UN General Assembly
1996

index, 29 are in Africa. The majority of them have per capita incomes lower than they were 20 years ago. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa last year attracted only 3 per cent of the foreign direct investment into the developing world, compared to 20 per cent for Latin America and the Caribbean and 59 per cent for East Asia and the Pacific region. Life expectancy is placed at 50.9 years, the lowest among developing countries. At the same time, a new and more demanding international economic order is emerging, one in which Africa is beginning to feel overwhelmed and isolated from the mainstream of world economic development. If some of its nations have not yet caught up with the industrial revolution, what hope have they, unaided, of reaching the heights of the technological and information revolutions which are sweeping the developed countries of the world towards new horizons. If we are to bring Africa into the general march of the economies of the world towards progress and prosperity, we must begin, at the highest level, to coordinate and to chart