International relations, diplomacy in general and the major world and United Nations conferences in particular have accustomed us to traditional meetings marked by the physical presence of and effusiveness among participants. In-person meetings, handshakes, hugs, conversations in the corridors and negotiations in bilaterals or small committees have always been at the centre of such gatherings of the international community, which the
need for online and digital communication made a thing of the past almost two years ago.
The fact that we are meeting in person on the occasion of the general debate of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session should be interpreted as a reflection of our collective determination to do everything in our power to defeat the scourge of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, with a view to building back better and ensuring the advent of a more resilient world.
It with this positive attitude that I begin my statement and greet, on behalf of the people of Cabo Verde, all the other peoples of the United Nations represented here by their highest dignitaries, wishing progress and well-being to all.
To the outgoing President of the General Assembly, Mr. Volkan Bozkir of Turkey, I offer my congratulations on the manner in which he performed his duties amid the difficulties of which we all are aware.
I also congratulate Mr. Abdulla Shahid on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session and welcome the fact that he is from Maldives and also the sixth President to hail from a small island developing State (SIDS) similar to Cabo Verde, which reflects our multilateral system’s inclusiveness. I also congratulate the President-elect for having chosen hope as the theme of his presidency. Throughout its history, Cabo Verde has always chosen the optimism of hope rather than the pessimism of resignation. Indeed, today, as we face the challenge of this exponential pandemic, hope is the way forward, especially if we can act quickly, together and in solidarity.
I also offer my most cordial greetings and words of appreciation to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, first because halfway through the previous session he not only successfully completed his first term but also championed the mobilization of the United Nations and the world in the fight against the pandemic and its devastating effects, particularly in advocating for the unprecedented need for universal and more equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Secondly, I congratulate him on his reappointment, which signalled a renewed vote of confidence from the community of the United Nations to continue the work undertaken thus far. Finally, I congratulate him on the publication on 10 September last of the excellent report entitled Our Common Agenda, which marked the beginning of his second term.
More than just responding to what was asked of him, that is, to guide the responses to the commitments set out in the Declaration on the commemoration of the seventy- fifth anniversary of the United Nations (resolution 75/1), the Secretary-General, in Our Common Agenda, offered us his vision for the future of the world and the role of the United Nations — a future that depends on our collective choice between continuing on the path to destruction caused by the COVID-19 virus, climate change and the erosion of human rights, or resuming the ascent towards progress, inclusion, environmental sustainability and development, including by means of an effective United Nations system that gives meaning to multilateralism.
Cabo Verde has no doubt regarding the future to which the Secretary-General aspires. He can therefore count on our country in that journey, particularly as concerns the goals he wants to achieve and the solutions he wishes to implement in the context of his proposal to hold a Summit of the Future, as recommended in Our Common Agenda, namely, to forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like and what we can do today to secure it.
Cabo Verde is a small island nation spread across the Atlantic belt of the Sahel. It is also a great nation, one that is made up of its resident population and a broad diaspora scattered in the four corners of the world but whose hearts are in Cabo Verde.
After a historical period of dependence, slavery and colonization, independence gave us the hope of making our own choices, placing that responsibility in our own hands. To support us in that process, we chose multilateralism, international cooperation and strategic partnerships to promote our dynamic inclusion in a global world. We also made a choice along that path of which we are proud: we have been a democracy for 30 years, with good governance based on the rule of law, peace, security, the promotion and protection of human rights, gender equality and inclusion, as well as the fight against poverty and inequality.
As part of our progress, we graduated from the category of least-developed country to that of medium- income country in 2008. In 2015 we achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals and chose to align ourselves with the Sustainable Development Goals,
and to that end we adopted the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development.
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and its health, economic and social impacts have dealt a brutal blow to our economy, which had been growing at an approximate clip of 6 per cent. It has also undermined the main pillars of our economy — tourism, transportation and domestic demand — resulting in reduced social protections, unemployment and increased poverty; and it has wreaked havoc in terms of macroeconomic fundamentals such as inflation, the budget deficit and debt and resulted in a sharp drop in economic growth. In short, it triggered an unprecedented recession that has caused our economy to contract by 14.8 per cent.
However, my country reacted not with resignation but with determination and immediately took all the anti-crisis measures recommended internationally for the short term. For the medium and long terms, we engaged in a participatory exercise in strategic planning to set out a common vision for 2030 entitled Cabo Verde Ambition 2030 in order to resume the sustainable development process and build back better, leveraging the lessons learned and the opportunities arising from the crisis. Those include access to concessional financing and attracting foreign direct investment, which remain major challenges.
As noted in the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development and the Ambition 2030 document, Cabo Verde intends to strengthen its alignment with values and interests steeped in multilateralism and a rules- based world order, with an effective United Nations at the centre. Such goals require the continued affirmation of Cabo Verde as a safe country and a useful and credible partner in a diplomacy that is equal to the emerging global challenges.
At this juncture, Cabo Verde’s foremost priority is to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We have made significant and consistent gains both in reducing transmission rates and in increasing vaccination rates among of the eligible population, which will be fully immunized by the end of October. That success would not have been possible without the perseverance and determination of the leaders and the people of Cabo Verde or the increased solidarity of all partners, particularly in the context of Coronavirus Disease Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility. Our most heartfelt thanks go out to all our partners.
At the same time, economic recovery remains an important priority for Cabo Verde, mainly through the reopening of the tourism sector and related activities. The mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and the revision of travel advisories are measures on which Cabo Verde has been working with public and private partners, and international guidelines will only support and encourage the return of tourism.
Cabo Verde has all the structural characteristics of a small island developing State, namely, small size and dispersion in islands, situated in large oceanic spaces and distant from major markets, which weakens our economic base and heightens our exposure to climate change and other environmental phenomena such as drought, in addition to reducing our resilience to natural phenomena and other external shocks. In that context, the manifestations and impacts of COVID-19 only exacerbate pre-existing conditions, rendering SIDS those most affected by the pandemic.
Within the United Nations, Cabo Verde is part of the Alliance of Small Island States, which advocates for measures aimed specifically at SIDS and for the international and differentiated global support measures recommended since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992. In that context, the study of, debate about and hoped-for adoption by international consensus of a multidimensional vulnerability index applicable to small island developing States with respect to three dimensions of sustainable development — economic, social and environmental — should be helpful in classifying each nation’s level of development to determine eligibility for such specific support measures, thus enabling the fulfilment of the commitments established under the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.
Small island developing States in each of the three covered geographical regions — Pacific, Caribbean and from Africa to South-East Asia — have sectors that offer opportunities for economic growth in natural resources, tourism and the blue economy, among other areas. Measures to support economic growth and competitiveness in those growth areas, support for climate adaptation and increased climate resilience, direct investment facilities and general and climate finance should be undertaken globally for the benefit of small island developing States and adjusted to each nation’s particularities.
Finally, the problems and challenges that SIDS face — and their solutions — should be a part of the Summit of the Future that was called for by the Secretary-General. It will be an opportunity for us to make decisions that meet the specific and legitimate interests and aspirations of this group of nations, which are among the most vulnerable within the United Nations family. We must leave no one behind.
The preservation of international peace and security was at the heart of the creation of the United Nations. For Cabo Verde, the values of liberty, peace, democracy and political stability are fundamental for the construction of more just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Faced with global challenges, we are increasingly aware of how imperative it is to fulfil this fundamental goal of the people who signed the United Nations Charter. We are also aware that the political instability that plagues different regions and the heightened insecurity resulting from violent extremism and transnational crime are barriers to the development of and peaceful coexistence among nations.
The effectiveness that we seek from the United Nations requires periodic and consistent reform of its main bodies. We recognize the progress made so far in reform of the development pillar, which has increased the efficiency of the United Nations system in progressive and innovative ways. The revitalization of the General Assembly has allowed us to be more pragmatic in our deliberations.
We also understand that the revitalization of the United Nations involves the need for Security Council reform to provide greater inclusion of Member States in decisions related to international peace and security. As a member of the African Union, Cabo Verde subscribes fully to the Ezulwini Consensus.
The history of the world has been a succession of crises and new opportunities for future progress. In the past months, we have often noted that the ongoing crisis offers opportunities and calls for action from the generation in charge today as well as from youth, who will be at the frontlines in future. As a crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed lives, compromised health care, destroyed economies and social-protection systems, reduced opportunities in education and employment for youth, and increased poverty and inequality, further exposing us to the effects of climate change and weakening the most vulnerable. But we have also seen opportunities that have arisen from
the fight against the pandemic — from the search for technology-based solutions to minimize the effects of physical distancing in communication, management, education, entertainment, diplomacy and business, to monitoring the progress of transmission, the role of science in its race to obtain a vaccine in record time, and the multiple forms of creative adaptation and response to these times in many other fields of activity.
However, the COVID-19 crisis is also part of a chain of other crises, such as climate change, geopolitical conflicts and criminal insecurity, and their interconnectedness results in increased division among those who have more and those who have less, both nationally and internationally, particularly in terms of access to vaccines for all and to financial conditions and the means to build back better. The missing link between crises and opportunities lies in the exercise of greater global solidarity to turn possible solutions into realities that will allow us to build the future we want and the United Nations we need. For both to happen — or not — the action of any individual State will not be enough, but both are perfectly achievable through collective action of the majority through solidarity.
The future we want has always been enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and its goals of greater peace and security, the protection and promotion of human rights and international cooperation for economic, social and cultural progress for all, provided that these goals are actually achieved. On the other hand, the United Nations we need has always been a debate between what the Organization should do and what it can actually deliver. The difference is in collective action that can bring together as much as possible what should be done and what can be done. The results achieved thus far by the United Nations system may be broadly increased or improved in all areas — from sustained peace to sustainable development. The future we want depends on our ability to seize the opportunities that arise from the crises we face. The way forward is multilateralism revisited and strengthened to meet the great challenges of the present, and the place for this new beginning may well be the Summit of the Future.
Before I end my remarks, please allow me a moment of personal privilege. As I am nearing the end of my second term, and as my country is due to hold
presidential elections on 17 October, this is the last time that I will appear before the General Assembly in this Hall as President of the Republic of Cabo Verde. The best memories I have of the United Nations are of this body, and I wish to reiterate my full commitment to working together with all of its members to continue to defend and promote the inalienable values of freedom, democracy, human rights and peace.