unfortunately include

the tragic situation in the Middle East. While it

recognizes the Israeli people’s right to live in peace

within secure and internationally recognized borders,

Senegal resolutely supports the just and legitimate

claim of the Palestinian people to a viable, free and

independent State. That claim is morally consonant

with the right of peoples to self-determination.

However, in general, Senegal rejects violence in

all its forms, whatever its origin. Israel’s pursuit of

illegal activities on Palestinian territory is

counterproductive. The settlement, expropriation and

lockdown of the territories are a serious obstacle to the

negotiations process and delay the prospects of an era

of peace for all peoples of the subregion. Senegal

supports the vision of two States, Israeli and

Palestinian, as recalled here yesterday by President

Barack Obama (see ).

Turning to the situation in Africa, Senegal

welcomes the considerable progress made in the

peaceful settlement of disputes and in the integration

process towards establishing the United States of

Africa. The accomplishment of African unity is the

only viable answer to the challenges of globalization,

the creation of large groupings and the redefinition of

the rules of governance. It is also an essential condition

for the establishment of lasting peace and stability on

the continent.

Senegal continues to contribute to the settlement

of disputes in Africa on the basis of that ideal of peace.

I therefore welcome the normalization of the situation

in our sister Republic of Mauritania following the

Dakar Accord of June 2009. We should remember that

the Accord was concluded with the support of the

International Contact Group throughout the negotiation

process. I reiterate my congratulations and my

appreciation to all.

In the sister Republic of Guinea-Bissau, I

welcome the gradual return to stability after the

presidential elections, recognized and acknowledged

by all as free and transparent. As a neighbour, Senegal

reiterates its call for the convening of a donor

conference in support of the courageous stabilization

and development efforts of the people of Guinea-

Bissau, through their new authorities.

On the other hand, the situation in the Republic

of Guinea seems to me of greater concern. That

country merits our full attention because it could fall

into violence at any time. Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,

President of Liberia, and I, in our capacity as goodwill

neighbours, were in Conakry only two weeks ago. I

reported back to the African Union, stressing the need

for an ongoing presence in the field and for a dialogue

with all stakeholders, including the army. In my view,

09-52425 44

that is the only way to help restore the constitutional

order in Guinea.

The ideal of peace, the primary raison d’être of

our Organization, remains seriously threatened by

extremism of all stripes, fuelled and perpetuated by

ignorance, mistrust and the manipulation of religion.

The need for dialogue between cultures and

civilizations is all the more urgent on that account. The

challenge today, in particular for the three revealed

religions that share the same God, is to build on that

common monotheistic pedestal a bridge of brotherhood

that brings us closer and teaches us to live together

again by sharing our common values and with respect

for our differences.

As Chairman-in-Office of the Organization of the

Islamic Conference, I reiterate once again the

dedication of the Islamic ummah to dialogue for the

mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence of

peoples because Islam, in letter and spirit, is a religion

of the happy medium and of peace that teaches, in all

things, knowledge, moderation, reasonableness and

respect for the freedom of worship.

Let us all agree to strive to learn to better

understand each other, overcome mistrust and fight the

obscurantist ideas that give rise to tensions and

confrontation. A world living in peace in the twenty-

first century will be one in which all peoples enjoy an

equally dignified existence.

In that spirit, Senegal will host the Third World

Festival of Negro Arts from 1 to 15 December 2010.

That artistic and intellectual event, with Brazil as guest

of honour, will provide the opportunity for Africa and

its diaspora to celebrate the values of culture and

civilization of the black world. For us, that is a way to

fight the prejudices that still haunt some malicious

minds and fuel the re-emergence of revisionist ideas.

Africa is ready to meet the challenges of the

twenty-first century in a spirit of openness and

dialogue with all peoples for a world of peace and

human brotherhood.