A/39/PV.47 General Assembly

The Secretary-General had intended to make a statement on this item this morning, but owing to recent tragic events he has had to leave New York and so is not able to do so. His statement has been circulated as document A/39/627. I should like to inform Members that, after consulta- tions, I have designat~d Mr. Tomo~iko Kobayashi of Japan to act as co-ordmator of the mformal ~onsulta­ tions on the present item. 2. Mr. ENGO (Cameroon): Africa is curnmtly expe- riencing an unprecedented economic and social crisis. That the magnitude and uniqueness of this crisis are universally recognized is amply demon- strated by the decision of the General Assembly to include in its agenda at this session the item entitled "Critical economic situation in Africa". As Chair- man of the Group of African States this month, I have the great privilege ofpresenting to the Assembly some ideas that come from the continent to which I belong. 3. It is indeed a source of encouragement that the international community, by agreeing to deliberate on this important question that touches the hearts and minds ofAfrica's suffering people, has in a sense admitted the special character of Africa's social and economic difficulties and the urgent need to find adequate immediate, short-term and long-term solu- tions to the problems. It will be recalled that in his report to the Economic and Social Council at its second regular session of 1984,1 the Secretary-Gener- al noted, in paragraph 7: "The current economic and social crisis in Africa reflects the cumulative impact of internal and external factors: inadequate resources, slow eco- nomic growth, structural weaknesses, global eco- nomic recession, strife and adverse climatic condi- tions. Individual Governments find themselves increasingly unable to deal effectively with the cumulative impact of those forces. There is a danger of a downward spiral of economic decline, poverty and hunger." 4. The Secretary-General's candid·assessment in- deed provides a clear picture ofthe nature and degree of the present African economic crisis, but, needless to say, in the last decade African Governments had begun to recognize that the economic development of the continent was facing severe contractions and that NEW YORK a number of initiatives and programmes at the national, subre~ional, regional and international lev- els were needed to permit these countries to over- come a potential crisis of development. 5. Indeed, the adoption by the Organization of African Unity [OA U] of the Monrovia Strategy for the Economic Development of Africa, in 1979, and of the Lagos Plan of Action for the Implementation ofthe MQnrovia Strategy and the Final Act of Lagos, in 1980, provides ample testimony of the African Governments' interest in responding to the situation and oftheir political vision to do so by attempting to attack the root causes of the continent's economic and social ills on a permanent basis and through a combination of national means and international support. 6. Viewed in its regional context, the essence of the Lagos Plan is the realization of self-reliant develop- ment through the encouragement of indigenous re- source capabilities and domestic production and consumption, the ultimate aim being to restore the momentum of development. In reality, however, the support for the implementation of the Plan has been very weak thus far. ECA, which is charged with co- ordinating the technical implementation of the Plan, including its principal programme components such as the Transport and Communications Decade in Africa and the Industrial Development Der.ade for Africa, is not fully assisted in that task. 7. Together with other members of the Group of 77 developing countries, African countries have contin- ued to point to the unfavourable international eco- nomic system, particularly the structural imbalances inherent in the world economy and its inability to sustain satisfactorily the development ofthe develop- ing countries. What developing countries seek is not a larger share ofthe benefits derived from the growth of the developed countries, but merely an interna- tional environment that offers prospects of self-sus- tained growth for all and provides new approaches to international economic co-operation for develop- ment. 8. Unfortunately, the experience of the past years has demonstrated not only a deepening complacency on the part of a few developed countries about the existing unequal international economic order, but also the economic asphyxiation of a majority of developing countries as a result of growing protec- tionism, high rates of exchan~e, lower prices for primary products, a deterioratIOn of the terms of trade, severe balance-of-payment problems, system- atic stagnation in international trade and a decline in financial flows. 9. But the adverse effects of the deteriorating and unstable international economic system explain only one agonizing dimension of the economic and social crisis now prevailing in the continent. That crisis, as ra~~~er~Je~~~eUl:~;~u~~~:~f~ts:~t~O:~~:~:~~=.. :~~e:~~~~:::~Ut~\:~::;~h~::~:~:~~S~~f~~~_ - NOTES IEl1984/68. 2Report ofthe United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries. Paris. 1-14 September 1981 (United Nations publica- tion, Sales No. E.82.1.8), part one, sect. A. 3E11984/110, annex. 4E11984/68 and Add.I.