DEBT BURDEN AND UNEQUAL TERMS OF TRADE NEGATIVELY AFFECTING SOCIAL PROGRAMMES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, SPEAKERS TELL SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

28 February 1997

Press Release
SOC/4421

DEBT BURDEN AND UNEQUAL TERMS OF TRADE NEGATIVELY AFFECTING SOCIAL PROGRAMMES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, SPEAKERS TELL SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

19970228 Debate on Productive Employment and Sustainable Livelihoods Concludes

The social programmes of developing countries had been placed under great pressure by structural adjustment programmes, debt burdens, unequal terms of trade and the unilateral nature of world-wide decision-making, the Commission for Social Development was told this afternoon as it concluded discussion of the follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development.

The representative of Algeria said that in most developing countries, low-quality employment was displacing quality jobs. Her Government was also faced with the twin challenges of declining prices for its energy exports and rapid population growth.

Even developed countries were faced with difficult levels of unemployment, the representative of Gabon said. The young market economies of Africa, challenged by acute shortages of finance and know-how, and embarking on democratic reforms, were having difficulty keeping up with globalization. In consequence, predictable flows of financial aid were still needed.

A representative of the International Federation of Social Workers drew attention to the implications of the challenging demographic trends of the twenty-first century, particularly for the developing regions of the world. Plans of action should promote the role of older people as partners in planning, active participants in society and contributors to social development, sustained economic growth and sustainable development.

The representatives of Poland, Norway, Egypt, Philippines, Pakistan and Syria spoke, as did a representative of the International Federation of Aged Persons.

The Commission will reconvene at a date to be announced. On Monday, 3 March, the Commission's working group on ageing will meet.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission for Social Development met this afternoon to conclude its consideration of the follow-up to the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, focusing on the priority theme of "productive employment and sustainable livelihoods".

Statements

JAROSLAW STREJCZEK (Poland) said that economic growth created productive employment -- by far the most effective mechanism of distributing wealth and opportunity. Poland's economic development strategy was in conformity with the recommendations of the World Summit for Social Development. That multidimensional approach included careful treatment of social issues that sought to satisfy the basic needs of all people and the raising of standards of social protection. Poland had protected income security with a minimum wage law. Its social insurance scheme guaranteed a source of income for those of pensionary age, the sick and the disabled.

He said Poland's social security scheme was undergoing reforms which aimed to ensure that incomes and benefits received from employment guaranteed a sufficient standard of living and that social assistance should become only an intervention tool in special situations. An unemployment insurance scheme was being developed and an economic activity was being promoted in small towns and in rural areas.

HILDE CAROLINE SUNDREHAGEN (Norway) said that decreases in poverty were contingent upon both economic growth and social development. Norway, in that regard, was promoting both basic social services and private sector development. Her Government believed that without productive employment and the creation of new jobs there would be no basis for social development and progress. Unemployment represented a major challenge, and so had been put at the top of the political agenda.

She said full employment could only be achieved through a combination of policy initiatives -- economic policy, an active labour-market policy, income policy and education. Cooperation among governments, social partners and other organizations would make that task a lot easier to accomplish. Achievement of social progress was a matter of respect for human values and protection of the rights of the individual. Norway fully supported the work of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in promoting the implementation of core labour standards.

ALAA KHAIRAT ISSA (Egypt) said that productive employment gave people a means of making a living, but also gave them self-respect. Sustainable livelihoods and full employment were goals that could only be achieved with political will. Egypt realized the challenges that both developed and

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developing countries were facing in finding both quality and quantities of employment. His Government was pursuing policies which maximized the opportunities for employment while providing a social safety net and assistance for disabled workers.

Egypt was providing basic education and health in rural areas by increasing investment in those areas, he said. More than 12 per cent of the Government's budget were being directed towards that effort. A new employment law was being considered by the Egyptian legislature. Egypt had promulgated a new child labour law last year that raised the minimum age of workers to sixteen years.

FELIPE MABILANGAN (Philippines) said that his country's social agenda had been launched by the Government, targeting disadvantaged groups in the most economically disadvantaged parts of the country. It was anchored on the understanding that a people could only be assessed by the way it treated its poorest and its most vulnerable. Children with disability required special attention, and it was his intention to introduce a resolution to that effect later in the session.

The population of the Philippines was very young, he continued, and that was behind its concern for programmes relating to youth, as they were expected to be partners of the Government in nation-building. The Government also proposed to have a youth entrepreneurship programme to help alleviate youth unemployment. The task of the Commission was critical to human development, he said, urging that resources must be mobilized to fulfil that commitment.

MASHOOD H. KIZILBASH (Pakistan) said that his country's Social Action Programme was launched in 1992, before the convening of the Social Summit. Envisaging an investment outlay of $4 billion, Social Action Programme Project I was launched for three years (1993-1996) with the assistance of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It addressed the needs of primary education, basic health care, family planning and rural water supply and sanitation, striving specifically to reach out to rural women, children and people at the grass-roots level. Pakistan had endorsed all the commitments made at Copenhagen and initiated implementation of the Plan of Action. He expressed joy that the Social Action Programme Project, which was "the core programme of the development process", had not been subjected to a budgetary cut.

He stressed that while creating an enabling environment to meet the objective of full employment and eradication of poverty and the challenge of negative effects of the economic reforms, steps had been taken to provide relief to the disadvantaged and marginalized groups. In addition, Social Action Programme Project II, launched in 1996 with an outlay of about $17 billion for four years ending in the year 2000, addressed four important

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sectors: primary education, basic health care, family planning and rural water supply and sanitation. He pointed out, however, that developing countries such as Pakistan suffered from a low level of savings and could not sustain those investment programmes without support. It was imperative that the earmarking of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) for official development assistance (ODA) be given serious consideration and implemented by the developed countries. Without that support, the dream of full employment in the low income countries would remain elusive.

AMINA MESDOUA (Algeria) said that globalization had brought about great economic disparities. Developing countries had had particular difficulties, faced as they were with structural adjustment programmes which had onerous social consequences. Heavy debt burdens, unequal terms of trade and the unilateral nature of worldwide decision-making were all contrary to the spirit of the Copenhagen Summit. In most developing countries, low-quality employment was displacing quality jobs. Certain groups, such as women and youth, were particularly challenged by unemployment.

Unemployment in Algeria had only become particularly acute in recent years, she said. The brutal drop in oil and gas prices had slowed production, bringing about the first layoffs. The Government had responded by creating employment policies which sought to mitigate the combination of economic decline and rapid population growth. Copenhagen had raised many hopes, but those hopes could not be realized unless both North and South dedicated themselves to fulfilling its promise.

FAYSSAL MEKDAD (Syria) said that social development was one of the major challenges facing the contemporary world. Syria provided primary education and sanitary facilities to all its citizens. Particular attention had been paid to those who were marginalized in difficult situations -- the disabled, elderly, orphans and other displaced persons. Syria had a considerable network of grass-roots non-governmental organizations that had contributed substantially to society.

Syria's educational, social and sanitation efforts had raised living standards for people in both rural and urban settings, he said. It was all part of the Government's efforts to promote social development. International cooperation was the only option. Trade barriers should be eliminated; technology and financial aid should flow freely.

PIERRE CLAVER ZENG EBOME (Gabon) said his country was today challenged by both unemployment and poverty. It was attempting to redress those problems by encouraging private initiative. Gabon was stimulating decentralization as a means of divesting power to the local level and of combating a rural-to- urban exodus. Even well-structured developed economies struggled with unemployment. In developing countries, the private sector was just getting off the ground because of acute shortages of finance and know-how. That meant

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that multinational corporations dominated economic growth. Those countries almost never re-invested their profits in Africa.

The State had to build the roads, the hospitals and to educate the people, he said. Gabon dedicated some 22 per cent of its annual budget to social programmes. The economies of developing countries, struggling to keep pace with globalization, were having difficulty keeping up. Moreover, most developing countries were involved in unprecedented democratization on the western model. That process was very expensive for young African States. Predictable flows of financial aid were still needed.

CELIA WEISMAN, a representative of the International Federation of Social Workers, said that the growth of the global older population was considered one of the most challenging demographic trends of the twenty-first century. The implications were enormous, particularly for the developing regions of the world. The challenges for all countries were to identify and support new opportunities for older persons, and recognize the benefits arising from the participation of society's older members. Plans of action should promote their role of older people as partners in planning, active participants in society, and contributors to social development, sustained economic growth, and sustainable development. To fulfil that potential, they must have access to adequate resources to meet basic needs. She called on the Commission to reinforce not only the central ideas developed in the United Nations Principles for Older Persons and the Global Targets on Ageing for the Year 2001, but to act on the core principles of the Social Summit.

DE XAVIER DINH, representative of the International Federation of Associations of Aged Persons, said that awareness should be created in the ageing of populations worldwide to enable attitudes to change and a solution to be found, and to ensure a balance in tomorrow's society. The "baby-boom was becoming a daddy-boom" now, he pointed out, and the young could not undertake all of the work required to support the aged population. A distinction should no longer be drawn between the active and the aged. Life was continuous and not tied to one stage or the other. He pledged that his organization would make every effort to update the United Nations on its work in order to celebrate in a fitting way the International Year of Older Persons in 1999.

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