Eight years ago in this very Hall, we, the leaders of the
world, solemnly adopted the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). Three years ago, we reviewed the
Goals to assess the progress made thus far. We realized
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that the Goals were in danger of not being attained by
the year 2015, and we all acknowledged that we would
be able to achieve them only through a considerable
increase in our efforts.
Have we been able to deliver on those promises
and commitments? I am afraid that we have not. In
fact, the situation is more complex now than it was
three years ago. We are facing a global food crisis, a
global economic crisis and a global security crisis, with
war and political hostilities spreading throughout the
globe. In spite of efforts to reduce the divisions
between the rich and the poor, the progress we have
made so far on the MDGs has fallen far short of the
targets we established.
Those global crises are of such importance that
they are threatening to delay the achievement of the
MDGs beyond 2015. It would be a major mistake if we
were to do nothing to prevent that from happening. We
must remain focused on the achievement of the MDGs.
I highly appreciate the aid and assistance provided by
donors and international organizations. Those
institutions and their programmes are making a
difference in the daily lives of people throughout
Africa, including in Madagascar.
In Madagascar, for example, under-five mortality
rates have dropped from 159 to 94 per 1,000. Primary
school enrolment has increased from 67 per cent to
more than 92 per cent. A million Malagasy have risen
out of poverty in the past five years. None of that
would have been possible without the support of the
international community.
Unfortunately, official development assistance
continues to shrink, while the aid provided by the
international community remains insufficient. The
target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income
allocated to official development assistance was set
with a view to achieving the MDGs in the developing
countries. In his report on Africa’s development needs
(A/63/130), the Secretary-General rightly stresses that
most of the wealthy donor nations have failed to
deliver on their promises to help the world’s poorest
countries. The same report estimates that donor
countries must increase aid by $18 billion a year in
order to honour their pledge to provide $50 billion
dollars by 2010.
In Africa, we continue to bear the consequences
of those broken promises. Africa cannot break the
vicious cycle of poverty: families have difficulties
feeding themselves and the number of families with
access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
infrastructure is very small. I call upon all donor
countries to honour their promises and to demonstrate
leadership by explaining to their people why
supporting the MDGs and the fight against poverty is a
moral obligation and essential to creating a more stable
and peaceful world.
We are all aware of the current world food crisis.
For us and other countries, it is a heavy burden that
poses many new challenges. The global food crisis is
partly the result of the domestic agricultural subsidies
and tariff protection practices of developed countries,
which for many years have discouraged agricultural
production in developing countries. In Africa, we find
ourselves in very difficult circumstances. Because we
have such low agricultural output, we are dependent on
the global marketplace to feed our people. With
commodity prices soaring, however, we cannot afford
the basic food items needed to survive. We are in an
unprecedented crisis. Rising food prices are pushing
more people into absolute poverty.
The international community needs to take urgent
and coordinated action to counter the negative impacts
of increasing food prices on poor and vulnerable
countries. Global trade policies must foster food
security for all. Developed countries must reform their
agricultural subsidy policies and amend the strategies
and practices that increase the volatility of
international prices. The international community must
also help African countries to expand agriculture and to
strengthen agricultural investment and the infrastructure
needed for rural development.
The new agricultural development strategies must
address the need for environmental management,
sustainable development and the resistance of crops to
disease and climate change. Given the impact of global
climate change, maintaining healthy biodiversity is
critical to sustaining future production performance.
Small subsistence farmers, representing 80 per
cent of Africa’s population, are key to its development.
We must support them through a variety of
programmes focused on training, access to finance and
equipment, and marketing and distribution processes.
Those small subsistence farmers must be an integral
part of, and benefit from, a new model of agricultural
production, economic development and environmental
management. In that regard, I appreciate the true value
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of the new dynamic of the Food and Agricultural
Organization’s pragmatic approach.
I would like to speak about what we are doing in
Madagascar to address the challenge of food security.
Our chief intention is to make Madagascar’s
agriculture more productive, more sustainable and
more open to innovation and entrepreneurship, as the
initiative Future Farmers of Madagascar shows.
For example, we are promoting the widespread
use of the System of Rice Intensification, developed in
Madagascar in the 1980s, an eco-friendly method of
production that is an important part of the natural
revolution, recently launched in Madagascar. That
revolution is based on sustaining our natural resources
and maintaining an ecological balance. It respects the
soil, the environment and the people. At the moment,
as rice is the staple food of the people of Madagascar,
we are trying to keep the domestic rice price at an
affordable level to protect the most vulnerable layers of
the population.
In addition to that food crisis, we are confronted
with other important challenges: climate change,
increasing energy prices, unpredictable financial
markets and other threats to our peace and security.
What are the consequences of those threats and
challenges?
First, those threats have a severe impact on the
education, health and well-being of the population. In
short, they have a very negative impact on our
development. Secondly, those challenges are now
competing with the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Many of the resources dedicated to achieving
the MDGs are now being directed elsewhere. They are
being used to reconstruct countries destroyed by war or
that have collapsed as a result of social conflicts. They
are also being used to stabilize the food markets, meet
energy demands and tackle climate change issues.
I understand that countries devastated by wars
and other armed conflicts, by environmental disasters
or by famine need assistance. I understand, and I
support reforestation efforts and the need for new
hydro-energy plants. What I do not understand,
however, is that all those challenges and threats offer
reasons for countries to abdicate on their promises of
doubled aid for education, health and infrastructure, in
order to achieve the MDGs in developing countries,
especially in Africa.
For that reason, I have repeatedly stressed the
importance of international assistance, especially the
need to increase, improve and better coordinate that
assistance, if donors are to meet their previously
agreed pledges. There are links between the MDGs and
the political, economic, environmental and other
challenges I have mentioned. Therefore, more
investment towards achieving the MDGs will
contribute to addressing those challenges. In fact,
improving the situation of the most dominated is one of
the best means to solve them.
However, we must realize that those challenges
will not be solved by simply shifting resources from
one problem to another. It is clear that those other
challenges require additional resources and a better
coordination of efforts. Africa has been hit harder than
any other continent by the food crisis, by higher energy
prices, by environmental degradation, by disease and
by social and political destabilization. That is why I
would like once again to reiterate the need for a new
Marshall Plan for Africa.
It seems that many world leaders, and public
opinion, have forgotten or neglected the MDGs. We
cannot fill one group’s basket with the advantages of
globalization while we empty the basket of another
through the cost of globalization. It is increasingly
clear that domestic interests are serviced at the cost of
international needs. The outcome of the latest round of
the World Trade Organization proved that. The lack of
shared decision-making power in international
institutions and global forums is a significant obstacle
to making progress in developing countries and to
achieving the MDGs. I would like to see a United
Nations that can mobilize the resources and political
will to tackle the toughest of problems — and succeed.
I am optimistic. I believe that we can turn the
situation around. I appeal to you as leaders of the
world. Everyone needs to contribute more goodwill,
more motivation, more technical assistance, more
coordinated efforts and, above all, more financial
resources to the international basket. If you want to do
so, if we are all committed to doing so, we shall be
able to confront those crises together and achieve the
Millennium Development Goals, and I am sure that we
are going to win.
The recent fourth Tokyo International Conference
on African Development provides an encouraging and
promising example of our partners’ commitment and
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willingness to advance the development agenda of
Africa and to achieve the MDGs. More and more
foundations, such as the Gates, Rockefeller,
MacArthur, Better U and Clinton Foundations, and
others, are playing a vital role in Africa. All those
initiatives are much appreciated.
Madagascar has embarked on the path of
transformation. To accelerate and better coordinate our
development process and to make a quantum leap
forward, we have created the Madagascar Action Plan,
or MAP. It is a bold and ambitious, five-year plan that
aims to promote rapid growth, lead to the reduction of
poverty and ensure that the country develops in
response to the challenges of globalization and in
accordance with the national vision, Madagascar
Naturally, and with the Millennium Development
Goals. To implement the plan we have mobilized the
whole population, whose active participation
strengthens its sense of national pride and country
ownership.
To help it move further on that path and to
achieve the MDGs, the international community must
double its efforts in Madagascar. For our part, we are
resolved to assume our responsibilities, build trust with
our partners, strengthen our capacities, promote
democracy and good governance and take control of
the future of our country.
It is crucial to share the responsibility and to
prove our ability for leadership in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals. I am calling on the
leaders of the world to confront the challenge of
transforming our thinking and our actions towards
development to build a new Africa that becomes a
continent of hope and opportunity.