UN General Assembly
2002

of purpose and direction into the work of the United Nations. His informative and insightful annual reports on the work of the United Nations clearly point to an organization that is moving in the direction that it should and is much more focused on the quest for accelerated growth and socio-economic progress of the disadvantaged poor nations. A number of developments have taken place around the world since the last general debate. While some of these are relatively positive and are, thus far, a cause for optimism, yet others, a majority, are, at best, disheartening and tend to cast a long shadow on prospects for long term progress, especially in our part of the world. As I speak now, for example, six southern Africa countries, including Malawi, are in the throes of a severe and life-threatening food crisis brought on by drought-related deficits in grain harvests. Up to 13 million people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing severe food shortage, which has already given rise to a threat of widespread famine and a rise in famine-related