Mozambique

Your Excellency Mr Dennis Francis, President of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly;

Your Excellency Engineer António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation;

Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government;

Distinguished Representatives of Member States;

Esteemed Leaders of the system of the United Nations Organisation;

Distinguished Invited Guests;

Excellencies!

I begin my remarks by extending on behalf of the People of Mozambique, our heartfelt condolences to the Peoples of the sisterly nations of Morocco and Libya for the tragedies that these two sister African countries.

I take this opportunity to reiterate the Mozambican People and Government gratitude for the unanimous vote for the election of Mozambique as a Non-Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council.

Our participation at the Security Council has enabled us to share our experience in peace building and national reconciliation, thus contributing towards fostering international peace and security.

Mr President;

Your Excellencies!

In September 2015, at this very hall, we adopted the Sustainable Development Goals that encapsulate the Agenda 2030. As Leaders we committed on behalf of our peoples to reduce poverty in 17 key areas and establish a new world for all without leaving no one behind.

The Progress Report that we considered yesterday at the High-Level Panel shows clearly that world continues to be faced with various interconnected crises that undermine the delivery of the Agenda 2030.

Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, natural disasters arising from climate change and armed conflicts including terrorism and violent extremism causes millions of people to continue living under poverty without adequate food, and without access to education and health services.

While it is true that the adversities I have referred are a cause for regression in progress that we were making in the implementation of Agenda 2030 since 2015.

However, the main reason for lack of success of this agenda remains the absence of trust and solidarity between those who have a lot and those who have little or almost nothing at all.

Even among those who have a lot, rather than building trust and solidarity they spend their resources by investing in a competition fuelled by mistrust.

Therefore, I commend Your Excellency Dr Dennis Francis, Chairperson of this session for the theme you have suggested to us on “Rebuilding Peace revitalizing Global solidarity”. It is a critical theme to realize Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development for peace, progress and prosperity for sustainability of humanity.

Your Excellencies!

In my statement I will try to focus attention on peace and security, counter terrorism, climate change, energy transition, blue economy and environmental conservation, in tandem with the theme of this General Assembly.

(i) Peace and Security

On the issue of peace and security, a number of regions of the world are grappling with vicious cycle armed conflicts and instability, particularly in Africa. Thousands of precious lives are lost. The number of refugees and internally displaced persons have increased to more than 50% in the past year alone.

Despite multilateral efforts and several peace initiatives at the United Nations Security Council level and Regional Organisations, war in Ukraine and other regions prevail and endanger peace, security and the global economy.

My own country, Mozambique, experienced cycles of armed conflicts, sometimes triggered by forces alien to national interests.

But, the settlement has been possible only on the basis of constructive dialogue founded on trust and mutual respect.

That is how we adopted the new provincial decentralization Law now under implementation and in August 2019 we signed the Peace and Reconciliation Accord, also known as the Maputo Accord. In June this year, we closed the last Camp of RENAMO, a formerly armed opposition Party, marking the conclusion of the Disarmament and Demobilization phase.

The crucial phase that follows is the reintegration of ex. Combatants into the society including payment of pensions, although not provided for by law. I would like to express our gratitude as this process counts on the support of the United Nations and other multilateral and bilateral partners.

(ii) Terrorism

Excellencies!

While we seek to close one chapter of the peace and national reconciliation process, Mozambique is confronted by the nefarious phenomenon of terrorism specifically in Cabo Delgado Province in the North of the country.

In March this year during Mozambique’s rotational chairpersonship at the Security Council we had the opportunity to share at length our experience of counter terrorism.

On one hand, our strategy focuses on strengthening combat operations by the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces, with the initial support of the Rwandan contingent and the SADC multilateral force (SAMIM). We have been achieving tangible success on the ground though terrorists continue to create terror and fear in sporadic way in isolated villages.

With the improvement of safety and tranquillity, populations have been returning in large numbers to their home areas resuming their normal life.

This is a pioneer experience of combining bilateral and multilateral interventions. It is also an example of solution of African problems, first by the Africans themselves.

However, the issue arising is the need for a substantial support to these countries that are directly intervening in countering terrorism with us in Mozambique in order to render the ongoing operations sustainable.

At this juncture, the challenge is reconstruction of infrastructure and consolidation of social cohesion whose actions arise within a Northern Region Resilience and Integrated Development Programme (PREDIN) which counts on the support of partners. We also launched an appeal for your solidarity, other component of our strategy to counter terrorism and address fragilities.

(iii) Climate Change

Climate change constitute the main crisis of mankind of this Century. This is not a new discovery, therefore, many speeches around this subject almost repeat themselves. For a number of decades ago that scientific evidences show that our planet is at the eve of climate catastrophe.

However, despite evidence and of commitments assumed yearly during various Conferences on Climate Change and the situation has been aggravating.

As it happens with many conflicts, the main cause for climate crisis is lack of trust, lack of solidarity coupled with selfishness of some countries. The countries that pollute most continue with emissions that cause global warming and climate change. The enrichment of these countries is paid with price of disgrace for countries that contribute less with pollution that coincidentally are the poorest countries.

As a consequence, heat waves, cyclones, floods, droughts, earthquakes, the rise of the sea level, uncontrolled fire and other extreme phenomenon have become increasingly frequent all over the world.

In the case of Mozambique, due to its geographic vulnerability, the country suffers cyclically of the devastating impact of natural disasters. The latest largest cyclones, I mean Idai, Kenneth and Freddy caused hundreds of losses of life, highly costly damages and losses in the tune of billion dollars. So far, we have not been able to recover just one third of damages recorded.

However, support from partners have been well below the pledges and beyond the requirements. In many cases when this assistance comes partners have preferred to manage the funds outside agreed mechanisms with the Government, causing overlaps in areas or programmes which have little impact on the communities.

As a consequence, a substantial portion of funds is spent in capacity building, Conferences, bureaucratic issues rather than allocating funds to affected people, which once again shows lack of trust and solidarity.

As a way of mitigating the suffering of the people we have been promoting domestic solutions towards consolidating a disaster management system with the involvement of public, private stakeholders, civil society and local communities, focusing on prevention and adaptation.

This way we have managed to reduce the impact of natural disasters, a fact that has merited prompted the recognition at SADC, African Union and the UN Agencies.

Mr President;

Excellencies!

(iv) Energy Transition

Energy transition is a global imperative aimed at building more resilient and sustainable societies. However, we advocate that energy transition should be fair and must work as Launchpad to enable poor countries to find a window of opportunity in the diversification of the energy mix in order to consolidate their economic base.

Energy transition requires large investments in power generation projects from clean sources. Once again, most industrialized countries are invited to show more solidarity by increasing their climate funds.

Mozambique is a regional reference for the diversity of its energy matrix that includes hydropower dams, particularly Cahora Bassa, solar power stations and wind power stations and the construction works for Mphanda Nkuwa are now underway.

Last year, Mozambique joined the group of Liquefied Natural Gas producing and exporting countries, an important step towards accelerating energy transition.

Currently the energy sector is dominated by hydropower, with a capacity of two thousand, one hundred and seventy two megawatts; solar, with ninety five megawatts; gas, four hundred and forty one megawatts and diesel, with one hundred and twenty Mw, with the possibility of operations of Temane Thermal Power Station over the last quarter of 2024 with the capacity of four hundred and fifty Mw, and with a longer maturity cycle the new Mpphanda Nkuwa Hydropower station, with a capacity of one thousand and five hundred Mw to be generated from 2030.

(v) Likewise, Mozambique bets on the development of the blue economy to optimize/maximize resources from the extensive Exclusive Economic Zone along a coast line of 2.700km.

(vi) Environmental Conservation

We are also a country with a robust environmental legislation that features major international conventions, including the Paris Agreement, the Convention on the Protection of Endangered Species (CITES) among others.

Within the framework of Nationally Determined Commitments (NCD) in 2021, Mozambique became the first African country to receive payments from the world Bank Fund to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Last year we launched a regional initiative on the Sustainable Management of the Miombo Forest” that culminated with the adoption of the Maputo Declaration which was endorsed by 11 SADC Member States.

Miombo woodland is the largest tropical forests ecosystem of the world where three species are predominant which covers more than 2,574km along the great Zambezi Basin across 8 countries of Southern Africa. Under this initiative which intendeds to project nature we count on the support of bilateral and multilateral partners in the conservation of the Miombo forest that can largely contribute to capture carbon on the planet.

Excellencies!

The challenges currently faced by humanity are huge. However, solutions are within our reach. We, the Leaders present here have the historic responsibility of saving the planet for the benefit of future generations.

The priority areas requiring an urgent action are clearly identified, with a matrix of already defined solutions, of which we highlight three:

First, we need to renew our political will and redouble efforts to accelerate the achievement of targets of the Agenda 2030. We don't need to come up with analytical speeches, the most important is action by all of us with vigor and using available resources.

Secondly, we have to intensify integrated policies with concrete actions to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and preserve nature by empowering women, the youth and other vulnerable groups.

Thirdly, we must strengthen international partnership and multilateralism taking the United Nations System as a basis. However, 78 years later the world has experienced profound transformations that require deep reforms.

I conclude by appealing for the existence of a more inclusive international financial system that is guided by transparent rules and mutually beneficial where Africa participate as partner that has also lot to offer to the world and not only a warehouse that supplies cheap commodities to countries or international multinational corporations that dominate the international market.

To achieve this, we need to retrieve trust and mutual respect between States, which are the sacred principles of the United Nations Charter. Only with trust and mutual respect we can build a better world, of peace, safe rand sustainable that deliver welfare for all.

Thank you very much for your attention.