Once again, we thank almighty Allah for making it possible for us to gather in person at the General Assembly to collectively discuss and find solutions to our shared challenges as members of the international community. That is even more important today as we strive to overcome the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
On behalf of His Excellency President Adama Barrow and the entire population of the Gambia, let me express our sincere gratitude to His Excellency Mr. Volkan Bozkir for his excellent leadership during the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly.
Similarly, the Gambia welcomes the present presidency of the General Assembly with renewed hope and enthusiasm for what we can collectively accomplish during the seventy-sixth session. We are optimistic that the five-point agenda encapsulated in this presidency of hope will enable us to deliver to the satisfaction of our global organ. Let me assure the President of my delegation’s unflinching support and cooperation during his tenure.
We also commend the Secretary-General for his sterling leadership and reform initiatives during one of the most difficult moments as the world faces an unprecedented health, socioeconomic and environmental crisis.
I warmly greet all gathered here on behalf of His Excellency Mr. Adama Barrow, President of the Republic of the Gambia, who would have loved to be here in person but, due to urgent State matters, could not. Instead, he has asked that I extend his best wishes for a successful seventy-sixth session of the General Assembly.
The importance of the theme the President has chosen for our general debate, namely “Building resilience through hope — to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people and revitalize the United Nations”, cannot be overemphasized. The challenges we face today as the international community require resilience-building and recovery from COVID-19 while building sustainability in response to the needs of our planet and its people. Those in turn require a revitalized United Nations that is fit for purpose.
Today Africa as a whole is grappling with the negative effects of conflicts and insecurity. The challenge of addressing the root causes of conflict and climate change require greater global solidarity and United Nations leadership. Apart from the heavy human and material costs, conflicts impede production, damage infrastructure, prevent the reliable delivery of social services and disrupt the growth of societies. Due to conflicts in the continent, poverty continues to be perpetuated, with a negative impact on our collective goal of achieving sustainable peace and security.
The socioeconomic conditions and the governance and security situation in the Sahel continue to alarm us. A more urgent and holistic response to the problems of the Sahel is currently needed. Without a stable Sahel, the West African region will lag in its development aspirations.
In Africa today there is undisputed recognition of strong interlinkages between peace and development, with studies confirming that armed conflicts remain a major obstacle to development in the continent.
Against that backdrop, my delegation calls on the international community to come together and act coherently to address the root causes of conflicts and recovery in Africa by adopting new approaches and narratives that suit the demands of our time. The international community should intensify its collective efforts to accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the goals and targets of Agenda 2063, including those of the Silencing the Guns in Africa initiative. We must also strengthen the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in formulating joint responses to existing and emerging threats to peace, security and development in Africa.
We call on the United Nations and the rest of the international community to help build resilience and sustainability in Africa by promoting global engagement and actions around issues of health, education, COVID-19 recovery, vaccine accessibility, democracy, social protection and human-capital development with a view to consolidating regional integration.
We must continue to accelerate structural transformation while promoting industrialization in Africa. Furthermore, our partners should adopt a conflict-sensitive lens to development programming in Africa, including approaches that would prioritize prevention, stabilization, transformation and
sustainability in order to help African countries in their post-pandemic recovery and long-term development.
Like the rest of the global community, we are deeply concerned about the challenges of vaccine access and equity, abject poverty, the crushing debt crisis and youth unemployment. Building back better from COVID-19, reviving the momentum towards achieving the SDGs and addressing ongoing development challenges will require extraordinary international engagement and solidarity. For our continent, delays in addressing those challenges will continue to have devastating consequences on our economies.
We are calling for a new strategic orientation and partnership that would accelerate our pandemic recovery. In our view, building-back-better initiatives should focus on job creation, digitalization, increased SDG financing, strengthened health systems, scientific research and the increased utilization of local experts in programme and project interventions in Africa. Global recovery will be achieved only when vaccine equity, availability and accessibility are adequately addressed in all countries — big or small, developed or developing.
As we continue to count on the United Nations development system for a renewed development partnership in this decade of action to help us address our development challenges, we call on our partners to increase their funding without heavy earmarking. United Nations agencies and other development partners need funding flexibility and predictability in order to deliver programmes that support building prosperous and structurally transformed economies that leave no one behind, especially the least developed countries (LDCs) and middle-income countries.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated human suffering in all spheres, it has also challenged us to mobilize all efforts and resources to address the eradication of poverty and inequalities through collective action and renewed momentum towards achieving the SDGs. The pandemic has exposed existing fragilities and vulnerabilities and disrupted economic activities and employment, causing a sharp reduction in revenues and in our ability to achieve the SDGs. Africa’s gross domestic product, for example, dropped to an estimated -3.4 per cent in 2020.
At the national level, the Government of the Gambia recently completed the mid-term review of the Gambia national development plan for the period 2018-2021 in order to take stock of the current successes and gaps. In the light of that review, we are taking concrete steps to redefine the strategic priorities of the plan to account for the new challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
We convey our appreciation to the United Nations and all development partners for providing us with timely, innovative and critical support during the pandemic, which helped us ensure Government business continuity, the provision of social protection and the strengthening of our health system.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant socioeconomic impact on LDCs, which must be reversed through new and innovative and inclusive programmes, policies and financing to help them recover and build back better. With preparations for the fifth United Nations Conference on the LDCs (LDC-V) currently under way, it will be important for the international community to recalibrate and commit to concrete actions that will support a resilient recovery and the attainment of the SDGs in this decade.
As an LDC, the Gambia believes that it is crucial for Governments to be equipped with the necessary tools and adequate resources to finance our development priorities, which is what we are articulating as part of the LDC-V process. As the state of our collective security continues to be tested by unprecedented threats and challenges, the call to action has become more urgent for the international community to support the efforts of the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security.
In that regard, United Nations peacekeeping operations have proven to be the Organization’s strongest instrument and most impactful tool in assisting countries’ transition from conflict to peace. United Nations peacekeeping efforts deserve our renewed support and participation.
The Government of the Gambia has consistently demonstrated its commitment to United Nations peacekeeping through its contribution of troops and police to various missions, with an ever-improving level of performance, discipline and commitment. We continue to enhance our participation by deploying more women peacekeepers, providing better training in areas that require critical skill sets and forging partnerships with stakeholders to expand our participation in more peacekeeping missions.
Once again, with the support of all our friends, the Gambia continues to progress on a positive and upward trajectory. The Government’s policies and approach continue to be guided by our awareness of the difficult history that we travelled as a country to usher in democracy.
The Gambia is at a crossroads as we continue to seek national reconciliation, entrench our democracy and consolidate the rule of law. We are on the verge of organizing presidential elections in December 2021 and legislative elections in 2022.The Government will spare no effort to ensure that those elections are held under free and fair conditions as we march towards the next phase of our political transition. We approach those elections in the knowledge that our journey towards reform and transformation in the areas of good governance, transitional justice, civil service and the security sector is a continuing one. We are grateful to our partners who continue to accompany us in our sustaining peace and peacebuilding efforts.
Developments in the international community continue to be a matter of concern to my delegation. On Palestine, we must always remember that peace and security in Palestine and Israel mean peace and security for the Middle East region and the world at large. It is therefore imperative for the international community to encourage genuine dialogue with a view to ending the deadlock. We must intensify efforts to bring both sides of the conflict to the negotiating table. The use of force and violence will only add to the suffering of the people living in the area. We continue to be deeply traumatized by the negative consequences of the conflict and cannot continue to ignore the humanitarian catastrophe that accompanies it.
It is our strong view that peaceful coexistence is the only viable way forward. Putting an end to occupation and impunity, upholding international law, lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip, addressing the dire humanitarian and refugee crisis and having an independent Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, should therefore be urgently pursued by all and sundry. A new peace and political process must be launched by the Quartet.
Since we last met in this Hall, the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and elsewhere has not improved. The Gambia will continue to pursue the case at the International Court of Justice until the victims of the atrocity crimes receive justice. The international community must not relent in its quest for accountability in alleviating the dire circumstances of the Rohingya victim communities.
The Gambia believes in friendly relations between States as the bedrock of international solidarity and cooperation. In that regard, we call on the United States to end the embargo against Cuba and pursue meaningful cooperation with its Government and people. Let the embargo be a relic of history.
Furthermore, the Gambia is strongly committed to the principle of recognizing only one China. That is a cardinal principle of our foreign policy, which hinges on further strengthening our excellent bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect, sovereign equality and shared prosperity — a win-win approach.
We are aware of the geopolitical competition for influence by regional and global Powers, but as small States Members of the United Nations we are more interested in seeing nations increase their cooperation in fighting poverty, climate change, conflicts and global insecurity. We want to see a world of shared prosperity and innovation. We share one planet, and we owe it to posterity to leave it in better shape. Let us eliminate this pandemic together and build forward better by leaving no one behind.
The biggest lesson we have learned from the pandemic is that no one is safe without others and that our institutions are not fit for purpose. We must use the lessons of this pandemic to engender critical reforms of our institutions so that we are better prepared for the next pandemic, climate event or humanitarian catastrophe. The United Nations development system is currently undergoing critical reforms, and we are happy that it is adapting in ways that are contributing to mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in developing countries.
One of the last holdouts of reform is the Security Council. Africa’s quest for greater representation on the Security Council is legitimate, just and overdue. We must not relent until our demands are met and fulfilled. We want to have a greater voice in deciding issues that affect us. We call on all true friends of Africa to support our demands based on the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration.
Once again, on behalf of President Barrow and the Government and the people of the Gambia, I extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all our bilateral and multilateral development partners for accompanying
us on our march towards greater democracy, good governance, development and prosperity. I wish one and all a successful seventy-sixth session of the General Assembly.