Special Assembly session adopts five-year programme of action for economic recovery of Africa.

Special Assembly session adopts five-year Programme of Action for economic recovery of Africa

A five-year plan of action to revitalize and develop the economies and resources of Africa was adopted at the conclusion of the thirteenth special session of the General Assembly, convened from 27 May to 1 June at Headquarters to address the continent's critical economic situation.

The United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-1990, was adopted without a vote, after what was described as "delicate,' "determined', "very tough' negotiations. The session, originally scheduled to conclude on 31 May, was extended by one day to accommodate reaching agreement on the text.

Crucial priority areas were addressed: agriculture, environment, infrastructure, human resources and external resources. Divided into three parts, the Programme provides an analysis of Africa's critical economic situation; an inventory of objectives and costs of specific action--oriented measures--both activities and policies --to be taken at national, sub-regional and regional levels and aimed primarily at medium-term and long-term rehabilitation; suggestions for international commitments, including debt constraints and increased South-South co-operation; and follow-up and evaluation machinery.

Full implementation of the Programme would require $128.1 billion over the five-year period, with African nations committed to providing $82.5 billion, about 65 per cent of the total, through mobilization of domestic resources. The remaining $46 billion --some $9 billion a year--would be required from "external resources', the Programme specifies.

In adopting resolution A/RES/S-13/2, the Assembly stressed that the African development crisis "is one that concerns the international community as a whole and that greater realization of the rich physical and human potential of the continent is an integral part of a common strategy to promote the economic and social advancement of all people'.

The Assembly also emphasized the need to intensify economic and technical co-operation with African countries during and beyond the period of the Programme of Action.

Governments were urged to take effective action for the rapid and full implementation of the Programme. United Nations organizations and bodies and inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations were asked to support such implementation.

The Assembly also decided that a review and appraisal of the Programme's implementation would take place in 1988. The Secretary-General was asked to monitor and report on the process of implementation in 1987 and 1988.

The special session is the thirteenth to be held in the Organization's history, and the first to be devoted to economic problems of a specific region. Recent special sessions have dealt with disarmament (1978 and 1982), international economic co-operation (1975 and 1980), and establishment of a new international economic order (1974).

Nearly 100 speakers, many of them at the ministerial level, participated in a general debate. The Assembly also formed an Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole, its chairman, Stephen Lewis of Canada. It held lengthy and intensive consultations, stretching into early-morning hours on two days, in order to make final recommendations regarding the Programme. Issues relating to debt relief and specific dollar amounts for the Programme were primarily in question. Mr. Lewis described the final draft as "coherent, substantial and enormously significant'.

"Hope for millions'

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, at the opening plenary on 27 May, said that the international community "cannot stand by and allow a further deterioration in the ability of the vast majority of African countries to meet their basic needs.'

The session had "raised considerable hope in the hearts of millions of Africans', he said, and was "an opportunity for a new beginning in the co-operation between African countries and their development partners'. He appealed to all Governments to "make this new partnership a success'.

General Assembly President Jaime de Pinies of Spain told the Assembly: "It is our task . . . to support the efforts made by our brothers in Africa fully to develop the possibilities and potential of their continent, and thus to make a greater contribution to the prosperity and well-being of the world'. He called for "new, imaginative and creative approaches' to making progress towards that end.

Edgard Pisani of France, Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Whole for the special session, in reporting on the work of the body, told the session: "Africa's problem is of such dimensions that only solidarity can come to grips with its consequences; only the will of the world's political leaders can remedy its causes.'

"Act of faith'

Abdou Diouf, President of Senegal and current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which had spearheaded efforts for convening the special session, made a keynote address to the Assembly, calling the assemblage "an act of faith'.

The current crisis, he said, had "shed blinding light on that continent of paradox, Africa, where, because of the extraversion of our economies and the weakness of our production and our productivity, but also because of the rigidity and inequity of the international economic system, a vast natural and human potential coexists with famine, illiteracy and the most dire poverty'.

Structural deficiencies, he said, had been "aggravated by natural disasters, the decline in commodity prices, the crushing burden of the debt and its servicing, stagnation, indeed, the decrease in real terms of financial flows towards Africa, and the high concentration of refugees and displaced persons.'

The Programme, he said, was "the very essence of the collective and individual resolve of African countries to undertake the economic recovery of the continent with agriculture as the central theme'. It reflected the "profound desire of Africa to put an end to the recurrence of famine, to improve the lot of the poorest sectors of the population, to restore agriculture, and to resolve the dreadful problem posed by inexorable desertification'.

African economies could not experience growth rates that met their real needs "in the absence of adequate solutions to certain outside constraints, such as the debt and debt-servicing, which are beyond our control but whose weight places a heavy burden on our development prospects'.

What was at stake, he concluded, was "the survival of a continent, the economic recovery of Africa . . .. There will be no genuine and comprehensive peace as long as an entire continent, Africa, is threatened by famine, sickness, ignorance and uncertain future.' Was not, he asked, development "the new name of peace'?

Background

In December 1984, following a trip to Ethiopia to relief camps for drought victims, Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar convened a meeting of Member States at Headquarters to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation in Africa.

The General Assembly...