YouSaid · the spoken record

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

lines on the record: 80
first: 2017-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
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

“and we are not on track to achieve many other targets by 2030. According to The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023. just 12 per cent of the SDG targets are on track to be achieved. Progress on 50 per cent of the targets is weak. The most disappointing part is that we have stalled or retrogressed with respect more than 30 per cent of the targets. We need to accelerate action on the entire project. It is within our capacity to turn things around. A good start would be to make the needed changes to the structures of our Organization; then, we can rebuild trust and reignite global solidarity.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Yes. those monies too must be returned to the continent. It is difficult to understand why the recipient countries are comfortable about retaining such funds and are happy to call those countries from which the monies are taken as corrupt. I believe that a joint task force of the African Union Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development secretariat, under the auspices of the United Nations, should be charged with finding ways of stopping the damaging outflows. Before the pandemic, as in many other parts of the world, we were making progress with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). and we had good reason to believe we would achieve the 2030 target. Today the picture we have of our performance is not very bright. Most of the 21 targets designated for achievement by 2020 have not been met.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“If there is any hesitation in some minds about the paying of reparations, it is worth considering the fact that, when slavery was abolished, the slave owners were compensated for the loss of the slaves, because the enslaved human beings were labelled as property, deemed to be commodities. Surely, that is a matter that the world must confront and can no longer ignore. The African Union has authorized Ghana to hold a global conference on the issue in Accra in November. It is probably also the time to return to that vexed subject of illicit financial flows out of the continent of Africa. I refer to the report of the panel chaired by the highly respected former South African President. Thabo Mbeki, on the illicit flow of funds from Africa, which states that Africa is losing more than $88 billion annually through illicit financial outflows.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Granted that current generations are not the ones that engaged in the slave trade; however, that grand inhuman enterprise was State-sponsored and deliberate, and its benefits are clearly interwoven with the current economic architecture of the nations that designed and executed it. Reparations must be paid for the slave trade. No amount of money will ever make up for the horrors, but it would make the point that evil was perpetrated, that millions of productive Africans were snatched from the embrace of their continent and put to work in the Americas and the Caribbean without compensation for their labour.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“It is time to acknowledge openly that much of Europe and the United States was built from the vast wealth harvested from the sweat, tears, blood and horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and the centuries of colonial exploitation. Maybe we should also admit that it cannot be easy to build confident and prosperous societies from nations that for centuries had their natural resources looted and their peoples traded as commodities. For centuries, the world has been unwilling and unable to confront the realities of the consequences of the slave trade, but that is changing gradually, and it is time to bring the subject of reparations firmly to the fore.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We want our young people to be part of a peaceful and prosperous West Africa, rather than part of the thousands who arrive at an unwelcoming Europe after perilous journeys across the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea. We do not seek to shirk any responsibility for the problems we face that are of our own making, and it bears repeating that we are not craving for sympathy and do not want to be a scar on anybody’s conscience. But we cannot — and the world should not — pretend that the current economic and social conditions of Africa have nothing to do with the historical injustices that have fashioned the structures of the world.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The belief of young people in democracy as the governance model that is best suited to building peace and prosperity in our society is under systematic attack. The economic impact of the coronavirus disease pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine have only added to the pressure and the anxiety of our young people. We can certainly also do without having to spend the huge amounts of money we currently spend on security, at our northern borders in particular. At this time, unhappily, we feel no sense of the international solidarity that we believe we should receive. It is surely in the interests of the whole world that West Africa should be peaceful and prosperous.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We in Ghana are holding firm to our belief in democracy as the best route to building the prosperous nation that is our aim. It is true that the economic dividends that many of our citizens justifiably expected from the democratic process have not come as fast as had been anticipated, but we are determined to hold fast to the course because we believe that ultimately it will succeed in delivering freedom and prosperity for the mass of our people. We are also obliged to countenance, for the first time in recent human history, not just the questioning of democracy and a deliberate campaign of disinformation against democracy but also the propagation of authoritarian rule as a faster route to economic advancement.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Coups d’etat have re-emerged as what some mistakenly hoped would be the solution to the threats that confront their nations. We in the West African region are trying as best as we can. under the very trying conditions we face, to deal with the situation. We are convinced that the conflicts that continue to plague our continent, and our region in particular, would be more satisfactorily resolved if the international community were to support, and not undermine, the efforts of our regional and continental organizations to deal with them. Africans fought and died in the Second World War in defence of Europe and its allies and reset the world towards the path of peace and prosperity that their nations and citizens have enjoyed for decades now. It is surely time for the world to reciprocate in our time of need.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“at the moment, there is nothing to show that those countries have any interest or inclination to make that happen. Ghana still believes that the Organization provides the best vehicle for the world to manage its hydra-headed problems, but it can function effectively and meet our expectations only when we reform the pillars upon which it rests. Anything short of that will continue to undermine its credibility. I do not refer to the events in Ukraine and seek to pretend to ignore the tragic events in my own neighbourhood of West Africa and the Sahel. Instability in the Sahel and widespread terrorist activities have put West African countries under severe political pressure and economic strain. Several countries in the region have lost vast stretches of territory to the rampaging terrorists.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The Assembly has quite properly chosen the rebuilding of trust as critical for restoring stability and prosperity to our world. We cannot rebuild such trust when the Organization that should bring us together is seen by many as helping to perpetuate an unfair world order, which is reinforced by an inequitable, dysfunctional global financial architecture. For the past year and a half, a full-scale war has been waged in the centre of Europe. The United Nations appears unwilling or unable to influence the events taking place in Ukraine. Ghana has sat on the Security Council throughout that period and can testify that the global solidarity we seek to reignite under the umbrella of the United Nations will happen only if. and when, it suits those who wield the mighty power of the veto. And.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I said then that Ghana supports United Nations reform, especially of the Security Council, as set out in the African Common Position on Security Council Reform based on the Ezulwini Consensus. I said then that the time was long overdue to correct the long-standing injustice that the current structure and composition of the Security Council represent for the nations of Africa. After serving on the Council at this difficult time in the world, our views on the need for reform have been even more strongly reaffirmed. We cannot continue to preach democracy, equality and good governance around the globe, and we cannot insist on peace and justice in the world, when our global Organization is seen by the majority of its Members and the people of the world as being hampered by an unjust and unfair structure.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We have witnessed at first hand, over and over again, that the great Powers of the United Nations might be preaching democracy, fairness and justice around the world, but they are happy to practice the opposite here at the United Nations, prioritizing parochial interests over those of humankind. In 2017. the first time I addressed the General Assembly as President of my country (see A/72/PV.11). I spoke at length on the need for reform of the United Nations and of the Security Council in particular. I said then that the urgent need to reform the Organization had been talked about and scheduled for a long time, but that somehow we had never found the courage and the will to execute it.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“But it is also true that the reluctance of the nations that were the major Powers at the time of its founding to agree to any reform to reflect current realities has led to the undermining of the credibility of the United Nations and some of its organs, in particular the Security Council. Ghana is currently serving out the second year of its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. That is the fourth time that we have had the privilege of serving on the Council in the 66 years since we joined the United Nations, as the first post-colonial African nation to do so. It has been a sad and disappointing experience for us.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Even within well-established and rich countries, the tensions over trade, climate, political boundaries and geopolitical spheres of influence are palpable. Long- held definitions are being challenged, sacred truths and beliefs are being questioned or discarded outright and. in some instances, the deliberate peddling of blatant untruths has become acceptable. The United Nations Organization, under whose auspices we. the nations of the world, are gathered for the annual review of the world, was established in the belief that our common humanity would be the overriding consideration in dealing with the problems that would invariably arise when we deal with one another. There is no doubt that the Organization has achieved a great deal in its 78 years of existence, of which we can all be justifiably proud.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The theme chosen for the seventy-eighth session is “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace. prosperity, progress and sustainability for all”. The choice of that theme implies that there is a general acknowledgement that things are not what they should be in our world. The mutual trust among nations, which is required to ensure harmony, has considerably diminished. The cohesion that we need to build the peace and prosperity of our societies is disintegrating and nearing Cold War lows. We do not seem to have any common values on which we can all agree, or common goals to which we all aspire. The fault lines are not just between the poor and the rich, the South and the North, or the developed and the developing countries.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Ghana presents its compliments to the President and congratulates him on his election to preside over the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session. Ghana also uses this — the greatest of all platforms — to express the deep condolences and sympathies of its Government and its people to the Governments and the peoples of Morocco and Libya over the recent tragic events that have engulfed their countries. I do not need to employ any hyperbole or find fancy words to state the reality of the situation that humankind currently faces. Our world is not a happy place today. Wherever we look and to whichever area of our lives we turn our attention, there is unhappiness, distrust and a loss of confidence in the structures that have guided the governance of the world since the end of the Second World War. nearly eight decades ago.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“What we require now is support from the investor community for the rolling out of Africa’s lucrative agro-industry and for that community to see agribusiness in Africa as much more an opportunity than the perceived exaggerated risk, which has been the false but dominant narrative. In conclusion, on 25 July 2016, the General Assembly adopted resolution 70/293, proclaiming 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa, with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization charged with the task of leading it in collaboration with a range of partners. I believe it is time for the United Nations to take proper stock of this initiative and ask a few searching questions, recognizing what could have been achieved with greater commitment and focus. Working together, we can get our world back into a better and happier place.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“For example, we are processing more of our cocoa and refining more of our gold, and we are determined to exploit the entire value chain of our huge lithium deposits. We are busily building an integrated bauxite and aluminium industry and an integrated iron and steel industry. We are also building new oil refineries and have, so far, attracted six of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers to set up assembling plants in Ghana, prior to producing them in the country. In line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Africa’s ambition is, anchored in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, to transform our food systems over the next decade.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“That is why, six years ago, my Government embarked on an aggressive policy of planting for food and jobs, which has helped our farmers increase their yields many times over. Indeed, we are recognizing that many of the things we import can be found or produced in Ghana or in other African countries. The African Continental Free Trade Area, whose secretariat is located in Accra, Ghana’s capital, is driving intra-African trade and creating an unparalleled momentum for our continent’s economic diversity and transformation. We know that industrialization is the way to go and, with the single market as the added incentive, we have taken policy measures in Ghana to add value to our natural resources.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Africa needs the global investor community, and that community needs Africa. It needs Africa because Africa is busily building the world’s largest single market, with 1.3 billion people. Soon we will have a customs union, and we will also soon have a continental payment system that will accelerate and facilitate trade among ourselves. Already, goods and services are flowing more freely across our artificial borders. Africa must be seen for what it is: the new frontier for manufacturing, technology and food production. That is why six years ago, I launched in Ghana the successful policy of “One District, One Factory”, which is a policy that, with Government incentives, has directly seen, so far, some 125 factories being set up in various districts across the country, leveraging on each area’s competitive advantage.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We, the current leaders of Africa, should be determined not to waste the crisis with which we are confronted. Incidentally, the year 2022 is billed as Africa’s year to take action on food and nutrition development goals. We see the current geopolitical crisis as an opportunity to rely less on food imports from outside the continent and use our 60 per cent global share of arable lands better to increase food production. We have seen the devastating impact of relying on Russia and Ukraine for 70 per cent of our wheat consumption. We have enough land, enough water, enough gas and enough manpower to produce enough fertilizer, food and energy for ourselves and others. But we also recognize that we cannot do it all by ourselves. Our message to the global investor community is therefore this: Africa is ready for business.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I am contributing to this debate on a date that has special significance for us in Ghana. The date of 21 September is the one on which we mark the birth of our first President, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah. He would have been 113 years old today, and it is worth recalling on this day the driving force of his political career, which was to contribute to the birth of a united Africa, that is, a United States of Africa. We recognize today, more than ever before, the importance of the strength in unity of Africa, and we are working to shed the image of a helpless, hapless continent. There is a renewed commitment towards inclusive and sustainable industrialization and economic integration, and the intensity of the challenges we face today is only matched, as never before, by the immensity of the opportunity before us.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Furthermore, the terrorist pressure has provided a pretext for the unhappy reappearance of military rule in 3 of the 15 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 2 of which have borne the brunt of the terrorist outrages in the region — Mali and Burkina Faso. It is a development we are determined to reverse, so that the ECOWAS space remains a democratic one. All of us in the region are being forced to spend huge amounts of money on security. We should be spending this money on educating our young people and giving them skills, and on building much-needed roads, bridges, hospitals and other such infrastructure. Instead, we are spending this money to fight terrorists or to keep them from destabilizing our countries. This is a global problem, deserving the attention of the world community, for a global solution.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“A watershed moment it is, indeed, and history will judge us harshly if we do not seize the opportunity to make the changes that will enable us to deal with the many problems we face. A case in point is the destabilizing conflict in the Sahel. It might look to many today as a local conflict that affects only the countries in that region. We, in Ghana, know differently: we have watched in horror as the unrest has inexorably moved from the Sahel to the coastal countries of West Africa. All of Ghana’s neighbours have suffered terrorist attacks, and some have lost territorial space to the invading forces.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It is under such circumstances that we have gathered under the theme: “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”. The problems we face are indeed many and vary in level of importance, depending on where one is in the global order of things. Just last year, the focus was on energy transition. This year, it is about energy security, as Europe goes back to burning coal to replace Russian gas. Nevertheless, we do not have the luxury of being able to pick and choose which big problem to solve. None of them can wait. The economic turbulence requires urgent and immediate solution. The turmoil and insecurity in many parts of the world require urgent attention, and so does the need to tackle the problems posed by climate change.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The financial markets have been set up and operate on rules designed for the benefit of rich and powerful nations, and, during times of crisis, the facade of international cooperation under which they purport to operate disappears. These are the savage lessons that we have had to take in, as the world emerged from the grip of the coronavirus to face energy and food price hikes and a worldwide rise in the cost of living. The necessity for reform of the system is compelling. I am a modest student of history, yet I would say it is doubtful that any generation of inhabitants of this earth has ever witnessed such a perfect storm of global economic chaos, a war with global consequences and an unwillingness or inability to find a consensus to deal with the catastrophe.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It has become clear, if ever there was any doubt, that the international financial structure is skewed significantly against developing and emerging economies such as Ghana’s. The avenues that are opened to powerful nations to enable them to take measures that would ease pressures on their economies are closed to small nations. To make matters worse, credit-rating agencies have been quick to downgrade economies in Africa, making it harder to service our debts. The tag of Africa as an investment risk is little more than, in substance, a self-fulfilling prophecy created by the prejudice of the international money markets, which denies us access to cheaper borrowing, pushing us deeper into debt.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Several African countries have inflation rates surging three to four times higher than what they were just two years ago. In Ghana, we are experiencing the highest inflation in 21 years. The high cost of food is hurting the poor, especially the urban poor, the most. Moreover, the spillover from central banks raising interest rates to combat inflation has been severe beyond borders, as global investors pull money out of developing economies to invest in bonds in the developed world. This has led to depreciating currencies and increased borrowing costs, meaning that we need to raise and spend more of our own currencies to service our foreign debts in United States dollars.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“A slump in productivity and revenues, increased pressures on spending and spiralling public debt confronted us without relent. As we grappled with these economic challenges, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine burst upon us, aggravating an already difficult situation. It is not just the dismay that we feel at seeing such deliberate devastation of cities and towns in Europe in the year 2022; we are feeling this war directly in our lives in Africa. Every bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa. The economic turmoil is global, with inflation as the number one enemy this year. It hit a 40-year high in the United States and the United Kingdom in recent months. There is record inflation in the euro zone.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“I congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to lead us through this seventy-seventh gathering of the General Assembly of the United Nations. I wish you the best of luck as you take on that onerous task at this most difficult period of the world. As we would say in Ghana, our world is currently not in a good place. The World Bank observed last Thursday that the global economy was enduring its sharpest slowdown since 1970. Two years ago, our world came to a thundering halt, as we cowered from a health crisis triggered by a malicious unknown virus, leading to a devastating global economic pandemic. High budget deficits were no longer the concerns of developing nations alone. By 2021, coronavirus disease had pushed Africa into the worst recession in half a century.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We owe it to their descendants to find a safe haven in Ghana, if they should need it. This responsibility means we have to make Ghana secure and desirable both for her present-day citizens and for those in the Diaspora that might want to come back either for a visit or stay. I extend the best of luck to you all from Ghana, and look forward to a healthy and happy world. I thank you for your attention.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“It marked the 400th anniversary of the start of the barbaric Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and the arrival in America of the first captured slaves from West Africa. To mark this tragic anniversary, we declared 2019 the ‘Year of Return’, and extended a welcome back to the African continent of the descendants of the slaves who constitute the bulk of the black population in the Americas and the Caribbean. The invitation was enthusiastically taken up, and a great time was had by all. We have every intention to keep a welcome mat laid out in Ghana for members of the African Diaspora. We, in Ghana, live with the grim reality that the majority of the abducted slaves from the continent were transported to the Americas and Caribbean through the forts dotted along our coastline.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Each of the elections has seen an improvement on the previous one, and we are looking forward to this year’s passing off peacefully, with characteristic Ghanaian dignity. We are keenly aware of the reputation that Ghana has built as a tolerant and working democracy, and we have every intention to nurture and improve upon it. Paramount in everyone’s consideration is the Ghana Project, which aims to modernise all aspects of our lives, and bring prosperity to our land. I have no doubts whatsoever that, at the end of the elections, we shall be proud of ourselves, Africa will have good cause to be proud of us, and the rest of the world will find lessons to learn from us. Last year, 2019, was an extraordinarily exciting year for us in Ghana.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The political season is at its height here in Ghana, as we prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections in December. Like everything else in our world today, even the politicking has been affected by the pandemic, and we cannot campaign for votes in the style to which we are accustomed. We are having to rely on technology to find ways of popularising our messages in the time of COVID-19. It is a matter of great pride to me that, in spite of the difficulties in conducting an election during a pandemic, I am able to state that all Ghanaians are agreed that we have to work together to ensure that the elections will be transparent, free, fair, safe and credible. This will be the eighth election since we embarked on constitutional rule in our Fourth Republic in 1992.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“It is incumbent on the UN and, indeed, all Member States to lend their support to the efforts being made by ECOWAS to restore normalcy to Mali, and help us defeat the scourge of terrorism. Mr. President, the importance of technology has been reinforced in the time of the pandemic. Virtual meetings are now part of our normal lives, young people have graduated in virtual ceremonies, and we might never go back to some of the many conferences that we used to attend, and it is obvious that technology is the future. Ghana, therefore, welcomes and endorses the Secretary-General’s recommendation, as contained in the Roadmap on Digital Cooperation, to ensure that no one is left behind. How else would we all have maintained a semblance of keeping in touch in the past six months, but for technology?”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“As the newly-elected Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), I say that one immediate test confronting the Community is the political situation in Mali, following the coup d’etat that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, which has been compounded further by the activities of terrorists and violent extremists, who are in control of large swathes of that country and some parts of the Sahel Region. We have learnt, most often through bitter experience, that terrorism and violent extremism are not restricted to particular geographic locations or jurisdictions, as the impact of a single terrorist incident in one part of the world resonates throughout the world.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“The time has come for the adoption and endorsement of Africa’s Common Position on UN Reform, as set out in the Ezulwini Consensus, so we can create a modern United Nations fit for purpose in our time. We should also focus our attention on the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially as we mark the beginning of the Decade of Action to deliver the goals and targets of Agenda 2030. Mr President, as co-chair of the SDG Group of Eminent Advocates, Ghana believes that the effective implementation of the 17 SDGs remains critical to making the multilateral system relevant in addressing the global challenges we face. Indeed, one such is the threat to the consolidation of democratic governance, especially in Africa, in the face of turbulent conditions prevailing in several parts of Africa.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Now is the time for this much discussed and much analysed institution of ours, the United Nations, to rise to the occasion. One of its agencies, the WHO, has been in the eye of the storm during this crisis, and all of us have to learn the lessons that have emerged. Yes, we should have arguments about the UN and its agencies and their roles, but, after 75 years, the arguments should be like the ones we have in our families, and not about their very existence. We should correct the longstanding injustice that the current structure and composition of the UN, particularly the Security Council, represents for the nations of Africa. Established in those far-off days of 1945, membership of the Council does not presently reflect the realities of the 21st century.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“We are told by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that COVID-19 has brought in its wake “a significant reduction in the financing available to developing economies”, again, with the Organisation estimating that “external private finance inflows to developing economies could drop by $700 billion in 2020 compared to 2019 levels, exceeding the immediate impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis by 60 per cent”. The restructuring of the global financing architecture, to enable access to fresh capital by developing nations, now more than ever, is of immediate necessity, if the gains chalked in transforming their economies are not to be eroded, and the standards of living of their peoples are not to be dangerously lowered.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Even as we closed our borders and shut airports, the reality dawned on all of us that we had to rely on each other to be able to get out of the trouble we were in. We have all gone down together, we should all rise together. If the answer to this pandemic lies in finding a vaccine, that vaccine should be made available to the whole world, rich and poor alike, developed and developing, all races and all beliefs. The virus has taught us that we are all at risk, and there is no special protection for the rich or a particular class. For as long as the virus exists, whatever medical solutions that might be found should be made available for all in aid of our common humanity.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Singing in groups has become a dangerous activity, and a major item which is preoccupying the attention of world leaders is how to send and keep our children in school safely. All the sacred economic rules by which we have been urged to conduct our affairs in the past century have been thrown out, at least for the moment. Indeed, all our best laid plans have turned out to be of no use, when faced with the ravages of an unknown virus. We, in Ghana, have, however, chalked modest successes in trying to defeat the virus through resolute actions by my Government, the cooperation of the Ghanaian people, and the grace of the Almighty. Mr President, the lessons are clear: we all fell together and looked into the abyss together.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“Mr President, Secretary General, a year ago, we were all looking forward to what, we were sure, would be the grand celebrations at this year’s General Assembly to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. Instead of the anticipated major gathering for the celebrations, we have been forced to stay at home, and employ technology to make our addresses to the Assembly. It is not only these celebrations that have had to be adapted to changed circumstances; our world has been turned upside down, and we have all been forced to learn new ways of doing things. It would have been implausible to suggest, but we have learnt not to shake hands or hug our loved ones. For many people, the most difficult thing to deal with in these uncertain and unsettling times has been the silence forced on churches, mosques, temples and other places of worship.”
2020-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 75 (2020)
“In my part of the world, we do not argue over what constitutes poverty. We know it, live with it and feel it because it is a daily reality. As the old saying goes, birds sing not because they have answers but because they have songs. There might not be any one answer to the theme of this seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly, but the hope is that the discussions will point us towards the possibility of a new world, in which collaboration between nations and peoples is on such a scale that we can dream of a sustainably prosperous world and achieve it too.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the historic landing on the moon, a seminal event that celebrated scientific achievement and humankind’s triumph. The image that has stayed with me since I was 25 years old, and that still brings me true awe and wonder, is that picture of the Earth taken from the vantage point of the astronauts, clearly showing the truth of the one world that we inhabit. We may try to delineate our borders more clearly or make clearer distinctions on the basis of colour, race, language and creed, but that picture tells us that the natural path is to be inclusive. In no way is this meant to paper over the many difficulties in our part of the world that we must work to overcome, or to suggest that because some parts of the world are developed and prosperous we can pretend that all is well with us, too.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Our world is enriched by its diversity of cultures, religions and beliefs, which add spice to our lives, but there are scientific and mathematical truths that do not change with space or time. We would all do well to uphold those truths. Now that the scientists have spoken on the realities of climate change, I believe it is time to direct our energies to what we can and should do to counteract the danger and end unnecessary arguments. Nature has been brutal this year, demonstrating to us that our climate is changing and that we are probably pushing our world towards destruction. The devastation wreaked by Cyclone Idai, Hurricane Dorian and the extreme summer temperatures across Europe surely provides the evidence, if any were still needed, that it is time to take action to bring our world back from the precipice.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“But to be able to benefit from these opportunities made possible by technology, we have to raise our infrastructure to a basic minimum level. We must provide reliable electricity and Internet services to the people in our towns and villages, so that they will truly be able to reap the benefits of the technology that brings quality education to all. We can then have a realistic expectation of a prosperous future. The general debate of the General Assembly of the United Nations is usually convened at a time of year when extremes of nature are on display around the world. Maybe we are being urged to take notice, as well as — hopefully — to take practical and proactive steps to curb the human activities that are endangering our planet.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We in Ghana acknowledge that we need an educated and skilled population to be able to compete effectively in the world economy. We are therefore taking the courageous step of spending a substantial part of our national revenue — indeed, a third of our nation’s budget — on education. We can and should also employ technology to accelerate the provision of quality education to as many people as possible. Very soon, we might not have to enter classrooms or even the hallowed grounds of famous universities to gain access to the knowledge that used to be exclusively available in those institutions. It is possible now for our young people to listen to lectures and watch experiments by famous scientists and scholars on their smartphones and laptops, without ever setting eyes on or physically entering an Ivy League university.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It will be the world’s largest free-trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization, and will provide us with a vehicle to improve our trade among ourselves and an opportunity to exploit our abundant wealth and resources for the benefit of our peoples, as well as giving us protection in dealing with other trading blocs. The fight to eradicate poverty is intrinsically linked to quality education, the second of the issues identified for special attention in the theme of this General Assembly session. Wherever quality education is available, there is usually prosperity. Throughout the ages, education has been the most equitable source of opportunities and has provided the fastest and most reliable route out of poverty.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, chaired by a highly respected former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has raised the lid on what many had always suspected but did not have the figures to support. According to that report, Africa is losing more than $50 billion annually through illicit financial outflows. Collaboration is certainly needed among the nations of the world to stop that rape of Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area, which recently came into effect and whose secretariat Ghana has the honour of hosting, is a major collective effort by Africa to get to grips with mastering its own development.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)