years.

To assist States in crisis and conflict return to stability and get on the path to sustained growth, the United States had recently announced that it would provide an additional $674 million for humanitarian emergencies in Africa this year, he said. Too often, however, emergency response was separated from development, as though they were not related. African States would be condemned to further instability and lack of progress towards the Millennium Goals, if the international community failed to respond to the current food emergency.

There was ample evidence that ODA was not usually the limiting factor on national development, he said. Rather, it was a function of country commitment and political will to rule justly, promote economic freedom and invest in people. The Report of the United Nations Commissionthat the initiative become part of the international community’s agenda for financing for development. He also implored Member States that were major creditors to small developing States to work more closely with them to reduce the unsustainable debt burdens that hindered economic growth and development.

On trade, he noted that small developing States had to struggle tremendously against competition in a global trading system. He emphasized the importance of a pro-development global trading system that adequately addressed asymmetries between developed and developing countries, as well as asymmetries among developing countries. He implored the more affluent countries to recognize that the options available to small and highly vulnerable States in a globalized trading regime were minimal.

He said that FDI was an important component for successful economic growth strategies. His country