Statement by Mr. Zephirin Diabre,
Associate Administrator of UNDP,
at the WSSD Side Event "Global Transmission of "East Asian Development Approach""
(September 1, 2002, at Japan Pavilion)

Madam Minister,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

First, I would like to thank you, Madam Minister, for your kind invitation to this symposium of Global Transmission of "East Asian Development Approach". On behalf of UNDP, which, as you all know, has the development of Africa in its heart and as its core mandate, I am extremely grateful to Japan for its strong commitment to the assistance for our own efforts, both through your high level of contribution to UNDP and through your tireless efforts in bilateral economic cooperation.

I was deeply impressed by your own initiative of enhancing and protecting Japan's commitment in providing ODA resources. Japan has always put emphasis on Africa, particularly though TICAD, and we thank Japan for this. I would fully support what you have agreed among Asian ministers last month in Tokyo because the East Asia's development experience of take-off is exactly what we need. The key factors as described in the Joint Ministerial Statement of the meeting, like the need for development in national agenda, enhancement of infrastructure, human resources development, strengthening of institutional capacities, linkage in trade and development, need for equitable income distribution and social development, all of them are of common concern to Africa. That is why dissemination of development experiences through South-South Cooperation is considered as the highest priority for UNDP. Our organization is making special efforts to sharing knowledge between counties. In this regard, the IDEA initiative could strengthen the partnership between Japan and UNDP to improve the efforts we make in policy advice and capacity building.

UNDP has been promoting for several years the interaction between regions through South-South cooperation. Certain countries that have been successful in their own development processes have to make use of their resources to contribute to the development of others. This is, if I may say, somehow like what Japan has been doing, having had to rebuild the country and its economy from zero to reaching its current status of a G8 country. International aid agencies have contributed to the reconstruction of Japan and today, Japan is one of the largest donor. I believe that an Asian version of the Marshal Plan supported by Japan has been providing the basis for development and promotion of peace and stability in Asia.

Efforts to overcome the development challenges facing Africa should be emphasized. I wish to express my sincere thanks to you, Mme. Minister, for having drawn the attention of Asian leaders to this agenda through your initiative IDEA. I still remember from my own experience in my country Burkina Faso what impact Japan through its JICA's project of Fresh Water Supply made to our daily lives.

UNDP has been promoting South-South cooperation with a strong support from Japan in the form of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC). As I stated in the NERICA side event yesterday, the South-South cooperation has a number of advantages to complement North-South cooperation such as strong ownership of developing countries, sharing of appropriate level of technologies, best practices accumulated by developing countries, employment of Southern experts and strengthening of self-reliance in the South. Yet, it has limitations and constraints, including the weakness of institutional capacity to provide technical cooperation, limited resources and technology available.

In this regard, great potential exist through Triangular South-South Cooperation. We are now promoting, facilitating and implementing such triangular type of cooperation involving Japan, Asian developing countries and African countries. The TICAD process, which we discussed yesterday, is a good example and a new demonstration of

Japan's commitment to supporting Africa. Since its inception, the TICAD process has provided unprecedented opportunities for high-level policy dialogue between African governments and a wide range of its development partners. They include Asian countries, bilateral donors, various regional and international organizations, private sector and civil society institutions. Anchored on the key principles of ownership and partnership. TICAD will continue to address the priorities identified by Africa. It has honored these principles from the very beginning and they will be even more important in the coming months as TICAD and NEPAD continue dialogue to articulate synergies and collaboration. I believe that IDEA initiative strengthens even further what TICAD has been doing for the last decade.

The outcome of IDEA endorsed by East Asian leaders will also contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. For the entire United Nations system, the MDGs - and the broader Millennium Declaration goals of governance and human security and meeting the special needs of Africa - lie at the heart of our agenda in the new century. At the UN Secretary General's request, UNDP has helped map out a core UN strategy for meeting the MDGs that has now been formally endorsed by the UN Development Group and has the broad support of the UN Chief Executives Board, including the World Bank, IMF and WTO.

We have built on 50 years of experience in Technical Assistance and capacity building, reforming, restructuring and refocusing around current global and national development priorities. The strong partnership between Japan and UNDP is now better placed than ever to help lead a concerted effort to support developing country efforts.

Here in Johannesburg, we already have a common commitment on five key priorities - Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity - all of which have clear links both to the Millennium Declaration and IDEA. In particular, UNDP has been persistently emphasizing the issue of water governance throughout the WSSD process and so has been doing Japan. The expectation for the Third World Water Forum to be held next March in Shiga is huge and UNDP will be frilly engaged towards a total success of the meeting together with Japanese people.

In conclusion, Madam Minister, I would extend my full support to your efforts for this global transmission of development experience and look forward to seeing IDEA contribute to meeting our shared goals.

I thank you.