ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL MUST PROVIDE DIRECTION TO POVERTY ERADICATION WORK OF UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
Press Release
ECOSOC/5652
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL MUST PROVIDE DIRECTION TO POVERTY ERADICATION WORK OF UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
19960701 The Economic and Social Council must provide a sense of direction if the vast amount of work done by the United Nations system on poverty eradication was to be seen as part of one coherent approach, the Under-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development told that body this morning as it began its coordination segment.Introducing the Secretary-General's report on United Nations activities in the area of poverty eradication, the theme of the segment, Nitin Desai said that because the issue of poverty eradication was so high on the agenda of Member States, it was discussed in many forums, and such discussions often became repetitive. Fragmentation of the discussion, with multiple debates in various forums, actually weakened the Organization's approach. However, with proper coordination at all levels, "we stand a very good chance of truly making poverty eradication the organizing basis for all United Nations development efforts".
The decline in the overall resources for development threatened the goal of poverty eradication, the representative of Costa Rica, speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said. Predictable and continuous resources, as well as substantial new resources, were needed, he stressed, adding that reallocation would not solve the problem. He emphasized the importance of no new conditionalities being attached to resources.
Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, the representative of Ireland said the United Nations system must complement the efforts of governments. Strong political will at the national level was critical. The support of the international community both at the bilateral and multilateral levels was essential to creating an environment in which governments would take the lead in assessing poverty situations and in developing national poverty eradication strategies and programmes.
Also this morning, the Council concluded its high-level meeting on strengthening collaboration between the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations system. Statements were made by the representatives of Australia, Indonesia, Colombia, China, United Republic of Tanzania, Ukraine,
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Cuba, Brazil (on behalf of the members of the Common Market of the Southern Cone), Chile, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kazakstan. The observer for Switzerland also spoke, as did representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The Economic and Social Council will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue discussing coordination of United Nations poverty eradication strategies.
Council Work Programme
The Economic and Social Council met this morning to begin its coordination segment, which will focus on the activities of the United Nations system towards poverty eradication. In addition, the Council is expected to conclude the high-level meeting of the operational activities for development segment. (For background on the high-level meeting, see Press Release ECOSOC/5650, of 28 June.)
As a basis for the coordination segment, the Council will have before it a report of the Secretary-General on coordination of the activities of the United Nations system for the eradication of poverty (document E/1996/61).
The Council's functional commissions have approached poverty eradication issues from the perspective of their respective areas of competence, and there has been a tendency to widen the scope of consideration by the commissions of related issues, leading to general and overlapping conclusions and recommendations, says the report. Therefore, the Council, at its 1995 coordination segment, had given guidelines on the division of labour among the commissions.
According to the report, it should be for the General Assembly to establish a broad policy framework, for the Council to integrate the work of the commissions and to guide the United Nations system on coordination issues, and for the functional commissions to focus on the core set of issues falling within their respective areas of competence.
Regarding poverty eradication, such a scheme would mean that the Assembly would address issues relating to national and international enabling environments, says the report. The Council would oversee the work of the functional commissions and other parts of the United Nations system. It would also take into account inputs from the country level through the executive boards of funds and programmes and the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC). For the Council to effectively play its oversight and coordinating role, it should adopt a multi-year programme of work. Close consultations would also be required between the Council's bureau and chairmen of the functional commissions.
The Council should focus on promoting a multidimensional and integrated approach to poverty eradication, the importance of which was recognized at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, the report continues. It should also promote a gender-sensitive approach to poverty eradication. A continuing dialogue with the ACC and its subsidiary bodies would be required. The Council would need to ensure that monitoring activities of the functional commissions and the executive boards of United Nations funds and programmes focused on poverty eradication. In addition, the Council could consider devoting, on a periodic basis, a part of its general segment to a substantive examination of poverty.
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The intention of the recommendations is to enable intergovernmental bodies to provide coherent policy guidance, the report states. The Council's efforts to harmonize the work of its functional commissions would also contribute to achieving the aims of the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, which will start in 1997.
Also before the Council is the report of the twenty-ninth series of Joint Meetings of the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) and the ACC, held on 16 October 1995 (document E/1996/4 and Corr.1). The report contains a chairman's summary of the deliberations which offers a number of recommendations on the subject of poverty eradication.
The summary states that since efforts to eradicate poverty should be based on individual countries' goals and plans, the success of coordination efforts must be measured at the country level. The need for a supportive international environment to meet the challenge of eradicating poverty should be fully taken into account. It also notes that the ACC, at its second regular session, held on 12 and 13 October 1995, established three inter- agency task forces on subjects that are closely related to the eradication of poverty to follow up on the outcomes of recent global conferences. The task forces cover: basic social services for all, with the World Bank as lead agency; full employment and sustainable livelihoods for all, with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as the lead agency; and an enabling environment for people-centred sustainable development, also to be led by the World Bank.
The annual overview of the ACC, 1995 is also before the Council (document E/1996/18 and Add.1). It states that while the ACC is evolving an integrated approach to the follow-up to recent international conferences, a major challenge in the period ahead will be to harmonize and link up the various arrangements and efforts being undertaken at the country level with those at the inter-agency and intergovernmental levels in order to maximize impact. "This implies not only that coherent policy guidance will be given by intergovernmental bodies, but also that the standing subsidiary machinery of the ACC and its ad hoc task forces will work in tandem and provide coherent support to country-level action, as well as feed the ACC with relevant information and recommendations for its thematic reviews." The ACC, in turn, should be able to provide the Council and its subsidiary bodies with appropriate inputs for their reviews of the plans of action, as well as of the common themes emerging from international conferences.
Statements
RICHARD BUTLER (Australia) said that the United Nations Charter had made clear that economic and social progress and the attainment of greater freedom were equal to the pursuit of international peace and security. There was a continuing need to reconcile the pursuit of economic and social development with the constitutional independence of the Bretton Woods institutions. Part
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of that reconciliation was, necessarily, addressing some of the negative impacts of past structural adjustment programmes.
The Bretton Woods institutions today were adequately responding to the agenda set by the recent round of United Nations development-related conferences, he said. Poverty alleviation had been moved closer to the centre of their agenda, and there had been increasing attention paid to the unique problems of Africa. A new approach which was illustrative of the way that issues might be dealt with in future was the Joint and Co-sponsored United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, which had brought together six agencies that had not closely cooperated in past; the Bretton Woods institutions had been an essential part of that effort. The United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions should cooperate more closely at the country level.
ISSLAMET POERNOMO (Indonesia) said that the Assembly and the Council should develop deeper collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Interim Committee and with the joint World Bank/IMF Development Committee. The Bretton Woods institutions had an important role to play in providing follow-up to major United Nations conferences. Cooperation between the United Nations and those institutions should not lead to additional conditionalities in the area of development assistance. Those institutions too often used financial assistance as a means of effecting policy change.
The most practical means of strengthening collaboration between the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations system were the country- strategic note and the resident coordinator systems, which had provided avenues for such collaboration under the coordination of national governments. Those mechanisms could facilitate cooperation and avoid duplication.
FRANÇOIS ROHNER, observer for Switzerland, said that the task forces dedicated to following up on the global development conferences should efficiently implement action plans adopted by those gatherings. The progress reports of their various working groups would be instructive in that regard; it would not be wise to open those meetings to a larger number of participants. Cooperation between United Nations and Bretton Woods agencies was too often undertaken on an ad hoc basis. More constant and systematic collaboration was required so that partners could consult more closely on country-strategy notes.
The two groups of institutions should coordinate on the training of regional and local staff, he said. More frequent secondment of staff among the partner institutions would also be highly desirable. Strengthened cooperation would not bear fruit unless the United Nations system could enhance the quality of its services. Only by winning the commitment of donor countries could enhanced cooperation receive adequate funding.
JAIRO MONTOYA (Colombia) said for a truly coordinated and harmonized interaction, the Bretton Woods institutions should review their orientations,
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policies, voting structures and management. While the United Nations had proved to be more sensitive to social implications of economic policies, the Bretton Woods institutions' main concern had almost always been purely economic. A change of philosophy was necessary.
He said that with no resources and no clear commitment to solve the payments crises of the United Nations, talking about collaboration and coordination was an empty rhetoric. Solid institutions were needed for such coordination to work. That could only be achieved through re-establishing funding, as well as flow of official development assistance (ODA) and other resources of international development cooperation.
There was a recommendation that the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations system should complement each other in mitigating the effects of structural adjustment programmes, he continued. It was not clear why that action should be shared by the United Nations since the condition for developing countries to adopt structural adjustment had originated in the Bretton Woods institutions. The recommendation that concessional assistance mechanisms should be reviewed due to financial difficulties of countries in a post-conflict phase was a matter of concern.
YUAN SHAOUFU (China) said that collaboration between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions in the field of development should be carried out in the context of ongoing United Nations reforms in the economic and social fields. Both groups of agencies should fully respect the views of recipient governments. At the country level, they should take into account the special needs of developing countries so as to tailor their collaboration.
Many people were understandably concerned about whether United Nations- Bretton Woods collaboration would lead to develop programmes being constrained by restrictive policies, thereby adding new conditionalities to technical assistance, he said. Collaboration should not weaken the comparative advantages of development assistance in the United Nations system, which should continue with its flexible nature.
KATINDA KAMANDO (United Republic of Tanzania) said his country supported the statement made by Costa Rica on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China. In order for projects at the field level to be effective, coordination was essential. Harmonization process should, however, not lead to additional conditionalities.
He was pleased to hear from the representative of the IMF that the structural adjustment programmes of the past were dead. He welcomed the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa, adding, however, that it should not replace the United Nations New Agenda For the Development of Africa in the 1990s. He sought information on how the Initiative would be operationalized.
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IGOR GOUMENNY (Ukraine) said bearing in mind the present financial situation of the United Nations, strengthening of collaboration was essential, especially to seek finances for development. Assistance to developing countries and countries in transition would allow the international community to save financial resources in the future. Moreover, the activity of the international financial agencies required strengthening and coordination at both the national and international levels. A qualitatively higher level of coordination was needed to ensure lessening of duplication at the national level. Ukraine supported coordination between the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in particular.
JORGE WERTHEIN, a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said the broad trends in cooperation for development in recent years suggested that the sharp division of responsibilities between the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions was becoming blurred. The development banks were reorienting a sizeable part of their investment towards the social sectors, while much of their investment towards the infrastructure was being provided by the private sector. At the same time, the United Nations system was taking a much greater account of the economic factors than in the past. The secretariats of the various institutions, as well as Member States, had the responsibility to strengthen coordination.
He stressed the need for broader dialogue, joint initiatives and efforts to identify complementarities in the elimination of poverty, post-conflict rehabilitation, "socially responsible" programmes of structural adjustment, capacity-building and the management of the environment. Dialogue between the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions should not only be expanded, but be made more operational. Coordination at the national level was still sporadic and partial. It was more important to have the UNDP strengthen its assistance to the specialized agencies with regard to identification of the needs of States than it was to subsidize banks and to strengthen their expertise. The cooperation between the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods system had to be formalized, and resident coordinators had to be given an effective role to play in that regard.
ANA SILVIA RODRIGUEZ ABASCAL (Cuba) said much progress had been achieved in strengthening cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, including in the follow-up to the recent global conferences. However, the central problem of structural adjustment programmes, which continued to negatively impact developing countries, remained. The Bretton Woods institutions continued to have a narrow outlook and weighted voting systems, in contrast to the United Nations, which had a broad mandate and a universal voting system. Cooperation between the two must aim to increase predictable, continuous and assured resources for developing countries. "We need to preserve the mutual, multilateral, voluntary, unconditional and universal nature of the United Nations development work." No conditionalities
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applied by the international financial institutions should be imposed on United Nations activities.
She said the way the country-strategy note was structured represented a departure from the spirit of voluntarism. Using the country-strategy note as a mechanism of cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions would perhaps result in unfair treatment of those States which had exercised their sovereign right not to prepare such a note.
ENRIQUE AGUILAR, a representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), said his organization had launched a new initiative to broaden cooperation with agencies of the United Nations and Bretton Woods systems. The UNIDO had created a joint working group with the World Trade Organization (WTO), with the participation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre, to support an efficient international trading system in the manufacturing field. The UNIDO and UNCTAD had signed a memorandum of understanding to intensify their cooperation and coordination in the areas of science and technology, investment promotion and enterprise development. The UNIDO had recently signed a similar agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank.
Cooperation between UNIDO and the World Bank was now focusing on privatization of industrial enterprises, quality and standards in industry, competitiveness and productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries. The projects included environmentally sustainable industrial development strategies and industrial rehabilitation in Madagascar, human resource development in the Philippines, privatization in the Sudan, and institutional capacity-building in India. The UNIDO was also working with the UNDP and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in assisting developing countries to phase out ozone-depleting substances.
CELSO AMORIM (Brazil), speaking on behalf of the members of the Common Market of the Southern Cone (MERCOSUR) -- Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay -- said that cooperation at the field level could not take place without improved intergovernmental cooperation at the level of the Council and in the Secretariat. While seeking an intellectual convergence of views, suggestions for uniform policies should bear in mind that the IMF and the World Bank had somewhat different approaches to development.
The report of the Secretary-General had made reference to a common understanding of the 20/20 initiative, he said. His Government wondered how various institutions envisaged their respective roles in the implementation of that initiative -- which is based on the idea of allocating 20 per cent of ODA and 20 per cent of national budgets to priority basic social programmes. He sought clarification on the proposal to establish mechanisms in support of regional offices of smaller agencies and how that could be related to regional integration processes such as the MERCOSUR.
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EDUARDO GALVEZ (Chile) said his country associated itself with the statement made by Costa Rica on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. The ultimate objective of economic and social development was eradication of poverty.
Stressing the importance of good governance, he said that concept required better clarification. Emphasizing that the most sound work of governance must be done at the national level, he said good governance involved efficiency of management, participation in public affairs and strengthening of institutions. He recognized the major work done by the inter-agency task force led by the UNDP in training for good governance. In addition, he stressed that the question of establishing an ombudsman for people's rights was important.
OLIVER KILIU (The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) said all development efforts must aim to benefit the end-users, which were the Member States. The Council should naturally stress continued cooperation between the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions, but it must not lose sight of the purpose of development activities. As a country undergoing the transition to a market economy, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was interested in economic activities of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, which should both take a more active role in the "Europeanization" of the Balkans. It was hoped that in time that would be the case.
AKMARAL ARYSTANBEKOVA (Kazakstan) said a coherent combination of development activities at the national and international levels would ensure effective development cooperation. Kazakstan supported the strengthening of cooperation among all actors involved in bringing assistance to the countries in transition. Such cooperation had intensified in recent years, but it still had significant room for expansion. Kazakstan welcomed the important role played by the United Nations development system and Bretton Woods institutions in the provision of advisory services and technical assistance in development- related fields. It was currently benefiting from World Bank assistance, and hoped that such assistance would extend to other areas in the future.
Coordination of Poverty Eradication Activities
NITIN DESAI, Under-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, introduced the reports before the Council. He said poverty eradication was "everybody's issue, and because it is everybody's issue, it is nobody's issue". The Council must provide a sense of direction if the vast amount of work done by the United Nations system on poverty was to be seen as part of one coherent approach. It must provide a sense of unity of purpose that had been lacking so far.
The Secretary-General's report described United Nations poverty- eradication efforts at the country level, he said. The recommendations in the
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report were based on the notion of integrated national strategies as set out in the Copenhagen Programme of Action. Other recommendations concerned the country-strategy note, as well as the many cases where such strategy notes were not in place. The report also dealt with coordination through the resident coordinator system. Its recommendations aimed to give a measure of coherence to United Nations poverty eradication efforts.
He stressed the need to mainstream a gender perspective in all of the Organization's anti-poverty work. Gender concerns must be handled not only in the Commission on the Status of Women; they should be reflected in the work of all commissions. That was all the more true in the area of poverty eradication because of the twin phenomena of the "feminization of poverty" and the "feminization of unemployment".
Above all, he said, there was a need for a harmonized intergovernmental approach to poverty eradication. Because the issue was so high on the agenda of Member States, it was discussed in many forums. Often, discussions became repetitive and it was not clear where policy direction would come from. It was critical that such direction be clear. Ensuring coherence, integration and harmonization would strengthen the work of the United Nations. Fragmentation of the discussion, with multiple debates in various forums on the high-priority issue of poverty eradication, actually weakened the Organization's approach.
The Council must aim to strengthen intergovernmental direction concerning United Nations poverty eradication efforts, he emphasized. A unification of policy direction could be achieved through the Council and the Assembly. "We are convinced that with the focus that has been given to poverty eradication not just in Copenhagen but in all recent United Nations conferences, if we can get our act together at the field level, at the level of inter-secretariat collaboration and in terms of harmonizing the work of all intergovernmental processes that have an interest in this issue, then we stand a very good chance of truly making poverty eradication the organizing basis for all United Nations development efforts."
OSCAR ACUÑA (Costa Rica), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said the report of the Secretary-General was correct in stating that the goal of poverty eradication was a major challenge for the United Nations system. It also stressed the need for coordination and cooperation. He emphasized that while poverty eradication had to be country specific, it was relevant at the international level as well. He recalled that the international community at the highest level had already committed itself to the eradication of poverty.
The Secretary-General's report included recommendations from previous United Nations conference, he said. However, the considerable decline in resources had made it difficult to eradicate poverty. Overall resources for development were declining, and the target of poverty eradication was
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threatened by that. Predictable and continuous resources and substantial new resources were needed, he stressed, adding that reallocation would not solve the problem.
He stated that the spirit of the Copenhagen Declaration had been ignored in the Secretary-General's report. In the sphere of joint collaboration, the spirit of the Declaration had to be kept in mind. The importance of the resident coordinator could not be overemphasized. The collaboration of the IMF and the World Bank had so far been sporadic at the country level. It was important that there be no new conditionalities attached to funds. In addition, the United Nations system should work directly with countries to eradicate poverty, and its coordinated efforts at poverty eradication should complement the efforts of countries.
He welcomed the efforts of the inter-agency task forces and said at the policy-making level the system should provide consistent, coherent advice on poverty eradication. Enhancement of trade, flow of financial resources and technology transfer was important in poverty eradication efforts since slow growth, high unemployment and poverty were problems of all developing countries. No single organization had the mandate to tackle poverty all on its own, but different institutions must not give countries conflicting signals on poverty eradication.
JOHN CAMPBELL (Ireland), speaking on behalf of the European Union, as well as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia, recalled that recent international conferences had placed great emphasis on the need for poverty eradication. The United Nations system must complement the efforts of governments. Strong political will at the national level was critical. The Copenhagen Programme of Action called for action to formulate or strengthen national strategies for poverty eradication. Many governments, including those within the European Union, were developing national anti-poverty strategies.
Field-level coordination was being improved through various tools, such as the country-strategy note and the resident coordinator system, he said. The country-strategy note should, where possible, be the main instrument for the elaboration of poverty eradication plans and programmes. The support of the international community both at the bilateral and multilateral levels was essential to creating an environment in which governments would take the lead in assessing poverty situations and in developing national poverty eradication strategies and programmes.
He went on to stress the importance of incorporating a gender perspective into all poverty eradication efforts, not just those related to structural adjustment efforts. "Equally, we consider that greater emphasis should be laid on the need to provide appropriate training on gender issues to United Nations personnel, including at the field level, in order to make them
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fully aware of the requirements of mainstreaming a gender perspective into poverty eradication efforts."
Because of the complex nature of poverty, it was inevitable that the question of its eradication would require consideration in many forums within the United Nations system, he went on. At the same time, intergovernmental consideration of poverty eradication must proceed in a suitably structured manner. The Council should provide guidance to the United Nations system on coordination matters. It should integrate the work of its functional commissions, which should be responsible for monitoring the implementation of commitments. The Council should focus on comprehensive strategy discussions and on coordinating the work of other organs to ensure a multidimensional, integrated and gender-sensitive approach to poverty eradication.
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