I wish to begin by conveying to this august body fraternal greetings from Her Excellency Ms. Sarnia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, who could not attend this year’s session owing to pressing national commitments. It is therefore my distinct honour and privilege to address the United Nations General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session on behalf of the Government and the people of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Let me join those who have spoken before me in congratulating the President of the Assembly on his election to preside over the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session. I assure him of Tanzania’s support and cooperation as he discharges his responsibilities.
Let me also extend our appreciation to the Secretary- General, His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres and the entire United Nations Secretariat for their dedicated service as guardians of the common interest of all peoples and all States, particularly during this time of unprecedented global challenges.
This Assembly is convening at a critical point, when the world is engulfed in dangerous flames ranging from conflicts and mounting geopolitical tensions, devastating effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, food and energy insecurity, environmental carnage and extreme climate-change-related events, to barriers to education, technology and opportunity for shared prosperity. These challenges are in turn inextricably linked with and propelling stubborn global poverty. Furthermore, with only eight years remaining before 2030, the world is still way off the mark in meeting many of the targets that we set in 2015.
The root cause of all these challenges is human greed, selfish desire and unilateralism. Yet we know for sure that unilateralism, driven by greed, is leading us, rich and poor, strong and weak, to a catastrophe. For it is now evident that these challenges have inflicted and continue to inflict enormous disruptive impacts on economies, ecosystems and social lives worldwide, with sub-Saharan African countries and other developing countries being hit disproportionately.
We have a famous proverb in Kiswahili that says, “Where there are problems, ingenuity increases.” In the spirit of this, we in Tanzania are convinced that transformative solutions to the global challenges we face are already at our disposal but subject to two conditions being met: first, there must be a passionate belief in the need to bring a caring spirit to considering the needs and happiness of other peoples and nations; and, secondly, there must be solemn adherence to the credo of multilateralism and collaborative efforts. Fortunately, both conditions are a restatement of the ideals, values and principles of the United Nations Charter.
Specifically, on the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic had devastating effects on Tanzania’s socioeconomic systems and performance. As it did for most other developing countries, the pandemic robbed us of precious lives, over-stretched health infrastructure and health-care workers to the limit and led to severe budget constraints and economic deceleration. Real gross domestic product growth declined from 6.7 per cent decadal growth attained in the pre-pandemic period to 4.8 per cent in 2020.
The key lesson we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that the world needs to be better prepared in terms of national and global health systems in order to be able to handle future pandemics. This entails investing more in building health infrastructure and beefing up the health workforce, as well as enhancing national and regional capacity to manufacture drugs, supplies, vaccines and medical equipment.
In addition, Africa’s marginalization in the provision of vaccines underscored the need for African countries to work together in the development and nurturing of indigenous solutions through joint medical and scientific research. The pandemic also brought to the fore the need to invest more in public health education, especially preventive medicine to build individual resilience, including body fitness and healthy diet and habits.
However, I wish to acknowledge that although international support in taming the spread of the global pandemic, through provision of diagnostic equipment, medicines, vaccine support programmes and financing came late to Africa, it was critical in winning the war against the pandemic. Tanzania would therefore like to thank all our development partners that have been working with us to deal with the pandemic and put the country on a bright post- COVID-19 recovery path. Currently, the Government continues with its vaccination campaign whereby, as of 11 September, we already vaccinated 60.56 per cent of the targeted population.
With respect to climate change, we are indeed at a tipping point. The United Republic of Tanzania appreciates all individual efforts and other collective measures taken thus far to implement interventions geared at upscaling mitigation and adaptation as stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015. However, despite the efforts, we are observing unprecedented changes across the whole climate system in every region.
The fact remains that the most vulnerable countries, including Tanzania, have been disproportionately affected and that we do not possess the capacity to effectively respond. Tanzania has put forward ambitious targets on both adaptation and mitigation through nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The Government spends an average of $500 million per annum on adaptation measures and up to 3 per cent of its gross domestic product on mitigation and building community resilience. With the help of the international community, we are committed to continually updating our NDCs and making important progress to tackle climate change.
Yet, unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions,
limiting warming to at least 2°C will be elusive. As much as we remain committed, most developing countries have insufficient fiscal space and weak debt- sustainability status to address increasing demand for climate-resilience interventions. Addressing the climate crisis therefore requires reliable access to climate finance. It is on this note, that Tanzania calls on the international community to live up to its commitments made under the Paris Agreement. Enhanced capacity building, technology transfer and support for adaptation and mitigation measures, as well as the creation of an independent loss-and-damage financial facility must be implemented in order to scale up the fight against climate change. We need, as a matter of urgency, to take action and walk the talk.
At this point, I must emphasize that Tanzania and the rest of Africa need a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Africa must be given time to adjust since the majority of Africans have no access to energy. The well-established principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities must be observed. In this regard, we call upon the lifting of opposition to global financing and implementation of the transformative projects in our countries that aim to harness our hydrocarbon deposits for energy and other equally important uses to address our critical developmental needs. As long as robust environmental and social impact assessments have been done and concrete measures taken to effectively address the environmental and democratic governance concerns of our citizens, our sovereign rights to pursue transformative projects should be respected.
We also call upon transparency in the conduct of carbon-credit markets so that Africa benefits fairly from our earnest effort to take care of the carbon sinks that we are holding for the world. For example, Tanzania has preserved over 30 per cent of our total land area — a land mass almost equivalent to the size of Germany — which includes forests and wildlife parks.
In the maintenance of peace and security, Tanzania has always believed that diplomacy is the best instrument for resolving conflicts. Experience has taught us that, in war, everyone loses, including the non-warring parties. It is therefore our plea that, in the wake of global conflicts, our focus should remain to be on safeguarding human lives, especially children and women, and the well-being of people. Moreover, just recently, we have witnessed disruptive effects on global supply chains, dramatic increases in food and fuel prices as well as food shortages and declines in agricultural and industrial production around the world — all the more reasons to state that we all have a stake in pursuing the peaceful resolution of conflicts. As we do so, we must also leverage our abundant resources and human capabilities to address some of the impacts.
In the same spirit, peacekeeping operations remain one of the most dependable instruments for promoting world peace and security. Tanzania is proud to have contributed men and women in 5 of the existing 16 peacekeeping missions across the world. Despite this state of affairs, Tanzania stands ready to contribute more, if requested to do so. We also continue to actively participate in regional peace initiatives — and more so now in our capacity as a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council as well as the East African Community and Southern African Development Community. We therefore call upon the United Nations to enhance its support to regional efforts in peacebuilding and peacekeeping.
The credibility of the United Nations rests on a well-represented and responsive Security Council. We therefore wish to reiterate the common African position, as elaborated in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, with respect to the long-awaited reforms of the Security Council. It is well past time the Security Council reflected the present-day realities of the United Nations membership and not that of the 1940s.
I would be remiss if I did not end my statement without acknowledging that, the world celebrated the Kiswahili Language for the first time this year on 7 July, following the historic UNESCO declaration designating that date as World Kiswahili Language Day. As the birthplace of the Kiswahili language, Tanzania commends the efforts of the United Nations in promoting multilingualism as a core value, which is essential to achieving both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063.
To conclude, let me once again reaffirm the resolve of the United Republic of Tanzania to uphold the three pillars of the United Nations, namely, peace and security, development and human rights. I also call upon all of us to renew our commitment and prioritization of actions especially on those Sustainable Development Goals where we lag behind. We remain committed to working closely with the United Nations and its Member States in the spirit of multilateralism and global solidarity towards a sustainable future.