At the outset, we would like to congratulate Mr. Csaba Korosi on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session. With his vast experience, we are confident that he will successfully provide the leadership required during his tenure as President of the General Assembly. We pay tribute, of course, in the same manner to Mr. Abdulla Shahid, for his unwavering dedication and excellent stewardship of the Assembly at its seventy- sixth session.
We are meeting here at a very difficult time when global challenges have not only multiplied but have become more complex. Those challenges include the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; climate change; the war in Ukraine and its associated effects on and disruptions to supply chains; food insecurity around the world; and high commodity and energy prices, as well as the overall high cost of living. They have cast a dark shadow over the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on our continent and around the world. The risk of reversal in our hard-won development gains is very real. COVID-19 unmasked global inequalities that stretch well beyond income and political boundaries, as the variations in access to vaccines have shown. The risks of further inequality are also real, especially for our developing countries, whose capacity to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change is inadequate, sadly, in spite of our insignificant carbon footprint. This is truly a defining moment of our time in which we must channel our collective efforts to address the numerous challenges that we face.
That is why Zambia welcomes the challenge to build on Our Common Agenda (A/75/982) and endorses the call to convene a summit of the future. We call for arriving at a pact for the future that underwrites a new form of multilateralism in our world — one where major challenges are faced together, in solidarity, within the context of a revitalized international order that is rules-based, fair and inclusive, with the United Nations at the centre of it all. As a country two thirds of whose population is below the age of 25, the outlook for the future and an emphasis on intergenerational equity are very important to us. Our Government seeks to harness that demographic dividend by investing in its youthful and energetic population for a better future. We therefore support the establishment of the United Nations Youth Office. That should encourage the meaningful engagement of young people in diverse ways, such as in political representation, access to lifelong skills training and education, support for youth innovation and entrepreneurship and indeed in decision-making in all areas of life, including climate change and environmental protection.
In spite of the steady progress that has been made in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, we still need to remain vigilant to guard against the possibility of its resurgence. We have all experienced the negative impact of the pandemic, particularly with the loss of millions of our loved ones and disruptions to socioeconomic activities across the world. As the world continues to recover from the pandemic, it is therefore essential to find lasting solutions, including by investing in resilient health systems that will respond to future pandemics such as COVID-19, among others. That means establishing a versatile international public health regime that will shun the hoarding of vaccines
and related technologies in order to guarantee the rapid deployment of supplies from a global reserve for tackling future pandemics.
The re-emergence of polio in our world is of great concern. For that reason, together with a number of countries in our region, Zambia is participating in supplementary immunization activities in order to prevent and halt the spread of the wild poliovirus type 1. That is in addition to ongoing activities to fight other vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, as well as to strengthen our routine immunization and maintain essential maternal and child health services. As the Global Cholera Control Champion — with many thanks to the World Health Organization, which gave us the opportunity to serve in that role — we must continue our fight against cholera with vigour. We also need to remain alert to any possible outbreaks of monkeypox, the Ebola virus or other such threats. The international community must also work together to address the growing threat to environmental, human and animal health resulting from antimicrobial resistance, commonly referred to as drug resistance. Drug- resistant bacterial infections continue to cause millions of deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, bears the greatest burden of resistant bacterial infections, which account for a large proportion of deaths in our regions. That calls for better control systems when it comes to access to antimicrobial medicines for both human and animal use. I shall now focus on other areas of interest.
With regard to economic performance, the crisis in Ukraine has hampered the recovery that was slowly taking hold, particularly in the developing world, where large sections of society remain in extreme poverty and inequalities widen by the day. Countries that have seen their attainment of the SDGs go off-track must intensify their national consultative processes and stakeholder engagements and renew their commitments to reducing poverty, tackling energy poverty, supporting debt restructuring and enhancing access to concessional financing, which is very important for our own national development agendas.
For our part, we hereby indicate in that regard our intention to present our second voluntary national review in July 2023 to highlight Zambia’s progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the challenging external environment, our resolve to rebuild the Zambian economy is stronger than ever before. Our economic recovery is on track, as evidenced by positive growth indicators and the stabilization of key macroeconomic variables such as interest rates, exchange rates, market stability and inflation, which we have been able to bring down from 25 per cent to 9.8 per cent in just one year in office. Zambia is on a path of growth from the economic contraction we experienced in the past, which was somewhere in the region of minus 2 per cent, to a gross domestic product now estimated to grow at approximately 3 per cent. That means we have seen economic growth of approximately 5 per cent in the past 12 months, which was difficult to achieve but was possible with a lot of hard work. Nevertheless, we still want to do more.
In terms of social economic benefits, our commitment to providing equal opportunities, especially for young people, has been demonstrated by the introduction of free primary and secondary education, as we believe that without a doubt, education is the best equalizer, the best investment and the best inheritance. Consistent with our pledge to invest in human capital, we have recruited more than 30,000 teachers and 11,000 health workers in 2022 alone. We are decentralizing service delivery and have increased the allocation of our constituency development fund by more than 1,000 per cent in our first budget in office. That is just the beginning. The expenditure of those funds at the community level is meant to ensure inclusive and sustainable economic growth that will support the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises and employment creation across all of our 10 provinces and 156 constituencies.
I am pleased to note that in principle we have reached an agreement with our creditors under the Common Framework for Debt Treatments to restructure the national debt we inherited. We have also effectively concluded a deal with the International Monetary Fund based on our important home-grown economic transformation plan. We are very grateful to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations system as a whole and other cooperating partners for their support.
The adverse effects of climate change have continued to ravage our planet. In addressing the emerging global climate crisis, I would like to point to a recent situation in Zambia, where in a single season one half of the country experienced total crop failure due to extreme drought while the other half experienced floods. That is obviously not normal. Those are the negative effects of climate change. Such extreme weather events are a
timely reminder of the grave consequences of climate change. Without a doubt, we need robust solutions and cohesion in our approach at the global and regional levels to address the effects of climate change. As Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, Zambia calls for enhanced global efforts to address the issue, which should include increased financial support for countries with limited resources to mitigate and adapt to the negative effects of climate change. Zambia has mainstreamed green growth and climate-change proofing in its current national development plan, which has articulated broad policy measures for transitioning Zambia into a climate-resilient and inclusive green economy over time.
Thirdly, Zambia has continued to build on efforts to attain gender equality and inclusivity in various sectors of our society. Based on empirical evidence, the empowerment of women and poverty alleviation are positively correlated. It is therefore imperative that we dedicate corresponding efforts to ensuring that gender disparities are curtailed at all levels. Under its national gender policy, Zambia has been implementing affirmative action in favour of women and girls to ensure that their full potential is realized at all times. To complement those measures, Zambia is championing the campaign to end child marriage in Africa, and of course all over the world. In the same vein, we are proud to inform the Assembly that earlier today, Zambia, Canada and other cooperating partners held a side event to galvanize support and review the commitment of the international community to ending child, early and forced marriage. With the assurances made during that event, we are hopeful that we will be able to achieve target 5.3 of Sustainable Development Goal 5, on gender equality, in our programming, which aims to eliminate that harmful practice.
The world at large has grappled with growing instability and insecurity over the past year and the effects have been felt by millions of people around the world as lives and livelihoods have been lost everywhere. Zambia believes that without peace and stability, our joint development efforts will be in vain — I repeat, totally in vain. We are therefore committed to remaining strong advocates of peace and stability in Southern Africa, on the entire African continent and the world over. Our guiding principle is that instability anywhere is instability everywhere. That reminds us that ending war and conflict is not only the responsibility of those directly involved in the conflict but also a shared obligation of every global citizen and every nation. I mean all of us, without exception. We cannot afford to allow instability to derail our noble programmes to better the lives of our people. We therefore take this matter seriously and will continue to actively participate in efforts to restore peace in all the troubled regions of our global village. As the incoming Chair of the Southern African Development Community organ for politics, defence and security cooperation, Zambia will prioritize the restoration of peace and stability in our own country, to start with, and in the region. As the saying goes, charity begins at home.
At the continental level, Zambia remains engaged and committed to the efforts of the African Union and the United Nations to promote peace in various conflict areas around the world. Going forward, I would argue that our United Nations system should tilt more efforts towards the prevention of conflicts, which is more cost-effective and palatable. As a signatory to various disarmament treaties and conventions, Zambia remains committed to promoting global peace and security.
Zambia joins other Governments in expressing particular concern about the ongoing war in Ukraine. As we stand with all who are affected, in both Ukraine and its neighbours, we also want to take this opportunity to stress the far-reaching negative consequences of the war, particularly for the price of food, fuel, fertilizer and other key commodities across the world. In any part of the world, war has a damaging effect on economic activity, which derails our collective fight against poverty and hunger. A few months of war can erase decades of progress, and I want to emphasize that. We must take note of it. We therefore categorically condemn war anywhere and continue to urge all the parties involved to pursue diplomatic solutions for conflict resolution. I would like to emphasize that our United Nations should continue its peace efforts in this particular conflict. The efforts of the President and all of us collectively are well recognized. I am grateful for that.
We would like to stress that global ambitions for peace and security largely depend on the effectiveness of the Security Council. However, the inadequacies of the Council’s current structure have become increasingly pronounced, with the ceding to the General Assembly of decision-making on matters of global peace and security that would otherwise have been the preserve of the Security Council and that should be the preserve
of the Security Council. However, the burden has now been pushed onto the General Assembly. That is not right, and it brings to the fore the need for long- overdue reform of the Council. We appreciate the call from President Biden for greater inclusivity in the Security Council. We therefore continue to advance the African Common Position, as espoused in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, to ensure the effectiveness, credibility and legitimacy of our Security Council.
In conclusion, we would like to reaffirm Zambia’s commitment to the fundamental principles on which the United Nations was founded and that safeguard our shared future of peace and prosperity for all nations, not just for some. I shall emphasize that point — the principles that safeguard our shared future of peace, stability and prosperity for all nations.