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Interview with His Excellency

Fode Seck

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of Senegal

It took six or seven years before the si- Commerce, a lady, who should have
tuation went back to normal. The cattle been the head of the delegation, was
died of thirst, but not the humans. busy taking up her duties and, for this
Many people became internally dis- reason, was unable to attend. The de-
placed, walking with their cattle from legation consisted of officials from the
the North, through The Gambia down Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry
to Casamance where there was more of Finance, as well as from APIX, the
water and greener fields. Senegalese agency for the promotion
of investments. The delegation was
Q: Is this the same situation that made up of people that reflected the
we are witnessing now? agenda, which was very rich in events.
Compared to all the topics that had to
As you will see, Mr Ambassa-
For the time being, the answer is "no", be covered, the delegation was quite
dor is a discrete and modest
because since that time, in collabora- small, and therefore we were only able
person. However, there is one
tion with the international community, to attend the sessions dealing with the
subject close to his heart and
the country has implemented strate- most fundamental questions -- in
that is ... how can he best gies and policies for reforestation, the addition to the plenary sessions and
contribute to the develop-
introduction of hydraulic resources the special sessions. For instance,
ment of his country, and that and meteorological services to mitigate there were international fora dedicated
of Africa and diasporas. So and, hopefully, prevent this kind of si- to investment; one whole day was also
now we will leave the floor to tuation from happening again. dedicated to the role of women in de-
Mr Ambassador velopment. Women came from all over
Q: Your country has recently the world to attend this session where
been mentioned as a role mo- we discussed how to mainstream gen-
del for democracy in French- der issues in development. Together
Q: Mr Ambassador, what is your speaking Africa. What does this with UNCTAD, ITC and the other
background? mean for you? participants, we are currently explo-
ring the proposals to see how we can
Simply put, I'm a career diplomat. It gives me a feeling of pride, but at the strengthen the role of women. It has
same time one of modesty, because a been shown that where women are em-
Q: You are very committed when "role model" is saying too much. Each powered in the development process,
it comes to famine, food security democratic experience is unique. You justice and peace are strengthened.
and nutrition. Why are these to- know as well as I do that the weeks be-
pics important for you? fore the elections were very tense, even Q: Trade and agriculture are two
tragic, because there was violence and areas where the African countries
I still remember the terrible years death. Looking back we consider this are facing problems. What mea-
of drought. The northern part of my as a test imposed on the institutions, sures are needed to improve this
country forms part of the Sahel region. on the Senegalese people and, in par- situation?
In the 1970s, Senegal and the neigh- ticular, on the politicians of Senegal.
bouring countries were faced with the The results were that we witnessed one If we manage to solve these issues,
worst drought in modern history. One of the freest, most transparent elec- Africa would emerge stronger on the
of the results was a huge exodus of the tions and we therefore have the feeling world stage because, throughout his-
population from the northern part of that democracy in Senegal has become tory, agriculture has been the founda-
Senegal across the Gambia River to stronger. tion for development in all countries
the southern part called Casamance. at all times. One should bear in mind
This added to the complex situation Q: You have just headed the Se- that Africa was under colonial rule for
that already existed in Casamance negalese Delegation to the UNC- a long time and we have not always
because the southerners felt that they TAD XIII meeting in Doha. What been responsible for our own deve-
had been invaded by the northerners. are your impressions, and what lopment. But, nevertheless, this is not
This is still fresh in my memory, I was do you consider as the main out- an excuse. Even though the continent
at university in those days. This alerted comes of this conference? has been independent for the last fifty
me and the rest of the population of years, we see that the agricultural sec-
Senegal, and all the other countries First of all, I would like to say that I tor in Africa has not, as a general rule,
in the Sahel region for that matter, to had the heavy responsibility of heading met its expectations. We need to rein-
find a solution to the problem and to do the Senegalese delegation because the force the capacity and the production
everything possible to fight famine, to new government had just taken office, basis of our agricultural sector, either
fight malnutrition. and the newly appointed Minister of on a national, regional or even a conti-

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