GOOD GOVERNANCE CRUCIAL IN GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO WORLD CONFERENCE IN MANILA
Press Release
DSG/SM/53
GOOD GOVERNANCE CRUCIAL IN GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO WORLD CONFERENCE IN MANILA
19990528 Following is the text of the address by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette to the World Conference on Governance in Manila, Philippines, on 31 May:It gives me great pleasure to join you for this important conference. This is a wonderfully diverse gathering of ministers, legislators, jurists, scholars, local officials, private sector leaders and representatives of citizens' groups. You are just the kind of people who can grab hold of the idea of governance and make it work for a peaceful, prosperous twenty-first century.
I would like to thank all the organizers and sponsors, including United Nations bodies, who have helped make this conference possible. It is a real team effort, to which the United Nations has been happy to lend its support. The Government and people of the Philippines merit our gratitude and recognition for being such generous hosts.
This nation has weathered many storms, from natural disasters to man-made political and social instability. Throughout these ordeals, Filipinos have maintained their community spirit and their commitment to the politics of inclusion. Naga City, for example, in the eastern part of the country, recently received an award from Habitat -- the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements -- for having one of the world's top 10 best practices for popular participation in successful economic and social development. So, the Philippines seems to be a good location for exploring governance -- local, national and international -- and how to improve it.
The word "governance" has become something of a mantra in recent years, uttered by donors, reformers and pundits alike. Today I would like to discuss what we mean by governance, and why good governance -- within States and among them -- has become, so quickly and so justifiably, such a crucial element in the global struggle for development and peace.
In the broadest sense, governance can be thought of as the way in which a nation -- and, by extension, the community of nations -- manages its affairs. It is the product of many complex relationships, not only among the different institutions of State, but among all stakeholders, from the most powerful titans of industry to the poorest and most vulnerable people on society's margins.
Governance is the process through which those institutions, businesses and citizens' groups articulate their interests, exercise their rights and obligations and mediate their differences. It is not something that the State does to society, but the way society itself, and the individuals who compose it, regulate all the different aspects of their collective life.
Good governance, whether national or global, is based on shared values: on the universal values found in the United Nations Charter, in all the major religions and in the constitutions and founding documents of States around the world. Such values are no mystery to anyone; they include equality, tolerance, dignity, freedom, justice and the peaceful resolution of differences.
It follows from these values that good governance is honest, accountable and trustworthy. It is competent and effective, with transparent institutions. It allows ordinary men and women the maximum say in how their affairs are managed, so that their institutions can reflect as closely as possible their needs and aspirations. It promotes -- and in turn depends on -- democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, from freedom of speech to the advancement of women.
Most of all, good governance is based on the will of the people; on the legitimacy gained through regular, free and fair elections; on popular participation in decision-making; and on consensus-building throughout society. I am speaking, in short, about political empowerment -- about "people power", a term the men and women of the Philippines know well.
I do not want to suggest that good governance means that governments are ceding their authority or their responsibilities. Far from it. Governments need to function more effectively than they have in the past, internally as well as in their relations with other States.
This is an era in which a nation's capacity for good governance can make or break not only its own fortunes, but those of others with whom it is linked through trade, investment, affinity or proximity. Transnational challenges and the integration of the world economy press in from above. From below come ever-greater demands for democracy and for the services that people have every right to expect from Government. Nations must be able to muster all their strength -- the skills and ideas of all their people -- to compete in the global economy and cooperate with others on problems of mutual concern.
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We are all familiar, by now, with the sad phenomenon of the "failed State". But there does not need to be total collapse for poor governance to do grave damage. Where the rule of law is replaced by arbitrary absolutism; where civil society is denied full participation in public life; where minorities face official discrimination; where States cannot assure the provision of such fundamental public goods as roads, education and health; or where corruption instead of contracts is what spins the wheels of commerce -- these are some of the hallmarks of bad governance. They rob people of choice and opportunity and render development difficult, if not impossible. Progress can be undermined for generations.
I am not trying to suggest that there is any "one-size-fits-all" model of good governance which all countries must adopt. There is a template of universal values and principles, but each society will work within its own context -- its unique history, culture and values. What works in Botswana or Belgium might not apply in, say, Brazil.
Some nations are making the transition from totalitarian rule or from centrally planned economies. Others are recovering from conflict. Still others may have successful economies, or even well-run governments, but have yet to find their way to good governance and the freedoms and rights that that implies. Conversely, we also see poorly run States, where governments are not very stable, proficient or long-lasting, but where other networks and channels exist to provide services and fill the gaps. In other words, there can be elements of good governance in the absence of good government. While good government is an important part of good governance, the latter is the grander prize.
The United Nations has sought to respond to this new world -- to the transformation that continues to occur in the relationship between people and the State.
Peacekeeping and diplomacy may keep the United Nations in the headlines, and development may be the public face of the United Nations throughout the developing world, but governance has increasingly taken its place on the Organization's agenda and in our operations around the globe. You may be surprised to hear that more than 50 per cent of the programmable core resources of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are now allocated to support for governance and public resources management for sustainable development. UNDP is far from the only United Nations entity involved in such work, and United Nations system programmes today target virtually all the components of what we think of as good governance.
The Organization has provided electoral assistance to dozens of nations. United Nations legal officers are helping nations establish sound legal frameworks and reliable judicial systems. United Nations public administration experts are providing advice on financial management and
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revitalizing the civil service. United Nations police experts, often as part of peace-keeping operations, are training police forces in the basics of police work and the rudiments of human rights. Our human rights field operations are responding to requests for help in setting up non-governmental organizations for the promotion and protection of human rights.
Good governance is also part of our work for peace. The United Nations is helping to reform criminal justice procedures in Guatemala; training prosecutors, magistrates and prison guards in Rwanda; and advising the ministries, municipalities and village councils of the Palestinian Authority. Good governance is perhaps the most effective form of conflict prevention. It is also the key to post-conflict reconstruction. It promotes reconciliation and helps to consolidate peace.
So far I have been speaking about good governance at the level of individual countries, which I know is the main concern of this conference. But good governance is equally important at the international level -- and increasingly so as the economies and societies of different countries interact more and more with each other.
And at the heart of global governance, I need hardly tell you, is the United Nations system. International rules already extend to virtually every field of human endeavour, through more than 500 multilateral treaties that have been deposited with the United Nations. These agreements offer an exhaustive framework for global governance and progress -- or would do, if only they were universally ratified and implemented.
Whether we face old threats such as arms proliferation and environmental degradation, or relatively new ones such as terrorism and international crime networks, we must all be increasingly aware of the need to strengthen our system of global governance.
Here in east Asia you are wrestling with the economic effects of what started, two years ago, as a financial crisis. The tragic social fallout, especially, will be with us for years to come. That must make us all painfully aware that one key aspect of global governance -- arrangements for the managing the world economy -- is currently less than perfect.
Any trend towards complacency in the industrialized world, based simply on the fact that the worst fears of a global recession have not materialized, would be woefully misplaced. We must complete the work that has been started on establishing a new global financial architecture, capable of reducing instability in private capital markets. And that work cannot be left to a restricted forum like the Group of Seven -- or even the Group of Eight, including Russia -- attended only by political leaders or finance ministers from a few powerful States. Good governance requires a much more open
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deliberative and decision-making process, in which all those affected have the chance to make their voice heard.
Global governance may in some instances require the creation of new institutions. But, in most areas what is most needed is to improve and build on the ones we already have. The quality of governance can be improved, above all, by opening the system to new actors. The same forces of civil society which are increasingly important at the national level are perhaps even more so at the international level, since their activities are less and less confined within State borders.
Increasingly, the voice of civil society is being heard in the United Nations. The most significant development in this respect occurred in the context of the cycle of world conferences convened by the United Nations throughout the 1990s. Each conference was an exercise in political consensus-building among States, in which the forces of civil society played an indispensable role. The negotiating process was in itself one of the conference cycle's most striking achievements. In the course of drawing up declarations and detailed programmes of action, new alliances were forged. A vast range of stakeholders were mobilized to sustain post-conference momentum and to maintain pressure on States to fulfil their commitments. Nor has that dynamism died now that the cycle of conferences has come to an end. It can be seen, for example, in the proceedings of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, where many of the same parties continue to come together.
Just as the United Nations has supported the non-governmental organization revolution, so too it has sought closer ties with another very important group of non-State actors: the world business community. In the last 20 years or so, the United Nations, like its Member States, has become more aware of the vital role played by the private sector's resources, the advances in technology which it pioneers, and its unique capacity to create jobs and wealth. On their side, private corporations increasingly recognize the value of the United Nations work for peace, stability, democracy and literacy, as well as our more humdrum standard-setting role which provides the "soft infrastructure" of the world economy in such fields as communications, shipping and aviation.
Business leaders also recognize that markets cannot, by themselves, solve all problems. More and more of them explicitly acknowledge that their success or failure will be judged not only by the dividend they pay to their shareholders, but by the way they affect all life on this planet. It was with this in mind that the Secretary-General, at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, proposed a "Global Compact" between the United Nations and business. He challenged business leaders to embrace universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment, and thus to give the global market more of a "human face".
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These principles express, in codified form, the aspirations of all peoples. Implementing them fully would disarm much of the hostility to open markets, by helping ensure that the benefits of economic interdependence are spread more widely. The International Labour Organization (ILO), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) are joining forces to promote global corporate citizenship and to foster the translation of these principles in day-to-day corporate practice.
All this is progress in the right direction. But I should be deceiving you, ladies and gentlemen, if I gave the impression that the United Nations has already found the magic formula for implementing the principles of good governance at the global level. Good governance is about participation, about letting the people's voice be heard. But when decisions affect the lives of 6 billion people, how do we capture that voice? How do we synthesize all those interests?
All I can say at this stage is that we are trying, at every level of the system. Many of you may think that the ultimate test of global governance will be reform of the United Nations Security Council. Certainly, it is widely agreed that the Council's present membership reflects the political and economic realities of 1945, and that this anachronism is beginning to affect its authority and legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the world. As you know, discussions on this major reform have, for the moment, reached something of an impasse.
But, whatever the Council's ultimate size and membership, it is also widely agreed that its methods of work need modernizing. And the Council is beginning to find ways of listening to the views of non-State actors. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for example, was recently invited to give its views at an open meeting of the Council on the effects of armed conflict on civilians. There are other ways in which the Council can improve its procedures so as to reflect a broader array of views and concerns, and I believe it has in mind to do so.
We have been living in a universe of governments and States. This is changing. Societies are evolving. We need to be ready to think in different terms. To be effective, both nation States and international institutions need new channels -- two-way channels -- for communicating with people.
We must also make better use of more traditional channels, such as national parliaments. The Millennium Summit and Assembly, in the autumn of next year, will be a good occasion to examine all these possibilities. I am delighted that the presidents and speakers of parliaments from all over the world are planning to meet in New York just before the summit, as non-governmental groups will have done earlier in the summer. We need to
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explore all these ways to give more of a say in global governance to voices representing the concerns of ordinary people.
People are demanding a say. People want to take control of their development. And the international system must be better able to respond to this demand. If we are asking people to feel a sense of citizenship, both at home and globally, we must also find ways to help them express and exercise that citizenship.
Good governance, whether at the national or international levels, cannot be created overnight. Nor can it take root in one day. It has to be achieved over time, through dedication, leadership, and integrity. People such as yourselves have a vital part to play. All of you, I know, are committed to this cause. And each of you, in your own way, is empowered to contribute. The United Nations looks forward to working with you as we move ahead.
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