Critical Economic Situation in Africa United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-1990

A/RES/42/163View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 21 Critical economic situation in Africa : United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-1990, published in 1988.

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23 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General, and in this regard recognizes the severa! initiatives he has taken in pursuance of the mandate entrusted to him under the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990, including the establishment of the Advisory Group on Financia! Flows to Africa;

Takes note of the endeavours of the donor community and the action taken by international financia! and development institutions in the implementation of the Programme of Action, but notes with concern that the international community has not been able so far to provide sufficient resources to support and supplement African development etforts;

Commends African countries that have done their utmost to implement the Programme of Action, and

stressing the need to continue its implementation, welcomes the continued determination of those countries to implement their commitments, including the reform efforts provided for in the Programme of Action;

Reaffirms that the implementation of the Programme of Action based on mutual commitments and shared responsibility requires that ali parties concerned respect their commitments and discharge their responsibilities accordingly, and in this regard reaffirms the determination of ali parties to continue to honour their commitments under the Programme;

Regrets that overall net resource flows to African countries have declined, in real terms, while their terms of trade have worsened, export earnings from commodities have decreased substantially and debt-servicing obligations have risen significantly;

Notes with concern that sorne African countries are currently net transferors of resources to certain multilateral financia! institutions;

Calls upon donor countries in this regard to continue their support to multilateral financia! and development institutions to enable them to increase their resources to African countries and to improve the possibilities of adopting flexible and effective measures that will assist African countries in dealing with their financia! obligations, giving due regard to the economic, social and development needs of each country, and, in this respect, notes that the International Monetary Fund is undertaking a thorough examination of adjustment programmes and their supporting arrangements, including a comprehensive review of conditionality;

Calls upon the international community to intensify its efforts to provide the necessary resource flows to African countries and underlines the importance of increasing urgently official development assistance to Africa, as well as the need for ali countries to work to create the terms and conditions which would encourage the flow of nonconcessional resources with a view to meeting the commitments under the Programme of Action as soon as possible, with the aim of making progress towards this end by the mid-term review of the Programme of Action in 1988;

Welcomes the use of existing subregional economic groupings in Africa in the implementation of the Programme of Action, and invites the donor community, multilateral institutions and the operational bodies of the United Nations system to provide resources for projects and programmes identified at the subregional leve! in the priority areas of the Programme;

Urges the international community, in particular the creditor countries, to take into consideration development and investment needs of African countries as well as the repayment capacity of each country, its export earnings, import requirements and externa! resource flows when considering terms and conditions of debt rescheduling, and to ensure that such terms and conditions do not preclude the flow of additional resources;

Calls upon the intemational community to continue its efforts, in ter afia in the context of the Paris Club, to grant adequate terms of rescheduling and other effective debt-relief measures as appropriate to African countries undertaking growth-oriented adjustment and reform efforts, in particular for the poorest and the most indebted of them retroactive terms adjustment, including converting into grants the official development assistance loans or

taking equivalent actions having the same impact, and also considering the possibility of applying lower interest rates to their existing debt;

Appeals to the intemational community, in order to deal effectively with problems in the commodity area, to seek lasting solutions aimed at:

Improving the functioning of commodity markets and achieving stable and more predictable conditions in commodity trade, including avoidance of excessive price fluctuations;

Adequate expansion ofresources for diversification and participation in the processing, marketing, distribution and transportation of the commodities of African countries;

Improving market access conditions for commodities of export interest to African countries;

Promoting diversification programmes in the context of growth-oriented structural adjustment, taking fully into account the developmental objectives of each country and long-term dynamic comparative advantage considerations of ali countries;

Calls upon the intemational community to extend, as a matter ofpriority, humanitarian, economic and financia! assistance to the countries of southern Africa;

Decides to establish an Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the General Assembly as the most appropriate mechanism to prepare the review and the appraisal of the Programme of Action to meet for a period of ten working days in September 1988 prior to the forty-third session;

1 S.

Requests the Secretary-General, in close cooperation with the concerned organs and organizations of the United Nations system, to ensure the necessary preparation of this meeting;

A [so requests the Secretary-General, in accordance with paragraph 24 ( e) of the Programme of Action, to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-third session a report including concrete recommendations for a speedy and full implementation of the Programme of Action and

taking into account provisions of this resolution, which should be made availabk to the Ad Hoc Committee ofthe Wholc;

f'urther requests the Secretary-General of the United Nations to continue to ensure closer co-operation and co-ordination with the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity in the implementation and monitoring of the Programme of Action;

Requests the Economic and Social Council at its organizational session of 1988 to consider the appropriate contributions to be submitted to the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole by ali parties concemed and to make provisions for proper co-ordination of the contributions;

Further requests the Economic and Social Council at its first and second regular sessions of 1988 to consider, as appropriate, the adoption of the necessary arrangements for the meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole.

89 A/42/560 and Corr.1.

Critical Economic Situation in Africa United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-1990

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