Statement By The President Of The Republic Of Ghana

Mr. President,Mr. Secretary-General,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Heads of Delegations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I appreciate this opportunity to address the 20 Special Session of the General Assembly and wish to join previous speakers in congratulating you on your election as President of the Special Session. We feel confident that under your able leadership, the work of the session will be carried out successfully.

Mr. President,
Following the 1995 World Summit, in spite of actions taken at the national, regional and international levels, the world's social situation is far from meeting the goals of that Summit.

We have come to Geneva to participate in the Copenhagen plus 5 Summit because we believe in the programmes we agreed on and the targets we set ourselves five years ago. We are confident that all our colleagues as well as our development partners are also here and that together, we will demonstrate greater support to the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action.

Mr. President,
Painful as the short-term consequences of structural adjustment policies may be, many of our countries have implemented them in the hope that international economic relations will change for their real long-term benefits to be felt. Our expectations have not been met.

Our education objective is to attain the Social Summit's target of 100 percent school enrolment and the sustained provision of quality education.

Mr. President,
Ghana's commitment to the provision of universal access to basic health care is evidenced by over 60 per cent of the health sector budget appropriation to primary health care and the provision of health care facilities, particularly in the rural areas. Our health strategy provides free medical care to pregnant women, children under five and the aged.

HIV/AIDS continues to pose a problem to our country. We will urge the developed world to extend even further to developing countries greater access to advanced medication against the disease and to eliminate mother-to-child transmissions.

Mr. President,
As part of Ghana's employment generation strategy, the country's investment code has been revised and a Free Zones Area established in order to attract investors. A District Assemblies Common Fund has been set up partly to be used as lines of credit to create employment opportunities by supporting small enterprises.

Transparency in governance is an essential requirement for creating an enabling environment for meaningful economic and social development. But transparency must operate at both cads of the developing and the developed world Since the 1995 Copenhagen Summit, several governments of developing countries have been overthrown on corruption charges, and the trail of evidence has invariably led to the financial and banking institutions of the western world.
When in Copenhagen in 1995, I called for the relaxation of the rules of banking confidentiality and secrecy so that all would see who were the recipients of Africa's corrupt movies, as had been done in the case of drug movies, many were those who thought it was an idea whose time had not yet come.

Now, that time has come and what are we going to do? If we want a truly transparent governance system in our countries, then the governments of the developed world and their financial and banking institutions must co-operate with us, they must pass the necessary legislation, to make it impossible for the proceeds of corruption in the developing countries to be kept in their countries and in their vaults. Where this is done, they must make it possible for us to uncover and recover them.

In our countries, the governance systems are not only at risk from the military and the fears of coup d'états. They are also probably at a greater risk from civilians who corrupt the electoral process by disinformation, misinformation and the use of corrupt movies whether obtained from domestic or foreign sources.

Mr. President,
Another glaring obstacle to transparent governance, which must engage our attention, is the attempt at interference in the electoral processes in our countries, even when these are clearly against our laws. Today, there seems to be an unwritten rule in the western world that for there to be democracy in a developing country, the government must change, whether that government is doing well or not. Therefore, the opposition must be given material, financial and moral support to achieve that objective.

Given the extent of disinformation and misinformation put out by opposition parties in developing countries, and the effectiveness with which this is communicated by modern information technology, especially the Internet, one is almost tempted to forgive innocent foreigners who are taken in by this propaganda. But we know that many are not that innocent and do it in pursuit of their own agenda. This is also unacceptable and must stop.

Instead, such resources must be channelled to meet the basic needs of our people and thereby strengthen genuine democracy.

When we ask for development assistance, it is not only because we want to satisfy the basic needs of our people. The stark truth is that if we don't get it, and therefore are not able to provide those barest amenities, they will emigrate to the countries of the developed world where they will add to the refugee, social security and racial problems of those countries.

For those of us who try to deal with those basic needs, meagre resources have to compete with what we have to divert to prevent or resolve conflicts, either in our own countries or in our sub-regions. And these conflicts are not unrelated to the same struggle for the control of our resources, diamonds being the latest in the long list of resources that have fuelled Africa's conflicts.

Yet without resolving these conflicts, we cannot talk about the social development of our people, which is why we have gathered here in Geneva.

Mr. President,
We must adopt policies and programmes that will enhance resource mobilization in these countries, including debt relief, equitable international trade relations, reversal of the declining levels of official development assistance and foreign direct investment.

Economic shocks, which are easily weathered by the wealthier nations as mere temporary inconveniences, for us lead to severe economic dislocations. In Ghana, the combination of low world prices for gold, cocoa and other commodities, the lifeblood of our economy, coupled with the sharp increase in the world market prices for crude oil, is causing havoc to the national economy. Those crises can easily translate into unacceptable possible political fallouts. This time, my appeal goes to the oil-producing countries - to do something about the world oil prices to enable the poor countries of the world survive and have some resources to promote social development. We are doing our best in very difficult circumstances, but we need to be supported in order to succeed.

Mr. President,
Let us not leave Geneva only having paid lip-service to social development. Let us not leave Geneva feeling satisfied with a successful Summit. Let us leave Geneva with practical and workable strategies that will give further impetus to the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. Let us give hope to the poor of the world. Let us all do our duty to the peoples of the world.