T Mbeki: United Nations Human Development Report launch

9 November 2006

Programme Director,
The Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Mr Kemal
Dervis,
Director of the Human Development Report, Mr Kevin Watkins,
Ms Scholastica Kirimayo and esteemed members of the delegation from the United
Nations Development Programme,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Premier of the Western Cape, Mr Ebrahim Rasool,
Mayor of Cape Town, Ms Helen Zille,
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Members of the
Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Government of South Africa I would like to thank
Administrator Dervis and the UNDP for the accolade they have bestowed on our
country by choosing South Africa as the venue for the global launch of the
Human Development Report 2006, whose theme, as has already been said, is 'Water
and Human Development.'

We were indeed very humbled to receive Administrator Dervis' letter earlier
this year in which he said: "Since South Africa has introduced progressive
legislation on water as a human right, the Report introduces this as an
important example to follow and highlights the three crucial policy ingredients
for progress that are present in the South African case: a clear national plan
with well-defined targets, a strong national regulatory framework with
devolution to local authorities, and constant monitoring of performance and
progress."

Whatever will be our views about the analysis and recommendations contained
in the Human Development Report, I am certain that the Report will make a
valuable and constructive contribution to the global efforts to achieve
people-centred sustainable development by helping us more effectively to
respond to the important issue on which it is focused, namely, "Power, poverty
and the global water crisis."

We are proud to say that over the years, we have relied, among others, on
the UNDP Human Development Reports for our programmes, appraisals and further
plans to address the challenge of building a people-centred society and
attaining the goal of a better life for all.

Indeed, by virtue of the wealth of information and knowledge they present,
the Human Development Reports also provide an overview of trends in the
progress that humanity is making to overcome the many threats, challenges and
obstacles in our advance towards the realisation of the objective of all-round
human development.

As we know, the first Human Development Report was published in 1990. Since
then, the Report has evolved steadily, in keeping with the dramatic and often
rapid changes that have characterised the world. Yet, some realities have not
changed at all. Today, development is as much about people as it was in the
early 1990s. William H Draper III who was the Administrator of the UNDP in
1990, said in his Foreword to the very first Human Development Report that:
"�we are rediscovering the essential truth that people must be at the centre of
all development. The purpose of development is to offer people more options.
One of their options is access to income - not as an end in itself but as a
means to acquiring human well-being. But there are other options as well,
including long life, knowledge, political freedom, personal security, community
participation and guaranteed human rights. People cannot be reduced to a single
dimension as economic creatures. What makes them and the study of the
development process so fascinating is the entire spectrum through which human
capabilities are expanded and utilised."

The imperative to expand and utilise this complete spectrum of human
capabilities collectively forms the basis for the four indices that, to a very
large extent, have been pioneered and improved by the Human Development Report,
namely the Human Development Index, the Gender-related Development Index, the
Gender Empowerment Measure, and the Human Poverty Index.

As with the various options to promote human well-being regularly advanced
by the UNDP Human Development Reports, each of these indices should not be read
in isolation. Clearly putting people at the very centre of international
dialogue on sustainable development, which is the stated purpose of the Human
Development Report, means maintaining a holistic approach to development. In
this regard, the attainment of a better life for all should drive whatever we
do to promote sustainable development.

This is very important because the poor of the world are particularly
passionate about the same options highlighted by William H Draper III, and are
entitled to "long life, knowledge, political freedom, personal security,
community participation and guaranteed human rights."

We are happy that the Human Development Report for 2006 focuses, correctly,
on some of the central and critical aspects of development which the more
affluent members of the global community may take for granted, namely, access
to clean drinking water and proper sanitation. Indeed, we cannot speak about
development while people subsist without clean water and proper sanitation, and
thus become exposed to numerous preventable diseases.

As in many other areas of our lives, we have a duty to fight against
domestic and global apartheid in terms of access to water. As the Report says
correctly, in the past, in our country access to water reflected the
inequalities of apartheid. Inevitably, as democratic South Africa sought to
eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, we had to address this gross
injustice. We therefore thought that it was right and proper that we should
indeed proclaim and treat access to water as a basic human right.

This was important because during the apartheid years, water use was based
on the English common law principle linking control and access to water to
private ownership of landed property. This meant that the majority of black
people had no access to water. Accordingly, after our liberation, water had to
be declared a public resource, owned by the people as a whole, and policies and
programmes put in place to ensure integrated water management and universal
access to water.

Of course, as many South Africans would attest, the human right to water
gave birth to other challenges such as a sense of expectation and entitlement
among sections in society at times leading to disputes over supply and pricing.
However, what is important is that both the public and private sector
institutions and enterprises dealing with water are alive to the rights-based
approach to water provision.

Whatever the progress we are making to respond to the task to ensure
universal access to clean water and sanitation, we are very pleased that the
UNDP Human Development Report 2006 will give us the possibility to learn from
other success stories in water provision, so that the lessons from countries
such as Colombia, Senegal, Chile and others are used to ensure that the poor of
the world have better access to water.

Further, all of us, particularly from the developing countries, should fully
understand the benefits of co-operation in water management and provision. In
this regard, we may want to study the example of the European Union, which
through co-operation among its Member States, has been able to improve river
water standards thus creating gains for human health, better access for
domestic users, and industry. Again, we may also want to look at the
co-operation between Lesotho and South Africa and the benefits of revenue and
improved water access for the two countries respectively.

Clearly, co-operation and mutual benefit are very critical, especially for
countries and regions with low levels of water. For instance, I am informed
that countries in our bigger neighbourhood, such as Malawi, Kenya and our own
country, are already below the water-stress threshold while the Democratic
Republic of Congo has more than a quarter of the region's water.

Programme Director,

To ensure that we expand and utilise the entire spectrum of human
capabilities that William Draper spoke about, requires also that we give equal
weight to all components of development, be they political, economic or social.
We therefore agree with what the outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan in his report, In Larger Freedom that:

"�we will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security
without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human
rights and the rule of law."

Clearly, development and security complement and mutually reinforce each
other. It is clear that one simply cannot be achieved without the other, and
neither is sustainable without respect for human rights, which empowers
individuals and communities with the freedom to make better choices.

When the world leaders gathered at the United Nations Headquarters last year
to assess the progress made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals,
collectively they expressed concern that globally, and especially with regard
to Africa, the disparities and inequalities of the past continued to persist.
The Human Development Report 2006 must help us to respond to the real and dire
conditions of the poor with regard to adequate access to water and sanitation,
not with lofty words but with concrete actions. We have to translate our words
into actions that make a difference in the quality of life of billions of poor
people.

As we know, Africa is working to respond to the many challenges facing the
continent through the development programme of the African Union, the New
Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD. NEPAD seeks to engage different
sectors to mobilise internal and external resources so as to contribute to the
regeneration of our continent and the expansion of the full spectrum of human
capabilities that this entails.

Today, in response to the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach
to unlock the full benefits of sustainable water management and sanitation for
poverty reduction and economic growth in Africa, co-ordination is taking place
between governments and development institutions through a number of major
policy instruments, namely the overarching framework of the NEPAD Water
Resources Management Programme, as well as the Rural Water Supply and
Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI), and the African Water Facility (AWF). These
programmes are driven by the understanding that sustainable solutions to water
and sanitation problems require national, regional and international
co-operation.

Within the global context, the framework offered by the Millennium
Development Goals for planning and monitoring progress achieved in the
international development agenda will become irrelevant if Africa fails and
becomes even further marginalised.

Accordingly, the measure of success in achieving the Millennium Development
Goals lies not merely in global aggregates, but in the tangible benefits that
are made to improve the quality of life of the desperately poor in each and
every country.

Accordingly, we have a duty to ensure that we persist in our effort to
achieve the national targets we have set ourselves with regard to water and
sanitation. A few days ago on 6 November, our Minister of Water Affairs and
Forestry, the Honourable Lindiwe Hendricks, addressed this challenge and
said:

"For South Africa (the response to the water challenge) started with our
Constitution, which guarantees the right to water for all and is supported by
international agreements, such as the Millennium Development Goals. From this
starting point of recognising provision of water services as a basic human
right, we as the relevant government department, are able to put in place the
policies, legislation, and institutional mechanisms so that these critical
services are delivered to our people. We are supported by our President who has
given us targets of achieving universal access to water by 2008 and sanitation
by 2010, as well as the Minister of Finance who has allocated resources towards
achieving these targets, as well as towards creating the bulk infrastructure
for building new dams and pipelines which are required to meet the increasing
demand for water."

"This year I was able to attend the Stockholm International Water Week, and
one of the issues being discussed was the concern that we will start running
out of water in 20 years due to increasing demand and change in weather
patterns, as some have predicted. The message coming through was that if we
better manage our water resources we can avoid such a crisis. It is of course
necessary for us to respond to climate change issues and we look forward to
positive actions from the current discussions that are taking place in Kenya on
the new commitments under the Kyoto Protocol."

The tribute paid to our country by the UNDP through its decision to carry
out the global launch of the 2006 Human Development Report, the purpose of this
ceremony most appropriately taking place at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical
Gardens in Cape Town, imposes an obligation on us to ensure that indeed we do
everything necessary to meet our water and sanitation targets. We will do this.
In his famous poem, "The Wasteland," TS Eliot used the allegory of a world
without water. He wrote:

"Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses
If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water"

Together, we have a responsibility to ensure that our common globe does not
turn into a mountain of rock without water, a place where we cannot stop and
think, where we can neither stand nor lie nor sit, condemned to sneer and snarl
from doors of mudcracked houses. We need to work together to create a vibrant,
developed and prosperous world where the full spectrum of human capabilities
can and must be expanded and the full potential of every human being
realised.

The outstanding South African poet and writer, Antjie Krog, wrote the
Preamble to our 1997 White Paper on a National Water Policy for South Africa.
She said:

"There is water within us, let there be water with us. Water never rests.
When flowing above, it causes rain and dew. When flowing below it forms streams
and rivers. If a way is made for it, it flows along that path. And we want to
make that path. We want the water of this country to flow out into a network -
reaching every individual - saying: here is this water, for you. Take it;
cherish it as affirming your human dignity; nourish your humanity. With water
we will wash away the past, we will from now on ever be bounded by the blessing
of water.

"Water has many forms and many voices. Unhonoured, keeping its seasons and
rages, its rhythms and trickles, water is there in the nursery bedroom; water
is there in the apricot tree shading the backyard, water is in the smell of
grapes on an autumn plate, water is there in the small white intimacy of
washing underwear. Water - gathered and stored since the beginning of time in
layers of granite and rock, in the embrace of dams, the ribbons of rivers -
will one day, unheralded, modestly, easily, simply flow out to every South
African who turns a tap. That is my dream."

Let the UNDP Human Development Report 2006 serve to guide all nations as all
humanity combines to achieve the fundamental human right of universal access to
adequate water and sanitation. Let this be our common dream. Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
9 November 2006