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With the UN General Secretary Kofi Annan
(Continued)
Kofi
Annan: The
UN must become a more modern, more effective and more flexible
Organization. But unless the Member States are ready to consider an
in-depth reform of the structures of the Organisation, there is
little the secretariat can do. Of course, I
do not want to
say tha the Secretariat
has no role to
play in these reforms . We can and we must make
recommendations so that the Member States can make the decisions
necessary concerning the reforms. Also, I requested, a few months
ago, with a group imminent experts, chaired by the former
Foreign Minister of Algeria, Lakhdar Brahimi, to study the
means of reinforcing the capacities of the Un with regards to maintaining peace and international. safety General Assemblee
is, in this moment even, examining their recommendations, and I
sincerely hope that the
Member States will give us the means the to help the people they
represent by authorizing the changes and the improvements proposed.
In a more general way, I am trying, since my appointment
as the head of
the Un in 1997, to make the Organisation more effective and to ease
its structures. We simplified our administrative procedures,
introduced a more collegial mode of management and considerably
improved coordination between the organizations very far away from
the United Nations. The Vice Secretary-general, Louise Fréchette,
whose position was created within the framework of the reform, is
charged, among otther duties, to ensure the coherence of our
activities and our programs. All these efforts aim at reinforcing
the efficacity of our interventions in this new millenium. Our
objectives remain, for their part, unchanged since the creation of
the UN: peace, prosperity, social justice and long-term stability.
What
would be, according to you, the expectations
of the Africans and what
actions are thinking of undertaking in order to fulfill these
expectations?
Recently,
we noted that Africa has made courageous efforts for being capable
and better at
regulating its conflicts and its crises, and in particular,
in assuming a greater role with regards to maintenance of peace in
the continent. This a healthy evolution,
which must be encouraged not only by the word, but also by concrete
acts. But the international Community does not have to ease it
commitment to Africa. It would not be right to leave the population
of the poorest continent of the World and more devastated by the
conflicts to manage on her own. The United Nations have a
responsibility from which they will not be withdrawn.
The
African national debts represent in 1995, 270 % of the value of
exports of the goods and the services. Such a debt absorbs 40 % of
the annual value of African exports. In another hand, the foreign
direct investments to Africa represent only 3 %. How can the UN help
the African countries that are
in this economic situation?
It is
quite obvious that the crushing burden of the foreign debt is one of
the largest obstacles to the development of Africa. In many poor
countries, it blocks the economic growth. Moreover, the payment of
the debt servicing in hard currencies prevents these countries to
make the investments
necessary in the fields of education and health
care, and to face urgent situations. In 1996, the
international community of donors launched an initiative aiming at
bringing back the debt of the poor countries heavily in debt to
viable levels. Progress was certainly realized since, but in general,
the situation changing very
slowly. In spite of the promises made by the industrialized
countries, the resources necessary to finance this initiative are
yet not released and, in the current situation, one can fear that
all progress in this direction will be at
the detriment of the development aid. Since I started my functions of Secretary-general, I did not cease pleading
in favour of the elimination of the debt of the poorest countries.
In my report/ratio of the millenium, I have
committed the donor countries and the international financial
institutions to study the possibility of eliminating all the
national debt of the poor countries heavily in debt and to be ready
to eliminate all the bilateral national debts contracted by these
countries, if they show,
in the other hand, their will to fight against poverty.
As
for the question related to how to attract foreign direct
investments in Africa, the solution is, as I said before, to
create a climate favourable to
the businesses in Africa, but also, once the necessary
reforms were adopted, to better inform
potential investors about the investments possibilities. Such
is precisely the objective of the initiative undertaken by the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the
international Chamber of Commerce. This initiative comprises the
publication series of
guides which describe the possibilities and the conditions of
investment in the least advanced countries, and encourage the
dialogue between the potential Governments and Investors. Taking
into account the reduction of aide during years 9, this type of
collaboration is increasingly necessary to facilitate the
development of the poorest countries.
To
finish, Mr. Anan , who are the
Africans that marked the most you during
the XXth century and
how do you see you the Africa of tomorrow?
This a question to which it
is difficult to
answer. Among the Africans, men and women who
marked the most are heads of states, writers, but also simple
people that i was able to meet
through my many
journeys in Africa. However, I can quote you some great men who
inspired and continue
inspire me.
There
is Nelson Mandela, a model of courage and wisdom for all humanity.
Instead of profiting of a well deserved retirement, he continues to work
for peace as a facilitator of the peace process
in Burundi. The one we
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