WITHOUT GOOD GOVERNANCE NO AMOUNT OF FUNDING WILL SET DEVELOPING WORLD ON PATH TO PROSPERITY, SECRETARY GENERAL TELLS DANISH FOREIGN POLICY SOCIETY
Press Release
SG/SM/6310
WITHOUT GOOD GOVERNANCE NO AMOUNT OF FUNDING WILL SET DEVELOPING WORLD ON PATH TO PROSPERITY, SECRETARY GENERAL TELLS DANISH FOREIGN POLICY SOCIETY
19970902 Kofi Annan Calls Denmark 'Model Member State'; Expresses Satisfaction At Being among Long-standing, Generous and Steadfast Friends of United NationsFollowing is the text of the address by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Danish Foreign Policy Society, in Copenhagen, yesterday:
It gives me great pleasure to speak to you today, in this beautiful hall among such long-standing, generous and steadfast friends of the United Nations.
Ever since the founding of the United Nations, Denmark has been a model Member State -- devoted to the aims of the Charter and committed to their fulfilment.
You have shown, by example and through leadership, the necessity and the promise of effective multilateralism. From this, the United Nations owes you a tremendous debt.
As we enter a new century, and as we seek a newer, more effective, more responsive United Nations, it gives me great confidence to know that Denmark's unshakeable support is behind us. Denmark's vision for the United Nations is our vision for the United Nations. Denmark's support for development and commitment to conflict resolution are the very foundation of our work.
The past 10 years have been tumultuous years for the United Nations, with difficult challenges and, occasionally, painful setbacks.
Global developments have revolutionized the environment in which we seek to alleviate poverty and promote peace. But they have also been years of promise, opening new avenues of progress, and enhancing the potential for our success.
Our challenge now is to enter the new age having drawn the right lessons from our past, and inspired to find a new path for our future. No one disputes the dangers of excessive inequality in any society any more. And no one claims to govern on any principle other than democracy any more.
With the decline of ideological and political allegiances to one super- Power or another, however, movements for national self-determination and political liberalization have been given free rein -- for good and, tragically, in some cases, for bad.
The global response to these recent developments has, to an alarming degree, been one of despair and resignation. It is said that these state failures, and the civil and ethnic wars that too often have followed in their wake are inevitable. It is said that the difficulties occasionally faced by international interventions confirm precisely the intractability of these problems.
I wish to propose a different view. And that is that these failures, these wars, these problems are political problems and economic problems with political and economic solutions. There is nothing inevitable about conflict in one part of the world, or tyranny in another.
Freedom and human rights are concepts as universal as they are political, amenable to human agency of any colour or creed. The Charter of the United Nations was written in the name of "We, the Peoples of the United Nations".
This reality brings with it great responsibilities for the United Nations. So does the recognition that the most difficult and widespread of problems are those that cut across borders demanding multilateral solutions.
Indeed, it is becoming apparent to all that the United Nations remains as much in demand as in need of change. That is our momentous challenge. That is our great promise.
Fulfilling that promise, we are learning new ways to do what we do better, and we are finding new strategies to suit a changed environment. We are focusing, again, on the importance of sustainable development to all aspects of our work, including peace and security.
Above all, we are directing more of our energies towards ensuring adequate institutional frameworks in developing countries. We are seeking to bring the stability, the trust, the legitimacy and the accountability of good governance to all parts of the world.
Without good governance -- without the rule of law, predictable administration, legitimate power, and responsive regulation -- no amount of funding, no amount of charity will set the developing world on the path to prosperity.
Good governance is the essential condition. And the United Nations is seizing on this instrument to ensure that development becomes lasting and
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equitable around the world. Member States have increasingly recognized that good governance is indispensable for building peaceful, prosperous and democratic societies.
They are turning to the United Nations because, since the end of the cold war, our knowledge and our experience in this field has expanded greatly.
Our programmes now target virtually all the key elements of good governance: safeguarding the rule of law; verifying elections; training police; monitoring human rights; fostering investments; and promoting accountable, clean administration.
Good governance is also a component of our work for peace. It has a strong preventive aspect; it gives societies sound structures for economic and social development. In post-conflict settings, good governance can promote reconciliation and offer a path for consolidating peace.
There is a new realization that ensuring good governance -- including securing human rights and the rule of law, assisting with elections and aiding development policies -- constitute in themselves preventive action.
The weakness of these rights and structures are not only the roots of poverty. They are also the causes of conflict and the impediments to post- conflict reconstruction.
Central to a renewed United Nations role in peace-keeping is an effective rapid response capacity. Here, too, I salute Denmark's vision and will to see action by establishing the Stand-by Forces High-Readiness Brigade. Indeed, a member of my staff remarked to me recently that I mention this Brigade wherever I go. And I do.
I truly believe that SHIRBRIG is a model arrangement that finally can begin to address the need and the potential that we all recognize: a small, well-trained, well-equipped force rapidly deployed with an adequate mandate and sufficient support can stop a conflict before it engulfs an entire society.
It can provide a window of opportunity for peace-building and diplomacy, thereby preventing an escalation leading to massive loss of life and much larger investment by the international community.
It can, finally, make our commitment to peace and conflict prevention real and tangible. I will continue to praise its establishment and call on other governments to emulate Denmark's wonderful example.
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The transformations that I have spoken of -- from the promise of good governance to the potential of a rapid reaction force -- present us with a global age of opportunity.
The reforms of the United Nations that I proposed last month will enable the United Nations to rise to the occasion of this age of global opportunity and make the United Nations truly the expression of humanity's highest aims.
In this effort, we have derived many lessons from Denmark's own reform proposals.
Indeed, your own policy of "active multilateralism" reflects at a national level our own desire to target with great skill and discrimination productive programmes while eliminating waste and duplication.
Understanding the comprehensive nature of the challenges we face, I have made the consolidation of United Nations activities a priority of my reform plan.
At Headquarters, we are strengthening coordination by consolidating departments and unifying structures. In the field, we will bring all activities into one United Nations "House" which will facilitate greater and smoother cooperation internally, and provide a common face to the public that we serve.
Our aspiration with the reform plan -- simply and immediately -- is to transform the conception, quality and delivery of the services we provide. That is what you and the world demand of us. No less do we demand of ourselves.
In return, I ask of Member States and of the world public that you judge us not only by the cuts we propose or by the structures we change.
Judge us instead -- and judge us rightly -- by the relief and the refuge that we provide to the poor, to the hungry, the sick and threatened -- the peoples of the world whom the United Nations exists to serve.
Denmark's continued support for all that we do -- in development and in peace-keeping -- will be crucial to our success. I am convinced of that.
I pledge, in return, that we will strive to make the United Nations as democratic, as equitable and as effective an instrument of multilateralism that you want it to be.
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