VZCZCXRO3938
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUCNDT #0869 2731441
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291441Z SEP 08
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5002
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000869 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S JENDAYI FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON ETRD AORC UNGA
SUBJECT: AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT NEEDS KEY THEME OF SEPTEMBER 
22 UN PLENARY MEETINGS 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Plenary meetings of the UN General Assembly 
book-ended September 22's high-level meeting on Africa's 
development needs.  General Assembly President Miguel 
d'Escoto called upon Member States to fully live up to their 
commitments to African nations.  Secretary-General Ban 
Ki-moon insisted that the Millennium Development Goals were 
still achievable by 2015 should African governments and their 
development partners engage in more concerted efforts.  After 
a scheme of roundtables in which the Secretary participated, 
the General Assembly adopted by consensus a political 
declaration on Africa's development needs, which called for 
the fulfillment of all official development 
assistance-related commitments.  END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. On September 22 UN General Assembly (UNGA) plenary 
meetings and four roundtable meetings focused on the topic 
"Africa's development needs:  state of implementation of 
various commitments, challenges and the way forward." 
Throughout the day, 20 Heads of State and nine Heads of 
Government spoke out on a range of issues related to Africa's 
development, including debt relief, climate change, energy, 
and the global food crisis.  Secretary Rice delivered the 
United States' views during one of the roundtable meetings, 
emphasizing the need for good governance and institutional 
reform as an essential component in achieving the Millennium 
Development Goals (MDGs). 
 
¶3. D'Escoto opened the morning UNGA meeting by emphasizing 
that Africa had "amply" fulfilled its political, economic and 
social commitments, and called upon donors and the Bretton 
Woods institutions in return to fully honor their commitments 
to African nations.  He noted that "unfair" conditions 
imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions were preventing the 
effective implementation of poverty reduction programs and 
eroding living conditions.  He argued that the failure of the 
World Trade Organization's Doha trade talks demonstrated the 
limits of the "free-market doctrine."  He blamed developed 
countries' agricultural subsidies for worsening the global 
food crisis. 
 
¶4. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over 
the current state of implementation of the MDGs, which he 
reiterated were supposed to be achieved by 2015.  However, he 
noted that given sufficient funding, which he determined to 
be $72 billion per year, and with concerted action by African 
governments and their development partners, the MDGs for 
Africa remained achievable. 
 
¶5. During the morning UNGA meeting, Tanzanian President 
Jakaya Mrisho Kiwete, speaking on behalf of the African 
Union, underscored Africa's commitment to address development 
challenges, but noted that Africa did not have the resources 
to pull itself out of "the poverty trap."  He registered 
disappointment that many developed nations had failed to act 
upon what he termed their commitments to African nations, and 
called the obligation to help the needy in Africa a moral 
issue, not a question of charity. 
 
¶6. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking on behalf of 
the European Union (EU), reaffirmed the EU member states' 
commitment to delivering aid to Africa, noting that "the 
globalized world needs a developed Africa."  "It would be a 
delusion," he continued, "to envision Europe's prosperity 
without working for the emergence of a major economic 
partner."  Sarkozy encouraged donors and aid recipients to 
increase their coordination efforts. 
 
¶7. During the evening session, the UNGA adopted by consent a 
political declaration on Africa's development needs, which 
emphasized that "eradicating poverty, particularly in Africa, 
is the greatest global challenge facing the world today." 
While the declaration contained no new commitments, it sought 
to reinvigorate existing commitments, such as those outlined 
in the Millennium Declaration.  The declaration called for 
the fulfillment of all official development 
assistance-related commitments, and concluded that a 
coordinated, balanced and integrated approach at all levels 
was necessary to comprehensively address Africa's long-term 
development. 
Khalilzad