After unprecedented formats of our General Assembly, following the constraints related to the coronavirus disease pandemic, we are again gathered here under the same roof to calmly debate the problems that disrupt the life of our world. The objective is to restore our common Organization to its fundamental values and principles, which have been severely tested by geopolitical rivalries, the temptation to dominate, national withdrawal and conflicts.
I would therefore like to welcome the theme chosen to guide the general debate of this session: “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”. But before I continue, allow me to extend to the President of the General Assembly at its seventy- seventh session my warmest congratulations on his election and our best wishes for success. I can assure him of my delegation’s support. I would also like to pay tribute to his predecessor for the work he accomplished in a rather difficult context.
On behalf of the President of the Togolese Republic, His Excellency Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, I would like to pay a warm tribute to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his various initiatives to make our Organization more efficient.
During its 77 years of existence, the United Nations has worked tirelessly to prevent conflicts and maintain international peace and security. Today the threat to peace has changed. The inter-State conflicts of yesteryear have been replaced by new forms of violence involving actors who are difficult to capture.
Africa, spared for the time being, has become a sanctuary for terrorist groups. The terrorist threat, long confined to the countries of the Sahel, is spreading to the coastal countries on the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa. That is why the President of the Togolese Republic, His Excellency President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, has never ceased to invest personally in peace and stability in West Africa, and particularly in the Sahel. That determination has enabled the President of the Republic, as mediator in the crisis between the brotherly countries of Cote d’Ivoire and Mali, to obtain the release of three of the 46 remaining Ivorian soldiers. I would like to encourage all parties to show restraint and patience so that mediation can succeed.
The recent terrorist attacks in northern Togo, which left casualties and significant material damage in their wake, demonstrate the increasingly sophisticated means used by the jihadists. That situation is of the utmost concern to my delegation. That is why we welcome the adoption by consensus of the annual progress report of the Open-ended Working Group on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International and National Security on 29 July. Togo remains firmly committed to combating such criminals and driving them beyond its borders. In that regard, we will never waver.
In order to contribute to that pressing goal, Togo hosted the first Pan-African Cybersecurity Summit in Lome on 23 and 24 March. The Lome Declaration resulting from the Summit is a commitment to combating cyberthreats. In that context, my country welcomes the work under way in the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes and encourages all stakeholders to engage in developing such a legal instrument.
Beyond the military response, we are fully aware that the fight against terrorism also depends on the degree of trust between the army and the population and between the latter and the Government. We therefore work daily to combat the root causes of the spread of violent extremism, which fuels terrorism. Togo also took innovative and multisectoral measures, as set out in its strategy document to combat violent extremism, adopted on 1 July. To that end, an emergency programme for the Savannah region, with a budget of $9,104,704, was drawn up for the implementation of various projects up to 2025 in the water, energy, health, infrastructure, education and agriculture sectors.
We are in a new phase of the asymmetric war against that terrorist insurgency. The deterioration of the security situation must be of concern to us all, particularly the United Nations. To that end, it is important to successfully revitalize our Organization and do our utmost to reform the Security Council.
I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Global Programme on the Protection of Vulnerable Targets, from which my country, Togo, benefits as a pilot country. That United Nations Programme, aimed at strengthening the capacities of Member States and providing them with logistical support for the protection of vulnerable targets against terrorist attacks, has proved to be of great importance to our countries.
The other major challenge facing humankind is climate change. All the experts’ reports on that issue are worrisome. That phenomenon is all the more of concern because it affects all countries in the world, including, unfortunately, the least polluting countries, such as ours.
Togo adopted a robust policy for the restoration of vegetation cover, with an ambitious programme for a green transition. The Togolese Government is firmly committed to ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources and resilience to the impact of climate change. With a view to sustainable management and protection, the Togolese Government has therefore focused its priorities, among other things, on improving marine and coastal ecosystems, regulating fishing and promoting the blue economy. Lastly, as part of the preservation and restoration of ecosystems and combating desertification, Togo launched a major national reforestation programme of 1 billion trees by 2030, banned the import, marketing and use of glyphosate and all products containing it and promoted the use of biopesticides and biofertilizers in the country.
We very much hope that the upcoming twenty- seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Egypt from 7 to 18 November, will help to bring environmental conservation back to the centre of the international agenda by urging stakeholders to honour the financing pledges needed to address global warming.
In the area of renewable energy, Togo established strategic partnerships for the provision of reliable, modern and low-cost services in rural areas. Consequently, the fund for access to electricity for all, called the Tinga fund, the Cizo, or Sun, project for the supply of solar-energy kits to rural and vulnerable populations, photovoltaic power plants, miniature solar power plants and solar street lamps were set up throughout the country, contributing to the widespread use of renewable energy in Togo.
On the economic and social front, Togo adopted a Government road map up to 2025, whose vision is to make Togo a modern nation with inclusive and sustainable growth. The road map has three main axes, namely, strengthening inclusion and social harmony and ensuring peace, boosting job creation by building on the economic potential and modernizing the country by strengthening its structures.
The reform of the business climate enabled Togo to significantly increase foreign direct investment in the country. Similarly, the strengthening of development cooperation has contributed to the increased mobility of foreign resources due to the new momentum created by the adoption of the Government’s road map and its endorsement by development stakeholders, the establishment of new partnerships and the revitalization of existing partnerships.
The major challenge for Togo is to implement and strengthen its national social protection system. Improving people’s access to basic social services and strengthening inclusion mechanisms also remain fundamental to poverty reduction. To achieve that, the Government has included the principle of leaving no one behind in public policies.
As a result, other innovative initiatives have made it possible to expedite the inclusion of all social groups. Those include the adoption of the law establishing universal health insurance and the WEZOU digital platform, set up in 2021, to take care of pregnant women and newborns in order to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. Strengthening women’s protection against discrimination and gender-based violence and reducing sociocultural barriers have considerably improved the contribution of the female population to the country’s development.
Togo set up a mechanism for the financial inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors of the population through cash transfers. A project for the development of social-safety nets and basic services, as well as a programme to support vulnerable populations, was established. In addition, an incentive mechanism for agricultural financing based on risk-sharing and a plan
to structure and improve rural agricultural training and integration were launched.
To conclude my remarks, I would like to encourage everyone to consider the foundations of multilateralism and the aims of the founding fathers in devising that system of global governance. At the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly, we had a wide-ranging debate on the United Nations we want and reaffirmed our commitment to multilateralism. The important declaration (resolution 75/1) adopted at the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations adequately reflects the new multilateral ambition to which we committed, and which, moreover, aims to be just and equitable. It also seeks to show us that we are the driver of development and sustained global growth.
Today we are called on to take concrete action to address the many challenges that plague our world, including terrorism and security challenges, as well the coronavirus disease. However, unfortunately, we see that all too often we flout our multilateral commitments. We have at times taken away their substance, their strength and their roots. How else can we understand why the Security Council remains so exclusive? Why not work in good faith to reform that important organ of the international security system by making it more representative of the current world realities?
Based on that analysis, we come to the following conclusion. Today we are convinced that African countries, and Africa in general, no longer want to align themselves with any of the major Powers due to the shortcomings of the concept of multilateralism. The role attributed to Africa in the twenty-first century reflects the image that certain Powers still have of our continent as solely their area of influence. Africa has virtually no impact on the current world order, while it is drastically affected by the consequences of the disruptions in international affairs. It is only of interest to certain Powers when they find themselves in trouble. We must be concerned about Africa’s place on the world stage. In truth, today Africa does not occupy the place that it should in the international arena.
For many Powers, the African continent has no role to play as a major actor, in the Kantian sense of the word, in the international arena. They think that they live in the same world, whereas the world has profoundly changed. When the United Nations was established in 1945, apart from two African countries that we all know — Liberia and Ethiopia — African countries were not yet independent. After 77 years, unfortunately, it is the same international system that remains in place because of the will of the five permanent members of the Security Council, known to us all.
Although the African integration project is still in progress, a consensus has since emerged among African States at the level of the African Union, as recalled at this session by the President of Senegal, Chairperson of the African Union, with regard to the need for the continent to obtain two permanent representative seats on the Security Council, in addition to the two non-permanent member seats allocated to African States (see A/77/PV.4). Despite the general consensus of 54 Member States, the reluctance of some of the five permanent members to see Africa take up those seats is clear. Unfortunately, Africa’s voice does not seem to be heard, as some simply do not want Africa to be a strong continent.
The great Powers want to reduce Africa to a merely functional entity in the service of their causes and clearly do not want the continent to be able to play a significant, or even a leading, role in the world. They usually try to get Africans to subscribe to their narrative and, in the end, Africans are used to support one side against another. When it comes to voting on a draft resolution in the Security Council, we are actively lobbied by both sides. Africa is then greatly in demand, and even put under pressure by some of its partners.
Today we believe that such attitudes and actions, which belong to another era, take place in a historical context in which Africa has become aware of its own responsibility and is increasingly speaking with one and the same voice. The divides of the colonial era between a so-called, inter alia, French-, Portuguese-, English- or Arabic-speaking Africa have lessened, as have the post-Cold war ideologies that dominated the second half of the twentieth century. Today Africa wants to be itself. In truth, Africa is Africanophone, if you will allow that neologism. Africa today is no longer the Africa of the 1945s, let alone the 1960s. Today we have a host of new partners in Africa that are an integral part of the new international geopolitics, far removed from the two opposing blocs that shaped the post-war world of the twentieth century. The world has decentred to become multipolar. To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, the world is now a sphere whose centre is both everywhere and nowhere. Africa no longer can, or wants to, be the carriages of a single locomotive.
In reality, many African countries no longer feel too bound, in the sense of being tied, by colonial history and are eager to work with new partners. All those changes, linked to history itself, whose essence is perpetual evolution, as well as to the clear desire for a paradigm shift in the level of cooperation in Africa, should lead some Powers to change their approach if they want to continue to work with Africans. There is a need for a change of mentality and behaviour of our partners who come to Africa, each of whom without exception has an agenda dictated primarily by their own interests.
Africa expects more equality, respect, equity and justice in its relations and partnerships with the rest of the world and the major Powers, regardless of who they are. Today Africans want to be real partners with the rest of the world. The community of nations must listen to Africa in order to give purpose to our dialogue. Failure to listen distorts the purpose of dialogue, turning it into a juxtaposition of monologues and partial arguments, sometimes under the guise of pseudo-multilateralism, which runs the risk of distorting the relationship.
In this world of ours, it is only by collectively pooling our intelligence that we will be able to reach agreement on objectives to achieve collectively. Although the major problems we continue to face are the same, they are perceived in different ways by the North and the South. When it comes to major international issues, listening to African voices means more than just calibrating the discussion. Africa’s megaphone may not be as loud as those of the world’s major Powers, but Africa’s voice counts and must count for those who seek to partner with it on major international issues.
Africa is in fact waiting for a real partnership and our allies must make an effort to take on the spirit of such a partnership. Our allies cannot always expect unconditional support from our continent. Africa wants to cooperate with its allies on the basis of its own best interests. To that end, our partners need to abandon fantasies that were largely forged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and are clearly out of step with the twenty-first century, in which national and regional challenges have global implications and global challenges have regional, national and even local manifestations and ramifications. The current international economic repercussions and disruptions directly resulting from the return of war to Europe are a clear example of that.
In reality, we are all exposed to the same threats and challenges to our survival and even our existence. However, we deeply believe that we can build a prosperous, more stable and safer world for our peoples through an enhanced and effective multilateralism. Our only option for achieving that is restoring, under the aegis of the United Nations, the strength and determination in our collective capacity for dialogue, resilience and solidarity, which will enable us to make our planet habitable again for all and to sustainably build our shared world together.
We should — and I truly mean this — read our founding texts more often and learn to respect and consider the smallest, weakest and the most fragile among us. Yes, we believe that another world is possible. It is inevitable for all of us, because in truth — and here I paraphrase the famous scientist Albert Einstein on the subject of war — I do not know what the Third World War will be like, but I do know that there would not be many people left to see the fourth.