Address by Mr. Aaron Abramovich, Director-General of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Development
The challenges facing the peoples of Africa strike a profound chord in the heart of Israelis. Over a century ago, Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, saw a direct connection between the Jews' quest for freedom and independence and that of the nations of Africa. He wrote: "There is still one other question arising out of the disaster of the nations which remains unsolved to this day, and whose profound tragedy only a Jew can comprehend. This is the African question… I am not ashamed to say that once I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my people, I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africans."
A century later the people of Israel remain committed to working to meet the challenges facing Africa and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, with our shared experience of centuries of persecution, Israel cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people from Darfur who have been turned into refugees in their own country. Israel sends aid to the victims of this tragedy, wherever possible.
It was Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir who began to turn Herzl's vision of partnership and progress into a reality. After visiting Africa she was struck by the remarkable similarities between the challenges faced by the peoples of Africa and the young State of Israel. "Like the peoples of Africa", she later wrote, "we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had to learn for ourselves how to reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops, how to irrigate, how to raise poultry, how to live together, and how to defend ourselves." And the Israeli experience might be even more appropriate for Africa, she wrote, since Israel "had been forced to find solutions to the kinds of problems that large, wealthy, powerful states had never encountered."
Israel's international cooperation arm - MASHAV - began in 1958, as a modest program focused on grassroots-level human capacity building. It has since blossomed into an extensive program of cooperation, not only in Africa but throughout the developing world, with the aim of promoting sustainable development and social equity.
One example of an area in which sharing experience can have a dramatic impact is small-scale drip irrigation. The Israeli project TIPA - or Technological Innovation for Poverty Alleviation - extends the advantages of drip irrigation to traditional farmers, affording them the means of self-sufficiency. Designed for small holdings of 500-1000 square meters, TIPA can sustain the nutritional requirements of a 6-member family. In practice, as we have seen for example in the TIPA project in Senegal, this simple system can literally revolutionize the lives of an entire village.
Another simple but powerful idea, is MASHAV's concept of "Farmers for the Future". By situating small horticultural plots next to schools in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa, young children are exposed to modern techniques of agricultural production. The goal of the program is to create a new generation of farmers with the skills to transform their current system of subsistence agriculture into one of market-oriented and sustainable production.
In the sphere of preventive health techniques, Israel's focus is on models which can benefit African communities suffering from high infant mortality rates.
Tipat Chalav is a system of community-based ante-natal and well-baby clinics which has been operating in Israel successfully for over seventy years. The benefits of Tipat Chalav are numerous: it diminishes infant and maternal mortality, helps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases via vaccinations, enables early identification of developmental problems via routine checkups; and it is instrumental in promoting preventive health education throughout the life cycle.
The Tipat Chalav model is currently being implemented in Kumasi, Ghana. The first of two units in Kumasi South Metropolitan Hospital is ready to be operated by local staff, following training in Israel, while the second unit is under construction.
In addition, Israel continues to conduct training, on-location and in Israel, in such fields as encouragement of gender equality, the struggle against AIDS and malaria, environmental sustainability, entrepreneurialism and so on.
The Israeli experience teaches us that progress goes hand in hand with partnership. For this reason, we are especially gratified to be launching - in the coming days - a Framework Agreement, for us the first of its kind, with UNDP. This agreement comes in the wake of a Third-Party Cost Sharing Agreement signed this last June with UNDP that focuses specifically on Africa. We eagerly look forward to the many new opportunities these agreements will afford.
For us partnership also means joining forces with Jewish communities around the world, in a collaborative effort to extend cooperation aid. We are proud to join with them in expression of the traditional Jewish value of 'Tikun Olam', or 'repairing the world'.
According to the Bible, the relations between Israel and Africa began with the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. Israel is proud to be heir to a 3000 year-old tradition of cooperation and friendship, and is committed to continuing to work with our African partners to advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and to build a bright and sustainable future.