South Africa and UK: nurturing a common future.
02 Nov 2009
Baroness Kinnock delivered a speech on the important role the Commonwealth, and the UK's relationship with South Africa, can play in tackling global problems.| Speaker: | Baroness Kinnock |
| Event: | Institute for Security Studies (ISS) |
| Location: | Pretoria |
It is a real pleasure, as always, for me to be here in South Africa, and to be back among so many old friends.
I still have to pinch myself when I think of where we are now.
As a young girl in secondary school, I joined the UK Anti-Apartheid movement, and since that time, as an activist, a parliamentarian and a minister, my politics and my values have been guided and inspired by the South African struggle for peace, equity and democracy.
Yours was a brave and truly remarkable struggle, and like so many others, we recall the joy, and the hope that we felt, as your beautiful country overthrew the mantle of apartheid and raised the rainbow flag of freedom.
We all remember what we were doing when Nelson Mandela walked stiffly out of Victor Verster prison – and I have special memories of coming here to Soweto to meet President Mandela at home before your first democratic election and his inauguration.
I know that South Africa will not forget any of that history – but like most other people, I never anticipated that South Africa would be able to forgive so much, and to conciliate so profoundly.
No sensible person would claim perfection. But what is truly impressive is that South Africans understand that rights have to be won, and that rights require the force of law. Probably more than anywhere else in the world, human rights here in South Africa are understood in terms of how they can actually affirm, legitimise and strengthen a society.
South Africa fulfilled the dreams of those who believe that good can triumph over evil. That faith was vindicated because of the courage and determination of the people of South Africa and the steadfastness of your neighbours.
And here, with Danny, I want to endorse the “Conversation” on the Commonwealth, which he has initiated.
This has offered us a welcome, and necessary opportunity, to think about how we justify the existence of this organisation which represents such a diverse family of nations and which covers all the major negotiating institutions and negotiating bodies of the world.
Indeed, in this country it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the role the Commonwealth played in the struggle against apartheid. The Commonwealth was at the forefront of that struggle, as it was in the battles against racism in Rhodesia.
These are surely achievements worth remembering and valuing.
The Commonwealth, too, has played, and continues to play, its part in efforts to strengthen the concept of multilateralism and maintains that there are now no walls that can be built high enough to protect any of us.
Vulnerability is global, and as long as division and injustice are neglected, conflict and instability will remain global too.
The Commonwealth has to work to realise its potential, for instance, on the commitment to democracy and political rights, and on leadership on trade on development and the environment.
As Sir Shridath Ramphal said when he was Secretary General of the Commonwealth, “the Commonwealth cannot negotiate for the world, but it can help the world to negotiate.”
That has powerful relevance today as we struggle to re-invigorate the North-South dialogue on issues such as climate change.
The UK remains passionately committed to this relationship, and we look forward to the Commonwealth deliberations, due to take place in Trinidad at the end of the month, where there will be a focus on strengthening the Commonwealth Secretariat and updating the Harare principles.
For the challenges which we all face, there is no silver bullet, vaccine, no miracle cure.
On climate change, on MDGs, food security and the economic downturn, we know that we have to make collective responses which reflect our shared concerns, and which are managed with mutual respect.
And as our UK High Commissioner Nicola Brewer has said, the UK sees South Africa as a country firmly in our Premier League of partners of choice. Ours is a truly vibrant and dynamic partnership based on several carefully nurtured relationships in trade, sport, climate change, and much more.
Alongside that, we greatly value the strong and positive role which South Africa plays on this continent – in NEPAD, the AU and in SADC. And we acknowledge, with respect, the peacekeeping engagement of South Africa – a role which President Zuma has pledged to strengthen.
Now more than ever, in the UK we believe that our relationship with South Africa has special importance as the world grapples with “a perfect storm” of ecological, financial and social pressures, a decline in investment, choking credit conditions, weakened growth, falling commodity prices and lower remittances - all of which will seriously impede efforts to meet the MDG targets.
Those realities mean that there can be no turning away from the development emergency the world faces, no evasion on the pledges and promises made just a short time ago by the nations that endorsed the MDGs. No backsliding can be tolerated when the number of people in the world who experience perpetual hunger has now reached 1 billion – 1 in 6 of the population of the planet.
The world economic crisis has stifled short-term financial credits, which people need to buy food. And because developing countries have become more integrated into the world economy, they have become more vulnerable to volatile price changes in international markets.
Climate change will continue to exacerbate these problems.
I believe that these are the defining human development issues of our generation. We face two great challenges in the 21st century – the battle to defeat poverty, and the impact of climate change.
If we fail on either one of them, we will fail on the other. How on earth could vulnerable people “adapt” to the effects of drought, floods and extreme weather?
And the bitter irony, of course, is that they walk on the earth with the lightest carbon footprint and bear the heaviest penalties of global warming.
It is what Archbishop Tutu has called “adaptation apartheid”.
Across southern Africa farmers report that the seasons have changed. Southern African farmers are showing that moderate temperate seasons are shrinking, rainy seasons are shorter, and more violent, making it more difficult to grow crops and to know when best to plant.
Without significant change from current trends, global warming will reduce farm production by 30% by the 2050s, with output falling by as much as 60% in parts of African countries. This is a crisis that clearly links today and tomorrow.
Government scientists in South Africa are now advising that countries in the region should prepare to see a 50% drop in biodiversity of all cereals by 2080. And poor access to water will have a knock-on effect on health, education and livelihoods.
And scientists have warned that Africa is already warming up faster than the global average, and this continent can expect more intense drought, floods and storm surges and increases in malaria, dengue fever and cholera.
Climate change, according to the UN – and to common sense - threatens to erode human freedoms, reduce choice and weaken efforts to combat poverty since it is the poor who bear the brunt of failure to tackle our ecological interdependence.
Already we know that 98% of those 300,000 people that die every year from the effects of climate change live in the world’s poorest countries – despite the fact that those countries account for only 8% of the world economy.
So, as our British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said, “an option of high carbon and low co-operation does not exist when so much needs to be done. The option has to be low carbon and high co-operation.” We need new technologies, new emerging sources of energy efficiency. These objectives will bring benefits for us all – on jobs, on business, on technologies and new export opportunities.
Meanwhile, as you know, there are vital energy issues in South Africa where approximately 20% of households lack access to electricity and yet your country has enormous potential for solar, wind and other renewable energies. To achieve sustainable energy generation, of course, South Africa will need adaptation financing.
We should welcome the agreement made in Brussels last week, when the 27 member states of the EU agreed that €100bn a year would be needed by 2020 and that Europe would pay up to €50bn a year, if other prosperous nations made proportionate commitments.
The UK Prime Minister was leading the debate with bold and ambitious, but essential proposals.
We have some way to go, but it is justifiable to endorse the judgement that the EU position represents a “breakthrough” in climate talks and hopefully developing countries and emerging economies will be able to come forward with plans. Then practical and urgent action can, and must, take place.
The EU has pledged to cut emissions by 20% by the end of the decade, rising to 30% if other nations do the same. The door is open for a deal and a lot of hard work lies ahead.
You will not need me to remind you about next year’s World Cup.
With an expected audience of 3 billion, the FIFA World Cup will be the most watched, and most talked about, event in 2010.
It is very good, therefore, that FIFA has pledged to leave a lasting legacy from the World Cup through its support for the ONE GOAL campaign, which was launched by President Zuma and Gordon Brown.
ONE GOAL is about fulfilling a commitment to demand action from world leaders on getting children to school. A total of $11 billion is needed to give all children a primary education every year.
The World Cup will be an opportunity to build on progress and push donors to increase efforts to provide education for the 75 million children currently denied schooling. It is very good, of course, that South Africa is very close to achieving universal access to primary education, but there are still issues relating to the need to improve the quality of education. One very good success story is the improvement of access to education for girls.
Conclusion
The 21st century calls for concerted action to build global cooperation.
We share the same future. Energy insecurity, environmental stress, rising population, mass migration, economic pressures, and continuing inequality of opportunity.
In 1963 President Kennedy said, “no problem of human dignity is beyond human beings.”
He, after looking over the precipice at potential global destruction understood the need to resolve differences and look forward to nurturing a common future.
That is our task and one we must undertake without delay.
