May I take this
opportunity to join those who have come before me in
congratulating His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss on his
election as President of our Assembly and on his
diligent stewardship of the proceedings thus far. I also
thank and congratulate His Excellency Mr. Ali
Abdussalam Treki for his leadership and drive at the
head of the sixty-fourth session of the Assembly.
We spent the first three days last week debating
the progress made — or not made, as the case may
be — in attaining the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) by 2015. For many of us, there are still
formidable struggles ahead. For Seychelles, while we
have made huge strides forward towards meeting these
Goals, we are also pedalling furiously so as not to slip
back on what we have already worked hard to achieve.
This brings to mind the question: Are the MDGs an end
in themselves? The task does not end in 2015. It cannot
end in 2015. What happens, and where are we headed
after that?
Those of us that are middle-income countries, and
that includes many small island developing States
(SIDS), already know the different set of challenges
that these questions bring — questions that other
countries will also have to face as they achieve and
move beyond the MDGs. The debate needs to start
now, as we fast approach 2015, on how countries will
access the affordable financing they will need not just
to move beyond the MDGs, but to ensure that they
keep and do not lose what they have achieved.
That is why Seychelles announced at the MDG
summit that we will be engaging with the United
Nations system to enter into new commitments towards
setting MDG-plus targets, the overall objective being
to make sustainable development a reality beyond the
Millennium Development Goals and the next
generation.
We are all aware of the differences among us in
our sizes and populations. The needs of every Member
of the United Nations are different. We have learned a
lot about development over the years, and today we all
know that one-size-fits-all does not work. At the
United Nations and other development organizations,
we have created development categories to facilitate
access for those most in need of the appropriate
resources. Resources are always stretched, and, as we
move beyond 2015, we must make sure that
development categories truly facilitate development.
Such categories must not become a way to punish those
that succeed in development.
And we must not allow small island developing
States to fall through the cracks between the categories.
Middle-income SIDS face special problems that the
international development architecture does not
currently make provision for. The funding that is
available to SIDS is fragmented. There is no reliable
funding to them. Even on issues where SIDS are most
affected, such as climate change, there are many
barriers to our ability to access funding, not least the
use of gross domestic product per capita criteria to
define eligibility for funding.
The question that will come up increasingly as we
try to answer the question of how to fund development
beyond 2015 is where SIDS can go to finance their
development. The answer is that we need to define a
specific development category for SIDS to be used by
all development partners.
That is why small island developing States say
“let us start at home” by requesting the Secretary-
General to initiate a system-wide review of how
effectively the United Nations and its various agencies
49 10-55122
are actually supporting SIDS, and how that can be
improved. This could be done by an inter-agency
working group that would provide concrete
recommendations to this sixty-fifth session of the
General Assembly as to how the United Nations system
could better support the specific needs of SIDS. The
world economic and financial crisis has reinforced the
vulnerability of island States to external shocks. More
than ever, it has illustrated that islands need as much
support as possible if they are to be able to pursue
development successfully.
As I have already highlighted, there are gaps in
the existing development system. Those gaps mean that
we must be prepared to be innovative in meeting the
development challenges that are looming. We welcome
the efforts of several countries and of the Secretary-
General to adopt new and innovative means to finance
development. In Seychelles, the pressures of the food,
fuel and financial crises meant that in 2008 we had to
engage in wide-ranging macroeconomic reform with
the support of the Bretton Woods institutions, the Asian
Development Bank and our Paris Club creditors. We
are most grateful to all our partners for their support.
I think it is interesting to note that while we were
restructuring our old debt, our economy began to grow
thanks to new foreign direct investment, most of it
from the developing world — the Gulf, Africa and
Asia. There are many new channels for development
that remain relatively unexplored and unstructured.
I would like also to brief the Assembly on a
groundbreaking renewable energy project being
undertaken in Seychelles with the support of the
United Arab Emirates Government. This project is an
example of how a small island can have access to
affordable financing to reduce its dependence on fossil
fuels — one of the things that make islands most
vulnerable. These South-South dynamics are often
overlooked in the traditional dynamics of the United
Nations. Often, we also waste a lot of time on
ideological debates that further obscure the true
objectives of development. We need to be pragmatic
and we need to act.
Climate change, and in particular sea-level rise,
remain by far the greatest threats to small islands.
Much more ambitious global action needs to be taken
to significantly reduce emissions and implement
adaptation in a manner that will ensure the
development aspirations and survival of all countries,
small islands in particular. We need to ensure that fast-
start funding is also available for disbursement as
quickly as possible.
I must stress the concern of small islands that
much of the funding available to adapt to climate
change is being channelled through traditional funding
channels. This means that most SIDS will miss out on
funds because of our middle-income status. Climate
change requires funding mechanisms that do not rely
only on business as usual. We need a real fast start. For
the moment, we are still stuck at the starting block.
While we reflect on the governance of the United
Nations, we must also spare no effort to ensure that we
can be effective in resolving conflict in those areas
where human suffering is at its worst. In the Horn of
Africa, we remain deeply concerned about the ongoing
situation in Somalia. We convey our solidarity to the
Somali people and the Transitional Federal
Government that is trying to restore peace and security.
We fully support the efforts of the African Union,
through the African Union Mission in Somalia, and of
the United Nations.
It is clear, however, that we must now be
prepared to move beyond what we have already tried
and tested. The ongoing problems associated with the
situation in Somalia also continue, unfortunately, to
hamper the conditions for development in the region.
The threat of terrorism is rising, while the scourge of
piracy continues to spread further afield, as far east as
Maldives and as far south as Madagascar.
Seychelles has worked hard to ensure that our
maritime zones remain safe, and we thank all our
partners for their support. Nonetheless, piracy has led
to direct losses in our economy of over 4 per cent of
gross domestic product. We welcome the new regional
project on piracy being developed by the Indian Ocean
Commission and the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa, with the support of the European
Union. This project approaches the problem from
several angles simultaneously as we attempt to
strengthen the regional capacity for patrols and
surveillance, strengthen the legal and judicial capacity
of our countries, and mitigate the negative effects on
our economies.
I would like to thank our friends and neighbours
for their support on this issue. It is an issue that
depends on all countries working together, both from
within the region and beyond. We must also continue to
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engage with the Somalia to strengthen its ability to
build its own institutions.
Seychelles also strongly believes that the
international community must strengthen its efforts to
tackle transnational crimes that are often linked to
instability and insecurity, from money-laundering to
people trafficking. In the Indian Ocean region, we are
determined to work with all partners to ensure that we
can address these issues effectively.
We are all part of the United Nations because we
believe that we must work together to achieve
development. Development is a collaborative process.
We need to strengthen this collaboration. We need to
make more efforts to ensure that there is more
innovative financing to fund development. We need to
be more pragmatic in our approach. We know it will
not be easy, but that only strengthens our resolve. We
are ready to move forward together.