His Majesty King Mswati III recently concluded his stay in the United States of America where he attended the 74th General Assembly.

During the course of the week, His Majesty attended a number of meetings including the UN SDG and environmental session.

On Wednesday September 25th, He addressed the General Assembly where he spoke about peace, conflict, climate change, poverty alleviation and the exclusion of Taiwan at the top of his concerns making recommendations on the action required of the UN body as a collective.

This year's theme was Galvanising multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion’.

During his speech, he urged all to avoid dictating how countries should be govern and impose their ideologies on other nations of the world as he noted that this is a great fuse to the current conflicts in various parts of the world and causes many inhumane sufferings. He has called upon the UN to act swiftly, discourage such behaviours and remind leaders that they are all equal, irrespective of country size and economic power.

On bridging the gaps and promoting collective action, he implore the assembly to play its role on taking centre stage on inclusion and participation of all Member States through cooperation, dialogue and reforming existing organs where needed. He noted that most current challenges such as terrorism, climate change, migration, transnational organized crimes and many others, could be effectively addressed without multilateral cooperation.

On the inclusion of Taiwan, he said was a crucial step in realizing the pledge Agenda 2030 of leaving no one behind will remain elusive and false if they continued to deprive other nations the opportunity to play a pivotal role in the UN affairs, as stipulated in the preamble of UN General Assembly resolution 70/1 adopted on September 25th 2015.

He also spoke about supporting African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Ae-Trade platform needing the full support of the UN as it would propel the continent towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He asked the UN to invest more in SDGs to help end poverty. He said this was necessary to build strong societies and social protection systems that would ensure the inclusion of special interest groups affected by poverty.

On setting up regional disaster funds, His Majesty recommended the setting up of permanent regional disaster funds to help cushion against the effects of natural disasters and set-up sub-regional humanitarian hubs that will be equipped to respond swiftly to disasters.

He also spoke about reassess allocation of development assistance and providing assistance to educators.

Following his address, His Majesty met with the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in private. During their private talks, the Secretary-General commended the Kingdom for its leadership in taking steps to tackle developmental challenges they faced and also discussed Eswatini’s implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The UN will provide strong support to the kingdom through its resident coordinator and country team to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in national planning processes. The local delegation has submitted that among the results of this support includes the poverty reduction levels, decline in the prevalence of stunting among children under five years, improved access to water and electricity in urban and rural areas and helping the country record, for the first time in 2017, zero cases of polio, disability and death from tetanus, whooping cough and measles.

The kingdom was also seeking support from the UN in establishing a permanent regional disaster fund. This is to help cushion against the effects of natural disasters, as well as at SADC level for a sub-regional humanitarian hub equipped with emergency response equipment, tools and skilled personnel to provide expertise, advice and capacity building to Member States. The strong relationship has seen the kingdom offer land for the construction of the UN common premises which host a state of the art infrastructure.

Later His Majesty also held bilateral talks with the President of the Republic of Ireland Michael Higgins, and His Majesty King Rukidi IV of Oyo Kingdom.

On Wednesday evening, in his capacity as the current Chairperson of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), he attended a meeting of the End Malaria Council co-chaired by Bill Gates and Ray Chambers.

The meeting's agenda was to discuss the Council’s progress over the last year and explore the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.