SECRETARY-GENERAL, ADDRESSING GROUP OF 77 IN GENEVA, SAYS 'IF WE PREPARE WELL' CAUSE OF DEVELOPMENT CAN BE INVIGORATED AND RESTORED TO CENTRE STAGE
Press Release
SG/SM/6950
SECRETARY-GENERAL, ADDRESSING GROUP OF 77 IN GENEVA, SAYS 'IF WE PREPARE WELL' CAUSE OF DEVELOPMENT CAN BE INVIGORATED AND RESTORED TO CENTRE STAGE
19990407 Kofi Annan Stresses Policies Grounded in Current Realities to Indeed Change Future; Says UN 'Remains Your Close Partner' Working Towards This GoalFollowing is the statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the twenty-sixth Meeting of the Chairmen/Coordinators of the Group of 77 Chapters, in Geneva today:
It is a pleasure for me to join you today. Working with the Group of 77 is, in my experience, one of the most effective ways of furthering the agenda of the United Nations. You bring experience, energy and, above all, commitment to our work. In your membership you also have the great advantage of breadth of experience, reflected in very different national and regional realities.
Whatever those differences, however, all of you, over the past two years, have shared my own deep concern about the economic crisis that has swept like a plague across the globe and left very few developing countries unscathed.
We have witnessed, virtually overnight, the fruit of decades of hard work swept away. We have seen exports slump; currency values decimated; and foreign investment dry up. And we have come face to face with a fundamental problem: the asymmetry between a highly dynamic and sophisticated world of finance, and an underdeveloped institutional framework with which to manage it.
The sad spiral of events has led to collapsing living standards for millions of ordinary people. It has aggravated the considerable inequities that existed beforehand, with some of the richer segments of society even benefiting from the crisis while the poor, as usual, got poorer. And it has bred social problems, political instability and the potential for even greater strife.
Tossed out of jobs or schools, their hopes and futures in disarray, men and women around the world have quite naturally looked to their Governments and to the United Nations for answers and for help.
It is our duty to respond. Even more, we must ensure that when we discuss the workings of the global economy, development is high on the agenda and all voices must be heard when we take up this serious agenda. A series of major events to be held over the next two years gives us an opportunity to see that these demands are met. These include:
-- a review of conferences for major United Nations conferences such as population, poverty, small islands and the advancement of women;
-- we have the tenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD X), in Bangkok next February;
-- the South Summit in Havana next April;
-- the Millennium Assembly and Summit in New York in the autumn of 2000;
-- the high-level meeting on Financing for Development;
-- and the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, scheduled for the first half of 2001.
Certain issues figure prominently in all of these events.
One is financing for development. As you know well, the universe of finance is changing in ways that have significant political, social and economic consequences. Public resources have declined. Official development assistance (ODA), long the backbone of international finance for development, has reached new lows.
By now we also know that private capital from abroad cannot do everything, and that in any case most countries in need do not attract such investment. So ODA remains an important catalyst for economic development, and the United Nations will continue to press for long-established targets to be met.
At the same time, we will also push for open markets and, especially, capacity-building. Trade can work wonders. But without infrastructure and institutions; without technology and technical assistance; developing countries will not attract investment nor will growth be sustainable or broad-based enough to let them compete and stand on their own feet.
Debt relief is a key related issue which at last appears to be receiving the high-level political impetus it needs. President Clinton and Chancellor
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Schröder, along with other leaders, have proposed significant measures to relieve Africa's debt burden, and to speed up and broaden application of the initiative for highly-indebted poor countries.
It is my sincere hope that these steps will translate into tangible results before too long. Basic needs must no longer fall victim to the costs of debt servicing.
We have a proverb in Africa: "The debtor must eat." So I hope we remember that.
I am thinking in particular of sub-Saharan Africa. Inordinate spending on arms, the effects of AIDS and poor governance are also part of the picture. But with the poorest countries spending as much on debt service as they do on education and health, the expression "debt trap" is proving all too apt.
Debt relief and financing for development are issues primarily involving dialogue and partnership between North and South. Today you must also look to yourselves, and to what you can do for each other through South-South cooperation.
Indeed, there are growing indications that such solidarity can be an effective response to the volatility of global markets, and I share your hopes for the success of next year's South Summit.
If there is one event at which all of these issues, and all of our hopes, may well converge, it is the Millennium Assembly.
The Millennium Assembly and Summit must not be purely symbolic or ceremonial events. Many commentators see the United Nations as being gradually marginalized, both as a force for peace and security and as an actor for development. This is not my view. Nor do I do believe it corresponds to either the interests or the desires of the world's peoples.
The next century will bring many global problems which need to be addressed in the forum of a global organization. The United Nations can and must identify those problems as well as the means for addressing them.
The Millennium Assembly and Summit offer us an ideal occasion to do so, if they are properly planned and prepared. The Group of 77, I am pleased to say, is already playing a key role as we move ahead.
This is no doubt a heavy agenda. It is also one in which decisions taken in one forum will have an impact on another. If we prepare well, the cause of development -- and of multilateralism itself -- can be invigorated and restored to centre stage. If we do not, we may simply add yet more
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declarations and plans of action to the growing pile of those awaiting implementation.
These are difficult times, too. But they do offer us opportunities, so long as we are willing to find new approaches and forge new alliances that cut across traditional lines.
New approaches: such as the improvements to the economic and social machinery of the United Nations that the Group of 77 has helped to bring about. New alliances: such as the growing involvement of the private sector and civil society groups in our work.
Upon assuming the chairmanship of the Group of 77, Clement Rohee, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guyana, said that the "walls of suspicion and distrust" have divided the developed and developing nations and must come down, and called for "a climate of common purpose and goodwill".
I could not agree more. We will not succeed in facing today's challenges if we remain in separate camps, armed only with yesterday's weapons and today's grievances. But if we are pragmatic; if our policies are grounded in current realities; then we can indeed change the future. The United Nations, for its part, remains your close partner in working towards this goal. Thank you very much for your support.
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