Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item 62 (a) and (b) "New Partnership for Africa Development: progress in implementation and international support".

2. The year 2010 has been a remarkable year for the African Union (AU) and its NEPAD programme. It will be recalled that extensive efforts to integrate NEPAD into the structures and processes of the AU finally culminated in the decision of the 14th AU Summit, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to formally establish the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) as a 'technical body' of the African Union.

3. As mandated by the African Union Assembly decision, the NEPAD Agency's role as planning unit will aim at facilitating and coordinating implementation of continental and regional programmes, mobilization of resources for the implementation of Africa's priority programmes and projects. The role of the NEPAD Agency in conducting and coordinating research and knowledge management will create an enabling environment to achieve food security and agriculture development in the next five years.

4. We have had the opportunity this year to reflect on the situation and challenges of the African continent. The High-Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals held from 20 to 22 September 2010 was one of these occasions where the G77 and China stressed the need for the international community to be "fully committed to assist those countries that are lagging behind, especially the least developed countries (LDCs), the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC) and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), as well as Africa".

5. In their 34th Ministerial Declaration, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the Group of 77 and China recognized the special needs of Africa and called for the full and timely implementation of all commitments made so as to enable African countries to achieve the MDGs by 2015. The Ministers further recalled the commitment of all States to establish a monitoring mechanism to follow up on all commitments by the international community related to the development of Africa as contained in the political declaration on "Africa's development needs" and stressed that all commitments to Africa should be effectively implemented and given appropriate follow-up by the international community and Africa itself.

6. The Ministers underlined the importance of accelerating sustainable broad-based economic growth, which is pivotal to bringing Africa into the mainstream of the global economy. To this end, they underscored the urgency of addressing the special needs of Africa based on a partnership among equals, and underlined the need to provide new additional resources, technology transfer, as well as capacity-building to African countries, and to support their sustainable development.

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

7. Today as we stand at five years to the 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.

8. The financial and economic crisis had had tremendous negative effects on African economies increasing the level of poverty and unemployment on the continent as well as reversing the progress African countries have made in the recent years. The global financial and economic crises made profound adverse impact on African development. The 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.

9. This situation 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. 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.

10. 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. 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.

11. In the 2010 World Summit Outcome the Heads of State and Governments stated, and I quote: "more attention should be given to Africa, especially those countries most off track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Progress has been made in some African countries, but the situation in others remains a grave concern, not least because the continent is among the hardest hit by the financial and economic crisis. …. however, aid still lags behind the commitments that have been made. We therefore strongly call for the delivery of those commitments" including doubling the aid to Africa."

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

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 2010 Outcome of the Summit on the MDGs and we look forward to the urgent implementation of the commitments that were stated.

13. In this regard, the Group of 77 and China once again reiterates the urgent need to establish a monitoring mechanism to follow up on all commitments related to the development of Africa, as contained in the political declaration on Africa's development needs review process and as recommend in the Secretary-General's report. In our view, the process will be under the auspices of the General Assembly. The implementation of both African Governments and their development partners commitments will be reviewed, beginning with the 66th session of the General Assembly.

14. 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. We 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.

15. As far as the 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.

16. Finally, the Group is 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. We welcome the United Nations' present support to Africa but we call on the UN to mainstream NEPAD into its normative and operational activities.

I thank you.