Allow me, Mr. President, on behalf of the Republic of Botswana and indeed on my own behalf, to join previous speakers in expressing our congratulations to you personally and to the Republic of the Maldives on your well-deserved election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy- sixth session, which is a clear testament to the fact that the international community holds both you and your great country, the Maldives, in high regard and esteem. That is not surprising given the immense experience and career accomplishments, spanning more than three and a half decades, that you bring to the position. I am fully confident that the Assembly will benefit tremendously from your extensive diplomatic, executive and legislative experience. As we continue to battle against and strive to recover from the dreadful coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic — and many other pre-existing global challenges, such as the climate crisis — your vision statement, which is based on five rays of hope, serves as an inspiration to many, including my own country, Botswana. In that respect, it is gratifying to note that your vision speaks to the topical issues that continue to confront humankind and should remain at the top of the agenda of the United Nations. They include human rights, climate change, gender equality and the empowerment of women, terrorism and violent extremism, inequalities and injustices. We in Botswana are pleased that you have prioritized those issues and are committed to delivering for people, planet and prosperity, consistent with your firm belief in multilateralism and international cooperation.
Let me in the same breath take this opportunity, Mr. President, to pay a fitting tribute to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Volkan Bozkir, for his effective guidance and leadership during one of the most challenging General Assembly sessions in the 75 years of the Organization’s existence. The pandemic challenged us, as Member States, and him, as President of this body, to be innovative and creative in order to ensure business continuity and keep the wheels of the United Nations running. Notwithstanding the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we welcome the fact that under his able leadership we successfully convened some of the most important high-level meetings of the session. They included the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations (see A/75/PV.3); the first ever Summit on Biodiversity; the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women; dialogue on support to least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States; digital cooperation; reform of the Security Council and revitalization of the General Assembly.
The convening of the thirty-first special session of the General Assembly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was also extremely important, ensuring as it did that as Member States we demonstrated our collective resolve to come together in support of an effective global response to the unprecedented effects of the pandemic and reinforce the principles of solidarity and shared humanity. My delegation therefore fully endorses your choice of the theme for the seventy-sixth session, Mr. President, “Building resilience through hope — to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people and revitalize the United Nations”. It is consistent with the actions we need to take collectively to fulfil the legitimate expectations and aspirations of the people we serve at this difficult time in our history.
We welcome your clarion call for hope, Mr. President, because it sets a much-needed optimistic tone for this session, given the extreme urgency with which we must act in the challenging circumstances in which we find ourselves. Hope is a virtue that is at the very core of human progress. History is replete with examples of great things that can be achieved when hope is chosen over fear and despair. Our great Organization, founded after the devastating Second World War, is itself a product and manifestation of hope. Even in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century, our actions should be driven by the belief that things can and will be better.
When I had the honour of addressing the Assembly a year ago (see A/75/PV.8, annex XII), we were all in shock as the pandemic was wrecking our national health systems, taking many lives, destroying livelihoods, overturning life as we know it and ushering in a “new normal” of lockdowns and social distancing. A year later, we are still in the throes of the pandemic. However, advances in science have enabled the rapid development of vaccines. Given that science has delivered the vaccines, it is now time for world leaders, guided by the ideals of the Charter of the United Nations, to ensure that this life-saving resource is distributed equitably. Without a doubt, if we are to contain the continuing spread of this deadly virus and its more transmissible variants, we need a worldwide campaign that ensures that all countries, especially developing countries, have immediate access to vaccines.
That is why Botswana shares the frustration of many and strongly supports the call for the vaccines to be treated as a global public good, as that is key to recovery and rebuilding better from the COVID-19 pandemic. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the efforts of some developed countries to support developing countries, especially those in Africa with very low vaccination rates. I want to sincerely thank our development partners who have donated vaccines and other forms of assistance to Botswana, especially to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which is now spreading exponentially in my country and claiming many lives. The donations are an indication that the global community is slowly heeding the Secretary- General’s warning that no one is safe until everyone is safe. But we have also seen how the uncontrolled spread of the virus triggers the emergence of new variants. A more equitable global vaccination roll-out programme is urgently needed if we are to win the race against the new variants. Let us be mindful of the fact that a variant somewhere is a variant everywhere.
I am happy to say that my Government has prioritized saving our people from this pandemic. In addition to encouraging our people to practice the necessary COVID-19 preventive measures, we have also channelled extra resources to the health sector. That includes purchasing vaccines through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility, the African Union’s Covid-19 Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team and bilateral arrangements. While we have purchased enough vaccines to reach herd immunity, the current logistical supply challenges continue to hamper our vaccination plans. However, the slow roll-out of vaccination programmes in the global South, including in my own country, cannot be solely viewed in terms of the laws of supply and demand. Let us accept that the prevailing vaccine inequity is the real problem and a reflection of the inherent weaknesses of our multilateral system. We must therefore recommit, both in deeds and words, to the pledge we made at the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of this Organization to strengthen international cooperation, coordination, and solidarity (see A/75/PV.3). One way of doing that is through the sharing and transfer of knowledge and waivers on intellectual property rights where vaccine production is concerned. We are ready to work with all stakeholders to make that a reality. We in Botswana are open to capacity-building for the production of COVID-19 vaccines.
In order to make the desired impact under your able leadership, Mr. President, the United Nations system, and especially its principal organs, must work closely
together and act jointly in a coordinated way. While my country holds the presidency of the Economic and Social Council, we will strive together with you to strengthen coordination and collaboration between the two principal organs of the United Nations that we lead. As you indicated in your vision statement, that will help to make the United Nations stronger and more effective in discharging its mandate.
Our economies are still reeling from the impact of the heavy blow inflicted by the unparalleled scale of the pandemic. For small economies in particular, the pre-existing challenges in the areas of economic mainstays such as trade, tourism and the extractive industry have worsened. That undermines our ability to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unfortunately, it is the most vulnerable and neediest in our societies who run the risk of being left furthest behind. However, all is not lost. I am hopeful that if we press the reset button and reaffirm our commitment to multilateral ideals, we can accelerate the implementation of the SDGs in this Decade of Action. As you rightly pointed out in your vision statement, Mr. President, financing, trade, technology, and debt sustainability are some of the prerequisites for attaining the Goals.
My delegation has also taken note of your call for rebuilding back better, stronger, greener and bluer, Mr. President. We could not agree more. The idea of doing things differently is in line with our current approach at home. When we realized the scale of disruption produced by the pandemic, my Government instituted a Reset Agenda, consisting of five priorities that are well aligned to the priority themes of your presidency. First, my Government is fully committed to saving Botswana’s population from COVID-19 through health programmes that include vaccination. Secondly, we are reforming public services to ensure the effective implementation of Government policies. Thirdly, we are accelerating digitalization in the Government’s delivery of services and creating conditions conducive to the private sector and society’s active involvement in the uptake and utilization of digital technologies. Our fourth priority is value-chain development. That entails unlocking more value in key sectors such as mining, tourism, agriculture and education through the innovation and creativity of our people, especially youth. That priority is aimed at accelerating economic diversification and youth empowerment and employment. The fifth priority relates to mind-set change. Here the aim is to inspire our people to own their national development goals, as well as to embrace the goals in both disposition and action.
My Government believes that the Reset Agenda and its priorities, which are in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, will enable us to emerge from it stronger and to realize our development aspirations as enshrined in our national Vision 2036 and our eleventh national development plan. Those national frameworks are aligned to the global blueprint in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. We are, however, mindful of the fact that in an increasingly interdependent setting, Botswana’s development trajectory is inextricably linked with that of the rest of the world. Now more than ever, multilateralism, international cooperation and global solidarity are imperative. The onus is therefore on the Assembly as the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations to strive for a better world, a world where no country is left behind in attaining the 17 SDGs. Beyond what we can do as individual countries, it is also our hope that the lessons being learned from the pandemic will enable the United Nations to find innovative ways of enhanced collaboration with regional and subregional organizations to ensure preparedness for future pandemics and epidemics.
You are assuming your global leadership role, Mr. President, at a time when the world is grappling with a myriad other pressing global challenges, including devastating natural disasters associated with climate change, with small island countries among the most vulnerable. In recent months, massive and uncontrollable floods have swept across Western Europe, Asia and other places, destroying riverbanks and homes and killing hundreds in their wake. Hurricanes, typhoons and storms, as we just again witnessed in countries that include Haiti and the United States, are a major cause of destruction of critical infrastructure worth billions and contribute to humanitarian crises. Similarly, my own region of Southern Africa has not been spared by the terrible path of climate-change-induced disasters, as evidenced in our rainy seasons, which have triggered floods, combined with the devastating cyclones Kenneth, Idai and Eloise. This recurring situation also represents a call to our region to strengthen its early-warning and disaster-preparedness mechanisms through regional collaboration with all stakeholders, with the support of the United Nations.
While the past decade was already the hottest of our planet on record, in recent months more record-breaking temperatures and other climate-change-induced incidents have signalled a real danger of increased global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has again recently warned of a code red for humankind. Today, more than ever before, our planet has clearly become dangerously warmer, triggering melting ice, rising sea levels, floods, cyclones, hurricanes, droughts and other extreme weather events. Combined with air pollution, they destroy irreplaceable ecosystems, with negative repercussions for sustainable development, health and food-production systems as well as food security.
We have all long recognized that climate change is the greatest challenge we face and a true existential threat, demanding that we take bold and urgent measures to regulate our interaction with our environment, among other things by adopting technologies that reduce carbon emissions. I would still like to believe that we can prevent the situation from getting much worse and provide innovative solutions. As the late former Secretary-General Kofi Annan once reminded us, “The world is not ours to keep. We hold it in trust for future generations.” In September 2015, we committed to working tirelessly for the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in all its three dimensions, economic, social and environmental, in a balanced and integrated manner that also embraces full respect for the enjoyment of all fundamental human rights.
In the interests of saving time, I will skip ahead and leave the rest of my statement for the record. I will conclude by saying that it is regrettable that at a time when our main battle should be against the invisible enemy of COVID-19, we continue to witness acts of violence that seek to take advantage of the situation and further threaten international peace and security. In our subregion, where until this August I had the privilege to serve as Chair of the Southern African Development Community Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs, we have committed to countering and eliminating the threat of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. In addition to the threat to peace and stability brought about by terrorist insurgents in Mozambique, which we condemn, we consider any sanctions on Zimbabwe to be a setback to stability in the region. Botswana therefore calls on the international community to end those sanctions. At the national level, my Government continues to take steps to keep its people safe, thereby contributing to the larger ideal of the maintenance of international peace and security. In June we signed a memorandum of understanding in that connection with the Office of Counter-Terrorism, with a view to enhancing Botswana’s capacity and ability to better detect and deter terrorism.
In conclusion, let me reaffirm Botswana’s abiding faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and various multilateral instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other protocols calling for universal access to education, good-quality health care and food, and for the rights of women, children and people with disabilities, as well as the creation of adequate opportunities for our young people. And I want to assure the President of my country’s full support, commitment, and cooperation in enabling him to fulfil his mandate during this seventy- sixth session of the General Assembly.