GLOBALIZATION/INTERDEPENDENCE AND STRENGTHENING UN DEVELOPMENT MACHINERY CONSIDERED, IN TWO PANEL DISCUSSIONS, BY DPI/NGO CONFERENCE
Press Release
PI/968
GLOBALIZATION/INTERDEPENDENCE AND STRENGTHENING UN DEVELOPMENT MACHINERY CONSIDERED, IN TWO PANEL DISCUSSIONS, BY DPI/NGO CONFERENCE
19960911 The belief that the private sector could deal with global problems was a myth, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) told the forty-ninth annual NGO Conference organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) this afternoon, as the gathering discussed matters related to globalization and to the United Nations development machinery.Emphasizing that private capital flows were skewed towards very few countries, James Gustave Speth said development cooperation within a comprehensive framework was necessary to address the risks of globalization. He called for reform in development assistance and stressed that the United Nations was an irreplaceable part of the development assistance community.
Multilateral agencies and organizations had to be selective in the projects they supported, Myrna Alexander, Director of Operations Policy of the World Bank, said, adding that those agencies and organizations should consider the performance of their clients as a measure of their success. Moreover, they should encourage the private sector in developing countries and try to find ways out of aid dependency.
The free market did not address social inequality, Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said. The United Nations had a role to play in helping equality within and between countries. Stating that the Bretton Woods institutions had been helped by governments to muddle everything, she called for a better sorting out of roles.
Priority should be given to the quality of development activity over the need for increased resources, Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said. She stressed that the United Nations system should focus on improving the quality of its output and its development assistance.
The panel discussion on "Strengthening the United Nations development machinery" was moderated by Ahmad Kamal (Pakistan).
The other panel discussion this afternoon focused on globalization and interdependence. The Special Adviser to the UNDP Administrator, Richard Jolly, called for policies to respond to the worst impacts of globalization. Economically, the growth of income, or lack of, had been the biggest problem. He emphasized that globalization must include issues such as justice, human concerns as well as issues of economic efficiency and human solidarity.
Barbara Adams, Senior Programme Officer of the United Nations Non- Governmental Liaison Service, said the United Nations faced a challenge vis-a- vis its role on globalization, adding that the quick movement of money in the financial markets made it very difficult for governments to set down financial policies.
Also taking part in the discussions were Peter Oswald (Sweden) and Marie-Angelique Savane, Commissioner, Commission on Global Governance. The panel on globalization and interdependence was moderated by Samuel Insanally (Guyana).
The Conference will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 12 September, to discuss the financing of United Nations activities.
Committee Work Programme
The forty-ninth annual Conference for NGOs organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) met this afternoon to discuss the question of development, including the Secretary-General's An Agenda for Development. It was scheduled to hold two panel discussions, on "Globalization and interdependence" and "Strengthening the United Nations development machinery".
Statements on Globalization and Interdependence
SAMUEL INSANALLY (Guyana), former President of the General Assembly and moderator of the panel on globalization and interdependence, said globalization was perceived as both good and bad. Some countries believed that they risked marginalization in the new climate created by a globalized world, while others welcomed it.
PETER OSWALD (Sweden), Vice-Chairman of the Assembly's working group on an agenda for development, said the negotiations had been going on for a year and a half. It was disappointing that the negotiations would have to continue well into the fifty-first Assembly session. The working group had been faced with some very fundamental differences. Although there had been consensus on many issues in United Nations conferences, those same issues seemed to be recurring. Therefore, it seemed that many countries had not been on board wholeheartedly.
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Also there was a fear that the streamlining of the United Nations would lead to a smaller Organization with fewer resources for development, he continued. In addition, globalization was interpreted differently by different countries. Some saw it as a threat, while others recognized its negative impact, but believed it was inevitable. However, they emphasized the market was not the only answer, and governments had a responsibility to act in the best interest of their people. Therefore, the question arose of whether globalization itself was a problem. Some countries believed they had been marginalized by globalization, while others stressed that those countries had not taken advantage of the opportunities. In the end, there had to be a consensus on globalization.
MARIE-ANGELIQUE SAVANE, Commissioner, Commission on Global Governance, said the Commission had been concerned with the responses to globalization, especially in the developing world. It had focused on issues such as poverty and human rights and ways in which those issues could be reconciled with human values and the rights of citizens to improve their lives. Other ideas emerging in the Commission included the need for the world to be reorganized. Proposals had included the creation of an economic security council
There was concern for the mass of people in the world who did not benefit from international action, she continued. Civil society must participate more in decision-making and in international debates. Africans must be taken account of in the debates on the trends of globalization. The vibrancy of the people in Africa was very evident, as in the informal sector. Human resources did exist in that region. The crucial issue was the region's access to international markets and how to provide for people's basic needs. Civil society must counter state action. The problem of the role of individual citizens must be dealt with before other major issues of poverty and economic growth could be resolved.
BARBARA ADAMS, Senior Programme Officer, United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service, said there were winners and losers of globalization, both among nations and within nations. That was part of the reason why such divergent views were expressed on globalization. For people who had viewed state barriers to trade as a problem, globalization was good. However, others did not view it in such a positive light. The challenge that faced the United Nations related to its role vis-a-vis globalization and how could it reconcile the divergent views on globalization. It was sad that the phenomenon had presented itself when people-centred development had been recognized. It was also ironic that as NGOs had been more and more welcomed in the development process, they had found that they were working with the losers of globalization.
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The views of States on globalization were coloured by their perception of their ability to participate in the global economy, she said, emphasizing that the quick movement of money in the financial markets made it very different for governments to set down financial policies. It must be particularly difficult for small countries to develop a budget with an amount of money allocated for certain areas without knowing whether the money would be available due to the quick movement of the market.
RICHARD JOLLY, Special Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said globalization had to be interpreted broadly. The linkages created by that process were international. The fulcrum of the globalization debate depended on where one stood. The richest countries had to acknowledge that they had the power to alter the international system. Developing countries had to recognize that there were opportunities to be taken advantage of. Globalization affected countries at all economic levels.
Globalization must include issues such as justice, human concerns as well as issues of economic efficiency and human solidarity, he continued. The United Nations had always provided a forum for those issues to be debated. The UNDP's Human Development Report showed that globalization had both positive and negative effects. Projections in the report showed that the income of the world's poor would continue to decrease. However, it also showed that progress had been made in areas such as health and education in the majority of the poorest countries. Economically, the growth of income, or lack of, had been the biggest problem. There was need for policies to respond to the worst impacts of globalization.
The NGOs should not accept the adverse comments about the United Nations achievements, he said. The failure in the United Nations system had been in the Bretton Woods philosophy. The continued interaction between NGOs, civil society, governments and the international community was essential for more progress to be achieved. He cited as an example of such interaction a recent work by the Anglican Church on debt.
Discussion on Globalization and Interdependence
Conference participants asked the panellists' opinion on new and additional resources of funding for development and on the Tobin tax. Globalization would further handicap the developing world since it had never had the chance to catch up with the developed world, it was stated. The race had been unfair from the outset, a participant said. In a question addressed specifically to Mr. Insanally, a participant asked about the development strategy of the Guyanese Government. Questions on the impact of corruption and military spending on development were also raised.
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Mr. OSWALD (Sweden) said his Government was interested in the thrust of the idea of new and additional sources of funding. Since common goods were used freely, a user fee on them was not a bad idea. For example, air space was used by companies and that was clearly a common resource. Therefore, he saw nothing wrong with a user fee to pay for air space.
Mr. JOLLY, of the UNDP, said an interesting meeting would be held with Professor James Tobin, of Yale University, at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom. However, no person from the UNDP would be able to attend that meeting because the United States had decided that all United Nations funds should be withheld from any agency that supported research. He expressed the hope that one day the Tobin tax would be recognized.
Responding to a question about the development strategy of the Guyanese Government, Mr. INSANALLY (Guyana) said his country at the national level was willing to provide a congenial atmosphere for the private enterprise, however, it believed that development aid was crucial. He supported the idea of a predictable arrangement of financing.
In reply to a question on corruption, he said "Corruption is like tango. It takes two to tango". However, the attack on corruption should not be an artificial excuse to block development in some countries. On military expenditure blocking development, he said that question had been addressed, to some extent, yesterday by the acceptance of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
Mr. JOLLY, of the UNDP, said that although military spending had declined in recent years, the freed funds had not been used for development.
In response to a question on whether he favoured a "people's house" elected directly by the people of the earth, he said he did.
Statements on Strengthening UN Development Machinery
AHMAD KAMAL (Pakistan), moderator of the panel, raised a number of issues for the panellists to discuss. He said there appeared to be no consensus on the United Nations role in development. Some developmental actors believed that the United Nations role should be minimized and that market forces should play the larger role. Should that thinking be countered? he asked. He questioned whether the global conferences and global targets were shared by all States. It did not appear to be so because many of them remained unfulfilled.
He asked a number of other questions, including the following: Was the United Nations system operating in an agreed framework for its development
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policy? How was the hostile global economic environment to be handled? How was the United Nations impact to be strengthened by its interaction with civil society and the private sector? How well was the system's developmental machinery performing? Should efforts be made to improve the capacity of the United Nations Secretariat or should development be left to the Bretton Woods institutions? Were United Nations projects having a significant impact in the field? Was it possible to have a strengthened United Nations development policy or was a radical restructuring of the system needed?
JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH, UNDP Administrator and United Nations Special Coordinator for Economic and Social Development, said the goals that the international community had fought for since the United Nations inception would remain illusive unless there was a dramatic shift in development policies internationally. Those goals could not be achieved unless there was an increase in development resources as well as more access to the positive aspects of globalization by poorer countries. The belief that the private sector could deal with global problems was a myth. Private capital flows were skewed towards very few countries. Development cooperation within a comprehensive framework was necessary to address the risks of globalization.
In that context, the United Nations had played a strong role and had a good record in promoting development cooperation, he said. The parts of the United Nations system that had flourished during the cold war were those which worked on humanitarian and development issues. The major problem faced by the system was the inability to obtain resources that were commensurate with the problems faced by developing countries. The system had a range of inherent strengths and capabilities to support human development around the world. There was broad support for the system's role but there were a few important dissenters.
Development resources had declined along with development cooperation, he continued. There was need to revitalize development cooperation assistance. A shared conceptual basis for the United Nations development activities had come out of international conferences. Betrayal of such commitments as those made at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) had come from the industrialized countries. There was need for fundamental changes in a range of economic policies in order to promote development. Reform of development assistance was also necessary.
The United Nations was an irreplaceable part of the development assistance community, he said. Without a major commitment to development, the United Nations would not function. Development had to be the highest priority. There was a need for changes in the system to ensure the individuality of its parts and to ensure that all parts pulled together in a more cooperative framework. The United Nations intergovernmental activities
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had to be reformed simultaneously. One of the ironies was that resources for development assistance were declining even in the face of renewed commitment. Only through advocacy on the part of NGOs could those problems be addressed.
Dr. NAFIS SADIK, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said the achievements of the United Nations were not as well recognized as they should be. The concepts of human rights, gender issues, environment and population had emanated from the United Nations and those issues had been reinforced by United Nations conferences. The role of the Organization had changed in the last 50 years, "as it should have". She stressed that the free market did not look after social inequality. Therefore, the United Nations had a role to play in helping all equality within and between countries. A better policy and a better analysis of the role of States and various institutions within the United Nations was required. It was also required that target goals that the system had to achieve be agreed on.
"The Bretton Woods institutions had been helped by governments to muddle everything", she said. To that end, a better sorting out of roles was needed. Governments had agreed to a global agenda at various United Nations conferences, however, a method to implement that had to be devised. Speaking on partnership, she said at present all the conditionalities were placed on recipient countries and there was accountability on the part of donors. She called for a true partnership and a fairer decision-making process, which should be more transparent and take place at a site where there was equality of nations. The United Nations was such a place. Moreover, the reforms within the United Nations system should not start with minutiae. She wondered whether governments were really interested in development, equality and human rights, and emphasized that everyone knew what was to be done, the question was how to do it.
MYRNA ALEXANDER, Director, Operations Policy, World Bank, said official development assistance (ODA) had fallen to its lowest level as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). All the "Group of Seven" most industrialized countries had experienced a decline in their ODA and the share of multilateral organizations had been shrinking. In addition, there had been a growing concern that a large part of bilateral aid had been channelled increasingly to humanitarian relief and food aid. The share of debt relief had also increased. However, the share of the least developed countries in multilateral assistance had been falling.
She stressed that bilateral donors had an increased choice of which agencies to support. Therefore, the first thing that multilateral agencies needed to do was to "offer a good product". Clearly, there had been a perception that "we had not been good enough. We have to show that
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development works. We have to be realistic about the choices that donor countries have to make".
Moreover, agencies had to be selective, she said, adding "We cannot support projects that are seen to be entitlement. We have to be able to say 'No'". She stressed that multilateral agencies and organizations should consider the performance of their clients as a measure of their success. The private sector in the developing countries should be encouraged. Although aid dependency was a powerful tool, ways had to be found out of it. Multilateral agencies and organizations were "not monopolies but partners"; NGOs were critical to making development work.
CAROL BELLAMY, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), stressed the importance of the quality of development activity. That should be the priority, not the need for increased resources. The United Nations system should be more concerned with improving the quality of its output and its development assistance.
Discussion on Strengthening UN Development System
A Conference participant asked about the increased security -- "militarization" -- around the United Nations which limited access of personnel of NGOs on legitimate business. She also asked for comments on the claims that many of the United Nations organizations were being controlled by the United States State Department. Another participant asked about the role of the "white helmets" and the nature of the United Nations support for that group of volunteers.
Panellists were also asked about the United Nations role in dealing with the issue of land-mines which had caused the deaths of so many women and children. The panel was also asked to comment on the action being taken under the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa. Another participant asked about the use of information technology as a framework for development which would allow the United Nations system to function beyond national boundaries.
Ms. BELLAMY, Executive Director of UNICEF, said her agency tried to accommodate NGOs as much as possible. She assured the Conference that she was not controlled by the United States State Department.
Mr. SPETH, UNDP Administrator, said the Programme had supported the work of the "white helmets". He also drew attention to the important work being done by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV).
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Ms. ALEXANDER, of the World Bank, said that the Bank had taken up the issue of banning land-mines.
Ms. SADIK, Executive Director of the UNFPA, said all United Nations organizations had been cooperating on the Special Initiative on Africa. In addition, a number of task forces had been established to follow up, thematically, on the international conferences.
Ms. BELLAMY, Executive Director of UNICEF, said the various United Nations bodies had been trying to improve their cooperation to implement the Special Initiative on Africa. If such cooperation could be more effective, the Initiative's impact would be improved. However, it was taking some time to get the Initiative off the ground.
Ms. ALEXANDER, of the World Bank, said in Africa and elsewhere the Bank had been working on a number of sectoral programmes such as in health and transportation. To implement the Special Initiative each United Nations body had to rationalize its programme in cooperation with others.
Dr. SADIK, Executive Director of UNFPA, said that the donor community had to make a commitment to finance development activities. There was a recognition of the United Nations role but there was a reluctance to allow it to be pursued. Part of the excuse was that the United Nations was not efficient. The facts did not show that to be the case when the system was compared with other multilateral institutions. However, many committed donors had recognized their role and their place, such as the Nordic countries and the Japanese. The response of those donors would be increased to those countries which made the best use of their resources. It was important to attract increased resources, mindful of the decrease in resources from some donors.
Mr. KAMAL (Pakistan), moderator of the Panel, stressed the need for the promotion of the use of information technology in the United Nations system.
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