Malawi

I wish at the outset to congratulate you on your election as President of the sixtieth session of the United Nations General Assembly and also for the excellent manner in which you and your Bureau are steering the work of this session. I would like to assure you of my delegation’s full support. I further commend His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, our Secretary-General, for the dynamic and sterling leadership of the United Nations. The theme of this session is germane to the proposals for reform of the Organization. There is the imperative of taking stock of its strengths and weaknesses so that we can create a better future. Within the context of this theme, the Secretary-General, through his report entitled “In larger freedom”, has made important proposals that will make the United Nations more effective and credible. The proposals aim at enabling the United Nations to provide the required leadership in the implementation of the global development agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). My country, Malawi, has followed closely the debate on the report. I feel that, from the diverse opinions that have been expressed, a consensus is emerging on the need to implement United Nations reforms and make the Organization respond more effectively to the challenge of change. Let me, however, express the view that, in addition to the reform of the Security Council, there are other equally important reforms of the United Nations that are critical to the realization of the global development agenda. I will turn to these later. For the moment, it is critical that we remain focused so that all elements of the reform receive our undivided attention. Mr. President, let me assure you that Malawi appreciates the role played by the international community and the United Nations in the efforts to eradicate poverty and promote development and prosperity for all. The just-ended High-level Plenary Meeting is one such initiative that offers great hopes for the way forward. However, previous experience has taught us that a lot is generally said and promised within the United Nations, but little or nothing is delivered. It is my earnest hope that the outcome of this session will not turn out to be another talk show. Malawi faces serious problems in instituting an effective system of political and economic governance. 2 My country continues to face critical challenges in determining our political agenda, which in turn affect our development efforts. We still face extreme poverty, food shortages, hunger and malnutrition. HIV/AIDS continues to claim more lives. Malaria is still killing millions each year. Over and above these problems, we face mounting domestic and external debt, an unfair and inequitable global trading system and the prevalence of conflicts and political instability. We therefore feel that for any United Nations reforms to be meaningful, we need assistance in the areas of good governance. In Malawi, we are promoting good governance by pursuing sound macro-economic policies, reduction in public expenditure, bench-marking the activities and performance of the civil service and fighting corruption at all levels. We have also instituted effective reforms of the private sector, and through dialogue the business community is now responding positively to economic and social reforms. In many of these reforms, I can say that we have made a good beginning. It is for this reason that my Government welcomed the establishment of the African Peer Review Mechanism under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) of the African Union. Our accession to the African Peer Review Mechanism is a manifestation of our desire to adopt policies and practices that emphasize accountability and transparency in public sector management. Malawi has made efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals. Our report, entitled “Malawi and the Millennium Development Goals: challenges and achievements”, has been circulated. However, my country is facing severe constraints in implementing the MDGs because we are allocating a significant amount of limited resources to servicing external debt and for managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, at the cost of the social and economic transformation necessary to fight poverty. Malawi, therefore, supports the proposal to find comprehensive and durable solutions to the external debt problem. In this regard, we welcome the recent proposal by the G-8 to cancel 100 per cent of outstanding debt owed by 18 countries, including 14 from Africa. I would like to appeal to all creditors to follow this noble example, because debt cancellation has the potential to assist the poor countries in achieving the MDGs and, hence, attaining national economic recovery and economic transformation. Another challenge for Malawi is that my country finds it hard to be integrated into the global trading system, partly due to the lack of products that meet high quality standards, but also due to an unfair and inequitable global trading system. We therefore join the appeal for the speedy completion of the World Trade Organization Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in order to assist poor countries, such as Malawi, to benefit from global trade. Furthermore, there is need to provide immediate duty-free and quota-free market access for all exports from the least developed countries, including the elimination of all non-tariff barriers, such as trade distorting subsidies and domestic support, especially in agriculture, by developed countries. In the African perspective, development efforts have also been heavily undermined by the prevalence of conflicts and political instability in many parts of the continent. Realizing this, we in Africa have taken bold and far-reaching initiatives to promote peace and security on the continent. For instance, my own country, Malawi, has participated in peacekeeping activities in Liberia, the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I commend the role played by the United Nations Security Council and the G-8 in supporting the African Union’s initiatives in conflict resolution and management. I also wish to draw the attention of this Assembly to the fact that peacekeeping in Africa constitutes the bulk of the Security Council’s work. I therefore earnestly believe that the role of the United Nations in Africa can be enhanced by encouraging Africa’s representation in the Security Council. In that regard, Africa’s call for the expansion of the Security Council should be supported by the international community. The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses serious social and economic challenges to Africa. However, the General Assembly may be interested to know that Malawi is one of the few success stories in managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The people of Malawi have welcomed the provision of voluntary counselling and of free anti-retroviral drugs. For instance, since the middle of last year, we have established more than 30 anti-retroviral clinics throughout the country and have treated many people. We expect that by this time next 3 year, we will have been able to treat more than 80,000 people. I therefore welcome the call at the High-level Plenary Meeting to provide, as a priority, assistance for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment in African countries on a grant basis. I also welcome the emphasis placed on the need to encourage pharmaceutical companies to make anti-retroviral drugs affordable and accessible in Africa. My Government appeals for more funding to enable us to adopt a holistic approach that takes into account the medical, economic, political and social impacts of HIV/AIDS on the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. I take this opportunity to commend all countries that continue to make contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Fund has enabled Malawi to introduce free anti-retroviral treatment programme for those infected by HIV/AIDS. In terms of agriculture and food security, Malawi has not fared well this year. My country is facing severe food shortages owing to the drought that we have had since January this year. As a result of a very poor harvest, we shall require approximately 270,000 metric tons to feed some 4.2 million people who will be in need of food until the next harvest season, sometime in April or May next year. I therefore appeal to the world community to help us to obtain more food sources for our people. I am grateful for the pledges of relief food assistance made by our cooperating partners such as the World Food Programme, the British Government, the European Union, the Japanese Government, the United States Government, the Belgian Government and the Norwegian Government. We are also grateful to the Secretary-General for the special appeal he has made for Southern Africa. I am pleased to announce that the people of Malawi are also doing something to feed themselves. We have made provision in our budget to buy food for our people. We have also established a Feed-the-Nation Fund, through which people in Malawi from all walks of life are making voluntary donations to purchase food for the poorest of the poor. The response has been overwhelming. With a view to a medium- to long-term solution, we have adopted concrete policies aimed at reducing our dependence on rain-fed agriculture. We have established a full ministry responsible for water development and irrigation. We look forward to technical assistance from those countries that have expertise in the area of irrigation. Turning to the subject of United Nations reform, I wish to bring to the attention of the General Assembly an important aspect of reform of the Organization, concerning the determination of eligibility for United Nations membership. As members are aware, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right of all the world’s peoples to belong to the United Nations and that no country should be denied membership in the Organization. Malawi believes that the United Nations was founded on the principle of inclusivity in its membership. That is why we in Malawi call for the admission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a Member of the United Nations. That request is made on the premise that, following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, the new States that emerged therefrom expressed their desire to become sovereign and independent Members of the United Nations. They were granted membership. That was a political decision. In the same way, when the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up into the separate States of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia, each State was admitted into the United Nations. That also was a political decision. Czechoslovakia broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and each of those States was admitted into the United Nations. In South- East Asia, Singapore pulled out of the Federation of Malaya and became a Member of the United Nations. Later, East Timor broke away from Indonesia and was also admitted as a Member. Those were political decisions. The Government of Malawi is therefore puzzled that the Republic of China (Taiwan), which took a similar political decision, is denied membership in the United Nations. How can the United Nations stand for equity and justice when it is denying membership to more than 23 million people who contribute significantly to global trade and development? How can the United Nations justify its denial of membership to Taiwan when, in fact, the countries listed above were admitted? Why is Taiwan being discriminated against in the United Nations? 4 Unless those questions are honestly answered, observers will conclude that the United Nations is applying a double standard. The Government of Malawi believes that the United Nations should use the same standard to grant membership to the Republic of China. I therefore appeal to the United Nations, through you, Mr. President, to extend membership to the Taiwanese people in the same way as it has done for countries of Eastern Europe and South-East Asia. That would enable the dynamic and resourceful people of Taiwan to play their rightful role in global affairs, industrialization, trade and development. I believe that the admission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) into the United Nations would also bring credibility to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Long live the United Nations!