Statement at the Rotary International District 9400 Conference Gala Night

Programme Director

Your Excellency the Rt Hon Prime Minister, Mr. Cleopas Dlamini

Minister of TEA Hon. Moses Vilakati and other ministers and government officials

Rotary International District Governor, Ms. Koekie Makunyane-Quashie

Regional Administrator

Members of the diplomatic corps

Distinguished Rotarians

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour to be here among you at this Gala Night of the 2023 Rotary International District 9400 Annual Conference.  I want to express my sincere gratitude to Rotary International, particularly the District Governor, Ms. Koekie Makunyane-Quashie, for inviting me to be a guest speaker at tonight’s Gala Dinner. Thank you for the honour.

On behalf of the United Nations Family in Eswatini, I warmly congratulate and thank Rotary International for the incredible contributions you are making individually and collectively to the advancement of human welfare and solidarity.

We admire the Rotary’s values of service, integrity, diversity and leadership, which closely mirror the UN core values of Inclusion, Integrity, Humanity and Humility. Rotary International’s framework of 7 pillars or objectives also fully resonate with the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

I should also like to congratulate Rotary Eswatini and His Majesty’s Government through the MTEA for their strategic vision and partnership of hosting this District Conference which no doubt is a major boost to our local economy as well as showcasing the beauty of the Kingdom.

I am sure you have witnessed for yourselves the warmth of Emaswati as you travelled to different communities around the country and have also admired the Kingdom’s majestic scenery and hills.

When I was invited to be here tonight, I was asked to speak to the theme of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. It is a very broad subject, and I failed to interrogate District Governor Makunyane-Quashie about what, really, she wanted me to speak to specifically, or even why the topic. That was mistake number one!

As I was getting ready this afternoon, I decided to consult the dictionary to understand better what a Gala Night is and the expectations. That was the second mistake! By definition, a gala is “a social occasion with special entertainment or performances at which guests dress up, enjoy food, socialize, and maybe do some dancing.” There is no mention of speeches, let alone the kind by a bureaucrat from the United Nations!

What I gather, then, is that I need to be brief, and I will try to be so. I will therefore focus on 4 quick things.

My first two points are around the broader context within which we must seek peace in our world and communities; the third point is more specific to peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and my last point will be some suggestions for action.

First, with regard to the broader global context, I want to make reference, as I must as the representative of the UN Secretary General, to the UN Charter and UN instruments as an encapsulation of the ideals of global peace, security, development, human rights and solidarity.

Indeed, the work of the United Nations has been guided by the principles and values enshrined in the UN Charter for the past 78 years.  The fundamental ideals and values of the UN Charter have no expiry date and they will remain our road map for generations to come.

The Global Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals are grounded in the concern for People, shared Prosperity, Peace and the Planet and, with 7 years to go to 2030, a lot remains to be done.  

The challenge for us is not that the ideals for which the UN was formed have become dated or irrelevant; it is rather that in many ways we have failed to live up to those ideals or applied them selectively. In doing so, we have endangered our global peace, prosperity and solidarity.

The Preamble of the UN Charter begins with “We The Peoples” and commits to establish conditions under which justice and respect for international law can be maintained and to promote social progress and better standards of life.

A key question for us is how, “we the peoples,” can more firmly speak up for our global values and ideals so as to advance global peace. As Rotarians, you are present at all levels of society across the globe. We are living in challenging times where every voice must be heard in favour of peace at all levels, more tolerance of those who are not like us, greater freedom and social justice.  

The second point I want to make is what I call the paradox of our times. We are living in the age of unprecedented human progress, with better and longer lives for the greater potion of humanity.

(We are now over 8 billion people on the planet, partly due to improved health and living conditions). We have had explosions in technological and other advancements, leading author Yuval Noah Harari to describe us “Homo Deus” or Human-God because of the unlimited human possibilities that we have unleashed.  

But then, as Rob Wijnberg reminds us, “the source of our progress has become the source of our [likely] downfall.” Indeed, the UN SG has incessantly reminded us that we are galloping at full speed in the wrong direction.

• Inequalities in our societies have increased, thus jeopardizing our peace.
• We are becoming less tolerant of diversity and global solidarity is on the wane.
• Violence is on the rise at all levels: between countries, within countries, against women, girls and minorities.
• Many developing countries are sinking into debt distress and, again, the UN SG has told us that our current international financial architecture is not only incapable of addressing the current financial crisis and inequalities, but it is, plainly, immoral.

We have abused and continue to abuse the planet and put lives of millions of people in jeopardy, with the poorer paying higher costs for it.

Indeed, according to statistics (Ron Wijnberg),

• The poorest half of the world’s population is only responsible for 14% of global CO₂ emissions.
• The entire continent of Africa, home to 1.2 billion people, only 4% of CO₂ emissions.
• The poorest half of the world’s population is only responsible for 14% of global CO₂ emissions.
• .

My message here is that our concern and actions for peace at our country and community levels must be grounded in a good understanding of the broader context within which we are seeking peace.

As I now move to my third point, allow me to speak more specifically about peacebuilding and conflict resolution, subjects that are close to my heart because I have spent years working on issues of peace especially in Africa. I can speak endlessly about it, but unfortunately time will not allow.

First peacebuilding and conflict resolution are central themes in global politics as the need to create peaceful societies is a fundamental requirement for human development. Indeed, as Pope Paul VI told us in the 1960s, “Development is the new name for peace.” I will make a few statements about peacebuilding and conflict resolution:

• Our peacebuilding and conflict resolution must be grounded in an understanding of the causes of conflict. Generally, conflicts are often caused by a range of factors, including power contests, economic inequality, social injustices, intolerance of differences, disrespect of human rights, and historical grievances. Conflict are also fuelled by systematic exclusion and institutional failures that shape the way individuals, groups, and communities interact with one another.
• Conflict is not the same as violence. Conflict is an early signal that we need to make adjustments in relations and the structures that govern those relations in order to preserve peace. A resort to violence is a signal that we are failing to respond in ways that resolve the conflict and transform relations. Violence is never a solution to conflict and, in some situations, societies end up far worse as a result of violence.
• Peacebuilding and conflict resolution aim to both end violence and address causes of conflict by promoting social cohesion, reconciliation, and sustainable development. The longer the conflict and its impacts, the harder it gets to address the root causes even with the best peace process. Some of the strategies or tools employed in peacebuilding and conflict resolution include dialogue, negotiation and mediation.

These approaches are never prescriptive and can be deployed in ways appropriate to the context.

• Reconciliation itself is a complex subject within peacebuilding and speaks to the need to repair individual and society relations after protracted violent conflict. Our neighbour South Africa undertook a national truth and reconciliation process as a means of addressing a long history of injustices and violence. Truth commissions are held within a broader framework of transitional justice which promotes accountability for past violence and human rights abuses, encourages reconciliation, and seeks a break from the past through institutional and society reforms.
• Within peacebuilding, we also talk about prevention: the idea of working proactively and systematically to address the root causes of disaffection in society such as socio-economic inequalities, safety and security of citizens, lack of accountability, abuse of human rights, corruption, discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable populations, among others.

The New Agenda for Peace, which has been adopted by the UN globally, aims to promote adoption of new responses to conflicts by ‘investing in prevention and peacebuilding’.  The New Agenda recognises that in order to protect and manage the global public good of peace, we need to seek a peace continuum based on a better understanding of the underlying drivers and systems of influence that are sustaining conflict, a renewed effort to agree on more effective collective responses and a meaningful set of steps to manage emerging risks.

I will now move to my fourth and last point about what all this means for us. Clearly, we have great challenges that could threaten peace globally and in our communities. Uneven development worsened by the COVID-19 impacts and multiple global crises; climate risks, slowed economies and growth that is not generating enough jobs, restless young populations, among others.

In my mind, these challenges are an opportunity for us to foreground the foundational values of greater justice, inclusion, freedom, shared community, solidarity and protection of the planet. These values resonate fully with the Rotarian core values Service, Fellowship, Diversity, Integrity and Leadership as captured in your statement:  "We provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders."

So, here are four things I think we can do as a Call to Action to promote peace globally and in our societies:

1. Deploy the comparative advantage of your global network and foundational values to engage with the need to transform our global system. These issues include the urgent need to save the planet; the need for climate justice, and the call by the UN SG for the reforms to the international debt architecture and urgent assistance to facilitate financial liquidity to respond to emerging global and regional crises.

2. A systems-thinking approach and division of labour from global o community.

While our efforts at the global level must seek to build a kinder, more equitable world, these must be completed by concrete actions in our local contexts: Actions to reduce domestic poverty, initiatives to bring people into dialogue for greater inclusion, reduce inequalities, fully eliminate discrimination and end violence against women, and promote peace.

3. Investing in capacities and institutions for peacebuilding. Simply stated, if we want peace, we must for and invest in it.

This involves strengthening institutions and inclusion to address root causes, while investing in preventive and responsive capacities. As part of Agenda 2063, the African Union called on Member States to establish, by 2004, national institutions or mechanisms for prevention, management and resolution of conflicts at community and national levels,” what has now come to be called National Peace Architectures, with examples in Ghana and Malawi and others under discussion in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire.  Here in Eswatini, enhanced capacities based on the existing structures at community level could go a long way in realising His Majesty’s and the AU’s call to ‘Silence the Guns.’

4. Leadership by example: This a call to increased self-awareness and being the change that we want to see in our world. The choices we make everyday can advance or hinder our desire for peaceful societies. Saving the planet will require a mind-shift by all of us. Peacebuilding or peacemaking is not merely what we do: It should be a state of being.

We can work for greater peace and justice at our own levels, from our own homes and communities.

As I conclude, I want to return where I started: for us in the UN family, the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs remain the True North of our moral and development compass and, even with the pressure on resources and multiple demands, we must do our best to keep the promise – even as the clock ticks away. The Sustainable Development Goals remains the architecture with which to respond to help prevent violence and build peace.

I want to thank you all for the great partnership in the pursuit of Agenda 2030. Keep up the great work! Keep up the hope!

I leave you with the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “There is no path to peace, peace is the path”.  Let us make peace our path.

I thank you.