| MONTERREY,
Mexico -- When Hilde F. Johnson speaks, there
is a hushed silence in the room and people lean
forward
listening intently to her. Johnson, Norway's
minister of international development talks with
conviction
about the linkages between health and poverty
and the urgency with which these issues need to
be
addressed.
A
38-year-old minister and member of the Norwegian
cabinet, Johnson is admired for her razor-sharp intellect
and her vision. She is considered perhaps one of
the most committed leaders in development today,
is a champion of debt relief and increased official
development assistance (ODA) by the OECD countries
and never misses an opportunity to rally support
for her cause.
Last
month, at a symposium in Oslo in which Amartya
Sen, Indian
economist and Nobel laureate
in economics, participated as a keynote speaker,
Johnson said, "We have first and foremost
tried to apply the 'development as freedom' perspective.
This has meant for us a much stronger emphasis
on human rights than what you will find in most
development policy documents around the world.
We have tried to understand poverty in terms
of conditions that severely limit human freedom."
Johnson
has a clear plan. "We will aim
to increase ODA to 1 percent [of GNP] by 2005.
We will also forgive all debt to countries that
receive HIPC [Heavily Indebted Poor Country]
treatment," she said. "Other policies
are sometimes more important than aid. Trade
and investment are key to development, and rich
countries' policies must be coherent." Her
vision also entails giving zero-tariff market
access to all products except arms from the poorest
countries as of July 1 this year. There is also
a plan to increase market access for agricultural
exports from developing countries.
A
social anthropologist by training, Johnson
started her political
career in 1998 as a political
adviser to Kjell Magne Bondevik, party chairman
and parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic
Party. In 2001, Johnson became minister of international
development of Norway. She served as minister
of international development and human rights
between 1997 and 2000. Johnson is also the driving
force behind "Utstein," a group of
progressive women development ministers in Europe.
They call themselves the "conspiracy of
implementation." "I first met Clare
Short in 1998, and we clicked politically and
personally on how we wanted to change and reform
development," said Johnson. "Then Eveline
Herfkens, the Dutch minister, came in half a
year later, and finally the German minister.
Being a woman, I was interested in working with
other female politicians and join hands to make
a group. We met in a monastery called Utstein
and thrashed out a plan to go forward."
"We try to use our influence together to
move things in the right direction in areas such
as debt relief," Johnson said. "Secondly,
we have worked very hard to achieve a breakthrough
in untying of development assistance in the OECD
last year."
Johnson
has found herself in a position of power by
virtue of
her intellect, drive, and partly
due to circumstance. She points out proudly that
the Norwegian cabinet comprises nine women and
ten men. She admits that, while it is tougher
for women leaders in third world countries, she
has faced no real discrimination in terms of
being taken less seriously in Norwegian politics
because of her gender. "After Gro Harlem
Brundtland came to power, it's not been politically
impossible in Norway to have a government with
an equal number of women and men," said
Johnson.
Commenting
on the Monterrey Conference, Johnson said: "My message is now that we agree on
the goals and we also agree on the means. The
development countries have to deliver as well
with good governance, transparency and accountability,
and we in terms of resources." While on
a visit to Ethiopia, Johnson said, one woman
told her that they were living above the dead,
but below the living. "How can we stand
back and let this happen," Johnson asked.
And then, somewhat angrily, she added, "We
will not."
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