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Statement by New York, 17 October 2002 Mr. President, On behalf of the Indonesian delegation,
I would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to you for your
able stewardship and guidance during the course of this session.
I would also like to commend the Secretary-General for the reports
that frame our deliberation. Indonesia subscribes to the view that the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa are closely linked to the prevalence of poverty on that continent. While the report of the Secretary-General provides updates on progress in peacemaking, peace-building and reconstruction in Africa, Indonesia is convinced that only efforts at enhancing the development of Africa can bring poverty under control, thereby eliminating the key cause of conflict. Indonesia welcomes the progress achieved in addressing the causes of conflict and in promoting durable peace and sustainable development in Africa as described in the Secretary-General’s report. In particular, Indonesia encourages the efforts by some African countries to reduce their military expenditure, and supports the target of reducing expenditures on arms to below 1.5 per cent of GDP while attaining zero growth in military expenditure. In our view, war consumes and destroys resources already in place, and thus we believe that achieving such a target would facilitate the allocation of a larger share of national budgets to sustainable development programs. Indonesia attaches great importance to the emergency assistance from the international community for post-conflict reconstruction and development in Africa. The establishment of the UN Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) as a strategic planning tool for the promotion of transition from relief to development is a welcomed initiative. While recognizing the important role that African countries themselves must play, we encourage the continued contribution of the international community through the United Nations and its agencies to the promotion of peace and development in Africa. Indonesia emphasises the important role that peace-friendly structural adjustment programmes can play. Indonesia supports the suggestion made by the Secretary-General that in providing those programmes, the Bretton-Woods institutions should consider more flexible and effective measures, which include the relaxing of some of the stringent conditionalities concerning economic performance, scaling up post-conflict funding, special assistance for reconstruction, and poverty reduction interventions. Indonesia also lauds the voluntary
establishment by African Leaders of the African Peer Review Mechanism,
to monitor progress in compliance with the In addition to peace and security,
there are other challenges to sustainable development in Africa.
Those are financial constraints, market access problems, lack of
information and communication technologies, issues of developing
human capital, and economic diversification as well as infrastructure
development. Emphasizing peace, security, democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and sound economic management as preconditions for sustainable development, NEPAD now embodies the commitment of Africa to its own peaceful development, and represents the policy framework upon which the international community including UN systems should focus its efforts to assist Africa’s development. It is my sincerest desire that this new initiative should meet with success, since failure would mean failure for us all in achieving the Millennium Development Goals to which we are all pledged. In the context of achieving the objectives of NEPAD, we should recall the experience of implementing the New Agenda for the Development of Africa (NADAF), which was launched in 1991. As the Secretary-General’s report points out, NADAF was at best a limited success. Its lack of progress was attributable to all the actors involved, both African countries and the international community. A critical impediment to success was the cookie-cutter approach to achieving development over a vastly diverse group of countries. The mantra of liberalise and privatise without regard to the unique circumstances that prevail in any given country proved to be a canard. Therefore national ownership of the development process is essential for fundamental change to occur. Local institutions are best suited to satisfy local needs while maintaining local values. NEPAD clearly emphasizes national ownership of the development process; Indonesia welcomes that the international community is coming to accept this principal as critical to the success of the development process. Another impediment was a failure
on the parties to live up to their commitments. African countries
never completely implemented the NADAF program, while ODA to Africa
actually declined after the launch of the program. Mr. President, One area that NADAF did not address was modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT), mainly the internet. Since this new technology was largely unknown in 1991, this was not a failure of the NADAF initiative perhaps, but as of now Africa is the least connected region in the world, with the lowest computer use, which results in many opportunities being squandered. We are particularly happy to learn that NEPAD has targeted ICT as a priority area for development, and therefore efforts to assist Africa to bridge the digital divide for the development should be encouraged. Human, physical and financial capitals are in short supply in Africa, but in fact there is a considerable supply of domestic entrepreneurial talent in Africa. Sixty to seventy percent of employment in Africa is generated by Small, Medium Size, and Micro enterprises. However, a shortage of finance and a lack of connectivity prevent these smaller African firms from expanding regionally and globally, as have many similar firms in other regions. Internet access could help promote African industry and exports, and conversely help open Africa as a market for exports from other regions. In evaluating NADAF’s failures
in order to ensure NEPAD’s success, it should be remembered
that NADAF failed for a variety of reasons. Peace and Security are
the highest goals of the UN, and so they should be for NEPAD, as
the elusive goal of development is made ever more slippery without
peace. Adequate finance is necessary to bring about development,
but not sufficient to do so without supporting polices from both
African Countries and the international community. The aftermath
of Monterrey Conference and Johannesburg Summit has left the international
community with a surplus of goodwill; let us not repeat the failures
of the past, but rather capitalise on the goodwill of the present,
by turning it into action for the future.
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