Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item 64 (a): New Partnership for Africa's Development: Progress in Implementation and International Support".

2. The Group wishes to thank the Secretary General for his Report (A/62/203) on this item.

3. There is much that has been achieved in Africa since the launch of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a six year old programme of the African Union. Through NEPAD, African leaders have taken ownership and leadership of the continent's socio-economic renewal agenda and transformed the content of the development agenda.

4. The NEPAD represents the collective determination and commitment of Africa to place its countries on the road to sustainable economic and social development by taking control of its own development and by fighting poverty. The NEPAD's policies and priorities have become an acceptable internationally approved framework for Africa's development.

5. Through NEPAD, African leaders have infact fundamentally changed the development paradigm. Consequently, the narrow approach of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers has been expanded to include a comprehensive and holistic approach to development through African ownership. In fact, most African countries now have their own national development strategies.

6. Today, as we stand at the half way mark of 2015, the target date of achieving the MDGs, unfortunately, Africa remains the only continent not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The situation is particularly bleak in Sub-Saharan Africa.

7. If we are to succeed in eradicating poverty and hunger in Africa then urgent and concerted action by developed countries and the international community is needed. This obviously entails further strengthening and enhancement of the global partnership for development and vigorous implementation of all development commitments without any further delay in particular the promises that have been made in support of Africa. Today, inadequacy of resources is widely seen as the main constraint on African development. Despite serious, sincere and consistent efforts by the African countries to implement NEPAD, Africa is still far from realizing the levels of support required under this partnership.

Mr. President,

8. While we welcome the support provided by the international community and the United Nations in particular, much more needs to be done. The Group of 77 and China is deeply concerned about the over all decline of ODA flows including to Africa. This is happening despite the promises made by G-8 at Gleneagles in 2005 to double the aid to Africa by 2010. We do hope and look forward to seeing the fulfillment of the commitment made by G-8 at Heiligendamm Summit in 2007 to take urgent and collective action, to redeem the aid pledges.

9. The welcome debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiatives (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) may have released resources for development related expenditure in Africa, yet they are completely inadequate in helping African countries to realize the Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs) including MDGs. The situation clearly demands urgent, bolder, and more encompassing initiatives to solve the external debt problems of African countries in an effective, equitable and development oriented manner, including cancellation or restructuring for heavily indebted African countries not part of the HIPC Initiative that have unsustainable debt burdens. In this regard, we also emphasize the importance of debt sustainability.

10. The lack of progress in the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks is another source of continuing concern for the G-77 and China. The international community should ensure that multilateral trade agreements prioritize Africa's needs and incorporate appropriate development provisions. Efforts should be made to ensure that the Aid for Trade initiative is formulated in a manner that it is adequately funded, efficiently managed and effectively implemented as quickly as possible. Resources granted to the initiative should be additional, predictable, adequate and sustainable. These should finance new, not recycled or existing, technical assistance and projects.

11. As regards the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows, despite record high levels of inflows of 31 billion dollars in 2005, Africa's share in global FDI remained low, at about 3%. Conscious efforts are thus needed to direct investment flows particularly infrastructure investments to support and sustain the development endeavors of Africa.   

Mr. President,

12. The Group of 77 and China is of the view that resources must be mobilized for African States, the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Union in order to support efforts aimed at achieving the MDGs within the framework of national development programmes and implementing the NEPAD programme. We have taken note of the innovative approaches that have been developed in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa, the IMF, the World Bank, and UNCTAD, UNDP and the Secretary-General's Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) regarding funding and project implementation of priority areas for NEPAD.

13. We are pleased that UN agencies have organized themselves into various clusters in line with NEPAD priority areas as a way to increase co-ordination and co-operation in their work relating to NEPAD. Additionally, a number of these agencies are playing a critical role in supporting the work of NEPAD, especially in areas such as agriculture, trade and market access, infrastructure development, science and technology and others. Welcome as this important support may be, there is still need for the United Nations to mainstream NEPAD into all its normative and operational activities.

Mr. President,

14. The Group of 77 and China also looks forward to the convening and active participation of all partners in the High Level Meeting on "Africa's Development Needs: State of Implementation of Various Commitments, Challenges and the Way Forward" during the Sixty-third General Assembly Session.  We will be working with our partners during this Session to decide on the modalities and scope of the High Level Meeting.

I thank you.