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MONTERREY,
Mexico -- As the United Nations geared up for
the International Conference for Financing and
Development,
UN officials in the Mexican city of Monterrey
were confident that the international political
climate
has changed for the better.
A
total of 58 heads of government are expected to attend
the Monterrey conference, along with many finance,
foreign and development ministers. This showed, they
said, a new level of international political commitment
to reducing poverty around the world.
Unprecedented at this conference will be the
active participation of the World Bank, the
IMF, the World Trade Organization and big business,
including some of the world's wealthiest individuals.
"It is almost a success before we start," UN
spokeswoman Sue Markham told The Earth Times.
The Monterrey conference on Financing for Development,
she said, will be one of the rare UN meetings
where governments had agreed in advance on
a draft declaration without leaving outstanding
issues still to be negotiated. Since the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks in the United States,
Washington's attitude on development aid had
started to change.
The essence of the conference is the fact
that levels of Official Development Assistance-the
government funding wealthy nations provide
to poorer nations-has been on an overall 30-year
downward trajectory. According to UN figures,
ODA was already falling when the international
community in 1970 first adopted the target
of 0.7 percent of donor GNP. The ratio stabilized
between 0.3 and 0.35 percent until the early
1990s, but then began to fall again. In 2000,
the average ODA of the 22 member countries
of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) was 0.22 percent of
their GNP. Even excluding the United States,
which never committed itself to the 0.7 percent
target, the average was only 0.33 percent.
In terms of absolute dollars (uncorrected
for inflation) the amount of aid, however,
rose steadily until 1992. But even in absolute
terms, total aid has yet to regain its peak
that year of over $60 billion. ODA fell from
$56.4 billion in 1999 to $53.1 in 2000, marking
a drop of 6 percent in nominal terms, or of
1.6 percent taking inflation and exchange rate
changes into account.
Armed with
a draft declaration at which member nations
agreed last January to redress the
situation, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
said: "This conference must mark a turning
point in the history of Official Development
Assistance. We simply cannot allow the decline
in ODA to continue, if we want our commitment
to the Millennium Development Goals to be taken
seriously at all."
At the Millennium Summit in 2000, member governments
agreed not only to halve poverty around the
world by 2015, but also to achieve a two-thirds
reduction in child mortality, a reversal of
the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the provision of
primary education for all children around the
world. After the Sept. 11 attacks, many countries
stepped up the pressure for increased aid,
arguing that what happens to the poorest people
can affect the wealthiest.
Annan said Monterrey will be important because
he envisages progress in the Millennium Development
Goals of reversing the long-term decline in
ODA, if possible by doubling annual ODA from
$50 billion to $100 billion within two to three
years.
He seeks a strengthened consensus and commitment
from developing nations to mobilize resources,
improve domestic financial institutions and
attract foreign investment. He is also seeking
an agreement in favor of a comprehensive international
convention against corruption. Officials said
he also envisages progress in commitment to
implement and extend the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries initiative and to deal with the debt
crises of middle-income countries. These should
include new ways to resolve debt problems.
Finally, he expects an expansion of the representation
of developing countries in global economic
management.
"Overall, Monterrey presents an opportunity
for the world's leaders to arrive at agreements
on development policy and to show their commitment
to achieving the Millenium Goals for poverty
reduction," said Markham. For the world's
49 least developed countries, all of which
have a per capita GDP of less than $900, ODA
is crucial. In 1998, for example, it accounted
for 84 percent of the resource flows into 48
of those countries. Yet in the same year, they
received less than 4 percent of long-term capital
inflows going into all developing nations.
In a bid to redress such inequities, President
George W. Bush last week announced a new $5-billion
pledge to fight world poverty that he will
present when he addresses the Monterrey gathering
on Friday. The 15 nations in the European Union
last week pledged in turn to raise their average
ODA from 0.33 to 0.39 percent.
Improving the lives of people in an impoverished
world is a huge challenge. According to a UN
study prepared for the conference, 826 million
people in the world do not get enough to eat;
more than 850 million remain illiterate; almost
1 billion lack access to safe water supplies;
2.4 billion lack access to basic sanitation;
nearly 325 million boys and girls are not in
school; 11 million children under the age of
five die each year from preventable causes;
and around 1.2 billion live on less than $1
dollar a day.
"In a precarious world, development is
a key security issue," Mike Moore, the
director-general of the World Trade Organization,
wrote in a newspaper article last week. "The
UN Conference on Financing for Development
to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, is the most
important opportunity for addressing global
inequities in years."
UN officials have planned the conference around
major themes such as the quantity and quality
of development aid, dealing with debt so as
to eliminate the debt traps of many poorer
nations and trade. Other key themes include
ways of seeking progress on a UN Convention
against Corruption, and securing a future free
from financial crises which have sent economic
shock waves around the world.
Besides Bush,
the world leaders addressing the conference
on Thursday and Friday include
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada,
President Tarja Halonen of Finland, President
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of Costa
Rica, and Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik
of Norway. They will be welcomed to the city
by President Vincente Fox Quesada of Mexico
and the UN Secretary General.
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