Allow me, first and foremost, to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to the host country and to the Leader of the Great Jamahiriya for the warm hospitality he has once again lavished on the Continent and for his unalloyed and unwavering dedication and commitment to the progress of Africa and the well being of its people.

To all of you, Excellencies Heads of State and Government, we extend our warm welcome and assure you of our total commitment to measure up to the trust you have reposed in us and the expectations of our people.

To all of you also, our partners, we express our gratitude and recognize your presence in our midst.

We particularly thank the President of the European Union Commission, H.E. Romano Prodi, for his unflinching support and commitment to our cause.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are gathered here on this African soil of Libya to discuss and decide, under the guidance of our Heads of State and Government, on two issues of vital importance for our Continent, two key sectors of NEPAD, namely a common
defence and security policy, and the optimal exploitation of our agricultural and water resources.

That peace is the basis of any sustainable development is a fact that can no longer be denied.

This, the Continent has now come to realize, often, unfortunately in times of trial, but fortunately as an integrated and united entity. An eloquent proof of this are
the happy and salutary initiatives currently underway to resolve African conflicts and establish the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.

Excellencies Heads of State and Government,

The Preamble to the Protocol establishing the Peace and Security Council testifies to our determination to make Africa a Continent of peace and stability; a region devoid of armed conflicts, land mines, atomic weapons, illicit proliferation, circulation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons, heartrending spectacle of Africans going into exile in search of greener pastures in their large numbers
and the unacceptable phenomenon of child soldiers.

You have very courageously highlighted the interrelationship between institutional development and strong democratic culture, respect for human rights and the
rule of law, and the promotion of collective security and sustainable peace and stability. Having established this dialectic linkage, you have firmly expressed your
determination to consolidate African capacities to address the scourge of conflicts on the continent and ensure that Africa, through the African Union, plays a vanguard role in the restoration of peace, security and stability on the Continent.

It is this commitment, which has a value of an oath, that underpins the Protocol relating to the Peace and Security Council, the provisions of which you will be examining today in order to endow it with effective instruments for the implementation of the objectives that you have set for the Commission of the African Union in the areas of defence and security.

The Commission is gratified that thanks to the relentless and sustained efforts you have continued to deploy, especially since the adoption of the Cairo Declaration
establishing the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Africa is determined, more than ever before, to resolve its own differences.

This determination has been reinforced by an event that we all felt like a stab in our hearts. I am here referring to the genocide in Rwanda which took place before our very eyes, finding us helpless and impotent; the genocide, the
tenth anniversary of which we should join hands in commemorating on 7 April this year. This commemoration must be extended to the length and breadth of the Continent which has suffered and continues to suffer from the unbearable,
particularly the chopping of arms and legs and mutilation of bodies in Sierra Leone, the distressing plight of the people in Northern Uganda, victims of yet another bloody spate of inhuman violence. It is indeed imperative that we make our Continent a land where impunity is banished forever. Only through greater commitment and solidarity, greater conviction in Pan-African ideals can we, ladies and gentlemen, help our leaders.

Fortunately today, we can rejoice at the positive developments in conflict situations in Africa. Be it in the Great Lakes region, in Central, West or East Africa, tensions are increasingly giving way to cooperation. Many countries of the Continent which yesterday were still in critical situations are today on their way out of crisis or in post conflict reconstruction phase.

However, we must not lower our guard because these processes are still fragile, with other hotbeds of tension emerging here and there and which are likely to develop into serious crises if care is not taken.

Besides, notwithstanding the global positive changes which we all welcome, the peace processes we are witnessing are still fragile and need to be consolidated.

This is why the present Extraordinary Summit has added significance.

The recent meeting of the Ministers of Defence and Security in Addis Ababa and the one that has just taken place here in Sirte both point to the need for Africa to put in place a credible system, not only for prevention and intervention, but also for the defence of the Continent. The entry into force of the Protocol on the Peace and Security Council compels us to speed up the establishment of our Common
Defence Policy. We need an African Standby Force which should be operational and capable of responding quickly to potential crises.

Regarding security, we know that it comes in very diverse forms, especially in Africa. The common defence and security policy we should put in place must go beyond the conventional and classical aspects of defence and security, and encompass the notion of human security based on universal political values as well as the economic and social aspirations of the people of Africa. This vision is
contingent upon a merciless war against terrorism.

The security we are referring to therefore consists in preserving, at national level, the security of the State, that of individuals, families and communities, no doubt
according to the means and resources of each State; the same objectives must be pursued at the regional and continental level on the basis of the principle according to which “the security of each African country is inextricably linked to the security of the other African countries and the Continent as a whole”.

May I point out, at this juncture, that the Achilles’ heel, in other words the weak point of the African conflict management mechanisms has always been that of lack of resources. Hence the need for the African Union to endow itself with adequate resources and capacities to effectively carry out its mission.

However, in order to have the resources to carry out our policy, we must do away with improvisations and ad-hoc solutions, and provide our Organization with an appropriate mechanism that enables it to mobilize both internal resources and assistance from our partners. Our Ministers of Defence and Security have driven this message home when they said: Africa must develop its own means of defence.

Concerning the agriculture and water situation on the Continent, the figures speak for themselves much more than words.

Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The African population will double in 27 years, and let no one make us feel any complex about this because it can and should be a decisive asset in the building of a more just world order.

Nonetheless, we should not bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich because the challenges of turning our Continent from its status of manager of shortages to that of producer of surpluses are enormous and daunting.

Today, 210 million Africans, i.e. a little less than one third of the Continent’s population, are malnourished; a figure which shot up by 14 million in 1992 and 28 million in 1969. Per capita food production on the other hand fell by 23% on the Continent over the last 25 years.

If nothing is done to stem the vicious circle of famine and poverty, by the year 2010, 300 million Africans will face food insecurity, chronic for most of them and acute for the most vulnerable, ie children below the age of 5 and their mothers.

Women constitute the majority of the African population. 80% of them live in rural areas, notorious for food shortages. This should therefore give us a real food for
thought.

The situation in which we find ourselves takes on an exceptionally grave proportion when we realize that 68% of Africa’s manpower is employed in agriculture, the neglected orphan of our investments, and yet the very foundation of our production and the prerequisite for our development and our sovereignty as countries and as a Continent.

Africa’s production is increasingly becoming inadequate for its people. This is a tragedy more so as experts agree and common sense supports their thinking that it is only from its own production that Africa can feed itself, and only its own production can make it self-sufficient in terms of access to food.

The successive decline registered in the agricultural sector constitutes a huge challenge for all of us. Only 7% of the arable land in the Continent, that is 150 million hectares, have been placed under cultivation.

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is worrying that our Continent has disinvested in agriculture. This phenomenon is widespread. As a matter of fact, public investment in the agricultural sector plummeted from 8.4% to 1.9% between 1984 and 1994, according to data
available in our respective States.

This downward trend is more significant in the area of external assistance for African agriculture which dropped by 8% in the 90s. Between 1993 and 1997, World Bank loans for African agriculture fell from US$658 million between the
period 1988-1992 to US$247 in 1993 – 1997.

Experts are however positive that African agriculture holds out huge promise. It is also a profitable venture. For every dollar invested in it, the economic returns are worth as much as 2 to 3 dollars.

However, the situation can be better because this Continent of ours has enormous potentials, with sufficient arable land and water resources, both surface and underground.

As regards water, the situation both quantitative and qualitative is also quite alarming. Over 450 million Africans, that is, one African out of two, do not have
adequate access to potable water.

The Continent, since 1950, wasted 6/8 of its water resources (ground water, lakes and rivers), and specialists predict that another 1/8 will evaporate by 2025. This underlines the seriousness of the problem and the urgent need for us to find the most appropriate responses.

On this score, the impact of water on public health and conflicts deserve our special attention. Water is the vector of numerous diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera to mention but a few, and also malaria which alone claims the lives of closely one million Africans every year. Malaria accounts for a third of all deaths in developing countries; and each day, water borne diseases kill 6,000 children.

The “blue gold” is, alas, at the root of numerous conflicts. Africa is home to 70 transborder rivers some of which have the potential to concurrently irrigate several
countries. And yet, by 2025, two-thirds of African cities and nearly all of Africa’s major regions (the Maghreb, the Sahel, the Horn and some areas of Southern Africa) will experience more or less serious water shortage. Only Central Africa may be spared but it will experience immense social pressures.

And yet again, Africa is one of the greatest reservoirs of fresh water in the world, an asset that has remained untapped. The Continent boasts twelve (12) river basins, whereas only 2.5% of the earth’s waters is potable.

There is therefore the absolute need to manage water more rationally by avoiding wastage. We can achieve this with a heightened sense of our individual and collective responsibilities. To this end, we need to focus on technical solutions involving inexcessive use of water. Furthermore, we should encourage scientific research so as to make the best of projects such as the “Libyan artificial river” whose success is today here for us to see.

It is needful for us, and this is vital, to pool our competences and resources in pursuance of our commitment to the 2000 Initiative, and promote discussion and water sharing within the ambit of regional and sub-regional bodies, and with the participation of our people.

There is no gainsaying it: water is at the center of sustainable development. It will be one of the major challenges of the 21st Century. And, we should make no
mistake about it: water needs multilateral management and equitable sharing, in the spirit of trust, harmony and peace.

Greater solidarity, greater equity, rational management of water that reckons with future generations; employing all our genius to harness our water resources for productive purposes; access to water as a universal right. These are some of the challenges that the Continent must address and resolve, if it is to achieve sustainable development.

Our situation is all the more unjust because it is our humble and honest citizens that, under the rain or sunshine, eke out a living from the earth, producing the coffee or cocoa, the cotton or tea which the global market purchases at its own price. This is dumping unprecedented to say the least, which undermines our best efforts and compromises what is increasingly asserting itself as a basic right of
the people, the right to food sovereignty.

The time has come for Africa to react, and it has the resources to stand up purposefully, once and for all, to
that which clearly threatens to relegate it to the back burner. Continents and sub-continents have succeeded, in three decades, in overcoming the specter of hunger and famine. Continents and sub-continents which, only some ten years ago did not have enough to eat, have become exporters of cereals. Continents and sub-continents which hitherto, were at the bottom of the ladder, are today competing with the super powers of our time.

Africa’s time is not too far away. It is probably here with us. It is here in Sirte where the project for a virile Africa was crystallized, welding together the Continent’s energies and all its assets. It is there in the mission which our Heads of State and Government set for the Commission of the African Union. Africa’s time indeed resides in the scrupulous implementation of the values and projects embodied by NEPAD.

Thanks to its leaders, the Continent has devised a strategy for what is possible, and for what is achievable. Possible, because others succeeded, driven only by generational will and sense of duty. Achievable, because we have all that it
takes, and our Continent’s present condition is by no means a fatality.

This is a moment we must not let slip by; in the same vein, we must have the sense of history to seize the opportunities now before us. Africa has hesitated so much; and for so long, it has accumulated resolutions and decisions that have remained unimplemented. Your Excellencies, Heads of State had made this very point, and asked us to draw appropriate lessons therefrom. Africa has too often come disorganised to forums that could have changed everything in its favour.

Africa could, here and now, agree on the issues that matter most; it could come up with a common position to tackle the hunger decimating its children; it could devise a master plan for agricultural self-sufficiency in the Continent, and thereby establish a solidarity contract between its component countries, a contract that takes on board not only the diverse realities on the Continent, but also the
collective aspirations of the people. Hunger must not be allowed to win the day in a Continent that is home to the Nile, the Niger, the Senegal, the Limpopo, the Congo, the Zambezi and many other great rivers, with all the plains that they have the potential to irrigate.

Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The present two Summit gatherings exclusively devoted to a common defence policy on the one hand, and to agriculture and water on the other, are part of the opportunities that we cannot afford to miss. In as much as Sirte has been the
founding ground of the integration initiative that now drives our effort and in which we have such ardent faith, Sirte 2004 can equally become the beacon for another
positive take-off.

In any case, this is the sign emitted by this particularly huge assembly, and clearly the current expectation of the African nation. This is because agriculture is, for Africa, not just the source of food; it is also the Continent’s major occupation, its economy and culture, and hence its future.

Agriculture will flourish only in the context of a peaceful and stable Continent; hence the coherence of the approach by which we are now tackling each of these fundamental aspects of our progress as a Continent. Only through success can we
lay a solid foundation for coming generations.

Long live the African Union in the service of the people of Africa.