UN General Assembly
1992

Thus, in 1986, when I was Acting President of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), I was mandated to appeal to the United Nations to deal with our specific problems in a special way. Reacting positively, the United Nations convened a special session of the General Assembly, which adopted the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990 (UNPAAERD). This document gave rise to the greatest hope because it was the fruit of unprecedented joint effort. It was, theoretically, a true solidarity pact. I say "pact" because Africa had committed itself to set up the necessary structures for launching autonomous long-term socio- economic growth and development programmes. The international community for its part agreed to help Africa achieve that goal. This dual commitment was expressly entered into in UNPAAERD, which made it clear in particular that the international community would spare no effort to provide sufficient resources to support and complement the development efforts of Africa. That was clear. Unfortunately, we must recognize that, while the African countries took