IN ADDRESS TO LINKS, INC., SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES THAT GOVERNMENTS AND UNITED NATIONS NEED CIVIL SOCIETY, NGOS AND PRIVATE SECTOR

Press Release
SG/SM/7201

IN ADDRESS TO LINKS, INC., SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES THAT GOVERNMENTS AND UNITED NATIONS NEED CIVIL SOCIETY, NGOS AND PRIVATE SECTOR

Following is the text of an address delivered today in New York by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Links, Inc.:

I am pleased and honoured to welcome you to the United Nations today. The commitment of people like you is the best possible response to those who say self-interest and isolationism are the leading public trends of our time. And there has never been a time when commitment to the ideals of the United Nations was more important. Because our interdependent world brings with it global responsibilities.

The hallmark of our new era is to some extent a paradox: most people's basic needs -- to be safe, secure and fed -- remain unfulfilled, while prosperity and technological progress have made life more enjoyable and comfortable for some. We, the privileged few, the ones for whom globalization has meant great opportunity, have a duty to think beyond ourselves.

Our role is not to oppose the forces of globalization, but to propose creative and constructive ways of managing it and giving it a more human face. To seek to understand better the emerging forces and forms of globalization and then seek to shape them to serve the needs of the neediest.

The United Nations was founded to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in the first half of this century brought untold sorrow to humankind.

Even in 1945, our founders recognized the need to fight on two fronts to win the battle for enduring peace: on the security front, where victory spells freedom from fear; and on the economic and social front, where victory spells freedom from want.

For the United Nations, there is no higher priority than the goal of eradicating poverty. It may be an ambitious goal, but it is not utopian.

The progress that has been achieved these past few decades has shown us what can be done and how to do it. Developing countries have

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covered as much distance in human development during the past 30 years as the industrial world managed over more than a century.

Since 1960, the infant mortality rate has been halved, the malnutrition rate has declined by one third, and the proportion of children attending primary school has increased from 50 to 75 per cent.

The choices and opportunities people enjoy have increased as well, with men and women participating more fully in decision-making owing to the spread of democracy and the principles of good governance.

However, there is an inescapable blot on this record of achievement: the extent of global poverty, in rich and poor countries alike. In 1974, world population was 4 billion and the number of people living in absolute poverty was estimated at one quarter of the total.

Today, the world population has increased to six billion, but nearly half of humankind are struggling to live on two dollars a day or less. AIDS, crime and conflict entrench poverty still further, while poverty itself fuels the spread of disease and disruption.

We know what eradicating poverty would cost. It has been estimated that the total additional investment required to achieve universal access to basic social services -- education, health, nutrition, reproductive health, family planning, safe water and sanitation -- would be roughly $40 billion per year. That is one tenth of the world trade in illegal drugs.

And so eradicating poverty requires us to work on several levels - - at the field level, at the policy level and at the level of political will.

In the field, United Nations-supported programmes are tackling poverty on many fronts. - -- They work to improve access to productive assets such as credit, land, technologies and know-how;

-- They create job opportunities;

-- They support micro-enterprises and cooperatives;

-- They help provide opportunities for returning refugees and displaced persons;

-- They give special assistance to disadvantaged groups, marginalized communities and women.

And we could not do it without the help of partners like you -- non-governmental and local organizations on the ground. Seventy-five

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per cent of all projects supported by the United Nations Development Programme are implemented by local organizations.

At the policy level too, there is much you can do as our allies in civil society. You can help mobilize the necessary political will by explaining and advocating to the public and their elected leaders that it is within our reach to help the millions on the margins. You can promote the understanding that people and markets are interconnected -- that what happens to our fellow human beings happens to us.

In this way, you can encourage Governments to enact policies that will promote higher and more balanced rates of world economic growth.

You can pressure the global community -- through trade and aid, and through its decision-making at the United Nations and elsewhere -- to give higher priority to meeting the basic needs of the world's poor. You can lobby for developing countries to be given greater access to the markets of the developed countries -- so that they can participate fully in the global economy and earn their way out of poverty.

I urge you to follow closely developments at next month's ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, where a new trade round will be discussed.

It is our hope that the Seattle meeting will focus on making trade work for the poor by expansion and sensitivity to the concerns of the weaker partners in the international trade system.

It is crucial that the alarming decline in official development assistance be reversed; and that developing countries find relief from the debt that is stifling their development and, in some cases, consuming more than half of their annual budget. Here too, the advocacy of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has played a vital role and I hope it will continue to do so.

Finally -- we must do more to advance the prospects of women. It is long past time to heed the experience in many countries that shows that investments in women -- and especially in the education of women and girls -- are the key to sustainable development and bring the greatest dividends to families, communities and entire societies. Dr. King's wisdom holds true to this day: you can no more be half equal than half free. Allow me to warmly congratulate Links Inc. on the work you are doing in this field.

As all of you have understood well, with growing power and reach comes growing responsibility.

In this age of unlimited information, none of us who benefit from it can hide behind boundaries of ignorance anymore; and none of those who seek to halt the march of human rights and human progress can hide

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behind borders of their nations anymore. A strong civil society, bound together across all borders with the help of modern communications, will not let them. In a sense, it has become the new superpower -- the peoples determined to promote better standards of life in larger freedom.

I have high hopes for what the United Nations partnership with civil society can achieve in fighting poverty -- and what it can do on other fronts in the years to come. This is the new reality -– this is the new diplomacy.

As an NGO, you no doubt have your own ideas about what the priorities of the United Nations should be in the 21st century. Those ideas should be heard loud and clear. Next year's events marking the millennium present you with a great opportunity.

As you know, we will be inviting the world's heads of State and government to New York for the Millennium Summit.

But before that, in May 2000, civil society will hold a Millennium Forum at the United Nations to gather ideas from non-governmental organizations all over the world.

I trust you will participate in this process with all your hearts and minds, with all your ideas and energies.

Governments and the United Nations need non-governmental partners. We need civil society, NGOs and the private sector to reach the millions on the margins and to help us give global markets a human face. I urge you to keep goading us, and to keep working with us. Thank you all for being here.

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