A/68/PV.37 General Assembly

At the outset, my delegation wishes to thank the President for convening this joint debate on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and on the Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa. This event is particularly timely since this year we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the African Union and the tenth anniversary of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). My delegation would also like to extend its appreciation to the Secretary- *1353103* 13-53103 (E) General for presenting the reports under consideration today. As Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff stated during her speech on the occasion of the African Union’s golden jubilee in May in Addis Ababa, Brazil sees the African continent as a brother and close neighbour. Our African descent constitutes one of the strongest pillars of our culture and our national identity. Brazil’s support for NEPAD reflects that awareness of our inextricable connections to Africa. The Secretary-General’s eleventh progress report on NEPAD (A/68/222) confirms that Africa is undergoing profound economic and social transformations. Over the previous year, encouraging developments continued to materialize in the fields of infrastructure development, agriculture and food security, health and education, and information and communications technology. In addition, the consolidation of the African Peer Review Mechanism has helped to strengthen mechanisms to identify and put in place African solutions to African challenges. In that regard, we wish to commend the NEPAD Agency, the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, the African Union and the regional economic commissions for their consistent efforts. We need to recognize, however, that, despite the resilience shown by African economies, many challenges persist on the path to sustainable development. In many instances, the chronic lack of resources for public investments hinders the full implementation of NEPAD development plans. In the area of international trade, African countries are faced with many structural barriers to their access to global markets. A lack of trade financing and the imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers in developed- country markets, including trade-distorting subsidies, continue to prevent Africa from meeting its full export potential, especially in agriculture. In that regard, as we approach the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization to be held in Bali in December, we must strive to ensure an outcome that is consistent with the central role of agriculture for developing countries. The continued decline in official development assistance (ODA) is another cause of concern when it comes to African development initiatives. We call on all donor countries and development partners to fulfil their ODA commitments and to intensify support for NEPAD activities in order to sustain the momentum that has been achieved, bearing in mind that Africa is the only region that is not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Brazil’s commitment to Africa’s sustainable development is permanent and unwavering. Our efforts to that effect have been concentrated on cooperation in the areas of health and agriculture and food security, always in accordance with the principles of South-South cooperation, such as non-conditionality and demand- driven assistance. They have also included productive investments in a number of sectors. As far as agriculture and food security are concerned, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, EMBRAPA — a State enterprise — continues to provide technology and capacity-building through South-South cooperation to various African countries. Examples of ongoing projects include the creation of community seed banks in South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia; family agriculture development in Malawi; cooperative development in Benin; and biotechnology laboratorial procedures in Ghana. In addition, EMBRAPA also supports the production of tropical fruit, cocoa, cotton, rice and horticulture in countries such as Senegal, Tanzania, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of the Congo, with a view to improving access to food and increasing food security and resilience. Through the Ministry of Rural Development, the Brazilian Government is also transferring capacity to countries such as Zimbabwe, Kenya and Ghana to help them develop local versions of one of our national programmes, which provides finance for family- farming investments in machinery and equipment, irrigation and dairy production, among other areas. In the field of health, in order for Africa to achieve sustainable development, it is essential to make progress in the fight against continental epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. To that effect, we have been working together with a number of African Governments in order to facilitate access to drugs and treatment throughout the continent. In 2012, in partnership with the Government of Mozambique, the Brazilian Government’s health foundation opened a medicine factory in Maputo that has been producing 21 types of antiretroviral drugs to combat HIV/AIDS. It is expected that in two years, production will be sufficient to cater to the demand of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. In that regard, it is essential that African and other affected countries continue to be able to make full use of the flexibilities in the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), in accordance with the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and public health. Brazil has also participated actively in United Nations and NEPAD activities aimed at curing and preventing malaria, including the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. We have renewed our commitment to cooperating with African countries based on their own national experience in the control and elimination of malaria. At the bilateral level, we have continued to develop joint training and capacity-building programmes with a number of African countries for the prevention and control of malaria and the overall strengthening of national health systems. All of those initiatives are underpinned by the commitments made by African and South American countries at the third Africa-South America Summit, held in February in Malabo. On that occasion, nations from the two regions reaffirmed the urgency of articulating policies aimed at improving food security, including access to food. They also committed to building a productive agenda focused on inclusive, sustainable economic growth and on prioritizing production by local small and medium-sized farms, while respecting their traditional methods. We also agreed on 27 different projects for implementation between our two regions in areas of common interest in addition to agriculture, such as education and culture, infrastructure, peace and security, institution-building, governance and public administration, and trade. We also wish to highlight the importance of the meeting held in March in Durban, South Africa, between African leaders and leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The meeting focused on the potential for cooperation on infrastructure projects, as well as further initiatives in the areas of health, agriculture and food production, and the sharing of national experiences in the design and implementation of public policies aimed at sustainable development and social inclusion. All those initiatives are fully aligned with African development priorities and are geared towards giving renewed strength to the ties between Africa and Brazil and South America as we strive to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals and advance towards the post-2015 development agenda.

I would like to thank the President for giving my delegation this opportunity to contribute to the topic under discussion today. Zambia wishes to align its statement with those made this morning by the representatives of Ethiopia, on behalf of the African Group, and Fiji, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China (see A/68/PV.36). Most of the development issues concerning the New Partnership for Africa’s Development have been very well articulated, particularly by Ethiopia, and our delegation would like to narrow the discussion down to one key issue that affects our socioeconomic development, namely, the agenda item on the Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa. Malaria remains a major public-health concern in Zambia, particularly among children under 5 and pregnant women, with more than 4 million cases reported every year. My delegation would like to pay special tribute to the Secretary-General, as well as to the global community, for the unprecedented support that the fight against malaria has garnered in the past decade, a contribution that the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted in his recent report (A/67/825) Like the other parts of Africa where malaria is seriously endemic, Zambia has been a beneficiary of that unprecedented support. I wish to echo the concerns in the WHO report on the shortfall in global financing for malaria control, particularly the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We know that increased, sustained and predictable funding to the Global Fund does go a long way towards ensuring the availability of malaria-control commodities, as well as to consolidating and preventing a reversal of the gains that African countries, particularly malaria-endemic countries, have made. Like the rest of Africa, my country faces severe resource constraints, which challenges our ability to contribute from our local treasury. Therefore, by and large, the contribution of the global community has gone a long way towards fostering the gains we have made in malaria control. Continued support for attaining meaningful and sustained progress is therefore very much needed. African countries and their Governments remain committed to malaria-control efforts, and Zambia, like many malaria-endemic countries, has made remarkable reductions in malaria incidence and has embarked on an ambitious programme to eliminate it altogether, through the use of enhanced surveillance, the assured availability of commodities and, in particular, integrated prevention and treatment interventions within communities. I am glad to report that by the end of 2012, 72 per cent of households in our country had at least one mosquito net, and that all our districts have now been included in indoor residual spraying efforts. Seventy- four per cent of households have at least a net or have been sprayed against malaria. Of particular interest is the fact that more than 72 per cent of pregnant women are receiving antimalarial prophylaxis. Those efforts have resulted in reductions in malaria incidence and fatalities of about 66 per cent, thus contributing to Millennium Development Goal 6. Ultimately, as it is for the rest of Africa, Zambia’s goal is to eliminate malaria, because we believe that is part of our development agenda, and the impact of malaria goes way beyond the health sector. It is a basic social and development issue for most African countries. While noting those gains, Zambia, like most African countries, has experienced some setbacks and challenges in scaling up planned interventions, due to shortfalls in the co-financing of programmes, especially from the global health initiatives. My delegation therefore calls for increased resources to be applied to research and surveillance to best inform malaria control efforts, to prevent the development of resistance to drugs used in malaria control and to prevent resurgence where we have elimination within sight. In support of the Secretary-General’s report (A/68/222) and his observations, we call for the consolidation of the gains made by maintaining the aspirations of Millennium Development Goal 6 in the post-2015 development agenda and ensuring that the eradication of malaria remains a priority global health issue.

Allow me, at the outset, to welcome Mr. Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the Planning and Coordinating Agency of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Algeria also welcomes the report of the Secretary- General on NEPAD (A/68/222) and the insights it provides. My delegation wishes to associate itself with the statement made by the Permanent Representative of Ethiopia on behalf of the African Group (see A/68/PV.36). This year, the golden jubilee celebration of the establishment of the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union, provides us with an opportunity to take stock of what has been accomplished thus far and to look to the future with confidence. Launched in Abuja in 2001 to spearhead the African renaissance, the idea of NEPAD was born out of the political imperative for Africans to rely primarily on themselves to lift the continent out of poverty and to put an end to the marginalization of Africa from the globalization process. For that purpose, NEPAD has placed the issues of peace, security, democracy, good governance, human rights, women’s empowerment and sound economic management at the heart of sustainable development. While recognizing the political, economic and social difficulties that have beset Africa’s development for decades, NEPAD is also an expression of Africa’s will to establish a new partnership anchored in the principle of African leadership and, above all, ownership. After a decade of implementation, NEPAD, as a programme of the African Union, has produced a number of encouraging results. The promotion of infrastructure development as a driving force for Africa’s integration and development led to the adoption, in 2010, of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) by the African Union’s Heads of State. In addition to having a significant social impact, PIDA will improve Africa’s competitiveness, strengthen its potential to attract investment and lead to a two-point increase in growth. The major infrastructure projects identified thus far will also lead to improved regional cooperation and integration and boost intra-African trade. Landlocked African countries are likely to experience a reduction in transport costs, resulting from improved access to seaports and improved infrastructure in transit countries. In that regard, progress has been made in the project promoted by Algeria to complete the trans-Sahara highway and gas pipeline, which will link Algeria and Nigeria. In addition, the fibre-optic component of the project linking Nigeria, the Niger and Algeria has also seen substantial progress, as evidenced by the installation of 700 kilometres of the 2,700 kilometres of cable required. Significant progress has also been made within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, which aims at achieving a 6 per cent growth rate in the agricultural sector through the allocation of 10 per cent of national budgets. Today 30 countries have committed themselves to the programme, of which 21 have already adopted a national agriculture investment plan. On the topic of governance, NEPAD has successfully launched the African Peer Review Mechanism as a means of effectively fostering the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated subregional and continental economic integration. The Peer Review Mechanism, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, has consolidated its position as a voluntary instrument for promoting good governance. We are pleased to see today that 33 countries have joined the Mechanism, of which 17 have been peer-reviewed. Although progress has been made in the past year in accelerating growth and social development, persistent challenges, including limited progress towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), linger. As such, sustained international support will be crucial if Africa is to meet those internationally agreed development goals, including and through a global partnership for development. To that end, we call on development partners to pursue efforts to deliver on their commitments to the continent’s development, including those relating to assistance. All stakeholders need to make a strong push towards the Goals in Africa, the only region that is unlikely to attain them by 2015. The launch of the United Nations monitoring mechanism to review the implementation of commitments made to the continent’s development is likely to step up efforts towards that full delivery. We know too well that the world’s prosperity cannot be achieved without that of Africa. African efforts to eradicate hunger, create jobs and ensure sustainable development must be complemented by sustained support from developing partners. In that context, we urge the international community to give due attention to Africa’s priorities, in particular NEPAD, in the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda. A global partnership for development will be crucial for accelerating efforts to achieve the MDGs, in addition to enabling the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.

Today’s debate on agenda item 63 and its sub-items (a) and (b) is the outcome of the Africa-New Partnership for Africa’s Development Week. The Week, which also includes the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), was made possible thanks to the initiative of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa and with valuable input from the Agency of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the secretariat of the APRM. I would like first and foremost to express our sincere appreciation to Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz for the dynamism he has brought to leading this Office, as well as to the Executive Director of NEPAD’s Office of Planning and Coordination, Mr. Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki, who has promoted NEPAD with great conviction. I welcome that initiative, which has allowed us to present an Africa that has overcome the weight of its history to take its destiny in hand, uniting around a shared vision of development — an Africa that has taken stock of the challenges of governance and of peace and security so that the changes required to implement that vision can flourish. My delegation takes note of the Secretary- General’s two reports, entitled “New Partnership for Africa’s Development: eleventh consolidated progress report on implementation and international support” (A/68/222) and “Causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa” (А/68/220). Both provide a thoughtful review of the actions undertaken or that should be undertaken by the United Nations and Africa’s other partners to assist Africa and the various pan-African institutions, pursuant to the relevant General Assembly documents and others issued by international conferences, especially in the priority areas identified in NEPAD. The various statements made over the course of the week on Africa, along with the two reports just mentioned, reassure us that African countries are engaged in a process of profound changes in their economies. Despite the global economic and financial crisis, we must look at the indicators. We can see that the strategic framework NEPAD offers has allowed African countries to make encouraging progress. Moreover, African leadership has become apparent in taking ownership of conflict resolution and in the will to avert conflict through use of African mechanisms. Africa possesses the assets to make it an indispensable player whose weight will be felt in the globalization of the world. However — and we cannot stress this enough — the countries of Africa face, individually and collectively, multiple constraints that are often complex in nature, and they do not always have the capacity to overcome them. Africa’s destiny is linked to that of the whole world. That is an undeniable fact and a reality that should inspire other regions of the world, and our bilateral and multilateral partners, to concrete actions and measures within a partnership framework that we envision as dynamic and innovative. My delegation shares the analysis of the Secretary-General in his two reports, and I wish to align myself with his recommendations, in particular his emphasis on the need for our partners to keep their promises and honour their commitments and, above all, to continue to support the efforts of the African countries and the African Union in their quest for sustainable peace and development. That is why the Congo welcomes the commitment of the United Nations and of bilateral partners to work with the Economic Community of Central African States to resolve the crisis in the Central African Republic. We hope that crisis comes to a happy conclusion, based on the framework of rules established under the leadership of the Heads of State of the Economic Community of Central African States, in close collaboration with the African Union supported by the United Nations and the bilateral partners. However, the political process thus undertaken in that country must be accompanied simultaneously by actions to effect its economic and social recovery so as not to dash the hope for a lasting peace, learning lessons from the challenges that prevented a successful outcome of earlier peace processes. My delegation would like to take this opportunity to stress the importance of and interest in such partnerships, in which the United Nations and Africa’s other partners are called upon to support efforts and initiatives at the regional and subregional levels, including the prevention and resolution of conflicts from the perspective of priorities defined by African countries, the African Union and regional and subregional organizations, particularly in post-conflict situations. The countries of Africa have never shirked their primary responsibility, aware that the future of the continent requires them to be masters of their own fate. The strength of that commitment has led them, collectively and individually, to overcome adverse events and obstacles and to persevere in the implementation of NEPAD, particularly in the light of the outcomes, however modest, that have been achieved in the past decade, as well as the lessons they have learned, which have enabled them to bring hope to millions of Africans and to become a viable partner. That sustained dynamism has made possible the remarkable progress we welcome today. With that perspective, the Government of the Republic of the Congo has developed its National Development Programme 2012-2016, which is under way as part of the extension of a voluntary policy of integration by undertaking relevant programmes established under the priorities of NEPAD. The Programme is based on five pillars, among which governance is rightly considered the cornerstone of economic and social development. The Congo has subscribed to the process of self-evaluation and evaluation by the African Peer Review Mechanism from its launching in 2003. Internal consultations are under way with a view to complying with that process. Progress towards good governance has become irreversible. Diversification and growth, social development and inclusion, and balanced and sustainable development are the other pillars that guide the National Development Programme. The development of economic and social infrastructures is the pivot, because the services they generate make possible, inter alia, the interconnection of operators with internal, regional and international markets and ending the isolation of pockets of poverty. In the context of interconnecting the neighbouring countries of the subregion, the Congo has supported a number of important efforts aimed at regional integration: between the Central African Republic and Chad along the Ouésso-Enyele-Мongoumba axis; Cameroon through Ketta-Sembé-Souanké; Gabon along the subregional axis of Doussala-Ndendé- Dolisie, as well as through Okoyo-Lekoni-Franceville; Angola through Cabinda starting from Nzassi; and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the road- rail bridge from Brazzaville to Kinshasa and Ilebo. The majority of those projects are being implemented, except the symbolic integrative project of the road-rail bridge that will eventually link Brazzaville to Kinshasa, which is still in the preliminary study phase. The same applies to the project to connect the electrical grids of Central Africa. It is commonplace to say that agriculture remains the structural support of African economies due to its high rate of employment — 90 per cent in rural areas, and 60 per cent of the combined total for urban and rural areas. The development of that sector, however, continues to represent a challenge for my country. The Congo joined the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in 2010, but it has not yet managed to allocate 10 per cent of its budget to agriculture, as stipulated in the Maputo Declaration. The Government has nonetheless embarked on a policy for developing that sector. The Congo participated in signing the regional framework in Libreville in April 2013. The signing of the National Pact for the CAADP will take place next month. A dossier will be presented to the partners in which they commit to improving the macroeconomic and business frameworks and to constructing adequate infrastructure. In order to implement those programmes, the Congolese Government intends to improve the utilization of its own revenues while relying on external resources, in particular commitments made in the framework of certain initiatives, such as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the initiative on the transparent management of petroleum resources, which should enable the Congo to increase its capacity to mobilize external resources at favourable rates. As we work on the development of the post-2015 agenda and sustainable development goals, it seems appropriate to underscore the need to see the two processes as mutually reinforcing and complementary in a coherent and coordinated manner, without, however, sacrificing the development goals that will not be realized, for there are many African countries that will not have attained the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Likewise, it is important that the goals we are shaping now reflect the priorities of NEPAD and of Africa.

We have read with great attention and sustained interest the reports of the Secretary-General before us today under sub-items (a) and (b) of agenda item 63. At the outset, we associate ourselves with the statement delivered on behalf of the African Group on these reports (see A/68/PV.36). We wish to commend the Secretary-General for the priority he continues to grant to Africa, in the light of decisions taken by the deliberative bodies of the United Nations. We appreciate the foresight, dynamism, zeal and dedication shown by the President of the African Union Commission, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Africa, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, the head of the African Development Bank, the Chief Executive Officer of the Planning and Coordinating Agency of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and their teams in the service of development in Africa, especially in making short-, medium- and long-term projections, including up to 2063. With regard to the reports before us and to agenda item 13, we would like to make the following comments and observations. First, with regard to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, it should be stressed, as affirmed by the Secretary-General himself, that the various continental flagship programmes being implemented under NEPAD, including those on infrastructure, agriculture and governance, are key to realizing the vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful continent. The eleventh report of the Secretary-General on NEPAD (A/68/222) provides an update on progress in the implementation of, and international support to, the NEPAD programme, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary at the same time as we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union. It is right that this occasion is being celebrated in the context of pan-Africanism and the African renaissance. For those who can recall, our continent has come a long way since the period of slavery, colonialism and, more recently, structural adjustments and the Afro-pessimism of the 1980s. The continent rose from the ashes of all of those trying episodes and is regaining its unity and prosperity, which have been the leitmotif of its leaders since the dawn of time. We thank the Secretary-General for the great deal of information has has provided over the past 12 months with regard to the support of African countries, their strategic partners and the United Nations system in the NEPAD priority areas. On the issue of infrastructure, we agree with the Secretary-General’s statement in paragraph 111 of his report that the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa holds the key to pan- Africanism and an African renaissance. The various projects envisaged, including in the priority sectors of transport, energy, information and communications technology, and transboundary transportation, are clearly detailed in the report. They are of great relevance for development of Africa and are in various stages of planning, programming and implementation. We strongly support them. It is important to underscore that such projects broadly rely on funding from Africa, demonstrating that, as African leaders have always asserted, the primary responsibility for the development of the continent belongs primarily to them. Cameroon supports in particular projects relating to roads, bridges, telecommunications and African integration at the national, regional and subregional levels. Our country, for its part, has committed to a broad national programme called Great Achievements, including the construction of ports, power stations and hydroelectric dams, roads, and new and renewable energy infrastructure. With regard to agriculture and food security, the Secretary-General notes that African countries continue to make progress in implementing the commitments made under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and the objective of allocating 10 per cent of their budgets to agricultural development. Our country is firmly committed to this path through various projects planned or being implemented. In his report, the Secretary-General identifies challenges that prevent significant progress by Africa, in particular the lack of funds and the limitations in technological capabilities. We call for the overcoming of those challenges. With regard to health, the Secretary-General notes that progress has been slow with regard to the target set in the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS of allocating 15 per cent of national budgets to improving the health sector. However, many African countries, such as Cameroon, have made remarkable progress in the fight against the HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases. The Chantal Biya Foundation — she is the First Lady of our country — and the African Synergies organization, which she set up together with other African First Ladies, are at the forefront of these efforts. As emphasized by the Secretary-General, the most urgent challenges that must be dealt with in order to step up progress in the health sector are the lack of training of qualified staff, international migration, morbidity and premature mortality. On education and training, the Secretary-General notes that African countries have made significant efforts and achieved significant progress, in particular in primary and secondary education, especially for girls. Our country is among the leaders in this field. As he points out in paragraph 38 of his report, regarding challenges, African Governments must continue to promote education policies that better prepare students with the right skills and opportunities for decent employment. With regard to the environment and tourism, African countries have also made progress in areas such as the fight against soil degradation and drought and desertification, and in wetland conservation and protected areas, as well as transboundary water management and management of natural resources. The continent has seen an increase of approximately 52 million tourists, as noted by the Secretary-General. Our country doubled its share of tourists during the reporting period. To consolidate that progress, especially in terms of the environment, African countries must receive a fair share of environmental programme funding, in particular in those relating to forests. Need we emphasize yet again that the Congo Basin is the second largest forest reserve in the world, after the Amazon, and that countries that have such reserves, such as Cameroon, are contributing to the best interests of humankind in terms of climate, biodiversity, economy and other so-called global goods? We must therefore ensure that such goods can be enjoyed and obtain due recompense from sharing them with humankind. I shall now turn to information and communications technology. In his report, the Secretary-General noted the two major NEPAD objectives in that connection, namely, connecting all African countries with one another and with the rest of the world through broadband fibre-optic submarine cables, and the e-Schools initiative, intended to equip all primary and secondary schools with information and communications technology. African countries have made commendable progress in that regard, including in the areas of the protection of intellectual property and information and communications technology governance. Our country is working with the relevant national authorities to develop an extensive programme and projects related to information communications and technology. Nevertheless, as the Secretary-General emphasizes, since Africa is a diverse continent with many languages, traditions and customs, solutions must be adapted to specific countries’ markets, and the African Union must receive support to create an attractive regional home for the pan-African Internet community and the Governmental Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. With regard to science and technology, the report highlights NEPAD’s efforts to forge partnerships and utilize them to promote innovation in Africa through regional networks of centres of excellence in biosciences and African indicators for science, technology and innovation. We support those efforts and emphasize all the initiatives undertaken by Cameroon at the national level through the Ministry of Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation. With regard to gender equality, women’s empowerment and the participation of civil society, the Secretary-General highlights the important commitments made ​by African Governments in various international instruments and the encouraging progress in honouring those commitments. Cameroon is in the vanguard here as well, with respect to ensuring the rights of women, children and the disabled and the participation of civil society, including youth, in development, for which purpose a national agency has been established. Regarding the African Peer Review Mechanism, the Secretary-General notes that it has continued to strengthen and institutionalize good political and economic governance and business management in Africa. Thirty-three countries, including Cameroon, have acceded to the Mechanism, 17 of which have already been reviewed. Democracy, good governance and respect for human rights are increasingly better defended in Africa, thanks to the Mechanism, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union and various measures taken by African Governments at the national, subregional and continental levels. The series of commitments and the progress on the part of Africa, which the Secretary-General notes in his report, and in the various areas I have just mentioned, have not met with firm and reciprocal commitments on the part of the international community. The Secretary- General deplores several shortcomings, including the flow of development aid to the continent, which has remained below the level of the promises made. The number of traditional donors — a source of capital for Africa — continues to fall. The debt burden of African countries continues to decline. Foreign direct investment and other private flows increased slightly but are concentrated in a few countries and in the extractive industries, while African priorities for industry are aimed at the rapid transformation and enhancement of the added value of primary products in all African countries. Aid-for-trade resources allocated to Africa have declined. In this somewhat bleak picture, encouraging signs have appeared in Africa’s cooperation with some of its strategic partners, especially new emerging countries, in particular those of the South. The same is true of cooperation in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development process, with the announcement by Japan of new funding and with China, the Republic of Korea, India, Brazil, Turkey and the United States also announcing comprehensive or sector-specific funding. The fact remains that all these funds must materialize in order not to repeat the pattern of earlier promises that have yet to be fulfilled. It is well understood that African countries should make every effort to ensure aid effectiveness, as agreed at the conferences held in Paris and the more recent ones held in Busan, Republic of Korea. The support provided by the United Nations entities is as diverse as the entities themselves and is focused on their respective areas of competence. We welcome all such contributions and hope that their coverage in future reports of the Secretary-General will include a critical analysis based on a projected matrix that defines, ahead of time, the nature, objectives and eventual amounts of each of the expected contributions, validated according to an implementation time table. With respect to trade, the Doha Round of negotiations should be concluded as soon as possible and should adopt recommendations supporting greater integration of African countries into the global economy through dealing with the structural and infrastructure barriers that impede their participation in international trade. Finally, we support all the conclusions and recommendations made ​by the Secretary-General in his report, in particular that asking donors to honour their commitments to Africa and the one on creating a United Nations mechanism responsible for following up on commitments made for the development of Africa. The Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Africa, which will serve as the secretariat of that mechanism, should be strengthened. We support the Secretary-General’s proposals on this subject, which will be considered by the Fifth Committee. The report of the Secretary-General on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa (A/68/220) provides an update on the issue by focusing on the major developments that occurred during the past 12 months in Africa, and on the efforts and activities undertaken to strengthen cooperation, conflict prevention and management, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, reconstruction in the aftermath of conflict, human rights, the rule of law, the administration of justice, support for the reform of the security sector, and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. All these activities clearly show that our continent is still affected by turmoil, ideological rivalries and the great diversity of its interests. The current situation in the Central African Republic deserves particular attention with a view to preventing that brotherly country — which the Peacebuilding Commission was already dealing with — from getting bogged down again in an acute crisis with various repercussions for our subregion and the African continent in general. The countries of Central Africa and the African Union have taken important measures to safeguard peace and to return to constitutional order in that country. Cameroon actively contributes to those measures, as evidenced by, among other things, the participation of a contingent from our country in peacekeeping efforts in Central Africa and the recent appointment of a Cameroonian general to lead the African-led international support mission for the Central African Republic. We call for and welcome the efforts and support provided, or to be provided, by the United Nations and other partners for peace and development in Central Africa, following the recent appeal and measures taken or envisaged for the Central African Republic by the countries of the community of Central African States. Beyond that, and in the Gulf of Guinea as a whole, piracy and armed robbery have seen something of a resurgence. It was in order to counteract that phenomenon that, at the urging of the Security Council, the countries of West and Central Africa met in Cameroon on 24 and 25 June and adopted some significant measures, including the creation of a centre for interregional coordination based in Yaoundé. Arrangements are under way to have the centre up and running as soon as possible. We will need the cooperation of the United Nations and other international partners in order to strengthen its effectiveness. Concerning the Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa, the efforts of African countries, which are evaluated quarterly by the Steering Committee of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, continue to have appreciable results. Our country is once again in the front line in terms of policymaking, as well as with robust measures implemented by the Ministry of Public Health. It should be emphasized that prevention is always better than cure, and to that end, indoor spraying of homes and free distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets are valuable assets in the fight against malaria. Nonetheless, the African and world scientific community must continue to work determinedly to find an effective vaccine against this scourge as soon as possible, with the level of commitment that Africa itself has shown in the quest to definitively eradicate malaria. As officials of NEPAD, the Economic Commission for Africa and the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa put it so aptly in their joint publication of August 2012: “The next decade of development in Africa must be driven by renewed efforts towards increasing ownership and maximizing Africa’s own internal potential, resources and talents for the continent’s development. Many challenges and opportunities lie ahead. Africa will only succeed if it continues on its path of comprehensive political and socioeconomic reforms, hinged on the core values of strong African ownership, leadership and value-driven partnership.” (Africa’s Decade of Change: Reflections on 10 Years of NEPAD, p. viii)

I am grateful for the opportunity to interact in the consideration of the Secretary-General’s very interesting reports on sub-items (a) and (b) of agenda item 63 (A/68/222 and A/68/220). We appreciate the opportunity to deliberate on matters of great importance to our region. First, my delegation aligns itself with the statement delivered earlier by the representative of Ethiopia on behalf of the African Group (see A/68/PV.36). The economic and development challenges facing Africa are indeed unique, and approaches designed to resolve them must lend credence to a development philosophy that takes due cognizance of local circumstances, recognizes the utilization of subregional, regional and international mechanisms for development, and uses a new paradigm in charting a development path for Africa. Those challenges led to the creation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) more than a decade ago, as Africa’s blueprint, with an emphasis on ownership and partnership, geared to securing the economic renewal and development of the continent. Nigeria reiterates that efforts should be directed towards attaining the established targets for each of the nine clusters identified by NEPAD, and calls on all African countries and their partners to build on existing progress and fully align themselves with NEPAD’s operational blueprint. In that regard, we note that failures of past development plans in Africa have had less to do with the lack of effective frameworks and more with haphazard implementation. My delegation therefore commends the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the United Nations development partners and other regional players for their efforts to implement NEPAD’s programmes and objectives, and for providing technical and other specialized services to member States. Since NEPAD’s inception, there has been renewed confidence that through its ongoing strategies, Africa will be able to resolve its development challenges. It is, however, imperative to ensure that its broader mandate remains in focus. In that regard, divergent interests must be supplanted by the collective, and member States’ commitments to successful partnership must remain unwavering. Nigeria stresses the need for individual States to strive harder to mainstream the development agenda into their sectoral programmes, using regional blocs as tools for continental economic integration. Nigeria therefore commends the Economic Community of West African States and its member States for their various contributions, which culminated in the signing in 2009 of the first regional agricultural compact. We believe that such positive steps can be replicated in other subregions and meshed into the larger continental project. It has been recognized worldwide that NEPAD stands on the planks of good governance, capacity- building and partnership. In order to generate the momentum required to guarantee steady progress towards implementation of the partnerships’ objectives, we must not lose sight of the need to boost the continent’s capacity to govern and to develop long-term policies and strategies. While we acknowledge that much progress has been made in implementing NEPAD priority sectors, we believe that more remains to be done with regard to the NEPAD agenda, particularly in the area of infrastructure and development. Nigeria therefore welcomes the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa and the implementation of the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative. We believe that the infrastructural deficit is one of the factors responsible for the failure to attain of many of our objectives for development in Africa. Nigeria is firmly of the view that NEPAD’s goals of building strong economic infrastructures and creating a favourable environment for investment remain crucial. It is through that approach that Africa can be pulled out of its current economic difficulties in order to enable it to prosper, as it rightly should. With regard to sub-item (b), much has been said about the inextricable link between durable peace and sustainable development in Africa. A continent as diverse as Africa can best realize partnership when rancourous impediments give way to lasting peace and security. My delegation recognizes that conflict, no matter what its size, poses serious challenges to the proper integration of African States, as it hampers the successful implementation of the NEPAD goals. My delegation calls for the continued utilization of the continent’s early-warning system aimed at preventing conflicts. In addition, Member States should embrace an effective mechanism to mediate between conflicting interests. It is for that reason that Nigeria chose the theme of advocating preventive diplomacy for peace during its campaign for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council during the past week. There is no doubt that the prevention of conflict is a cheaper option for maintaining peace and security in the world. Indeed, it is becoming evident that the prevention of conflict is the best way to preserve the gains of development. There is, therefore, a need to continue to give new impetus to all conflict-prevention strategies. Poverty is both a cause and an effect of conflicts in Africa and remains a global challenge, since the effects transcend African frontiers. It is therefore the responsibility of all to engage as positive catalysts in actualizing a conflict-free Africa, in order to ensure that the achievements so far recorded in the region are further consolidated. In that regard, we commend the efforts of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in reconstructing post-conflict countries and providing credible transition and exit strategies. We also call for the continued financial and institutional support of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission. Moving to the next issue on the agenda, which is the health-related sector, we note that malaria remains a major public health and development challenge in Africa, as well as in Nigeria. However, we have fully embraced the unique opportunities to scale up malaria- related interventions, strengthen our systems and make a major effort to roll back that disease. In our commitment to accelerate and intensify efforts on malaria control, the Federal Government of Nigeria launched the National Malaria Strategic Plan 2009-2013 for malaria control, which was developed by the National Malaria Control Programme, together with the partners of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, state governments and other stakeholders. The Malaria Strategic Plan addresses national health development priorities, including the Roll Back Malaria Global Strategic Plan 2005-2015 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Malaria Strategic Plan is organized around a balanced package of preventive medicine services to reduce the disease burden and curative services to care for the sick. The Plan also addresses the stated priority of a rapid scale-up of prevention interventions to decrease the infection burden and to rapidly decrease the costs of curative care in terms of drug costs, health capacity operations and household expenditure. Nigeria has also commenced the development of a new Malaria Strategic Plan for 2014-2020, whose emphasis is on malaria elimination. We also wish to inform the Assembly that Nigeria was selected as one of the nine countries to pilot the Affordable Medicines Facility-Malaria. That project, which is managed by the Global Fund, receives financial support from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goal is to reduce the retail price of artemisinin combination therapies to a point where they are as affordable as many of the cheapest antimalarial monotherapies. We also wish to inform the Assembly that the United States Agency for International Development has funded malaria activities in Nigeria. In 2011, Nigeria became a recipient country under the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) of the United States Government. Through the years, we have received a total of $103.7 million in funding for 2011 and 2012. The 2013 PMI operational plan for Nigeria was developed during a planning visit, carried out in June 2012 with the United States Agency for International Development and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters and field staff. The Global Fund’s phase 2 has been targeted at procuring 26 million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, between 2011 and 2014, with a co-funding option for about 10 million more such nets during that time frame. Nigeria, along with other African countries, recently adopted the African Union road map on shared responsibility and global solidarity for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, based on the three pillars of innovative financing, universal access to medicines and diagnostics, and committed leadership and governance. We will continue to play an active role in vigorously supporting the objectives of the road map and their beneficial advancement. In line with our unwavering commitment to multilateral action in the fight against malaria and other diseases, Nigeria hosted the Special Summit of the African Union on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, held in Abuja in July 2013. Among other outcomes, the Summit was able to review the level of achievement of the targets set at the 2001 and 2006 African Union meetings, identify gaps, constraints and challenges relating to the achievement of the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases and the MDG targets and also identify new strategies that will enable Africa to chart a new and more realistic course towards achieving those targets. Most importantly, there was renewed commitment by African leaders to addressing those diseases and promoting health and well-being in Africa. The Federal Government has a special interest in malaria elimination and is determined to continue pursuing a framework that will give the necessary support to ensure the elimination of the disease and the achievement of the MDGs and their relevant targets. Finally, other issues raised in the Secretary- General’s report are of great interest to Nigeria and have either been addressed in Committee meetings or will be taken up at appropriate meetings in order to elaborate on their importance and the actions being taken at the national level to implement them competently and in a structured manner.

It is an honour for the United Republic of Tanzania to address the Assembly on this important day for Africa — a day on which we celebrate not only the fiftieth anniversary of the Organization of African Unity and the African Union, but also the tenth anniversary of the African Peer Review Mechanism and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). We align ourselves with the statements delivered by the representative of Ethiopia on behalf of Africa and by the representative of China on behalf of the Group of 77 and China (see A/68/PV.36). Africa has made considerable gains in strengthening governance. Efforts are ongoing to promote and reinforce further governance through the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Similarly, many African countries are now embracing democracy and the rule of law and promoting transparent public administration. However, more work is needed to strengthen the gains achieved in that area. Africa still faces myriad challenges, some of which are chronic. Some areas of the continent are entangled in protracted conflicts that continue to claim the lives of thousands, while displacing millions and hampering development. Steadily, but surely, we are seeing the positive results of African solutions to those African challenges. And we are committed to eradicating conflicts in the continent by addressing the underlying causes. The United Republic of Tanzania is among the 31 African countries that have voluntarily acceded to the APRM. In so doing, we undertook to promote and protect democracy and human rights by developing clear standards of accountability, transparency and participatory governance. We have submitted periodic reports to the Mechanism. Our first country report, issued early this year, records remarkable progress on democratic and economic governance and management. It also notes the challenges that remain in translating economic growth into broad-based, pro-poor and inclusive development. The Government has made a commitment to the national programme of action as a way of implementing the APRM recommendations. Our main task consists of efforts to reduce poverty, inequality and youth unemployment and foster inclusive, transformative development. We believe we can succeed. In doing so, we will count on all social actors and development partners in the spirit of NEPAD. In celebrating the tenth anniversary of CAADP, we are reminded that agriculture is the backbone of most African countries, including my country, Tanzania, where about 70 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. In that regard, many Governments have undertaken to increase investment in agriculture so as to increase crop productivity and, ultimately, food security. My Government allocates almost 10 per cent of the national budget to agricultural development and food security and has initiated several public-private partnerships in that sector, taking full advantage of the conducive investment climate in the country. Another challenge for Africa is malaria. Since 2001, when the General Assembly adopted its first resolution on malaria in Africa (resolution 55/284), we have witnessed enhanced political commitment and global attention in the fight against malaria. At least 11 African countries and 32 malaria-endemic countries outside Africa have reduced the number of confirmed cases of malaria recorded between 2000 and 2009 by more than 50 per cent. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved. Despite the fact that malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable disease, too many people continue to suffer and die from malaria. When 100 people die in an accident, or in war, we are shocked. We should, however, remember that in 2010 alone the disease killed an estimated 660,000 people. In Tanzania, malaria is a leading cause of inpatient and outpatient visits and deaths. Between 30 and 40 per cent of all outpatient visits are attributable to malaria. It is a leading killer of children and pregnant women, who are dying every day. Malaria control remains a global emergency — even more so for Africa. Malaria-control interventions positively impact overall child and maternal mortality rates and could help in reaching the Millennium Development Goals  — particularly Goals 4 and 5, concerning reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, respectively — by 2015. That is why my Government has implemented several interventions to address the disease. My country has succeeded in reducing malaria prevalence in young children by 44 percent between 2008 and May 2012. In Zanzibar, death due to malaria is near zero. Our challenge in Zanzibar is to sustain that achievement. As for mainland Tanzania, we are replicating the lessons learned from the island of Zanzibar, namely, residual spraying on malaria breeding sites; making available long-term insecticide-treated bednets for every bed; early treatment for those infected with malaria and control and surveillance to prevent the re-emergence of the epidemic. On the other hand, the Government has embarked on an expensive comprehensive programme to deal with the question of access to health care. The programme will ensure that there is a dispensary in every village and a health-care centre in every ward. The programme will certainly be instrumental in the success of our anti-malaria effort, as it will guarantee prompt diagnosis and treatment. In that endeavour, we need partnerships and support from the international community. We thank our bilateral and multilateral partners that have provided us with financial and technical support. We call for their continued support to complement the Government’s efforts in implementing the malaria strategy and eradicating malaria in Tanzania. The challenge facing the global community is to intensify efforts and commitments in order to avoid reversal of the gains made thus far, and to push for greater progress in sustainable interventions. Many strategies have been put in place to combat malaria. In that regard, we recognize the work of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance to that end. We have learned that the current strategies alone are unlikely to achieve the goal of eliminating the disease. We also risk diminishing efficacy, due to the development of drug resistance and insecticide resistance on the part of parasites and the anopheles mosquito, respectively. That is why, on 24 September, the Multisectoral Action Framework for Malaria was launched. The Action Framework proposes broad advances in human development and further joint action from global and sectoral ministries directed at village level. We call on Member States and the international community to support that broad global effort. We also take the opportunity to welcome the Secretary-General’s selection of malaria as a priority of his five-year action agenda covering the period 2012-2017. We believe that commitment will promote new partnerships and improve existing ones, with the aim of scaling up high-impact interventions and significantly reducing the number of malaria deaths. In conclusion, I wish to urge the international community and the United Nations to work more closely and actively with the African Union in an effort to resolve the remaining conflicts and consolidate peace and security in Africa. We need to work together to ensure that malaria control and elimination remains a key priority in the post-2015 development agenda. We must also ensure sustained focus and attention on strengthening health systems and human capacity development to enable malaria-endemic countries to improve their overall response to the challenges. Permit me to conclude by reiterating our national motto with respect to malaria: “Malaria is unacceptable; let us join hands to eliminate it”.

As this is the first time I take the floor since the President assumed his functions as President of the General Assembly, allow me to start by warmly congratulating him and all members of the Bureau on their elections to preside over the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. I wish to reiterate the commitment expressed by His Excellency President Armando Guebuza in the general debate (see A/68/PV.5) to render all our support to the President of the General Assembly for the successful outcome of this session. Mozambique aligns itself with the statements delivered by the representative of Ethiopia on behalf of the African Group and by the representative of Fiji on behalf of the Group of 77 and China (see A/68/PV.36). This joint debate is being held against the backdrop of the momentum created by the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity and the tenth anniversary of the African Union (AU) — a celebration that has reaffirmed the principles and values of pan-Africanism and African renaissance. It has been a year of acclamation of Africa’s accomplishments and of reaffirmation of its resolve to fulfil the vision of social progress for the peoples of Africa through democratic governance and economic emancipation. It would therefore have been desirable that this historic moment be celebrated in peace to permit us to focus our attention on our development goals. That is an aspiration that we will continue to pursue with resolve. In that regard, I welcome the two reports of the Secretary-General under consideration (A/68/220 and A/68/222) and would like to seize this opportunity to express our appreciation for his tireless efforts to uphold the United Nations commitment to supporting Africa’s agenda for peace and sustainable development. I also wish to commend the Special Adviser on Africa for his continued engagement to generate effective support for Africa and for undertaking the various initiatives that marked the tenth anniversary of the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Peer Review Mechanism. Since the 1990s, Africa has been engaged in a democratization process that, in its essence, is a recognition that peace and stability can be sustained only in an inclusive society. As a result, at this early stage of our democracies, the steps taken to modernize the judicial system, the consolidation of the role of our civil society and the culture of the rule of law in Africa is a clear and positive indication that we are indeed on the right path. Galvanized by that belief and by the desire for peace, Mozambique embarked on a democratization process involving a review of its Constitution in 1990 and 2004, first in order to introduce the essential principles for the exercise of a multiparty democracy — namely, the democratic rule of law, the separation of powers and political pluralism — and, secondly, to reaffirm and deepen those democratic principles. In that endeavour, citizen participation in all spheres of life proved to be an enabling tool for inclusive governance. Giving a voice to the people is fundamental in a democratic society, as it allows them to be conscious participants in the national development process. In that regard, the decentralization and devolution of decision-making processes undoubtedly contribute to fostering social inclusion and thus reinforce democracy and prevent conflicts. Similarly, strengthening integrity and transparency mechanisms to guarantee a fair distribution of resources, through improved access to public goods and services such as education, health, safe drinking water and job opportunities, adds to those noble goals. As part of its development agenda, Mozambique embarked on a decentralization and devolution process that seeks to ensure a more inclusive and participatory role for all stakeholders, including local communities. To that end, the Government established, among other measures, the District Consultative Board, an institution through which local communities have a decisive role in governance. To further empower the communities, the Government also established an Annual Fund for Local Development, commonly known as the Seven Million Fund, to finance food production and initiatives that have the potential to generate employment in rural and urban areas. Local communities are the sole managers of those initiatives. As a result, we have upheld the rule of law, promoted development and forged more politically and economically empowered communities. With the advent of multiparty democracy, the holding of multiparty democratic elections became part of our commitment to good governance and the rule of law. Unfortunately, progress in that area is challenged not only by the scourges of poverty and disease, which regrettably continue to affect a substantial part of our population, but also by the occurrence of incidents that are disruptive in their nature and peculiar to countries in post-conflict situations. Our experience has shown that political dialogue and robust democratic institutions and processes represent the most sustainable solution to political instability. To that end, we will continue to use dialogue as the vehicle to nurture a democratic culture under which political forces learn to conform to democratic principles and rules. We also reiterate our commitment to building credible institutions that can adequately address the challenges brought about by democratic governance in our particular context. In addition, we will continue to count on the African Peer Review Mechanism to address policy challenges, taking advantage of its constructive and inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders. That is, without a doubt, another instrument for confidence-building and for the reaffirmation of our national commitment to values and principles in political and economic governance. Good governance demands respect for basic human rights, from civil and political rights to economic, social to cultural rights — all inalienable rights embedded in our overarching goals of peace, stability and sustainable development. As we approach the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the uneven progress in attaining those goals, in particular in Africa, demands that special attention be devoted to Africa’s needs. We should therefore strengthen the momentum generated by the Decade to Roll Back Malaria and direct our efforts to measures that go beyond the goal of malaria prevention. Malaria remains a great challenge to Africa’s efforts to achieve the MDGs, as it has a direct impact on social and economic structures, affecting the most vulnerable, in particular children under the age of 5, pregnant women, socially disadvantaged groups and people living with HIV/AIDS. To address the scourge of malaria, as well the other challenges facing Africa, partnerships are of paramount importance. In that regard, we reiterate the call made by the Secretary-General for the United Nations system, Member States and other partners to continue to strengthen their support to and cooperation with Africa. I would like to conclude by stressing that we are confident that the engagement of Africa, coupled with the commitment of partners such as the Group of 20, the Group of Eight, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others to support Africa’s efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals, will allow us to look at the future of Africa with increasing hope and optimism.

We have heard the last speaker in the debate on these items. The Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of agenda item 63 and its sub-items (a) and (b) and agenda item 13.