His Excellency Mr. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, President of the Republic of Zambia.

 

President Mwanawasa: Allow me, on behalf of the Zambian delegation, to congratulate the Co-Chairpersons on having organized this important highlevel review of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). I should like to thank the Secretary-General for his tireless efforts to provide well-researched documents to Member States and to facilitate this important high-level meeting.

 

In the year 2000, at the dawn of the new millennium, there was optimism for humankind, as the hope for change to a more democratic and equitable world appeared to be very promising. In 2000, optimism for the future gave rise to a shared desire to restructure the United Nations. Now, five years down the line, it has become clear that the international community has not found a common strategy to achieve the desired goals. My delegation calls for collaborative efforts between the developed and the developing countries to accelerate global efforts.

 

We applaud and support recent efforts aimed at providing more resources for development, among which are the provision of debt relief through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, the recent announcements by the Group of Eight countries of total debt cancellation and the efforts of some industrialized countries that have met the official development assistance target of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

 

Let me share with this House Zambia.s position on the MDGs. It is the view of my Government that, although the record so far indicates that Zambia has not made much progress on all eight targets, we have done enough to believe that they are achievable. In Zambia, we see the next decade as our time for a breakthrough. We are encouraged by the promise of total debt cancellation arising from our reaching the HIPC completion point in April this year. That development has now raised our prospects for achieving part of the MDGs by 2015. As I speak, we are preparing our five-year national development plan, which is anchored in inputs from district consultations. We are also working with the United Nations country team in Lusaka to firmly anchor the national development plan in the achievement of MDGs.

 

Our determination to succeed is based on the fact that in the past two and half years, Zambia has registered positive growth in agriculture. Real GDP growth in that sector was 7.5 per cent in 2004, having increased from 4.5 per cent in 2003. In the social sectors, we have recorded some positive developments in education, with increases in enrolment at all levels. However, that sector still faces challenges related to an inadequate education infrastructure.

There has been notable improvement in the health sector. The burden of malaria, the number-one cause of mortality, has been reduced through innovative and vigorous health service delivery programmes such as Roll Back Malaria. HIV/AIDS remains a major obstacle in the development process, as most of our human resource base is being depleted. My Government has put in place a multi-sectoral response to the pandemic and has scaled up its interventions through advocacy, counseling and antiretroviral therapy.

In terms of resource mobilization, I am glad to inform participants that Zambia is one of the countries that have benefited from the Monterrey Consensus on financing for development. We have agreed with our cooperating partners on good and efficient aid modalities.

My Government has put in place prudent financial and public expenditure systems that will ensure efficiency and transparency. We have declared zero tolerance for corruption and would like to see greater support by the international community for the collaborative work required to make such a programme succeed.