The President of Benin, Mr. Mathieu Kérékou calls for a crusade against hunger and poverty

"Despite praiseworthy efforts, the LDCs continued to bend under the crushing burden of debt, resulting in the weakening of social protection infrastructure, conflict and the continued ravage of the AIDS pandemic."

The President of Benin, Mr. Mathieu Kérékou

"Real political will has to be backed up by expressions of commitment," said Mr. Mathieu Kérékou, the President of Benin, during a powerful keynote address at the ECOSOC 2004 High Level Segment on resource mobilization and enabling environment for poverty eradication in the context of the implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action for Least Developing Countries on 28 June in New York.

"The results so far have not been encouraging. Official development assistance (ODA) has not increased, as pledged, and support for exports have negatively impacted the LDCs in world markets. Rare preferential treatment for LDCs remained underutilized and, despite praiseworthy efforts, the LDCs continued to bend under the crushing burden of debt, resulting in the weakening of social protection infrastructure, conflict and the continued ravage of the AIDS pandemic," he added.

The President said that only mobilization of financial resources would ensure the implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action. "We hope that the session's theme would be profound and exhaustive and that special problems faced by the LDCs would be addressed."

"The 2015 deadline of reducing by half the number of people living in poverty was approaching rapidly," he reminded, "and global action was needed, which would take into account not only the economic components of the situation, but also social, humanitarian and environmental considerations. It was up to the developed countries to increase ODA, promote direct investment, reschedule debt and open markets to LDC goods. It was up to the LDCs to achieve significant progress in the areas of good governance, respect for constitutional legality for combating corruption, decentralization, and the process of national development without discrimination on the basis of race, sex and religion."

At a roundtable discussion on 29 June, Mr. Kérékou said that as his country held the presidency of the coordinating bureau of the least developed countries, it was his duty to extend the recurrent message of hundreds of millions of women, children and men living in poverty. He hoped that, with high-level voices, more understanding and sincerity in relationships between people and States would occur through the Council's work.

The President of Benin, Mr. Mathieu Kérékou flanked by the High Representative Mr. Anwarul K. Chowdhury (right) and Mr. Bruce H. Moore, Director, International Land Coalition.

He noted that when the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries adopted the Programme of Action for 2001-2010, the international community had set the main objective of reducing by half by 2015 the number of people living in poverty. "It was essential that the international community envisage concrete action to help reverse and halt the marginalization of LDCs," he emphasized.

He appealed for a world crusade against hunger, poverty and famine to bring about a better future for people whose destinies could not be separated from that of the developing countries. "Long live international cooperation, long live international solidarity", he declared.