Master of Ceremonies
Minister Lenihan
Members of the Advisory Board for Development Cooperation
Distinguished guests  
Dr. Kadi Sesay: the Minister for Trade, Industry and State Enterprises of Sierra Leone
Mr. Mahmood Ayub: Director for Strategy and Operations in the Vice-Presidency office for Africa, at the World Bank

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Three weeks ago, a great deal of despondency descended on the developing world, Africa in particular, when the United Nations which for sixty years has signified to the poorest of the world, a world government that offers hope not only against wars but against poverty as well, failed to deliver on the key mechanisms of the implementation of the 21^st Century promise of a better life for all. Where leaders of developing countries in particular had expected some bold outcomes outlining innovative steps forward to meet the goal of halving poverty by 2015 the outcomes of the plenary meeting of the General Assembly were seen by us as merely reiterating commitments that had already been agreed upon at the start the new millennium. The institution was blamed for failing to facilitate what was correctly referred to as ‘hard and radical choices’ by the developing community and for failing the hopes of many of the poor.  

And so, a powerful momentum of hope that was began five years ago through the adoption of the Millennium Declaration by the international community petered out in a moment that could have crowned a series of pro-poor achievements over the last decade.     

Thus, in our view the 59^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly squandered a very rare historical opportunity of strengthening already existing international commitments by focusing resources on implementation. The view of our own President, President Mbeki, was that the institution delivered a ‘miserable performance’ because of a lack of "security consensus" that recognizes the interlinkages between matters of security and human development. This was also the view of many commentators and analysts who ascribed this year’s failure of the United Nations to deliver to the poor to the fact that the most influential and powerful of developed countries whose partnership with developing countries in combating and eradicating poverty is so essential for human kind, are preoccupied with the war on terror, to the entire exclusion of everything else. Yet, as we know, a review of achievements in the arena of international relations reveals that in fact unprecedented achievements were made in the last decade by the international community in focusing the world’s attention on poverty.  

The adoption of the Millennium Declaration in 2000 and its subsequent elaboration in the Millennium Development Goals attested to the strength of these achievements since for the first time specific outputs by the international community in relation to poverty were made and targets set, against which we could all measure progress. Within this framework, in addition, Africa’s plight received greater attention and the convening of the Commission for Africa in 2004 gave further impetus in this regard. Reflecting on the depth and the pervasiveness of poverty in Africa the report of the Commission highlighted in particular that:   

“African poverty and stagnation is the greatest tragedy of our time. Poverty on such a scale demands a forceful response. And Africa – at country, regional, and continental levels – is creating much stronger foundations for tackling its problems. Recent years have seen improvements in economic growth and in governance. But Africa needs more of both if it is to make serious inroads into poverty. To do that requires a partnership between Africa and the developed world which takes full account of Africa’s diversity and particular circumstances.”   

It is against this that on behalf of the South African government we acknowledge that it is a unique privilege to participate in this forum. For that I would like to thank the Advisory Board of the Development Cooperation Ireland for having presented us with the opportunity to once more pursue the necessity of focusing the world’s attention on the challenge of poverty. We are even more appreciative of the gesture as it is within the context of the development of a policy by Ireland on development cooperation.  

Whenever we can and wherever we can, we would like to keep a flicker of hope for the most disadvantaged of the world. We would like to see the 59^th Session of the UN’s General Assembly as simply a setback that will not be allowed to continue by people that are as committed as yourselves to Africa’s cause. If in any way we on our side can help shed light on some of the problems that bedevil Africa’s development, we would be too happy to help.    

South Africa and Ireland share close bonds and a warm friendship. Imprinted forever in the consciousness of all South Africans is the enormous support that the Irish gave to our struggle for democracy. Our ties of friendship, forged in those difficult times, remain strong.  

Development Co-operation Ireland is too a much valued champion of Africa within Europe and on the international stage. Your exceptional contribution to peacekeeping on the continent, in particular, is highly appreciated. And not only are you, for example, one of just a handful of donors whose assistance is completely untied, but you also rank among the top donors in terms of the share of your bilateral development assistance that is spent in Africa.  

The Government of South Africa warmly welcomes the announcement by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, that Ireland will reach the  0,7 percent official development assistance target in your development co-operation programmes by 2012. I am sure that Minister Lenihan will not mind if I also congratulate him on the detailed reconfigured expenditure timescale up to 2012 that he has announced. In terms of this timescale, for instance, in 2007 Ireland will reach 0,5 percent of Gross National Income on development co-operation, or in the order of 773 million euro.  

I have noted the debates taking place within Ireland on whether to increase the number of the present priority countries beyond six in sub-Saharan Africa. In this respect let me draw your attention to certain very important recent developments on the continent that you might want to take into consideration in drawing up the White Paper. As you know, we have set up a new institutional architecture to drive African development - the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. We have also identified the Regional Economic Communities as the basic building blocks for implementing our home-grown development programmes. Across the continent, the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities represent a pooling of sovereignty in favor of common approaches to conflict and development issues, arising out of a recognition that without enhanced regional co-operation, individual African countries will not stand any chance of achieving the accelerated GDP growth required to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  

The importance of pan-African structures, and strengthened regional co-operation in Africa, is now recognized on all sides as an indispensable requirement in forging a better future for the peoples of Africa. Ireland is already supporting these new directions, including funding of NEPAD programmes, the role of the African Union in peace and security, food security and HIV-AIDS regional programmes. I hope that, as well as considering any new country development programmes, Ireland will therefore, as other leading development partners are doing, place the new African architecture and regional co-operation frameworks as important themes in its development programmes over the coming years.  

Africa is in a state of a crisis and to extricate itself it is in need of international partnerships.  

To halve poverty by 2015 in line with the MDGs Africa needs to achieve and sustain GDP growth levels of 7 percent per annum. At the 13^th Session of the Commission for Sustainable Development in April, it became quite clear to us that the developed world is beginning to some show serious signs of donor fatigue and the focus was on urging developing countries to look towards the private sector in order to develop public-private-partnerships to deal with the problems of development. The truth of the matter however is that these countries have such a miserably small private sector and the bulk of it is multinational in nature that this option becomes extremely unrealistic.  

According to the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Africa requires $64 billion annually, to meet the MDGs. Because, however, this injection of funds is beyond the reach of the public sector including aid providers upon which Africa has historically depended a combination of measures consisting of deeper and far reaching debt relief, increased official development assistance, access to markets, increased foreign direct investment including technology transfers are required. In a world where half is filled with an abundance of resources as a result of its prosperity in the last two decades these are the possible measures that could provide relief to what Jeffery Sachs encountered in his journey through Africa as ‘extraordinarily narrow margins of survival’ on which the poor live.  

The case concerning foreign direct investment that continues to lag behind official development assistance is pertinent in this regard. Recently a report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on economic development in Africa highlighted the reality in this regard as follows:  

“Average annual FDI flows to Africa doubled during the 1980’s to $2.2 billion compared to the 1970s, but increased significantly to $6.2 billion and $13.8 billion respectively during the 1990s and 2000–2003. On a per capita basis, this translates into a more than fourfold increase compared to the 1980s. Nevertheless, a casual comparison of these figures with flows to other developing regions is likely to give rise to a simple story about Africa’s marginalization in today’s increasingly globalizing world: Africa receives a very low share of total global flows and flows to developing countries, and both have been on a steady downward trend for three decades; the continent now accounts for just 2 to 3 percent of global flows, down from a peak of 6 percent in the mid-1970s, and for less than 9 percent of developing-country flows compared to an earlier peak of 28 percent in 1976. Stock figures (though less reliable) show a similar picture; indeed, the descent is perhaps even more precipitous given that Africa ended the 1960s with a relatively large stock of FDI in comparison to most other developing regions. Even on a per capita basis, the gap between Africa and other developing regions widened significantly in the 1990s and remains very large despite a recent narrowing.  

Trade too, is an important area where wide gaps persist. And given the importance that we, African countries attach to the coming DOHA Round of trade negotiations in Hong Kong, we hope to enlist your assistance in ensuring that significant progress in Africa’s favor is achieved. We cannot afford another Cancun, nor can we afford another 59^th Session of the General Assembly, with the resultant despondency and a feeling, among the poor that the rich pay lip service to the plight of the poor.

Therefore against the already gloomy expectations about the DOHA Round of trade negotiations in Hong Kong, sense would need to prevail that failure to agree on the need to developing a fairer and freer trading system in which Africa receives some specific advantages will in effect mean refusing to allow Africa an opportunity to meet the targets set in the Millennium Development Goals.  

Africa is in need of dedicated financing to support social policies that are aimed at both population growth and urbanization such as housing for these exert tremendous pressures on socio-economic infrastructure and exacerbate poverty, especially in countries where basic infrastructure is poor or lacking. Estimates, for example, are that due to rapid population growth and urbanization 72 percent of Africa’s population currently lives in slums. As a result of urbanization it is also estimated that in the next 30 years Africa’s population will reach 1.77 billion. In the same period the urban population will increase at the rate of 4 to 5 percent per annum from 353 million, which is 39.7 percent, to 748 million inhabitants, against a declining infrastructure. 

The trends, though not unique to Africa portend in Africa’s case continued societal instability well beyond the present timeframes of the Millennium Development Goals if ‘a forceful response’ to Africa’s needs is not made as had been recommended by the Commission for Africa. This is as a result of the absence of supporting infrastructure and economic development.  

      In taking opportunity therefore of the present discussions in this forum it would be necessary to acknowledge the need for increased official development assistance for Africa to meet its developmental needs, particularly in the key areas of housing, water and sanitation, health, education and infrastructural development. From the best practices of other countries which include developed and developing countries we have learnt the benefits of achieving integrated development that is focused on these critical areas. We have learnt, in particular, the necessity of establishing a significant thrust in social infrastructure and urban development for purposes of achieving stable and productive communities whose activities are geared at banishing extreme poverty. And therefore in consideration of the importance of housing to economic growth as a necessary factor in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals as African Minister dealing with housing and urban development we met in February this year to establish a forum where we could consult and advise each other on how to improve our urban environments through focusing attention in particular on slum upgrading.  

We took note of the achievements made by developed countries such as Ireland that have transformed their urban environments into livable environments to achieve economic growth. And the wisdom we learnt was that the way that the urban environment of any country looks is among the factors that either deter or attract investment and create the potential for rapid economic growth.  

We determined that as a long-term poverty reduction strategy our focus on housing and improving our urban environments required the kind of capital accumulation that can only be occasioned by integrated development. We believe increased official development assistance can help achieve these results.  

In order for this to happen it is necessary however for the international community to recognize that slums in Africa are the continent’s most urgent development challenge. Due to the fact of informality which signifies the lack of capital in the hands of resident households slums provide the most recognizable poverty trap where the poor endlessly continue to live in misery and pain. However abominable the conditions are the households however cannot extricate themselves out. Instead they must continually pin their hopes on governments to plough scant public resources to help improve their plight. Economic development eludes them since the mechanism of the market follows the areas where economic development has taken place and where the prospects for returns on investments are good.

Thus, it is in relation to this critical challenge that we hope this process will assist in Africa’s development in its fight against poverty.  

For me focusing development assistance in Africa on the poor therefore means focusing on providing them with decent and secure shelter and housing. This, I believe, is how the international community and Development Cooperation Ireland in particular could help Africa end poverty in our lifetime. It is a goal that is achievable, only if we can work together.  

The experiences of the Zimbabwe evictions should not be allowed to happen. And yet mere condemnation from the developing world does not help solve the problem. We need all of us who are concerned about human rights to be pre-emptive and plan for these inevitabilities.  

Let me once more thank the Advisory Board for Development Cooperation Ireland for the invitation. In general, I also thank the government of Ireland for having been such an outstanding partner for Africa over the years. Outside of the formal programmes such as those being spearheaded by the Development Cooperation Ireland in South Africa we benefit from exceptional Irish philanthropists such as Niall Mellon who a month ago provided us with some good and sound advice on how to end the logjam we are in with our banks regarding the question of addressing risk in the housing market. Niall, also had 600 volunteers descending in Cape Town to give freely of their time to build houses for those who cannot afford. All these are the concreted expressions of the partnership that holds between ourselves.  

I also thank the Minister of State Conor Lenihan for his focused and energetic efforts in providing disaster relief in countries such as Niger and Sudan. Ambassador Corr and Nicole Mchugh too hold a special place in our hearts for their passion in respect of Africa’s development. And I also thank members of Irelands’ civil society who are present here who individually and collectively continue to support our cause for the implementation of some of the measures I have spoken about here. 

I thank you most sincerely.