UN General Assembly
2012

It is my desire to utilize my experience at both ends of the leadership spectrum to make a worthwhile contribution to our democracy. I trust that Zambia will be able to share its lessons, as well as to learn from those with longer and even better democratic experiences. As the Assembly is aware, we still face considerable challenges with respect to meeting the basic needs of the majority of the Zambian people. Shortly before I took office, there was much publicity about our positive macroeconomic indicators, but those results did not trickle down to the average citizen. In the quest to develop at the micro level, the focus of my new Government is on enhancing agricultural productivity and access to markets for peasants and small-scale farmers, providing improved health services as close to the families as possible, improving the quality of education and facilitating access to decent housing and accommodation. As we draw closer to the 2015 deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals, the international community needs to maximize its efforts towards