The African Union has designated 2026 as the year of assuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems to achieve the goals of Agenda 2063. This choice is particularly significant because water is life. Water is health. Water is food security. Water is energy. And water is also, in certain regions, a matter of peace and stability. We, therefore, call for stronger international mobilization in favor of universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation, particularly in rural areas and in the most vulnerable communities. We invite our partners to view water not merely as a natural resource, but as strategic investment in peace, health, and sustainable development.

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Excellencies, learning also means embracing change. The world of today is not the world of 1945. The institutions we created to respond to the challenges of that time, need to learn in the world that has changed. Cabo Verde, therefore, supports a United Nations that is more effective, more transparent, and more representative. The UN80 Initiative presents an opportunity to modernize this organization and strengthen its response capacity. In this spirit, we also support the reform of the Security Council. Africa is home to nearly one quarter of the member states of this organization and represents approximately one-fifth of the world's population, and yet it still lacks the representation it deserves on this council. Therefore, we support a more equitable African representation in accordance with the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration. A fairer international order also requires fairer and more inclusive institutions. The election of the next Secretary-General should reflect the same principles: transparency, inclusion, merit, and equal opportunities. Ladies and gentlemen, but the United Nations is not just a place where we discuss crises; it is also a space where we build common paths. The 2030 Agenda, the African Union's Agenda 2063, and the Pact for the Future point us in one clear direction: sustainable development centered on the people, capable of transforming global commitments into concrete changes in the lives of populations.

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In a spirit of inclusion, ethics and equitable sharing of the benefits of technological progress. Mr. President. The trust that we seek at the international level must also be built within each of our states through the strength of our institutions and our ability to create the conditions for sustainable and shared development. My country, for its part under the leadership of President Alassane Ouattara, continues on its path towards a stronger and more diversified economy while taking care to ensure and safeguard peace and stability. This ambition is now embodied in Cote d'Ivoire. National Development Plan 2026 2030, which is part of a long term vision aligned with the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union's Agenda 2063. Our ambition remains to build a prosperous and united nation where economic growth translates into greater opportunity, social progress and well-being for all of our people. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.

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During the 46th SADAC Summit, Eswatini assumed the chairmanship of the SADAC Organ on Politics, Defense, and Security Cooperation, TROICA, whose mandate is to promote peace and stability in the Southern African region. Through this responsibility, we will work closely with all member states to strengthen preventative diplomacy, enhance dialogue, and mediation. We believe that for SADAC to attain its vision 2050, we have to create a peaceful, competitive, and industrialized region that guarantees sustainable well-being and freedom for all our citizens. The African Union's Agenda 2063 and its aspiration to silence the guns reflect our continent's resolve to end conflict and to create the stable conditions required for sustainable growth.

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If multilateralism works at regional level, then citizens have greater reasons to believe it can work globally. Our governments face a difficult choice whether to meet the needs of their citizens or certify the expectations of creditors. In the last year alone, African countries spent roughly the same amount on servicing debt as it needed to close our infrastructure financing gap. This grim reality inspired South Africa's G20 presidency to focus on debt sustainability. The Africa Expert Panel report calls for an end to incrementalism. It support multilateralism, efforts to establish a borrowers club to counterbalance the power of creditors, and calls for greater depth, transparency and greater scrutiny of credit rating agencies. To us, Mr. President, unsustainable debt betrays the promise of development and destroys the prospects for democracy. With only 36% of the Sustainable Development Goals showing sufficient progress, we are running out of time. Africa and much of the global South need multilateral actions to free resources absorbed by debt services and redirect them towards development. We must close the financing gap for the 2030 agenda and meaningful advance implementation of the African Union Agenda 2063. In November 2025, South Africa classified gender based violence and femicide as a national disaster. Recognizing that dealing with this scourge demands exceptional measures from our population, and we require international partners to continue to fight this through technology and other means that must support our measures to fight gender based violence in our country.

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Last year OECD donors spent about $175 billion on development assistance... a 23% drop year-on year. And yet military expenditures approached $3 trillion.... capping 11 straight years of growth. All the while progress on the SDGs has stalled at just over a third of targets, and developing countries are now paying the price for supply chain disruptions they did not cause and cannot cure. The contrasts could not be more stark. We must better prioritize how our resources are spent by augmenting development assistance, addressing debt burdens, reforming the international financial architecture, fulfilling our Sevilla and Paris commitments. And implementing the programmes of action for LDCs, LLDCs, SIDs, as well as the AU’s Agenda 2063. Because where we have done so, the results are clear: Over the past decade, nearly one billion people have gained access to safely managed drinking water. Electricity now reaches 92 per cent of the world’s population. And internet access has risen from 40 per cent to 74 per cent. Behind these figures are healthier children, more resilient communities, greater opportunities for women and girls, and renewed hope. These gains show that accelerating the SDGs is possible when developing countries and development partners work in concert. This indeed is a shared responsibility. Developing countries must also intensify their own efforts through domestic resource mobilization and plug any leakage or corruption, including capital flight — A plague that, until recently, undermined development in my own country under a repressive, authoritarian regime.

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