Speech
by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E.
Benjamin William Mkapa, at an Official Dinner He Hosted for
the Visiting Secretary-General of the United Nations, H.E.
Mr. Kofi Annan, State House, Dar Es Salaam, 6 May 1998
Your Excellency
Kofi Annan,
United Nations Secretary-General and
Madam Annan;
Honourable Dr. Omar Ali Juma,
Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzania;
Honourable Ministers;
Your Excellencies
Heads of Diplomatic Missions;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It gives me great
pleasure to welcome you once again, Mr. Secretary-General
and Madame Annan, to our country. This is your second day
in Tanzania, and most regrettably you have to leave tomorrow.
But you have heard and seen for yourself part of the UN work
in Tanzania. You have met a few of our people, including Members
of a Multi-Party Parliament, and seen a little bit of our
abundant flora and fauna. You have had discussions with me,
my Minister for Foreign Affairs and the heads and staff of
the UN System in Tanzania. We are the same age, and even though
you are slimmer, I still think for our age that is a lot of
work and pleasure crammed into two days!
But I hope it
was worth your while, and I trust that what you have seen
and heard has enriched your knowledge of our country, and
of our views on the important issues facing Africa,
and the international community as a whole, as we prepare
for the new century and millennium.
Sometimes I think
Tanzania talks too much, both at the regional and international
levels. As a result our country is seen to enjoy an influence
at those levels that exceeds its economic or military strength.
It is also for this reason that some people, on visiting Tanzania
for the first time, are slightly disappointed, for they had
come to expect too much from such an active country on the
regional and international plane.
We are active
because we believe in the sovereign equality of states, regardless
of size or power, economic or military. We believe each member
of the international family is equally entitled to development;
to a better life for its people; and to peace, justice, dignity
and respect. As a country we believe in speaking our minds,
in standing up for what is right, and in promoting our interests
and those of other poor or small countries.
When a giant
steps on your toe, knowingly or unknowingly, and you keep
quiet, you continue to suffer. But when you shout out loud,
drawing also the attention of those around you, even a giant
will feel obliged to remove his foot from your toe. The UN
is the veritable forum for the midget nations of the world.
That is why the United Nations is so important to countries
like ours, and why it occupies, and will continue to occupy,
such a central place in the foreign policy of our country.
For Tanzania,
therefore, it was a matter of great satisfaction to have you
at the helm of this international body in which our hopes
for a better life and a fairer world are reposed. We have
to try hard not to expect too much from your tenure as UN
Secretary-General, but that we have one of our own in this
important position is in itself a matter of profound pride
and gratification. For, we know you understand us, and you
have a similar perspective like ours towards issues of concern
to Africa.
One of these
burning issues is poverty, which in our view lies at the root
of African conflicts; at the root of environmental degradation;
at the root of low levels of education, health services and
social welfare; and at the root of gender problems in Africa,
to mention but a few. I think it is against human rights that
40 - 45% of Africans should survive on less than US$ 1 a day!
Mr. Secretary-General,
It is now widely affirmed that Africa may, at last, be on
the point of a take-off in economic and political development.
This optimism is derived from impressive growth figures for
the majority of African countries; from a new breed of leaders
who, unencumbered by the cold-war want to take the destiny
of Africa in their own hands; from a willingness to take charge
of conflict prevention, management and resolution; and from
a distinct trend towards good governance in Africa.
As part of this
new leadership in Africa, I derive great satisfaction from
these achievements and expectations. I also believe in the
future, a better future, and in designing on our own the vision
and strategy for its realisation. If we are in the driver's
seat, no one can drive us on a run around. But I am also pragmatic
enough to appreciate that to really take off, in a sustainable
way, the huge African continent needs a stronger foundation.
The tethers that tie us down must be cut. We need solidarity
and practical support to break those shackles and to be the
credible midwives of the African renaissance we all want to
see occur.
It is for this
reason that we ask the UN to remain engaged in Africa, facilitating
the emergence and sustainability of the new Africa. That is
also why socio-economic issues must remain at the heart of
the UN system and agenda. Africans, being the poorest people
in the world in terms of real income and quality of life,
including access to social services, have naturally the greatest
interest in keeping socio-economic issues on the UN agenda.
One of the tethers
that must be cut to free Africa is that of conflict. Peace
and development have a symbiotic relationship, each reinforcing
the other. Separated, the dream of peace or of development
will remain just that - a dream. Africa has for too long acquired
and retained the image of a conflict-ridden continent. It
is an image we must not enter the 21st century with, let alone
bequeath to our children and great children.
There are many
pre-requisites for an enabling environment for investment
and growth. Some are beyond our powers, and we need external
help. Not so with peace. Peace is ours to ensure, it is within
our powers to attain, if only the political will is there.
I am glad that the African mechanism for conflict prevention,
management and resolution is now really taking root and realising
a practical application. Within our different regional groupings,
we have shown that we can take the lead in this matter. The
ECOMOG's role in Liberia and Sierra Leone; the IGAD's role
in Somalia and Sudan; the Great Lakes initiative in Rwanda,
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo; the SADC's role
in Angola and Lesotho, are all examples of what regionally
based initiatives for peace can achieve.
But conflict
resolution, and peace-keeping, are expensive undertakings
which our fledgling economies cannot be expected to finance
on our own. The case has, therefore, been made for the international
community to lend a helping hand to African initiatives for
peace. Your own excellent report, Mr. Secretary-General, to
the Security Council on the sources of African conflicts,
and how they may be addressed, is a good starting point to
create a reliable and rapid mechanism for giving practical
support to African initiatives and to increasing our capacity
to implement them. We have created an agenda and a momentum
for peace. All we ask of the international community is continuous
and solid support to make it work and sustain it.
Mr. Secretary-General,
Another tether holding back Africa's take-off is the enormous
and unbearable debt burden. The economic reforms, for which
we are applauded, take place in an environment of political
pluralism, an environment that demands a high level of public
accountability. But the competition inherent in pluralist
politics is accompanied by not rising but revolutionary expectations
among the population. It is, therefore, important to design
and manage the reforms in a way that will make changes politically
sustainable.
Reforms that accentuate
the rich-poor gap, within nations and between nations, contain
seeds of chaos, instability and self-destruction. The people
will not live on hopes and promises for ever. As soon as possible
the benefits of economic reform must be seen in the lives
of the ordinary people. To me that is the political and moral
raison d'etre for reform, and developed countries should help
us make our reforms meaningful to all our people and hence
politically and economically sustainable.
Deep and urgent
debt relief is one of the quickest ways to respond to this
challenge. The US$ 25 bn annual debt service demanded of Africa
could go a very long way to improve health, education, water
and sanitation in Africa. It is clear that highly indebted
poor countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, cannot
cope with these challenges and make their reforms sustainable
as long as their economies keep on being dragged down by the
unbearable debt burden.
In 1995, sub-Saharan
Africa spent 31% of its export revenues on servicing its external
debt, against the recommended maximum ratio of 20%. Debt service
claims 20% of Africa's savings and 4% of its combined GDP.
On average sub-Saharan Africa spends $ 43 per capita to service
her debt, but can afford only $ 35 per capita on education
and health. For other countries like Tanzania the ratios are
much worse. We spend over $ 10 per capita per year to service
debt, but only about $ 2 per capita on both health and education!
Our priority
now is to get debt relief under the HIPC initiative. We are
grateful for HIPC, but it is a cure that, with its present
stringent eligibility criteria, excludes most of the patients.
More than half of Africa needs the HIPC treatment but so far
less than 5 countries world-wide have been found eligible
for the medicine. We in Tanzania fear the medicine may arrive
when the patient is beyond help. We urge the Bretton Woods
Institutions to adopt a more flexible approach that will allow
countries that are obviously on the right track of economic
reform to get on the fast track and qualify for debt relief
under HIPC terms in a much shorter time frame. We ask the
United Nations to support the initiative for the faster track
of debt relief for the poorest countries.
Mr. Secretary-General,
The third obstacle to Africa's rapid take-off is infrastructural.
Unless Africa's infrastructure is upgraded it will continue
to be a disincentive to both domestic and foreign investment,
and will act as a brake to production, productivity, regional
trade and integration. Tanzania has 3 phones for every 1000
people against a sub-Saharan average of 4 phones per 1000
people, 40 per 1000 in Asia, 60 in Latin America, and 524
in high income countries. It is stated that the whole of sub-Saharan
Africa has fever phones than New York City!! Utilities such
as water and electricity are still a problem, while the El
Niño effects on roads, railways, and ports is proving
devastating.
We cannot realistically
expect private capital, or domestic savings, to finance the
huge infrastructural works needed to create an enabling environment
for Africa's sustained growth and development. We need more,
not less, Overseas Development Assistance, clearly targeted
at de-bottlenecking problems such as these. Yet, ODA continues
to fall, and the UN target of contributing 0.7% of GNP to
ODA remains a distant dream to all but a handful of OECD countries.
Mr. Secretary-General,
The fourth challenge which must be tackled for Africa's take-off
is access to foreign markets, at preferential terms, including
promotion of regional trade, and getting a fair return on
exports. Africa's share of international trade has continued
to decline, and during the first half of the 1990's, our terms
of trade fell by an average of 2.2% per year. Such negative
trends must be reversed. African countries need help in the
short-term to adjust as quickly as possible to the emerging
global market environment, and to be able to trade more among
themselves.
Mr. Secretary-General,
In conclusion let me express our gratitude for the excellent
relations and co-operation that exists between Tanzania and
the United Nations Secretariat and the entire UN System which
is very well represented and active in Tanzania. We work very
well with them. We are grateful for their support on issues
close to our hearts, including poverty alleviation, social
services, refugees, infrastructure development, and capacity
building. We look forward to continued good working relations,
hoping that even in the context of greater co-ordination of
UN activities, under the Regional Co-ordinator, the programmes
and funds will maintain their identities, and that this will
not lead to reduced resources for on-going and new programmes
and projects.
Mr. Secretary-General,
We put demands on you, sometimes without regard to your other
responsibilities towards the international community. We repose
our faith in you, even as we know you can only do that which
you are politically and financially empowered to do. That
is why we have an interest in your commendable efforts to
get members to pay their UN dues. We also commend you, and
feel proud of you, for the achievements you have realised
in the short time you have headed the UN Secretariat.
We wish you well
in your onerous responsibilities. With you at the helm we
are more confident that ours will be a better world, and Africa
will indeed take-off sooner rather than later.
I now ask you
all to join me in a toast:-
Thank you.
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APARC