HIGH-LEVEL CONTACT GROUP MEETING OF THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT

– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

4 May 2020

Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement,

Heads of State and Government,

Ministers,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), His Excellency Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, for convening this important virtual High-level meeting in response to the unprecedented threat from the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic.

My sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones, and I wish those suffering from the disease a quick recovery. I thank healthcare workers and those on the frontlines combatting this disease, thereby keeping our communities safe and healthy.   

I commend the World Health Organisation (WHO), NAM Member States, Civil Society and Private Sector, for providing vital support and services in the fight to defeat the pandemic. In the face of mounting challenges, we are reminded of the indispensability of multilateral alliances, which have from the outset of this global challenge coordinated the global response. We must continue to support the World Health Organisation  (WHO) and one another to overcome this challenge and prevent future pandemics. I also call on all those that have the capacity to financially support the UN’s COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response plan, to do so.

Excellencies

COVID-19 has disrupted billions of lives with far-reaching effects on the health and livelihoods of people. The International Labour Organization estimates that workers will lose as much as 3.4 trillion US Dollars in income by the end of 2020. Global health systems are under enormous stress and global travel has been severely impacted. States, corporations and families are already counting losses that could only be imagined in a state of war.

While no country is spared from the scourge of this pandemic or its socio-economic impact, developing nations are bearing the heaviest brunt of it – even if they do not experience an outbreak of COVID-19. This pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities between and among nations, putting immense strain on tenuous systems and plunging those in the most precarious situations into deeper poverty and hunger.

At the same time, rising debt levels severely limit the ability of developing countries to provide essential public services such as healthcare and social protection.

This crisis comes as we embark on the Decade of Action and Delivery to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and we risk losing the gains we have made. We pledged that we would leave no one behind by adopting Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to implement the Agenda and the Addis-Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development by demonstrating greater resolve and urgently galvanising needed multilateral action.

Excellencies

Much like the United Nations, the Non-aligned Movement was founded in response to a period of distrust. It was a different era, but the situation was remarkably similar to today. Countries realised that the challenges facing them required much more than national efforts. I call on you to work in the same manner today to find solutions to our newest common challenge.

To effectively fight COVID-19 and mitigate its wide-ranging effects, our recovery efforts and actions to achieve the SDGs must be aligned. We must engage all stakeholders including governments, multilateral institutions, the private sector and civil society to ensure that we respond to the specific needs of communities, including through ensuring equal access to treatments and vaccines without discrimination. We must also safeguard the most vulnerable among us, including the elderly, people with underlining conditions, frontline workers and the poorest members of our communities.

Excellencies

Given the importance of education in achieving the 2030 Agenda, we must ensure that we urgently tackle the disruptions the pandemic has already caused to education around the world. With over 90% of the world’s students affected by school closures, we must coordinate effectively and support each other, to ensure that students around the world have access to quality education through remote learning.

While it has been easier for developed countries to transit to remote learning, many governments around the world have found this difficult or impossible, due to issues of internet penetration, lack of necessary software, hardware and other necessary infrastructure. We cannot allow this pandemic to widen the educational gap that already exists, and I call on you all to make cooperation a key element in the education sector.

In addition, as many people around the world depend on agriculture – for food and income, we must do our best to ensure that agricultural workers are able to function with minimal disruption. I urge Your Excellencies, to ensure increased investment in inclusive and resilient food systems that reflects our new reality, and position us to better tackle the challenges they presents, including the disproportionate risks faced by Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and commodity exporting countries. As we contend with the COVID-19 pandemic we must re-commit to ending hunger and poverty.

Excellencies

While swift action is also needed in the areas of debt relief and concessional finance to enable vulnerable countries scale up health responses and provide social protection, we must remember that effective public revenue generation will be key to financing resilient systems, now and in the future. Accordingly, we must continue to take concrete action to fight illicit financial flows, in other to mobilize funds for essential public expenditures. We must defeat this menace and build finance systems that can withstand the effects of COVID-19 and future shocks.

Excellencies

I commend the leadership of NAM and its Member States, who have since the onset of this pandemic shown solidarity to fellow countries of the Global South by exchanging best practices, donating medical equipment and supplies, as well as providing food and other humanitarian assistance. I urge the Movement to continue to advocate for a mutually beneficial international economic space through the creation, development and diffusion of new technologies and innovations, within the framework of South-South Cooperation.

I am grateful to NAM for the many ways it reinforces the principles of the Charter of the United Nation. This is evident in the role NAM Member States played in the recent resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on solidarity and access to medicines and vaccines. I trust that the Movement will continue to be a voice of reason and moderation and continue to work, within the framework of the UN Charter and the Bandung Principles, for international peace and security, the rule of law, justice and sustainable development.

I will continue to work with you to promote partnerships and galvanize the needed engagement to defeat COVID-19 and reduce its impact on all of us. Just as we have overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges in the past, we will also overcome this together.

I Thank you.