HELPING THE WEAKEST IS AN INVESTMENT FOR ALL OF MANKIND

VATICAN CITY, JUL 21, 2001 (VIS) - Made public today was the speech given in Geneva, Switzerland on July 18 by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, head of the Holy See delegation to the annual session of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The meeting, which runs from July 2 to 27, is focussing on the theme "The Role of the United Nations system in supporting the efforts of African countries to reach sustainable development."

"Globalization will only truly serve the human family," he began, "if it becomes a process of inclusion, ... enhances respect for the dignity of every individual person, ... and fosters the unity of the human family. ... A globalization which is accompanied by widespread exclusion simply is not global."

Archbishop Martin noted that "globalization is driven by human persons, it is influenced by their decisions." Achieving globalization with inclusion requires many things, including "the realization that responding to the needs of the weakest is a long term investment for the good of all, including the strongest and most powerful."

He remarked on the need "to establish new models of partnerships aimed at the inclusion of Africa, and of all Africans, women and men, as protagonists of their own future and as partners in our common search for a vision of development worthy of the human person." These models must "place poverty reduction at their center."

Highlighting "the immense human and cultural richness which Africa possesses and from which we can all learn," Archbishop Martin observed that "the strikingly rapid urbanization in Africa ... also poses cultural and human challenges. Greater efforts must be made to ensure that rural communities are made more sustainable. ... This means bringing improved health, education and safe water to rural communities. It means investing in food security and in communications infrastructures."

In concluding remarks linking peace, the building of democratic structures and globalization, the archbishop affirmed that "we need a new concerted effort to bring peace to the women, children and men who have known only the horrors of war, in some cases for generations. This is the responsibility of all, both within Africa and outside."

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