Forty-ninth session
Agenda item 154
RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 45/200 and 45/253 of 21 December
1990, dealing, respectively, with commodities and programme planning,
in which the economic recovery and development of Africa were
spelt out as one of the five overall priorities in the medium-term
plan for the period 1992-1997, 1/
Reaffirming its resolution 46/151 of 18 December 1991,
the annex to which contains the United Nations New Agenda for
the Development of Africa in the 1990s,
Reaffirming also its resolution 48/214 of 23 December 1993
on the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa
in the 1990s,
Mindful of the need for African countries to diversify
their economies, particularly their primary commodities, with
a view to modernizing African production, distribution and marketing
systems, enhancing productivity and stabilizing and increasing
African export earnings in the face of the persistent instability
of the prices of most primary commodities, the continuous deterioration
in Africa's terms of trade, the heavy burden of debt and debt
service and the serious constraints they pose for African economies,
Noting with concern the continuous economic difficulties
that African States encounter in their efforts to participate
beneficially in world trade and the dependency of many countries,
particularly in Africa, on a limited number of commodities for
their export earnings,
Recognizing the need for further progress in diversifying
the economies of those countries in view, in particular, of the
conclusion of the negotiations of the Uruguay Round and the need
for the international community to assist the efforts of the African
countries to diversify their economies in order to benefit fully
from the implementation of the Uruguay Round,
Stressing the need to facilitate access to bilateral and
multilateral financing and technical cooperation, including South-South
cooperation, for diversification projects in African countries,
in particular the least developed among them,
Acknowledging the positive impact of substantive official
development assistance transfers to Africa,
Recognizing the important role the private sector initiative
has to play in identifying and launching sustainable diversification
projects and programme implementation,
Reaffirming the commitment on resource flows, including
private direct investment, as contained in paragraphs 29 and 30
of the New Agenda, and the important role they play for sustainable
diversification projects,
Noting the operations of the second account of the Common
Fund for Commodities, and noting also recent initiatives and discussion
thereof to enable the activation of part of the resources of the
first account with a view to supporting action aimed at developing
the commodity market,
Bearing in mind the ongoing negotiations on the replenishment
of the African Development Fund existing within the African Development
Bank,
Noting that the development support of the Common Fund
for Commodities accords highest priority to projects of the least
developed and small producer/exporter countries,
Mindful of the need for African countries to increase and
mobilize internal resources for sustainable development through,
inter alia, policies for the promotion of domestic savings, improved
and accessible banking facilities and further improvements in
traditional practices of capital formation at local levels,
Taking note of the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations on the need for and feasibility of the establishment
of a diversification fund for Africa's commodities and on issues
of diversification of African economies, specifically, the establishment
of a diversification fund for Africa's commodities, 2/
1. Reaffirms the high priority attached, in the medium-
term plan for the period 1992-1997, to Africa's economic recovery
and development, including the effective implementation of the
United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the
1990s as described in programme 45; 1/
2. Urges all organs, organizations and programmes of the
United Nations system to incorporate the priorities of the New
Agenda in their mandates, to allocate sufficient resources for
their operation and to improve further the use of available resources;
3. Recommends that, as part of capacity-building assistance,
interested African countries be assisted in monitoring the impact
of the work being undertaken in the context of the implementation
of the New Agenda and in ensuring the participation of community-based
groups, particularly women;
4. Renews its call upon the international community to
pursue vigorously its responsibilities and commitments under the
New Agenda in order to provide full and tangible support to African
efforts;
5. Urges the multilateral financial institutions, recipient
countries and donor countries, within the conceptual framework
and design and implementation of structural adjustment policies
in Africa, to pay special attention to eradicating poverty and
addressing the social impact of these policies, while focusing
on public investment, fiscal reform, reform of public enterprises,
export expansion and efficient public administration;
6. Affirms the need for further efforts to promote the
diversification of African economies;
7. Stresses the need to fill gaps that may exist in the
funding available for diversification of related activities in
Africa;
8. Urges the international community to increase financial
resource flows to Africa, as these are crucial in order to regenerate
the growth and sustainable development of the African economies,
to provide effective support to the political and economic reforms
in which many African countries are now engaged and to help cushion
adverse social consequences;
9. Reaffirms the recommendations stipulated in paragraphs
23 to 28 of the New Agenda concerning Africa's debt problem, and
in that context invites the international community to address
Africa's external debt crisis and the debt problems of African
countries and to continue to give serious consideration to the
proposal for the convening of an international conference on Africa's
external indebtedness;
10. Urges States that have reaffirmed their commitment
to reach the agreed international targets of devoting 0.7 per
cent of gross national product to official development assistance
and 0.15 per cent to least developed countries to implement as
soon as possible the undertakings they have made in that regard,
and urges all States to provide a better environment for the realization
of the suggested estimate of the need to achieve an average 4
per cent real growth in annual financial resource flows to Africa,
as outlined in paragraph 29 of the New Agenda;
11. Recognizes the urgent need to respond to the specific
economic problems of African States in their efforts to diversify
their economies and primary commodities, and the difficulty they
encounter in utilizing the financial mechanisms already existing
within international organizations;
12. Invites State participants in the African Development
Fund existing within the African Development Bank to pay particular
attention to the diversification of African commodities with a
view to accelerating this process, and invites them to consider
urgently making an initial adequate special contribution to finance
the preparatory phase of commodity diversification projects and
programmes in African countries;
13. Invites the relevant multilateral institutions to accord
high priority to assistance for commodity diversification in Africa,
in particular for the preparatory phase of such projects, taking
into account the urgency of the matter;
14. Urges developed countries to continue to support the
commodity diversification efforts of African countries, inter
alia, by providing technical and financial assistance for the
preparatory phase of their commodity diversification programmes;
15. Reiterates its encouragement to African countries to
establish national diversification councils in conformity with
General Assembly resolution 48/214, related to the establishment
of new funding arrangements for diversification of Africa's commodities;
16. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Inter-agency
Task Force for the Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda
for the Development of Africa in the 1990s accords high priority
to the consideration of the diversification of African economies
and to the coordination of activities of the relevant organizations
and programmes of the United Nations system in this field, and
invites the Task Force to make available advisory services to
the African Development Bank on questions related to the diversification
of Africa's commodities;
17. Invites the Governing Body of the Common Fund for Commodities,
when considering the future activities of the Fund:
(a) To take into account the special needs of the African countries that are highly dependent on a narrow range of commodities for their export earnings in its support of commodity development;
(b) To consider support measures, including feasibility studies, aimed at diversifying their export sector;
(c) To consider practical ways and adequate means of allowing and facilitating access to financing of preparatory studies for diversification projects in Africa, including through regional and subregional entities;
18. Invites the African Development Bank group to elaborate
a set of criteria for the identification of diversification projects
and to extend any other assistance as appropriate;
19. Invites donor countries to continue to emphasize, in
their bilateral assistance programmes, the diversification of
African economies, particularly commodities;
20. Urges African countries to continue their efforts to
improve the investment climate, and urges donor countries to support
those efforts by, inter alia, providing increased assistance to
human resource development and to the rehabilitation and development
of social and economic infrastructure;
21. Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on
the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly
at its fiftieth session;
22. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
fiftieth session an item entitled "Implementation of the
United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the
1990s".
94th plenary meeting
23 December 1994
____________
1/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty- seventh Session,
Supplement No. 6 (A/47/6/Rev.1), vol. I, programme 45.
2/ See A/48/335 and Add.1 and 2.