UN General Assembly
1994

The urgent need to set in motion a new United Nations programme for the development of Africa in the 1990s should be stressed. The timeliness and relevance of such a step was reaffirmed by the international conference on the development of Africa held in Tokyo. The African economy, as we know, is essentially based on primary commodities. Any strategy for the sustainable development of the continent must consequently take into account the need for diversification. We would like to reiterate the appeal we made last year from this same rostrum for the creation of a fund for diversification of commodities for Africa. In a different context — and this cannot be repeated too often — debt is a major obstacle to development. The debt of developing countries has steadily increased, rising from $1.662 billion in 1992 to $1.770 billion in 1993. We welcome the efforts made so far to relieve or reschedule debt for developing countries. However, a great deal still remains to be done, as is emphasized in the 1994 edition of the Human Development Report.