Tanzania

At the outset, I should like to congratulate the President on his well-deserved election to the presidency of this Millennium Assembly. I also want to congratulate his predecessor for his invaluable contribution and his outstanding leadership during the fifty-fourth General Assembly. In the same vein, I should like to register my delegation's appreciation to the Secretary-General for the excellent manner in which he is conducting the affairs of the Organization. Let me also take this opportunity to express our delight in welcoming the Republic of Tuvalu as the newest member of the United Nations family. Tanzania is gratified that the recently ended Millennium Summit addressed some of the most pertinent issues and challenges facing the United Nations and its Members in the new millennium. Those issues include development and poverty eradication; the effects of globalization, including technological disparities; conflict prevention, management and resolution; disarmament; and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria and tuberculosis. It was recognized that Africa and, particularly, the least developed countries suffer most and hence demand urgent remedial action by the international community. Poverty remains one of the areas of great concern in Africa. The number of poor people in our region living on less than one dollar a day is estimated to be 300 million. That number represents more than 40 per cent of Africa's total population. Indications are that the number of poor people in the continent is 8 likely to increase as Africa's output continues to drop. There is therefore an urgent need for a comprehensive strategy for Africa to address poverty eradication with all its ramifications. The strategy should include a compendium of measures aimed at capacity-building in the development process, including social services. The implementation of such a far-reaching strategy for poverty eradication would very much depend on the availability of resources. Bearing in mind that in 2001 the United Nations will convene a High-level Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development, it is our hope that the issue of mobilizing resources for the development of Africa will be thoroughly addressed. Official development assistance continues to be particularly critical in supporting development efforts in Africa and the least developed countries. It is sad to note that flows of official development assistance have fallen to an all-time low of 0.2 per cent, far from the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of the gross national product of developed countries. My delegation therefore wishes to appeal to our development partners to reverse the trend of declining resources and increase the level of official development assistance contributions. Many African countries are undertaking painful reforms aimed at attracting foreign direct investment. However, foreign direct investment flows have been minimal. Investors should feel encouraged to invest in Africa because the competitive rate of return on foreign direct investment stands at between 24 per cent and 30 per cent. That rate is higher than those of all developed countries, which stand at between 16 per cent and 18 per cent. We therefore call on Governments and relevant international organizations to assist in sensitizing potential international investors to the possibility of directing their investments to Africa. The various debt relief initiatives pursued by the international community have been helpful, but not sufficient, in providing a meaningful solution to the debt problem of the developing countries. In some of those countries, external debt service constitutes a major drain on scarce resources, taking at least 30 per cent of the national income. In that regard, we welcome the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative to support some of the poor countries in their efforts to resolve the external debt problem. My Government appreciates being one of the countries which have attained eligibility under this scheme. We call upon the institutions concerned to speed up the process towards our reaching the completion point so that we can fully benefit from HIPC relief. Commenting on the HIPC Initiative, my President, Mr. Benjamin William Mkapa, has had this to say: “Tanzania welcomes the revisions made to the HIPC Initiative. If implemented in full they will provide additional debt relief, which in turn will facilitate the war on poverty and will contribute to sustainable growth and development if managed well. However, if growth is to be sustained, adequate levels of external funding must complement our economic reform efforts. Debt relief under the HIPC Initiative should also not be a substitute for increased bilateral non- debt-creating aid, and neither should it be financed through reallocation of committed aid.” Even acknowledging the importance of the HIPC initiative, the burden of meeting debt service payments would remain heavy even after debt relief for most of the least developed countries. We therefore call upon the donor community to increase HIPC debt relief and to consider additional relief measures, including debt cancellation, so that scarce resources will be released to cater for economic development and poverty eradication programmes. The development of the least developed countries depends on improvement of their capacity to produce goods and services. Improvement of terms of trade and market access for the goods of least developed countries in the developed countries' markets would further contribute towards poverty eradication efforts. In that regard, we call upon developed countries to provide unhindered market access for goods from developing countries, particularly from least developed countries. In the same context, my delegation calls for speedy implementation of the World Trade Organization's Integrated Framework for Trade-related Technical Assistance which will facilitate the integration of least developed countries into the world trading system. The development process of developing countries very much depends on access to technology and on the endogenous capacity to develop it. We are encouraged that the Millennium Summit reiterated the need to assist developing countries to leapfrog into new 9 technologies in order to close the existing technology gap between developed and developing countries, especially least developed countries. It is our sincere hope that the Millennium Declaration will be translated into a concrete programme of action to assist developing countries to develop the critical technologies, including information technologies, needed for their development. We therefore call upon our development partners and all relevant international institutions to facilitate the transfer of technology, including environmentally sound technologies, on favourable terms. My delegation believes that South-South cooperation is an important means of realizing some of the objectives of economic development. Tanzania fully supports the programme of action adopted last April in Havana, Cuba, at the South Summit. Tanzania recognizes and fully supports the role of women in the development process. Here, the Government has adopted a number of specific measures aimed at enhancing the participation of women in decision-making processes, and at bringing about equal access to education and health, and access to credit on a preferential basis. In the area of representation, for example, the Government has increased the minimum quota of women parliamentarians from 15 per cent to 20 per cent. The Government has also passed legislation that criminalizes discriminatory activities against women. Furthermore, the Land Act was revised in 1999 to enable women to own land, the major means of production in Tanzania. Tanzania is firmly committed, therefore, to implementing the Beijing Platform for Action. We therefore call on the international community to support our efforts in this regard. Serious pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are threatening the economic and social development of developing countries, especially African and least developed countries. For example, the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has grown to alarming proportions in Africa. The Security Council has recognized this menace as constituting a security threat. Moreover, the Millennium Summit has underscored the urgency of adopting effective action to combat the scourge. Tanzania urges the international community to assist developing countries in this endeavour, particularly in education and access to affordable treatment. Disarmament, peace and security continue to be crucial to the aspirations of all humanity, and therefore they constitute a critical challenge of the new millennium. The existence of huge arsenals of nuclear weapons poses a major potential threat to world peace and security. These weapons continue to represent a threat to the survival of mankind. Tanzania calls for the complete destruction and elimination of all nuclear weapons. The United Nations also needs to urgently address the problem of small arms and light weapons, which fuel most of the ongoing conflicts in various regions of the world. In this context, we strongly support the convening of the 2001 United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. The Millennium Summit addressed extensively the conflict situations existing in some countries, including those of Africa. The Summit reaffirmed the existence of the intrinsic link between peace and development, which requires an integrated approach to conflict prevention, management and resolution. While supporting United Nations peace efforts, we note with concern that there has been a slow and an inadequate response to African conflicts from the United Nations. In Angola, it is with apprehension that we bear witness to the continuing hostilities and the grave humanitarian situation brought about by Jonas Savimbi and his organization, UNITA; they have blatantly violated the decisions of the Security Council regarding the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol. It is disturbing that Mr. Savimbi has been able to sustain his insurgency by violating the sanctions imposed against UNITA by the Security Council. We call upon the international community to continue its support to the Government of Angola. On Burundi, my delegation is pleased to note that after protracted negotiations between the parties involved in the Burundi conflict, the Burundi peace and reconciliation agreement was concluded in Arusha, Tanzania on 28 August 2000. We welcome the agreement and commend the Facilitator, President Nelson Mandela, for his role in reconciling the parties. We also commend the regional leaders for their efforts in support of the Burundi peace process. Although a small number of parties to the conflict did not sign the agreement, efforts were made to ensure that all of them would sign it. As I speak here, most of the parties have now signed. It is our hope that the parties will abide by the terms of the agreement and afford the people of 10 Burundi the opportunity to realize their aspirations for peace and development. We call upon the United Nations and the international community to extend support to the agreement. As for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Lusaka Agreement remains the basis for the resolution of the conflict in that country. It is unfortunate, though, that there is an impasse in the implementation of the Agreement. One of the reasons for the existing situation is the mistrust among the parties. The delay in the deployment of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has created a vacuum that has further contributed to the impasse. Tanzania supports Security Council resolution 1234 (1999). We also urge the Security Council to deploy the peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as soon as possible. On Somalia, we welcome the agreement reached in Djibouti on the formation of the Government of that country. In this regard, we congratulate the Government of Djibouti for its constructive role in the reconciliation process. Concerning Western Sahara, Tanzania reiterates its support for the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people and the effort of the United Nations to organize and supervise an impartial, free and fair referendum, in accordance with the Settlement Plan for Western Sahara and the relevant Security Council and other United Nations resolutions. We urge the United Nations to conduct, as soon as possible, the referendum on the basis of the preparations that have so far been made. The lessons of East Timor should not be ignored. On the Middle East, Tanzania continues to support the cause of the Palestinian people. In this regard, we welcome the ongoing peace process aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in that volatile region. There is a direct linkage between conflicts and the incidence of refugees and internally displaced persons. In this respect, Tanzania finds itself in the very difficult situation of hosting more than 800,000 refugees, most of whom are products of the crisis in the Great Lakes region. This is a huge burden for a poor country like Tanzania. Besides, refugees pose many problems relating to security and environmental degradation. There is an urgent need for the international community to increase its support to the refugees, as well as to the refugee-hosting countries. In the same vein, we reiterate our call for international burden-sharing and responsibility in refugee situations. A definitive solution to the refugee situation evidently lies in resolving conflicts so as to enable the repatriation of refugees to their countries of origin. One of the pressing reform issues in the United Nations is the reform of the Security Council. Among the significant changes of our time is the liberalization and democratization of economic and political processes. The Security Council cannot persist in being an exception. Its composition and powers must bear a relationship to the democratic ideals necessary for its continued relevance and legitimacy. It is our hope that the Council membership will be expanded in both categories and that such expansion should include both developed and developing countries. Furthermore, Tanzania believes that the capacity of the United Nations to effectively carry out its mandate is contingent upon the willingness of all Member States to support it politically as well as financially. In this regard, we call upon the Member States to provide it with adequate resources on a timely and predictable basis. Tanzania also welcomes the many reform proposals and measures that have been introduced to improve working methods, both at the Secretariat and at intergovernmental levels. For that effort to succeed, there has to be consensus among Member States on the best method to manage change in the United Nations. In conclusion, allow me to observe that the Millennium Assembly, like the preceding Summit, is an act of partnership. We can only hope, therefore, that the renewed enthusiasm and the recommitment to the Charter of the United Nations will galvanize our energies and enable us to rise to and fulfil, the hopes and aspirations of the Organization and its peoples, as espoused in the Millennium Declaration.