[Guinea Bissau] Eight-Country Summit Issues Pledge On Poverty

from All Africa

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

Press Release

Bissau

A summit of eight Portuguese-speaking countries held in tiny, impoverished Guinea-Bissau wound up on Monday night with a series of pledges to wipe out poverty and hunger by 2015 in line with the Millennium Development Goals.

Also promised at the close of the 6th summit of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) were commitments to democracy and the rule of law as well as pledges to provide education for all and promote the rights of women.

In a vote of confidence for Guinea-Bissau, the world's sixth-poorest nation, which is still teetering on the brink of economic and institutional collapse after years of unrest, President Joao "Nino" Bernardo Vieira was named president of the CPLP community.

Four out of five of Guinea-Bissau's half a million people live on less than two dollars a day in this country whose economy relies essentially on subsistence agriculture although it is a net food importer.

Vieira said he would work for stability and peace in the Portuguese-speaking world and called for stronger ties with the international community.

"Your presence among us is an unequivocal expression of our joint will to establish strong, dynamic and multiform partnerships with international organisations - both at the universal, regional and sub-regional levels," he said.

Guinea-Bissau is awaiting a donor roundtable in November where it is expected to ask for some US $250 million to improve access to basic health services and education and shore up the economy.

CPLP leaders absent from the Bissau meeting were Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, because of the G8 summit in Russia; East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, whose country has been hit by new unrest; and Fradrique de Menezes, president of Sao Tome and Principe, who is heading for elections this month.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea attended the meeting as head of state of the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa.

Both Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius were admitted as observer associate members.The next summit is to be held in 2008 in Portugal.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]