It
is an honour to join other speakers in addressing the
General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. This
year the Assembly has as its theme “The post-2015
development agenda: setting the stage”. These annual
meetings are thus an opportunity to consider and reflect
on the course that each of our countries is following to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
There can be no doubt that recent events have posed
a major challenge to the achievement of prosperity,
development and progress, especially in those regions
of the world that have suffered most from the effects of
the international economic crisis and of climate change.
El Salvador has been no exception.
When, on 1 June 2009, the Government that I head
took power, the nation’s economic growth rate was at
negative 3 per cent, with 40,000 jobs lost. There had
been a considerable drop in exports, especially to the
United States, our principal market. Income from taxes
and family remittances had decreased, and broad sectors
of the population were impoverished or excluded from
the benefits of public policies.
But that harsh reality was not just a product of the
crisis. It was the result of decades of the implementation
of economic and social models that excluded the great
majority and promoted backwardness and injustice. As
from June 2009, with the process of political alternation
in El Salvador, that reality began to shift.
As soon as our Government took power, we made a
commitment to achieving the Millennium Development
Goals and to use them as a road map. The Government’s
five-year plan states that our strategic plan is to have
a healthy, educated and productive population with
the capacity and appropriate opportunities to fully
develop its potential to become the foundation of our
development. The Government’s plan incorporates
strategic instruments and policies aimed at achieving
the MDGs over the short and medium term. We took
the strategic decision not to shift the costs of the crisis
onto the poorest segments of the population, as had
been the habit in the past.
For that reason, we devised and implemented
policies aimed at combating poverty, reducing
inequality, achieving a process of social inclusion and
creating new institutional mechanisms that would make
it possible to more equitably distribute wealth and the
benefits of economic growth.
Our Government put an end to the old concept
of the patrimonial State, which defended only the
interests of small political and economic groups.
Now the Salvadoran State is at the service of the
most underprivileged. That shift in public policy has
translated into an increasingly modern and effective
State that is fighting poverty, social exclusion, violence
and corruption. Thus this new type of governance,
which is based on the implementation of best practices,
transparent and increasingly participatory, has already
begun to have a positive impact on the achievement of
the MDGs, as demonstrated by the following results.
El Salvador has made great progress towards
eliminating poverty and hunger. In the past year, we
not only achieved but exceeded the goal of reducing the
number of households living in extreme poverty. We
also made major achievements when it comes to access
to education. In 1991, the net coverage for primary
education was 75 per cent of the population; last year it
was 93 per cent. We have gained almost 20 percentage
points in those years.
Since the beginning of my Administration,
all students in public schools — some 1.3 million
children and young people — have received free shoes,
uniforms and school supplies. The impact of this was
immediately noticeable, as we increased enrolment
while dramatically reducing the dropout rate. Twenty
years ago, 85 per cent of the population of working
age was literate, but this rate has now reached almost
100 per cent. Over for the past four years alone, the
Government has managed to reduce the illiteracy rate
by 5 per cent. With the help of thousands of volunteers,
we are teaching over 170,000 adults to read.
In terms of health, one of the achievements we are
most proud of is related to the significant reduction in
maternal mortality, one of the two sections of Millennium
Development Goal 5. With the health-care reform
undertaken by my Administration, we have increased
access to health services by hiring more doctors,
nurses and specialists and establishing new women’s
centres. Pursuant to the Millennium Development
Goals, the objective is to achieve a maternal mortality
rate that is equal to or below 52.8 maternal deaths per
100,000 inhabitants by 2015. We have reached that
goal in El Salvador and even exceeded expectations by
reducing the rate to 41.9 maternal deaths per 100,000,
or 11 fewer than the target for this Goal.
The comprehensive health-care reform initiative
that we launched has been tasked with bringing health-
care services to the most remote corners of our country
that, historically, have been isolated from economic
and social development. This firm commitment of
our Government has led us to increase the health-care
budget by 60 per cent over a period of four years. That
has allowed us to increase the supply of medicines in
hospitals and public health clinics by between 50 to
82 per cent in that time and to significantly expand
the proportion of the population who are immunized.
Similarly, free health consultations mandated by our
Government have contributed to a 40 per cent increase
in demand for such services, which represents a
significant step in our goal to extend that service to the
majority of the population.
I cannot speak of advances in health care
without talking about access to and improvement
of basic services such as drinking water. Our efforts
have gradually borne fruit in the areas under our
responsibility in this respect. We have met the target
of 71 per cent of households having treated water piped
into their houses. In 2011, under our Government, this
was already true of 72 per cent of households. Sanitation
is covered by another Millennium Development Goal,
which set the target of 89 per cent of households having
this service by 2015. As of two years ago, 96 per cent of
Salvadoran households had access to sanitation.
In summary, great efforts have been undertaken
to achieve the best possible outcome on each of the
indicators, leading to enhanced well-being for all
Salvadorans. I believe that the time has come to conceive
of social programmes for people as an investment and
not as an expense, or even worse as a waste, as some
leaders in the country mistakenly continue to believe,
stuck as they are in their stingy and outdated ways of
thinking.
It is clear that the gains we have made in my
country in recent years have not been the result of
chance. El Salvador is going through a period of great
change. This profound transformation has occurred
first through a change in the economic model that has
set a different course for our nation. We are working
primarily on restoring the vitality of our countryside
in order to make it once again a central engine for
economic development.
Thanks to our family agriculture plan, which
provides small and medium-sized farms with free
delivery of improved seed packets and fertilizer,
training and access to technology and credit, last
year we had record food-crop harvests and were still
able to keep the price of basic grains within reach of
the entire population of El Salvador. We have also
successfully implemented school lunch programmes,
so that children receive at school fresh, healthy food
grown on Salvadoran farms. Today, more than 800,000
poor Salvadoran children receive two glasses of fresh
milk a week in school as part of their diet. All these
efforts have brought more prosperity to Salvadorans,
especially the poorest.
But in addition to poverty, there are other scourges
such as violence, drug trafficking and organized crime
that deprive our people of well-being and happiness.
With this in mind, we have implemented public policies
to reduce violence and fight crime.
The Government has created new police units,
overseen the graduation of 4,000 new agents and
redoubled operational plans to curb crime. At the same
time, a non-aggression pact between the two main youth
gangs was agreed on two years ago. The Government
was only a facilitator of that pact, which has established
the minimal conditions to reduce gang violence levels
in the areas most affected by that phenomenon. Thus,
ongoing crime suppression and prevention efforts have
resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in homicides. The
Government’s security policy has also dealt a heavy
blow to organized crime gangs, allowing for significant
seizures of drug shipments.
We know, however, that huge challenges remain.
There are major obstacles to development that will not
be overcome in my new Administration’s four years in
power. I would highlight in particular the challenges
represented by climate change and the resulting need
to protect and safeguard the lives of tens of thousands
of Salvadorans. We are a region exposed to extreme
weather phenomena, at least five of which El Salvador
has experienced in recent years. They have had the
greatest impact on the most vulnerable parts of the
population and the country’s infrastructure, causing
losses in the billions of dollars.
A major challenge is to build a sufficiently fair and
democratic society that is respectful of those who make
up the majority of the population — women. El Salvador
has undertaken serious efforts to achieve goals derived
from the Millennium Development Goals in the area
of gender equality and the prevention, punishment and
eradication of violence against women.
In addition to establishing a confidential call
centre for reporting gender violence, the Government
has approved the first national policy against human
trafficking and achieved a considerable decrease in
women’s deaths by homicide. Without a doubt, the
most valuable contribution in this area lies in the City
of Women initiative, through which we have created
four comprehensive care centres for women and are
on track to create two more, scheduled to open later
this year. This initiative is already considered by
international organizations and world leaders a model
of public management. It is a comprehensive and
integrated system of specialized services for women in
the areas of sexual and reproductive health, economic
empowerment — through both formal employment
and support for entrepreneurship — and prevention
and treatment of gender-based violence. It also helps
to focus the priorities and attention of my Government
on women.
Another tangible demonstration of the ongoing
process is the dialogue undertaken to achieve reparations
for victims of gross violations of human rights and the
vindication of the rights of war veterans. With regard
to the latter, we have succeeded in repaying a debt that
adminstrations prior to ours had failed for years to
recognize and to repay. Moreover, my Government has
promoted a reconciliation process without precedent in
the nation’s history and a recognition of the human rights
atrocities committed in El Salvador. As Head of State, I
asked forgiveness for the disappearances, murders and
torture, and from all those who experienced the brunt
of such abuses during our civil war. I ordered a dialogue
with organizations representing the victims of serious
human rights violations. As a result of this process, in
the days to come I will announce a national reparations
programme, which will include the ratification of
various treaties human rights adopted by the General
Assembly and a guarantee that such violations will
never recur.
The right to food, education and welfare must be
ensured in order to achieve sustainable development
and eradicate poverty. In that respect, all the efforts
of national Governments must be complemented and
strengthened with the support of the international
community and the United Nations system.
Radical change is needed in the global economic
system, which is based on financial speculation
and consumerism and not only has an impact on the
most developed economies of the world, but also
and especially makes the least developed countries
even poorer. International cooperation must seek
fundamentally to improve the productive capacities of
our countries and to invest in people suffering from
poverty and exclusion. My Government believes that
the path to growth is investment in the poor and their
transformation into a middle class with access to health
care and education.
I invoke international solidarity and the agenda of
the General Assembly in which we are gathered here
today in order to advocate once again for the lifting
of the blockade against Cuba. I have made this same
request in my previous statements before this forum,
as I believe that Cuba is part of the American soul and
that the blockade is a relic of the past. The brotherly
people of Cuba, like all peoples of the world, have
the right to seek development and well-being through
comprehensive integration.
Similarly, we support diplomatic efforts seeking
a swift peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria. We
condemn the use of chemical weapons, and we support
the agreement between Russia and the United States
whereby Syria’s chemical weapons would be destroyed
under the supervision of the United Nations.
Before I conclude, I should like to express my firm
belief that the United Nations will take the necessary
steps to guarantee the development and implementation
of a comprehensive post-2015 agenda. In that context, I
believe that we will realize a better and fairer world for
all of humankind.
In El Salvador, we are preparing to implement that
agenda. We are happy to be among the few countries
in Latin America working on multidimensional
poverty measurement. Next year we hope to use these
statistics to complement our income-based poverty
measurement. We will thereby be in a better position
to implement comprehensive policies that will allow us
to eradicate poverty in a definitive and lasting way. I
thank the United Nations for its invaluable cooperation
in the pursuit of our major aspirations as a nation, and
the Assembly for its attention.