Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Member States of the Group of 77 and China on Agenda item 63 and 47. We wish to thank the Secretary-General for his reports on the items we are discussing today.

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

African countries have taken concrete steps to implement the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), through the development of sectoral policy frameworks, design of specific projects and establishment of expenditure targets in NEPAD priority areas. There is much has been achieved in Africa since the adoption of the Millennium Declaration in 2000, the (NEPAD) and a programme of the African Union which is now in progress. African leaders have taken ownership and leadership of the continent's socio-economic renewal agenda and transformed the content of the development agenda through NEPAD.
The NEPAD policies and priorities became an acceptable and approved framework for Africa's development. Through NEPAD, African countries have fundamentally changed the development paradigm. 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.

These efforts require an enabling national and international environment conducive of growth and development with the participation of the multi-stakeholders. Despite efforts in implementing NEPAD, Africa is still far from realizing the levels of support required under this partnership.

In the 2005 World Summit Outcome the Heads of State and Governments, stated that Africa was the only continent not on track to meet the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This was again reiterated in the Development Follow-up Resolutions which emphasized that vigorous implementation of all development commitments were needed without delay and in particular the promises that have been made in support of African development which faces serious challenges that require collective action on the part of African countries and the International Community to overcome. Resources must be mobilized for African States, in order to support efforts aimed at achieving the MDGs within the framework of national development programmes and implementing the NEPAD programme. Urgent and concerted action by developed countries and the international community is needed to succeed in eradicating poverty and hunger in Africa.

In this regard the Group of 77 and China reiterates that the main challenge remaining for the development of Africa is a global partnership for development which must be fully implemented. It has become clear that despite all the actions and commitments by African countries the main constraint to African development remains the lack of adequate resources.

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

African Union has made substantial progress in conflict prevention by creating mechanisms that are instrumental for promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in the continent. This African ownership in resolving conflicts has produced remarkable results. Conflict prevention and the consolidation of peace must be benefited from the coordinated, sustained and integrated efforts of the United Nations system, Member States, and regional and subregional organizations, as well as international and regional financial institutions. We believe that development is the best contribution to peace. Therefore, achieving development, economic growth and poverty eradication, should be at the heart of conflict prevention strategies. At the same time, there should be a coordinated and comprehensive approach towards combining peace building, emergency assistance and longer term development support measures.

Progress towards sustaining development in Africa requires, among others, writing off the unsustainable debt of African countries by both bilateral and multilateral donors. Reaching the target of reducing poverty in half by 2015 would require a growth rate, on average, of 7-8 percent per annum. To achieving this rather high rate of growth, we call for a number of measures towards mobilizing the external resources.

As far as environment is concerned, we recognize the importance of addressing in an interrelated and mutually supportive manner, the three dimensions of sustainable development. Along this line, the Group of G77 and China strongly calls for strengthening measures to enhance assistance to the African countries in their fight against land degradation, drought and desertification by multilateral and bilateral donors and through public and private partnership.

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,

HIV/AIDS and Malaria pandemics are taking catastrophic toll on many African societies, paralyzing their economies and ruining their social fabric. The international community should be acutely aware that only much more substantial collective effort is needed for effective prevention care and impact mitigation of the deadly pandemics. Now there is growing awareness of the tragedy and its ruinous impact, what is badly needed is real, genuine political commitment and commensurate provision of the requisite funds and programmatic response to the pandemic. We call upon the international community to continue supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and through country-led initiatives to create conditions for full access to insecticide-treated mosquito nets, insecticides for indoor residual spraying for malaria control and effective anti-malarial combination treatments, including through the free distribution of such nets where appropriate.

Finally the Group urges to remain conscious that food crisis, the energy and the climate change are having some of their worse impacts in Africa.  The global financial and economic crises made profound adverse impact on African development. Poor African countries, with their high dependence on agricultural commodity exports, are among the most adversely impacted by the failure of the global trade negotiations and the continued application of massive subsidies by developed countries.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) has shrunk to historically low levels, representing less than one-third of internationally agreed targets. We need to emphasize the imperative of increase in the ODA, which, of course, needs to be combined with a set of other policy measures to enhance developing countries in Africa.

I thank you Mr. President.