YouSaid · the spoken record

Félix Antoine Tshilombo Tshisekedi

lines on the record: 53
first: 2019-09-24
most recent: 2020-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We must commit to applying concrete measures to make both the eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequalities truly irreversible, promote social inclusion and the environment in a holistic way, strengthen economic and technical cooperation, move forward on the path of solidarity and development and to preserve international peace and security. Thus, the global village in which we live will be able to reflect international solidarity, respect for human rights and the environment, these values that characterize us. Thank you.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“For more than a decade, we have each year recalled the glaring injustice suffered by the African continent in its representation both within the Security Council and in the various international organizations that make up the United Nations system. The feeling of frustration in the face of this near indifference to this obvious injustice contributes to the accentuation of social and popular frustrations, which sometimes lead to episodes of violence in many countries. The reform of the United Nations must, moreover, draw the lessons of experience in matters of international cooperation in order to ensure the greater efficiency of the agencies and funds engaged in the basics of economic and social development.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“My Government is prepared, on the one hand, to work in close collaboration with this Global Fund, and, on the other hand, to use the experience of this collaboration to create a national fund for the reparation of victims, which will, I am sure, complete the work of alleviating the suffering of the many Congolese victims. Mister President, The United Nations should continue to ensure multilateral coordination, consistency and accountability within the system to entrench international solidarity. This is why I reiterate my urgent call for the reform of the United Nations Security Council, in order to make that body more transparent, more democratic and more representative of the composition of our Organization.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“I realize how much this category of the Congolese population has particularly suffered from the horrors of the troubled years that my country has gone through. It is to combat all forms of sexual and gender-based violence that my country has taken and implemented several legal and administrative texts and taken important initiatives. I am aware that, notwithstanding these countless efforts, there is still a lot of work to do in this area. My determination to fight for the rights of women, girls and children remains strong. This is why my country warmly welcomed the creation, on 30 October 2019, of the Global Fund for the reparation of victims of sexual crimes committed during the time of conflict.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Always in the quest to improve the situation of human rights and social justice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 22 April 2019 I established the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Trafficking in Persons and the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture. To put an end to certain bad practices in the management of public affairs and to fight effectively against corruption, fraud and counter-values, I created an agency for the prevention and fight against corruption that will make it possible to strengthen corruption prevention policy with regard to those in charge of both the executive and the private sector. Mister President, Since the beginning of my mandate, I have continuously ramped up the efforts of my Government in favour of the promotion and protection of the rights of women and young girls.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“To that end, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in favour of the principle of increasing the operational capacity of the Intervention Brigade, in particular by providing it with special units adapted to the asymmetric warfare imposed on us by armed groups in the east of the country. Mister President, The agenda in favour of improving the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the priorities of my Government which, since my inauguration, has been engaged in the fight against counter-values and human rights abuses, in particular through the fight against impunity and sexual violence, access to justice for victims, the improvement of prison conditions, and the resolution of intercommunity violence, in particular through the creation and implementation of transitional justice mechanisms.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Until we can agree on the final contours of the future of MONUSCO on the national territory, the wish of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is to see, during this period of preparation for withdrawal, the strengthening of collaboration on the field within MONUSCO units and with the FARDC in order to ensure that the expected firepower to protect the population and restore peace, security and the full authority of the State throughout the national territory, including in localities where the presence of armed groups is still visible, can be effective. I am resolved to restore a smile as soon as possible to the populations of the east of my country, who have been living in insecurity for more than two decades.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“These means often come from the illicit exploitation of natural resources sold outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo through well- established networks and, without a doubt, with the help of certain sponsors. We cannot, in fact, succeed in neutralizing the armed groups without eradicating their sources of supply and support, which are these networks and other sponsors. I appeal to the international community to apply appropriate, targeted and effective sanctions. Mr. President, it is in this general context that the strategic review and dialogue for the transformation of the UN presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is taking place.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“They attack not only elements of our armed forces, but also the MONUSCO peacekeepers who provide us with their logistical support, as well as the civilian population, all this with the aim of undermining the efforts made by the Government for the stability of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region. These armed groups engage in unconventional and asymmetric warfare. They act in total ignorance of human values and commit massive abuses and violations of human rights, in particular through repeated rapes and massacres of civilian populations in isolated corners of certain well-known territories in the east of the country, such as of the Beni region and its surroundings, Djugu in Ituri and Rutshuru. The findings show in general that these groups have the means to enable them to pursue their activities.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Also, my Government has developed, as I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, an emergency multisectoral programme to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 in order to cushion the shock associated with the health crisis on the socioeconomic environment and support the revival of economic activity.jsE.pjMister President, The prevailing security situation in the eastern part of the country remains worrying. Peace is not yet fully established there. Some residual elements of armed groups, nationals and foreigners alike, are still active there and continue to sow death and desolation.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“To that end, my Government has put in place the National Strategic Development Plan, which constitutes the unifying framework of all national, provincial and sectoral policies and strategies on the Sustainable Development Goals in order to enable the Democratic Republic of the Congo to diversify its economy, which remains based on the exploitation of natural resources, and to accelerate investment in infrastructure and human capital, while promoting investment in social sectors. However, it is true that the current context marked by COVID-19 represents a real challenge that is slowing the pace of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Mister President, At the national level, I have engaged the country in reforms at several levels, including that of public finances and the improvement of good governance and poverty reduction. Economically, the Democratic Republic of Congo has made the African Union’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 the pivot on which its development policy is based. Since 2016, the country has been implementing the Sustainable Development Goals aimed at inclusion, social equity and transparency at all levels.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“In accordance with my promise and the commitment made at the 74th session of the General Assembly, “School gardens: a billion trees by 2023” has been established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This programme, which was adopted by my Government, will begin its activities in the last quarter of this year 2020. It is aimed at achieving a major community and eco-civic project of ecological restoration with strong socioeconomic benefits for the benefit of urban and rural populations. We therefore expect our partners to also respect their financial commitments within the framework of the preservation of tropical forests, in particular that of the green climate fund created in favour of the least developed countries.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The effects of global warming and the climatic disturbances that accompany it are more and more acutely felt around the world. They are dangerous and accelerating. Faced with these threats posed by climate change and environmental degradation, our action in favour of the climate and the green economy as the basis of our future and our development is not simply a necessity but an urgent obligation if we wish to see a peaceful and sustainable future. For its part, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made binding commitments to reducing its carbon dioxide emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. We are determined to do everything to achieve the implementation of our commitments in favour of the climate by preserving our forests.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Also, I appeal to the international community to strengthen international solidarity, joint efforts, multilateral cooperation and partnership with all developing countries, including in the area of capacity-building and technical assistance, to fight and stop a disease that is our common enemy and demonstrate our ability to work together in solidarity. I therefore recognize the leading role of the United Nations in these efforts, including the World Health Organization. This is the main lesson the Covid-19 has tragically taught us. It is true profession of faith in favour of multilateralism with regard to the level of international cooperation in the fight against this pandemic. Mister President, Climate change poses a threat to humans and their fundamental rights, particularly for vulnerable populations.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“For the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in order to help developing countries to effectively emerge from the crisis and better ensure post-COVID-19, the efforts of the international community should include the cancellation and other reductions of their debt burden in order to allow them to rebuild better. We welcome the efforts and measures taken by the Group of 20 and the international financial institutions in postponing debt payment deadlines and invite them to take further decisions with a view to its total cancellation. Any such support measures or additional financing for developing countries should not be tied to any conditionality or require certain economic policy reforms, such as austerity measures.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The coherent multilateral coordination provided by the United Nations in general, and the World Health Organization in particular, has succeeded in particular in guaranteeing genuine, efficient and effective international solidarity, and has made it possible to promote greater interaction with our development partners and international financial and economic institutions with a view to mobilizing the resources necessary to fight the pandemic and to help developing countries strengthen their national health systems. The pandemic has shown us that there is only one planet and only one health and that our spells are linked.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“In order to meet the varied and complex challenges that have been raised by the pandemic in the health, economic and security sectors, I have instructed my Task Force and the Government to work closely together to coordinate the development of the Emergency Multisectoral Pandemic Impact Mitigation Programme, which I personally launched on 18 June 2020. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the assistance provided to my country by our partners at this particularly difficult time and for their reiterated support for the efforts and coordinated measures taken to date by my Government to combat COVID-19 and beyond. This is how my country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was able to reduce the case fatality rate of the pandemic from 10% in the first days, to less than 2.5% today.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“As soon as the first case of Covid-19 was detected in Kinshasa on 10 March 2020. My Government immediately took swift and decisive measures to contain the spread of the virus. And, given the severity and the highly contagious and deadly nature of the pandemic, I declared a state of health emergency throughout the national territory after having created a presidential task force and a multisectoral response unit against Covid-19. We have thus succeeded in capitalizing on the achievements of the management of the Ebola epidemic to improve our response capabilities to the overlapping COVID-19 pandemic. In this dynamic, the Government has set up a multisectoral committee and a technical secretariat that has drawn up a structural plan for the response to Covid-19.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Mister President, We are holding this 75th session of the General Assembly in an exceptional and particularly difficult context marked by the coronavirus disease, a pandemic that has caused countless loss of human life, disrupted our economies and hampered the achievement of our efforts to reduce poverty, maintain international peace and security, guarantee justice and human rights, promote social progress, while protecting the environment. Faced with this global threat, each country has shown a strong capacity for resilience and found within itself the most inventive ways to raise awareness and protect its population, while cooperating with the rest of the world, that is to say by drawing lessons from experience of others or by sharing with them the progress made in their own country with regard to this disease.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“I add my voice to that of the speakers who have preceded me in congratulating you on your election as President of the 75th regular session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. While assuring you of the support of my country, I express for you and for your Office my best wishes for success in the accomplishment of your mandate. I would also like to salute the remarkable work accomplished by Ambassador Tidjani Mohamed-BANDE, your predecessor, who, despite a difficult environment, was able, with skill, to carry through to its conclusion the examination of files as complex as they are varied. I would like to reiterate the confidence of my country in the action and the efforts which the Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, has deployed since his assumption of the leadership of our Organization.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The absolute top priority of my work is to offer a perspective of dignity to our population, promote job creation — especially for young people — and combat insecurity and exclusion. The General Assembly, which wishes to reduce inequalities and build a more inclusive world, can be the advocate for those who have been left out. The challenge ahead of us is enormous, but what makes us human is our ability to find solutions — even those that seem most improbable — when necessary.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We have a duty to draw up ambitious national initiatives as soon as possible with a view to implementing that agreement, but our best weapon is to strive for development, equity and stability around the world. I issue a call from this rostrum for the full lifting of sanctions that have been affecting the Republic of Zimbabwe since 2002. Those sanctions are no longer justifiable at a time when that country has started a new chapter in its history and shown itself to be open to cooperating with the rest of the world. Upholding those sanctions is unfair — it hampers the country’s attractiveness to foreign investment and affects not only Zimbabwe but also the entire region.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In that regard, we African leaders must endow our continent with a voice of consensus and harmony, based on policies that are truly African. Allow me to express my deep concern about what is happening in the Mediterranean Sea, where many people who are seeking to emigrate are dying every day in inhumane conditions. The waves of refugees and the shocking images we have seen over the past few years on the coast of Europe should challenge our consciences as leaders. More than 500,000 migrants have tried to reach Europe via the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2015, and more than 5,000 of them have died during the crossing. The seriousness of that disaster requires that we find urgent and effective solutions. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, adopted in Marrakech in 2018, is our response to the migration crisis.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“As far as gender mainstreaming is concerned, although we have yet to achieve full gender parity, I am pleased to say that progress has been made in that area across all sectors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By increasing the rate of participation of women from 6 per cent to 18 per cent, the current Government has achieved the highest level of female participation in my country’s history. I have committed to making the issue of gender one of my political priorities. At the regional level, I have engaged in intense diplomatic activities with a view to reaffirming my country’s continued commitment to ensuring good-neighbourly relations and peaceful coexistence, with full respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other nations.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I wish to take this opportunity to thank the international community, in particular the Southern African Development Community countries, as well as Kenya, Egypt and the United States, which did not hesitate to encourage the giant step taken by my country in the process of building a State governed by the rule of law. Since my inauguration as President, I have been working to consolidate democratic progress by guaranteeing all rights and freedoms. No one is harassed for their opinions. The Democratic Republic of the Congo no longer has prisoners of conscience. None of our people feel the need to emigrate in order to save their lives or safeguard their security because of their individual political convictions or associations.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“My country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo — which recently held democratic and peaceful elections for the third time — has been fortunate enough to experience a peaceful and democratic transfer of power for the first time in its history, despite many outside observers painting a rather gloomy and pessimistic picture of the outcome of those elections. That historic victory is above all one of the Congolese people, whose heavy sacrifices in recent years have been rewarded by the successful holding of elections under high-risk circumstances.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Rule by force serves only to engender frustration and violence, as illustrated by the recent attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia, raising fears of a conflagration in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz that would paralyse the world economy. We have a duty to denounce any form of violent reaction to political problems that could be resolved through dialogue and consultation. Are we ready to define a new world order in which Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo play a role bestowed on us by the changes that have taken place? I believe that a new path is possible — undoubtedly a very difficult, complex and demanding path that will require us to think outside the box.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Rather than using those natural mineral reserves as a source of monopolistic income, my country intends to open itself up to the world by allowing the regulated exploitation of its subsoil in exchange for support for industrialization and the production of batteries and higher value-added components. While the world has a thirst for cobalt, coltan and lithium, we in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have a need for industrial jobs, training and development. My country also has 53 per cent of Africa’s freshwater reserves. The sustainable management of that potential will one day help to quench the thirst of one quarter of the planet’s inhabitants. We are currently experiencing a profound crisis of the international liberal order.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It is with that in mind that the Democratic Republic of the Congo intends to accelerate the implementation of an infrastructure development programme for its immense area of 2,345,000 square kilometres in order to link the country from east to west and north to south, facilitate the movement of goods and people and unlock the agricultural potential of our provinces. The Democratic Republic of the Congo today holds about 70 per cent of the world’s reserves of strategic metals, which are essential to achieving the energy and digital transition that humankind needs.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We are convinced that, given its geostrategic position at the crossroads of the economic groupings of Central, South and East Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo should opt for African integration as an engine of development and a vector of peace among nations. That is why we have supported the project for an African continental free trade area, even as we are aware that it will be implemented in stages. That process will inevitably require the streamlining and dismantling of customs barriers.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I note a convergence of views with the Secretary-General on the urgent need to readjust the configuration of MONUSCO to the changing situation on the ground by focusing more on the operational response capabilities of United Nations forces alongside the Forces armees de la Republique Democratique du Congo. In other words, the Democratic Republic of the Congo still needs MONUSCO, but a streamlined, well-equipped, robust MONUSCO, with an appropriate mandate, like the Rapid Intervention Brigade that once helped rout the Mouvement du 23 mars. Like other developing countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo wishes to advance.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the outpouring of solidarity from our bilateral and multilateral partners, including the World Health Organization, the African Union, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, MONUSCO and many others. With particular regard to MONUSCO, at the present pivotal time for its future in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been marked by the conduct of a strategic review, I would like first of all to reiterate the gratitude of the Congolese people to the contributing countries for the human and material sacrifices they have made for my country to date.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Owing to the seriousness of the situation, last May I set up a technical unit under my supervision, composed of internationally renowned experts and led by my compatriot, Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, who identified the Ebola virus and whose research led to the discovery of mAb 114, a molecule used to treat that disease. The new response strategy is beginning to have an impact, particularly in the city of Goma, which is now immune to the virus. Although much has been done, the epidemic has not yet been eradicated. In addition to the Ebola vaccine, the strategy will be bolstered by the introduction of five new approved drugs that will help to completely eliminate the scourge.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In the east of my country, with the support of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), our security forces are fighting back on a daily basis, determined to eradicate the negative forces that are spreading death and desolation among our population. Some of those rebel movements, including the Allied Democratic Forces, conduct terrorist activities that are consistent with their allegiance to Da’esh, thereby posing a new threat to both my country and the subregion. As if conflict and instability were not enough, for the past year the eastern Central African Republic has been suffering from an outbreak of the Ebola virus.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I need not go so far back in time — every day we experience clashes of interests that explain, more often than not, the ongoing fragility of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The greatest challenge facing my country today is how to ensure peace, security and stability. Since our inauguration, convinced of the absolute necessity for peace, we have unreservedly committed to achieving that goal, taking into account its full regional and international dimension. With that in mind, last July at the thirty-ninth summit of the Southern African Development Community, held in Dar es Salaam, I proposed the creation of a regional coalition, modelled on the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, to eradicate the scourge of insecurity created by armed groups of internal and external origin.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Nonetheless, I cannot help but regret that the history of my country is so painfully linked to the United Nations, which has deployed a peace mission there for 24 of the 59 years of our independence. Why, despite that long presence, have most hopes for peace and development been dashed? Beyond internal choices and responsibilities, my country and Africa cannot be seen in isolation from the rest of the world and the interests of others. What would the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s trajectory have been without the assassination of Patrice Emery Lumumba? What would have become of my country if it had been allowed to continue its peaceful post-Cold War democratic apprenticeship without being derailed by a war from without?”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Above all, the relationship evokes in me a sense of gratitude. Indeed, the Democratic Republic of Congo has often been at the centre of the Organization’s concerns owing to the many crises it has experienced since its independence. From the tragic death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and the many peacekeepers killed in action to the recent heinous assassination of United Nations experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp, the United Nations, more than any other international organization, has itself experienced the realities faced by millions of my compatriots. The United Nations and its various agencies have also deployed significant financial resources to support the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I would therefore like to reiterate to the United Nations the gratitude of the Congolese people, who will never forget its support.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Our population, with an average age of 17.5 years, is only slightly older than young Greta Thunberg, and they share some of her concerns and interests. But how will our young people engage in the same struggle when they have neither water nor light? I have also decided to gradually transition my country out of an outdated agricultural system that has low productivity and is destroying our forest heritage. To that end, we will promote agroforestry that maximizes our comparative advantage for certain crops, with a focus on savannah areas. I intend to make the environmental issue a pervasive and cross-cutting concern in all our development policies, strategies, programmes and projects. As I address the world from this rostrum for the first time, I must recall the special relationship between the Organization and my country.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Also, as part of the realization of our input energy mix, in order to strengthen the fight against deforestation, my Government encourages the development of domestic gas use in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. In the long term, we want to be the place on the planet where the electric kilowatt hour will be the cheapest thanks to harnessing/exploiting our capacity of more than 100,000 megawatts in hydroelectricity. We are willing to further regulate logging and expand national reserves and parks to increase our biomass and protect our biodiversity. On the other hand, that can be achieved only with the effective implementation of an environmentally responsible industrialization strategy that focuses on production and consumption centres and generating jobs for our youth.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In response to the Secretary-General’s appeal, our Government has committed, through me, to increasing the level of its commitments under its nationally determined contribution and to continuing close cooperation among the countries of the subregion in order to speak with a single voice on all major issues related to forest conservation. My Government has made the production of clean and renewable energy its foremost/top economic priorities for the five-year term. Through aggressive investments and an attractive policy of protecting those investments, we can go from less than 10 per cent electrification at present to 60 per cent in the next 10 years, significantly reducing the consumption of firewood.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It is essential that the entire international financial architecture, including the International Monetary Fund in its catalytic role in development financing, further integrate environmental considerations into its analysis of the macroeconomic criteria and challenges associated with its interventions in the different countries. For our part, aware of the major role of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in that regard, our Government has relaunched dialogue with its main partners on environmental issues, in particular those within the Central Africa World Heritage Forest Initiative.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I have already had to reiterate this on several occasions: it is vital and urgent to make available to our continent new sources of energy and new modes of production that are compatible with protecting the environment and affirming our inalienable right to development. We are firmly committed to protecting our forests. However, the preservation of our natural heritage must not be at the expense of our development. It is incomprehensible that the forests of the Congo Basin, which are the best preserved in the world, receive only 1 per cent of the available funding.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It seeks to increase people’s access to basic social services, in particular by promoting rural micro-hydroelectric power plants, for which more than 700 sites have already been identified. The programme also seeks to develop human capital and to improve land connectivity through rural roads. The socioeconomic development of humankind by 2030 must be sustainable or it will not be. In that regard, the fate of us all, rich or poor, is more closely linked than ever. With its natural resources and demographic strength, Africa has become key to that sustainability. In such an Africa, nature has made my country the custodian of 47 per cent of the continent’s forests, placing in it a major responsibility in addressing the challenges of our planet’s survival.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“As our democracies have become particularly demanding and impatient, we must find innovative ways to implement our ambitions. I have therefore initiated an extensive emergency community development programme, which will serve as a driver to accelerate the reduction in socioeconomic and spatial inequalities within cities and territories. It will be a special multisectoral and integrated programme, which I personally will lead with a view to making up for some of the country’s delayed progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The programme will be supported structurally and financially by all our partners and assisted by the United Nations Development Programme.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The second priority is to promote a better match between education and employment through an ambitious vocational and technical training approach, developed and implemented in partnership with the private sector. The third priority is to advance the work on universal health coverage. We therefore hope that by the end of next year, more than 8 million more Congolese will have access to an effective health coverage system. In addition, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has just set out its national digital plan, whose implementation will have an impact on all sectors of public life. Moreover, the digitization of the economy will enable the country to make rapid progress in the fight against corruption and various economic crimes.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“That is why since 2011, we had already embraced the key principle of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind through our commitment, well known to my compatriots, to put the people first. As a result, the main social priorities of my tenure are the following. The first priority is to make primary education free as part of public education, as required by my country’s Constitution. That commitment has been effective throughout the country since the beginning of this month. In one year, it will increase the share of education expenditure from 8 per cent to nearly 20 per cent of the State budget, that is, a level close to the standards recommended by UNESCO.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We cannot accept the mere suggestion of the possible failure to meet the 2030 commitments, especially after the very mixed outcome of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in Africa. The eradication of poverty and hunger is urgent. The Democratic Republic of Congo can be part of the solution, with its 80 million hectares of arable land and abundant water resources, capable of feeding more than 2 billion people. The challenge of access to quality education for all, the second element of this session’s theme, is of particular concern to us because the development experience in the decades since our independence has strengthened our conviction that there is no wealth but human beings.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It is not fair for Africa to remain the only region in the world without permanent representation on the Security Council, while most of the world’s demographic, social and environmental challenges are intrinsically linked to our continent. We want a fair and equitable configuration of the Security Council that is more representative of the diversity of the world’s peoples and is accountable for its actions. Despite the high-level commitments that we have made to creating the world we want by 2030, nearly 1 billion people in the world are still living in hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty, while 118 million people in extreme poverty will be exposed to drought, floods and heat in Africa by 2030.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“As leaders, we have an obligation to work hard to guarantee those rights. For decades, our Organization has been striving to adapt to the new realities of our constantly changing world. In order to be better able to meet the challenges of development in a globalized world in a sustainable way, we call for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations system, in particular the Security Council and the agencies of the United Nations. The Security Council reform process must be brought to completion and take into account the common African position, as set out in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)