PROMISE OF ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION "LARGELY EVAPORATED", SECOND COMMITTEE IS TOLD
Press Release
GA/EF/2871
PROMISE OF ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION LARGELY EVAPORATED, SECOND COMMITTEE IS TOLD
19991019Without Integration of All Countries in World Economy, Developing Countries Cannot Keep Pace with Societies of North
The promise of the 1990s as the decade of accelerated development in the developing countries and strengthened international cooperation had largely evaporated, leaving in its wake many countries afflicted by increasing poverty and economic marginalization, the representative of Guyana told the Second Committee this morning as it began its consideration of sustainable development and international economic cooperation.
Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, on the implementation of the commitments agreed on in the Declaration on International Economic Cooperation and the International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade, she said that those realities imposed the need to reassess the goals and timetables for their achievement. Developing countries could not keep pace with the industrialized, knowledge-based societies of the developed North unless real progress was made towards an equitable integration of all countries in the international economy. Only then could international cooperation for development yield the results envisaged in the fourth Development Decade.
Turning to the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), she noted that the limited progress made with respect to human settlement development since the convening of the 1997 Conference was not reflective of a failure on the part of the Conference or the concerned parties to implement appropriate measures. Rather, it was indicative of the rapidly increasing demand for adequate shelter and basic services, particularly in urban centers. She called for increased funding for programmes related to human settlement development. While resolving to tackle the problems associated with rapid urbanization, the rural dimension of the Habitat Agenda should not be neglected.
The representative of Finland, speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU) and associated States, said that constructive partnership
Second Committee - 1a - Press Release GA/EF/2871 15th Meeting (AM) 19 October 1999
and participation by local authorities and the relevant actors of civil society, including the private sector, in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda was crucial. Sustainable development of both urban and rural human settlements was directly linked to poverty and poverty alleviation. There was an urgent need to address urban poverty.
With regard to international migration and development, the EU recognized that international migration was a highly relevant and complex issue that should be examined within the existing mechanisms of the United Nations, rather than a United Nations conference, she said. Also, on the convening of a second high level dialogue on strengthening international economic cooperation, she invited States to consider postponing that meeting to the General Assemblys fifty-sixth session.
Addressing the report on human-resources development, the representative of the United States said that it barely mentioned NETAID, the ambitious project involving the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), CISCO systems and other partners, which had an enormous potential to contribute to human-resources development. Also, he would have liked to have seen broader consideration of human rights in the context of human-resources development. While the report had cited the empowerment of women, youth and other excluded groups, it failed to highlight that a holistic programme of human-rights promotion could maximize the benefits of human-resources development. He added that strengthening international economic cooperation for development would be realized when countries reached out and involved key partners, including the private sector - a proposal he said was in line with recent statements of the Secretary-General on the importance of strengthening the partnership with business for development purposes.
Also this morning, reports were introduced by the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the Director of the Population Division of DESA, the Director of Technical and Regional Cooperation of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and the Director of the Private Sector Development Programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Draft resolutions on the following items were also introduced by the representative of Guyana, on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China: science and technology for development; external debt crisis and development; and implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. to continue its consideration of sustainable development and international economic cooperation.
Work Programme
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) convened this morning to start deliberations on sustainable development and international economic cooperation.
The Committee had before it a report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the Declaration on International Economic Cooperation, in particular the Revitalization of Economic Growth and Development of the Developing Countries, and implementation of the International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade (document A/54/389). The report, which evaluates implementation of the commitments and policies agreed upon in the Declaration, as well as implementation of the Strategy, including the progress made and the constraints encountered therein, was prepared in a response to a request by the General Assembly in its resolution 53/178, and to the need for a quinquennial review of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States.
The General Assembly, at its eighteenth special session, adopted resolution 2381 (XXIX) of 12 December 1974, containing the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. The Declaration on International Economic Cooperation, in particular the Revitalization of Economic Growth and Development of Developing Countries, was adopted by the General Assembly on 1 May 1990 (resolution S-18/3, annex). Reports on the progress achieved in implementing the Declaration and the Strategy were submitted to the General Assembly in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998 (A/47/397, A/47/270-E/1992/74, A/49/328, A/51/270 and A/54/301).
A number of the goals and objectives identified in the Declaration and the Strategy had already been agreed at international conferences that took place before those documents were adopted. Other areas were addressed in subsequent United Nations global conferences and summit meetings. Assessments and progress reports from those conferences and meetings should be viewed as an integral part of the overall evaluation of the implementation of the Charter, the Declaration and the Strategy.
The report concludes that economic growth has not accelerated in all developing countries, but that there have been some improvements, from a social as well as an economic perspective, in the course of the 1990s. At the same time, there have been major setbacks, especially as a result of the recent financial crises. There is also a greater danger than before that the weaker members of the world community will be marginalized. The surge in the pace of economic growth in developing countries called for in the Strategy was not uniformly achieved, and was dramatically interrupted post-1997.
At the same time, despite improvements in many social areas, the development process of the 1990s has not been fully responsive to social need, as prescribed in the Strategy. While the Uruguay Round has led to improvements in the global trading system, according to the report, the same cannot be said for the international financial system. There has not been stability in the world economy, nor a decisive strengthening of international development cooperation. There has been negligible economic and social advance in the least developed countries in the 1990s.
A primary requirement for the international community is to ensure stability in the world economy via financial regulation, adequate aid, trade liberalization, debt relief and other such measures. At the national level there is a need to be globally competitive, but it is also becoming evident that the requirements of such enhanced competitiveness may have some negative and unacceptable social implications. It is increasingly recognized that development means more than growth: growth is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for development. However, neither development nor growth is necessarily synonymous with poverty alleviation, one of the principle objectives of the Strategy, and one of the present overriding international development goals.
Development itself is an intricate concept, the report continues. It involves not just increased purchasing power, as reflected in growing gross domestic product per capita, but also pertains to education, health and environmental standards, as well as to social - including gender - equity. For that reason, the spotlight is now shifting from a focus on macroeconomic challenges to a number of institutional preconditions, including good governance, transparency and accountability, decentralization and participation and social security.
At the end of the 1990s, the report concludes, the world economy faces the challenges of poverty alleviation and sustainability. The United Nations global conferences and related agreements (such as the Agenda for Development) have focused on various aspects of the development process intended to confront these challenges, and have been complemented by established follow-up mechanisms. Thanks to these undertakings, the perception of what constitutes an acceptable and viable development strategy has been tempered to the circumstances prevailing at the beginning of the new millennium.
The report highlights progress made and constraints encountered in areas such as economic growth, financial matters (foreign direct investment, debt and official development assistance (ODA), trade (trends in world trade, commodities and possible constraints to further liberalization), science and technology, industry and agriculture, and human-resources development (education and literacy, and health-related problems like mortality of children under five, maternal mortality, nutrition and safe drinking water and sanitation) and the situation of the least developed countries.
Regarding implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), the Committee had before it the report of the Commission on Human Settlements on the work of its seventeenth session (document A/54/8, Supplement No.8). The Commissions seventeenth session was held at Habitat headquarters in Nairobi from 5 to 14 May. During that session, the Commission decided that its eighteenth session would be held from 12 to 16 February, 2001, at Nairobi, immediately following the twenty-first session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council, and preceding the second substantive session of the Commission, acting as the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. It also adopted the provisional agenda for its eighteenth session.
Annexed to the report are: resolutions and decisions adopted by the Commission at its seventeenth session; the list of documents before it; summaries by the Chair of the high-level segment of the session and of dialogues with local authorities and other Habitat Agenda partners; summary of opening statements; message from the Secretary-General to the session; a Childrens Declaration presented to the Commission; and statements made by the representatives of India and the Russian Federation in explanation of the vote on the motion to take no action on draft resolution HS/C/17/L.4/Rev.1, entitled assistance in the Balkans in connection with the conflict in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Also before the Committee was the report of the Secretary-General on preparations for the special session of the Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) (document A/54/322). The Commission on Human Settlements, acting as the Preparatory Committee for the special session, held its organizational session in Nairobi on 13 May. The Committee elected the members of its bureau for a term of office covering the entire preparatory period, to end with the convening of the special session in New York in June 2001. The report also describes the decisions taken by the Committee regarding credentials, the agenda and organization of work, and the rules of procedure of the Preparatory Committee. The organization of work for the first substantive session of the Preparatory Committee, as well as the provisional agenda and other arrangements for it, are also included.
The Committee recommended that the provisional agenda of the first substantive session of the Preparatory Committee should include: scope to be covered by the review and appraisal process; local, national and regional preparations for the special session; role of local authorities, other partners and relevant United Nations organizations and agencies in the review and appraisal process; preparation of a declaration on the role and mandate of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat); and the provisional agenda and organizational arrangements for the second substantive session of the Preparatory Committee, to be held in Nairobi from 8 to 12 May, 2000.
The Committee had also before it a report of the Secretary-General on developing human resources for development (document A/54/408), which examines, as requested by the General Assembly in its resolution 52/196, the challenges and constraints that have beset the development of human resources.
The report states that closer cooperation between the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions is particularly important in the areas of human resources development and capacity-building. There is an urgent need in all Human Resources for Development (HRD) and capacity-development programmes -- particularly in education and training programmes -- to focus more on the people who are the recipients of the policies and programmes. Systems and programmes have to become demand-driven and responsive to the diversity and continually changing nature of learning interests, objectives and challenges.
Knowledge and information affect the international division of labour, determine the competitiveness of corporations and national economies, generate new growth patterns and give rise to new products, services and livelihoods, according to the report. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are critical, as they offer to access, disseminate and share knowledge and information at all societal levels and to promote lifelong self-learning and development, a learning society and a network economy. The ICTs can be powerful tools for HRD, poverty alleviation, promotion of sustainable livelihoods, empowerment of women, youth and the excluded, and strengthening of good governance.
The report notes that one of the most effective ways in which information technologies (IT) can be applied to enhance learning is through electronic community centres (ECCs), which provide connectivity and promote networking, social communication, dissemination of information and access to official data on government and other programmes from which the community can benefit. Those centres are key to bringing the IT revolution to remote, unconnected and under- served communities and empowering them to leapfrog into the information age. The report mentions examples of countries that -- with or without the United Nations systems -- have taken decisive steps towards community empowerment in dealing in strategic ways with the human development challenges of the new reality.
One of the most effective ways in which the United Nations system could assist is to support the efforts of developing countries to formulate comprehensive national strategies so as to achieve rapid transformation into learning societies, focusing on people development for work and life in all dimensions. It could develop a global monitoring strategy to record and promote progress in this regard, as an integral part of continued concern with and commitment to developing HRD.
With regard to migration issues, the Committee had before it the report of the Secretary-General on international migration and development, including the question of the convening of a United Nations conference on international migration and development to address migration issues (document A/54/207). The report describes the views of Governments regarding the convening of such a conference, as well as those of the mechanisms to address issues of international migration and development within and outside the United Nations system.
The report states that out of the 76 Governments whose responses had been received by 30 June, 45 were generally in favour of convening a conference on international migration and development and 26 expressed reservations about it. The majority of those in favour proposed that a conference should be of a technical and analytical nature. A number of objectives and issues are proposed for the conference, one of which is to explore the positive and negative aspects of international migration in relation to development for countries of origin, destination and transit.
Others suggested that the conference could consolidate the rights of migrants, especially of migrant workers and refugees in host countries, the report continues. It was also suggested that a conference could assist Governments in developing strategies and policies to regulate migration flows and suggest ways of reducing involuntary migration. Further, some Governments believed it could be instrumental in solving the issue regarding the outflow of skilled personnel from developing countries. The main outcome of the conference most frequently mentioned by Governments was a plan of action that countries could follow.
With respect to funding for a conference, the report states that the majority of Governments suggested the United Nations finance the conference, although it was not made clear that funding should come from its regular budget. Among the 26 Governments that did not favour the holding of a conference, many believed that international migration and development issues had already been the subject of discussion in several United Nations conferences and that, especially in the face of the Organizations budgetary constraints, scarce resources would be better used in ensuring the implementation of the commitments made at those conferences rather than in convening another one. Thus, taking all those elements into account, the prospects for holding an international conference on international migration and development remain uncertain.
According to the report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is mandated by the Organization to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and to seek solutions for refugee problems, considers it would not be necessary to discuss refugee movements and other forms of forced migration as an explicit category of migration at the proposed conference. Although the UNHCR recognizes that refugee issues are not always entirely independent of those relative to migration, it stresses the importance of distinguishing between refugees and migrants.
The report adds that the International Labour Organization (ILO) considers that, if a conference does take place, it should obtain broad consensus on the employment and protection of migrant workers. The major issues to be debated include the principles to be contained in an international regime for migration of workers, the management of migration regimes in a way that reconciles the interests of both countries of origin and countries of destination, and the standards to be observed to avoid or minimize any negative impact that an increasing feminization of migration may have on family and social structures.
The International Organization for Migration (IMO) believes that if States should decide to convene a conference, its aims should include reaching a consensus among participating States on practical measures to foster cooperation between origin, transit and receiving countries and international organizations, states the report. Such measures should facilitate the effective integration of legal migrants, reduce irregular migration and protect the human rights of migrants. Any such conference should deal with all categories of persons involved in international migration.
The Committee had before it a note by the Secretary-General on themes for the second high-level dialogue on strengthening international economic cooperation for development through partnership (document A/54/328). That report contains proposals by Member States and of bodies of the United Nations system and intergovernmental organizations on that subject.
By paragraph 5 of its resolution 53/181, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General, in close consultations with Governments, all relevant parts of the United Nations system and relevant intergovernmental organizations, to propose themes for the promotion of international economic cooperation for development for the second high-level dialogue, for consideration by the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session. In response to the Secretary-Generals note verbale, dated 22 February, 17 proposals were received by 10 Member States and 25 proposals by several bodies of the United Nations system and intergovernmental organizations. Some of these proposals were: Integrating developing countries into the multilateral trade and investment systems; Poverty eradication, key to international development in the twenty-first century; Sustainable partnership for development: potentials for collaboration between government and civil society; and Keeping the client country in the drivers seat.
The Secretary-General had suggested that themes be selected to promote broader and deeper understanding of issues of a global or transboundary nature that cut across individual, regional or group interests. Themes should also be of interest to a large number of stakeholders in economic cooperation and development, and should enable the General Assembly to receive maximum benefit from ministerial participation and from the presence of heads of agencies, funds, programmes and other bodies of the United Nations system.
Based on those considerations, and taking into account the wide range of subjects proposed, as well as the need to achieve a tangible movement beyond what has been discussed to date (especially the need to move beyond the general and broad approach to globalization), the following theme is proposed: Responding to the challenges of globalization: strengthening regional cooperation and building new partnerships for development.
With regard to the preparations for the second high-level dialogue, the Secretary-General, in paragraphs 25e and f of A/52/425, had proposed to use a bottom-up approach that would allow the traditional intergovernmental deliberative process to benefit from a concentrated and focused infusion of perceptions, ideas, lessons of experience and policy advice from those directly involved in and affected by globalization.
Draft Resolutions
With regard to consideration of macroeconomic policy questions, the Committee had before it a draft resolution on science and technology for development (document A/C.2/54/L.4), sponsored by Guyana, on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China. By the terms of the text, the Assembly would invite the relevant bodies of the United Nations system to provide assistance and promote cooperation in the area of partnership and networking, biotechnology, information and communications technologies, including in the design and implementation of national strategies on such technologies or mechanisms. Among other things, the draft text would call for farmer-friendly biotechnology that would foster crop reproduction and improve season-to-season harvests, while enhancing economic growth and the sustainable development of developing countries.
The Committee also had a text, sponsored by Guyana, on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, on implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (document A/C.2/54/L.3). By its terms, the Assembly would decide to promote the examination in all relevant intergovernmental forums of ways and means to integrate poverty reduction objectives, in the context of the development concerns of developing countries, into ongoing discussions on the international financial development architecture.
The Assembly would call on all Governments to incorporate, as they deem appropriate, the recommendations made by the Secretary-General for action and initiatives for poverty eradication towards the new millennium in designing and implementing their national poverty-alleviation strategies and exploring policies best suited to their national circumstances, with a view to maximizing the effect of poverty reduction and eradication. The draft would also have the Assembly call on all countries to formulate and implement national strategies and programmes, including setting time-bound targets for poverty reduction.
Further, the Assembly would call on the developing countries to fulfil the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) for overall ODA and, within that target, to earmark 0.15 to 0.2 per cent of their gross domestic product for the least developed countries. It would also call on developing countries to facilitate the transfer of technology and access to knowledge on preferential and concessional terms in order to enable the developing countries to benefit from the phenomenon of globalization, which is influenced largely by technology. In addition, the Assembly would call on developed countries that have not done so to provide the required financing for the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative in order to contribute to the achievement of poverty reduction in a sustainable manner in these countries.
Also before the Committee is another draft resolution, sponsored by Guyana, on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, on enhancing international cooperation towards a durable solution to the external debt problem of developing countries. By its terms, the Assembly would call for concerted action effectively to address debt sustainability of middle-income developing countries, with a view to resolving their long-term debt sustainability problems, including through major reduction of their debt stock and other appropriate and orderly mechanisms for debt reduction. It would call for action to encourage private creditors, in particular commercial banks, to continue their initiatives and efforts to address the commercial debt problems of middle-income developing countries, particularly those affected by the recent financial crises, and also encourage all creditor and middle-income debtor countries to utilize to the fullest extent possible all existing mechanisms for debt reduction.
Also, the Assembly would urge creditor countries to consider full cancellation of bilateral official debts of countries eligible under the Initiative, post-conflict countries, particularly those with protracted arrears, developing countries affected by serious natural disasters and countries with very low social and human development indicators. In that regard, the Assembly would call on the Secretary-General to examine ways and means of building coalitions with civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in creditor countries, including Jubilee 2000, to ensure in the shortest possible time the implementation of pronouncements on debt forgiveness in order that countries eligible under the Initiative would quickly benefit from such pronouncements.
Further, it would urge the international community (including the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions) and the private sector to take appropriate measures and actions for the implementation of commitments, agreements and decisions resulting from the major United Nations conferences and summits organized since the beginning of the 1990s on development, as well as from the outcomes of review processes related to the question of the external debt and debt- servicing problems of developing countries.
Introduction of drafts
GEORGE WILFRED TALBOT (Guyana), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, introduced draft A/C.2/54/L.4 and noted an omission in operative paragraph 19. In the third from last line, the phrase in particular information and communication technologies should be inserted after the word application,. The representative of Guyana also introduced draft resolutions A/C.2/54/L.2 and A/C.2/54/L.3, amending the second draft as follows: in paragraph 14, before development architecture, the word and should be added.
Sustainable Development and International Economic Cooperation
PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), introduced two reports. The first (document A/54/389) pertained to implementation of the commitments and policies agreed upon in the Declaration on International Economic Cooperation and the International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade. While economic growth had not accelerated development in all countries, there had been some positive developments, according to the report. It also pointed to some of the negative setbacks due to the recent financial crises. With regard to finance for development, it noted that international assistance for developing countries as a whole had been favourable until the onset of the financial crises. For most of 1990s, ODA had continually declined. Trade had figured prominently in both the Strategy and in the Declaration. Developing countries had become increasingly prominent actors in the international trading system. Although the Strategy did not have many targets, it did have some specific goals relating to human-resource management, and some progress had been made in that area. Neither document had mentioned globalization, which was a burning issue today.
The second report (document A/54/328) was on the renewal of dialogue on strengthening international economic cooperation for development through partnership, he said. It noted that the second high-level dialogue should not be seen as an isolated event but rather as another step in the ongoing process of strengthening partnerships. Before the first dialogue, there had been doubts about the value of such a meeting. Following that meeting, which had been very productive, the Assembly rightly decided to convene a second meeting. Two messages had come through clearly. The first was that globalization affected policy at all levels. Secondly, the United Nations was uniquely suited to provide comprehensive and relevant responses to that situation. The second meeting should address two challenges -- strengthening of cooperation and building of new partnerships.
JOSEPH CHAMIE, Director of the Population Division of DESA, introduced the report (document A/54/207) on international migration and development. The report recommends ways and means to address the problems related to migration and development, including the possibility of convening an international conference on international migration and development. The long-established programmes of the United Nations system included the Commission on Population and Development in the economic and social field, the Commission on Human Rights in the human rights area, and the ILO and the UNHCR in the operational fields. Among the mechanisms outside the United Nations system, the activities of the IOM deserved particular mention, especially since the present report documented the growing cooperation between the United Nations system and the IMO. Regional initiatives were likely to continue to be effective in addressing issues of international migration and development shared by particular groups of Member States. A series of intergovernmental meetings and consultations at the regional level were advancing the dialogue between countries of origin and destination.
He emphasized two points. First, international migration was a complex phenomenon. It affected many aspects of the lives and welfare of people and societies, as well as the functioning of States. Its interrelationships with development were varied; many issues regarding those interrelationships remained unsolved and politically controversial. Secondly, taking into account the responses of Member States, the prospects for holding an international conference on international migration and development remained at best uncertain.
GANTI RAO, Director of Technical and Regional Cooperation of HABITAT, introduced the report of the Commission on Human Settlements on the Work of its Seventeenth Session (document A/54/8) and the report of the Secretary-General on the Special Session of the General Assembly for an Overall Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the Habitat Agenda (document A/54/322). He said that the revitalization process of the Habitat Centre had been finalized. The Centre was now vibrant and future-oriented. It would be an organization with the ability to be anticipatory and proactive, an organization in which all elements of the system worked towards common goals, an organization able to implement its policies and programmes in an efficient manner.
He underscored the commitment of the entire staff of the Habitat Centre to the strengthening of Habitat within the context of the United Nations reform process, so that the centre would enter the new century and the new millennium revitalized and invigorated by a renewed sense of purpose.
HENRY JACKLEN, Director of the Private Sector Development Programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), introduced the note by the Secretary- General on human-resources development (document A/54/408). He said that the note sought to be forward looking, and highlighted the critical importance of information and communication technologies for developing countries and ways in which the United Nations system could help.
DONNETTE CRITCHLOW (Guyana), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, said that the commitments and policies agreed upon in the Declaration on International Economic Cooperation and the International Development Strategy remained valid and deserved the continuing attention of the international community. In the wake of the negative ramifications of globalization and a clear decline in official commitment to international cooperation, it was not surprising that the aims of the Declaration and Strategy had yet to materialize. The promise of the 1990s as the decade of accelerated development in the developing countries and strengthened international cooperation had thus largely evaporated, leaving behind it many countries afflicted by increasing poverty and economic marginalization, not to mention internecine warfare, conflicts and the effects of natural disasters. Those realities imposed the need to reassess the goals, and the timetables for their achievement. Developing countries could not keep pace with the industrialized, knowledge-based societies of the developed North unless real progress was made towards an equitable integration of all countries in the international economy. Only then could international cooperation for development yield the results envisaged in the fourth Development Decade.
Turning to the implementation of the outcome of Habitat II, she noted that some limited progress had been made with respect to human settlement development since the convening of the 1997 Habitat Conference. That was by no means reflective of a failure on the part of the Conference or the concerned parties to implement appropriate measures. Rather, it was indicative of the rapidly increasing demand for adequate shelter and basic services, particularly in urban centres, and of the inadequacy of means to deal effectively with that demand. Today, it was estimated that 3 billion people were now living in cities. She called for immediate and intensified action, particularly with respect to increased funding for programmes related to human settlement development. However, while resolving to tackle the problems associated with rapid urbanization, and strengthening campaigns for secure tenure and urban governance, she underscored that the rural dimension of the Habitat programme should not be neglected.
Turning to international migration and development, she said that population and development concerns were inextricably linked and should be treated in an integrated fashion in any dialogue on development. The need to assess the impacts of international migration, and to share experiences and explore ways and means of making it work for the benefit of all concerned, particularly developing countries, had gained added urgency in recent times. Various modalities for addressing those issues would need to be explored. She commended the initiative of Thailand, which -- in collaboration with the IMO -- last April hosted the International Symposium to promote international awareness and foster political will among Asian countries to effectively address the issue. Similar action should be encouraged in other regions. The sharing of experiences between countries, as well as the availability of data on migration, were critical elements in the development of long-term strategies aimed at making international migration work for developing countries.
Finally, she said that the need for a more results-oriented dialogue had become all the more evident in the current era of globalization. The dialogue on international economic cooperation, to be credible, should enable the international community, particularly developing countries, to deal effectively with that phenomenon, both with its promise and with its perils. The United Nations, given its broad mandate to promote solutions to problems in the economic, social and related fields, had a key role to play in international efforts to harness the process of globalization for long term development.
MARJATTA RASI (Finland), speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU) and Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, noted that many of the principles and objectives of the Declaration and the Strategy had not been met as expected. The EU strongly believed that only consistent, coherent, integrated and coordinated action would ensure effective implementation of the outcomes of the various United Nations conferences and summits.
On implementation of the outcome of Habitat II, she said that a constructive partnership and participation by local authorities, and the relevant actors of the civil society, including the private sector, in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda were crucial. Sustainable development of both urban and rural human settlements was directly linked to poverty and poverty alleviation. There was an urgent need to address urban poverty.
On human resources development, she stressed the potential of ICT in helping the most disadvantaged women to gain increased access to information essential for benefiting from new economic and social opportunities. The needs and social and economic realities of women must be taken fully into account when formulating national ICT policies.
Turning to international migration and development, she said the EU recognized that international migration was a highly relevant and complex issue. It should be examined within the existing mechanisms of the United Nations, rather than at a United Nations conference. The EU also believed, on agenda item 99(g), that the dialogue on strengthening cooperation for development through partnership should continue to be closely linked to the work of the main committees of the General Assembly. The agenda of the year 2000 was already full of important meetings and events, and the EU invited the partners to consider the possibility of postponing the next high-level dialogue to the 56th session of the General Assembly. The EU reiterated its support for the theme Generating an enabling national and international environment for mobilizing domestic resources for development in the global economy.
REVIUS ORTIQUE (United States) said that the report on human-resources development could have been stronger in two areas. First, after highlighting numerous examples of information technology driving development initiatives, the report barely mentioned NETAID, the ambitious project involving UNDP, CISCO systems and other partners. NETAID had an enormous potential to contribute to human resources development. Secondly, he would have liked to have seen broader consideration of human rights in the context of human resources development. While the report had cited the empowerment of women, youth, the excluded and other subsets of broader efforts on human rights, it failed to stress that a holistic programme of human rights promotion could maximize the benefits of human resources development.
With regard to strengthening international economic cooperation for development through partnership, he called attention to the theme proposed by the United States for the next high-level dialogue, strengthening international economic cooperation for development through partnership: engaging the private sector. Strengthening international economic cooperation for development would be realized when countries reached out and involved key partners, including those in the private sector. The private sector played a key role in, among other things, encouraging foreign direct investment, promoting economic development and making efficient use of domestic resources. Such a proposal was in line with recent statements of the Secretary-General on the importance of strengthening the partnership with business for the purpose of development.
Turning to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda, he said that while pleased with the progress seen thus far, the United States remained concerned at the lack of a full-time executive director for Habitat. He encouraged the Secretary-General to renew efforts to identify an executive director as soon as possible to further facilitate the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.
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