Development, Millennium Dev. Goals

President of the Council,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

It is an honour to join you for today's handover ceremony. Let me begin by wishing everyone a happy and productive new year.

Your Excellency, Ambassador Ali Hachani of Tunisia thank you for your work over the past year to make the Economic and Social Council a stronger and more effective body. I particularly appreciate your efforts to realize the World Summit's expanded mandate for the Council.

Madame Foreign Minister of South Africa, (Nkosazana) Dhlamini-Zuma,

Acting President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Franciscus Majoor,

Dr. Supachai (Panitchpakdi), Secretary-General of UNCTAD,

Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan,

Excellencies,

Distinguished ladies and Gentlemen,

Excellencies, Dear Friends:

This has been a chequered decade for development, but an extraordinary one for the UN's role in development.

When I took office in 1997, official development assistance had been declining for more than a decade. Funding for the UN system had dropped precipitously, amidst fierce ideological debates with the Bretton Woods institutions and other partners about the right approach to development. And the world was falling rapidly behind in tackling new challenges, particularly HIV/AIDS.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s address to the sixteenth Ibero-American Summit in Montevideo:

I am honoured to be with you. Let me thank our hosts, President Vazquez and the Government and people of Uruguay, for their warm welcome and kind hospitality.

Equally, let me congratulate Enrique Iglesias -- a good friend of the UN and of mine --on taking up the reins asSecretary-General of the Ibero-American organization, at such a critical time.

Statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan today at the opening in São Paulo, Brazil, of the eleventh Ministerial Conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD):

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the eleventh Ministerial Conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. I would like to pay tribute to President Lula da Silva, to the city and state of Sao Paulo, and to the people and Government of Brazil for generously hosting this event.

Not far from this conference room, in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, 13 million people are threatened with famine.

If any reminder were needed of what happens when we fail to plan for and protect the long-term future of our planet, it can be heard in the cries for help from those 13 million souls.

And if there is one word that should be on everyone’s lips at this summit, one concept that embodies everything we hope to achieve here in Johannesburg, it is responsibility.