UN General Assembly
1997

Africa in the 1990s, we need to take stock and review progress to see if the requisite resource mobilization levels are anywhere near being met and whether the central development goals are in place. As with the mid-term review of the New Agenda, this would enable the international community to take urgent and practical action on behalf of the African continent to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment. We in southern Africa, as a region whose potential for development was hamstrung by the repressive policies of apartheid, cannot but seek the promotion of our people through cooperation. It follows therefore that we should be committed to the transformation of our Southern African Development Community into an institution which provides a framework for the promotion of the imperatives of reconstruction and development. This would enhance the degree to which, individually and collectively, the region offers a basis to ensure a better life for all our peoples. The global partnership for sustainable development will be enhanced through the transfer of essential and environmentally sound technologies to developing States on