Statement by Mr Paul Neville MP, Parliamentary Adviser to the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations plenary debate regarding the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the Decade to Roll Back Malaria, delivered on 20 October 2009.
(as delivered)
Mr President
Thank you for convening this joint debate on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries. I will address each item in turn.
First, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) continues to provide an important framework to address the critical challenges facing the African continent.
In his address to a meeting of African Union Foreign Ministers in Addis Ababa in February this year, the Australian Foreign Minister identified three priority areas for Australia engagement with African countries:
- First, support for African efforts to promote economic growth and prosperity through investment and trade;
- Second, support to accelerate progress towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; and
- Third, support to address peace and security challenges in Africa.
These priorities are consistent with the objectives of the NEPAD.
In the past year, Australia has increased its development assistance to Africa by 40%. The Australian Government believes it can assist African countries with their long term development in areas where our expertise and experience can make a unique and positive contribution. To this end, Australia is deepening its development cooperation engagement with Africa through three key sectoral programs - food security and agriculture, water and sanitation, and maternal and child health.
Furthermore, the Australian Government sees education as a key to assisting Africa realise its economic and social development potential. We are expanding our scholarships program in Africa, including through short courses and fellowships, and a capacity building partnerships facility. This facility will focus on priority areas including mining and natural resource management, agriculture, and public sector reform, and will be flexible to respond to requests from African Governments.
Mr President,
Finally on this item, Australia shares the Secretary-General’s frustration with the ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations. We join the Secretary-General in calling for a conclusion to the Doha Round. Australia is pursuing an outcome which is good for development, good for agricultural trade reform, and good for the multilateral trading regime. Early conclusion of the Doha Round will also be a significant economic stimulus at a time when the world’s economy has faced its greatest threat since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
Mr President
Turning to the Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries. In this context, I would like to thank the World Health Organisation (WHO) for its report on this item (A/64/302).
Malaria has a serious economic as well as human impact on Africa. It fuels the cycle of poverty, afflicting primarily the poor who tend to live in malaria-prone rural areas in poorly-constructed dwellings that offer few, if any, barriers against mosquitoes. It is an unacceptable tragedy that the disease accounts for nearly one in five childhood deaths in Africa.
In the Asia Pacific region, malaria also causes significant morbidity and mortality. Over 60 per cent of malaria cases outside of Africa occur in the Asia-Pacific region; a high proportion of these cases are Vivax malaria, for which the clinical tools required for diagnosis and management are less well developed. It is important to recognise that malaria is a global issue.
Australia is playing a leading role in addressing malaria in the Asia Pacific region. Through the Pacific Malaria Initiative, Australia is providing targeted technical and management support to assist governments implement their national malaria action plans. This initiative is already making impressive progress. In Solomon Islands, the malaria incidence rate has been reduced from 199 malaria cases per thousand people in 2003 to 82 cases per thousand in 2008. In Vanuatu, the rate has reduced from 74 malaria cases per thousand in 2003 to 14 cases in 2008. This initiative has highlighted the importance of working within partner government systems; of strong political leadership; and of providing appropriate technical expertise.
Australia was also pleased to host the inaugural meeting of the Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network in February 2009. The network was established to bring attention to the work of malaria elimination in the Asia Pacific region, a region which is home to a quarter of the countries in the world that have embarked on elimination. It represents another means of strengthening the technologies, skills, systems and leadership that are needed to reduce, and eventually eliminate, this disease in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thank you Mr President.