ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL HEARS PANEL DISCUSSION IN CELEBRATION OF 50 YEARS OF UN DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

Press Release
ECOSOC/5910

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL HEARS PANEL DISCUSSION IN CELEBRATION OF 50 YEARS OF UN DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

Dan Glickman, United States Secretary of Agriculture, told the Economic and Social Council this afternoon that the United States Department of Agriculture was making a new donation -- 350,000 metric tons of farm commodities to drought- afflicted and war-torn nations, including Afghanistan, Kenya and the nations in the Horn of Africa.

Mr. Glickman was addressing a panel discussion that was part of the Council’s high-level portion of its operational activities segment. The aim of the panel was to celebrate 50 years of United Nations development cooperation.

The farm commodities package was worth an estimated $145 million, Mr. Glickman continued. It would consist primarily of wheat, corn and rice. The United Nations had requested the donation, the bulk of which would be distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP). Last year, the United States Government had shipped 9.6 million metric tons of food overseas.

Biotechnology was one the hottest issues in agriculture today, he said. Not only could it increase the quantity of food produced, it could enhance the quality as well. “One of the challenges of the coming years will be to move past the stale current debates and harness the power of biotechnology to benefit the poorer food-insecure regions of the world”, he added.

China’s Director of Information Networking for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Wang Qiming, said information technology could help developing countries face problems such as poverty by helping them catch up without repeating mistakes. Developing countries could “leapfrog” if the technologies were rooted in developing-country homes. The United Nations could assist by addressing information and communication technologies as an essential issue. It could ensure a more equitable sharing of information and better governance of Internet use, and could help develop a coherent strategy for technology use and integrate it into current programmes.

Capacity-building should be the main focus of development cooperation programmes, Mary Chinery-Hesse, former Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said. National control of programmes insured sustainability since government leadership meant synchronicity between United Nations programmes and governments’ own development programmes. In that

Economic and Social Council - 1a - Press Release ECOSOC/5910 27th Meeting (PM) 17 July 2000

way, programmes would continue beyond the relatively small assistance offered by the United Nations system. Programming should be flexible and should avoid a “one size fits all” approach.

Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said there were several challenges ahead, and one of them was the challenge of governance. There had to be a focus on local and national governance, but also on global governance. A focus on integration was also necessary. Integration of capital, resources and ideas should not suffer under the backlash of globalization. There was no substitute for integration as a driving force in economic growth.

Nitin Desai, Under Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, also addressed the panel, as did Bernd Niehaus (Costa Rica), Vice- President of the Council. Mr. Niehaus chaired the panel discussion.

The representatives of the Republic of Korea, Canada, Morocco and Guatemala also made statements in a general discussion, which preceded the panel discussion this afternoon.

The Council will meet again tomorrow at 10 a.m. to continue its general discussion of operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation.

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this morning to continue its consideration of operational activities of the United Nations for international development. It was also expected to open the high-level part of this segment.

(For background information, see Press Release ECOSOC/5908 of 14 July.)

Statements

DAE-WON SUH (Republic of Korea) said the recent introduction of the multi- year funding framework should contribute to more predictable and sustainable resource mobilization. To increase their resources, the United Nations funds and programmes should demonstrate tangible results in their focused areas. In designing and implementing projects in those areas, they should take into account the development demands of programme countries.

Also, he continued, since core resources had been decreasing while non-core resources had been increasing for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UNDP together with donor countries should find a more flexible mechanism for using non-core resources to benefit the least developed countries. The United Nations Development Group (UNDG), meanwhile, should increase efficiency and rationalize activities. That would free up financial and human resources capable of being used to increase participation in common projects at the UNDG level. While progress in simplifying and harmonizing operational activities among UNDG members in the field was welcome, major impediments in joint programming should be investigated. Finally, the Economic and Social Council should strengthen its role in coordinating activities of the development agencies.

GINETTE SAINT-CYR (Canada) said specific causes, such as HIV/AIDS, were attracting development funds. Such issue-centring of development funding impacted negatively on the mobilizing of core resources, since the funding came from non- core or extra-budgetary contributions. Also of concern was the over-dependence of United Nations funds and programmes on a limited number of donors.

On the bright side, he said, was the adoption of multi-year funding frameworks, linking resources to results. Another was the repositioning of funds and programmes to make them more responsive to changing conditions. With regard to simplification and harmonization of programming and procedures, the governing bodies needed more coherence in their activities. The UNDG should establish a working group to develop a common programme approval process among UNDG members.

AHMED AMAZIANE (Morocco) said the Secretary-General’s report was the first detailed presentation of the causes for the decrease in resources. In the Millennium year, instruments set up after the Second World War were still being used. The United Nations Charter underlined the determination of the Organization to free the world from poverty and need, which was the background for the various United Nations development programmes.

He said his country appreciated the multilateral aspect and character of aid being transmitted. Among the most important aspects of the Morocco development plan were human rights and good governance, which were sensitive issues. The contributions to Morocco development had been made in tune with the national plan. As for simplification and harmonization, he said the General Assembly had made the same recommendations in every tri-annual review. The way things were managed now meant a very heavy burden on the recipient countries. He therefore supported the report’s recommendation to invite countries to provide a timetable of what they were going to simplify and when. While welcoming the increase in special contributions, complacency was acceptable. If there were not enough core resources, neutrality and multi-laterality would be eroded. He supported the recommendation to invite donors to put enough resources in operational activities of the United Nations so that it could be an efficient partner in development.

SILVIA CORADO (Guatemala) expressed her deep concern at the continued drop in core resources, particularly those for the UNDP. She was also concerned with the need to harmonize programming cycles and periods. The drop in core resources would conflict with a number of the main principles of the Organization -- especially universality. In that context, she stressed the need to support those who most needed support. Applying that principle meant that States, which were beyond the threshold of the least developed countries, were often excluded from cooperative development efforts because of the lack of core resources.

Her country was a clear example of such an instance, she continued. The structure and financing of the UNDP, for example, was reflected in an increasing per cent of non-core resources from multilateral organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Inter American Development Bank and the Government, as well. Those non-core resources were why the UNDP could adhere to the principle of universality in her country.

Panel Discussion

BERND NIEHAUS (Costa Rica), Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, briefly recapped the 50-year history of United Nations development cooperation activities. Highlights included the Council’s Technical Assistance Committee having become the Council’s Operational Activities segment. Describing the evolution of development cooperation policies and programmes, he said they had kept pace with changing requirements, but the underlying principles had remained the same. Those embraced the qualities of neutrality, respect for sovereignty, long-term commitment and responsiveness to national priorities.

Among the concerns before the Council at present, he said, were globalization, marginalization, tremendous wealth and extreme poverty, peaceful development and deadly conflict. The high-level segment had focused on information technology. The resulting Ministerial Declaration had set out the steps to be taken on an urgent basis for development cooperation efforts in that direction. The other segments dealing with global conferences, humanitarian assistance and other matters also impacted significantly on that theme. The fiftieth anniversary of development cooperation activities was an opportune time to explore the issues.

NITIN DESAI, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance had begun about 50 years ago. The Programme had gone through many changes since then -- it had expanded substantially later and taken on many different forms.

Apart from programmatic support, in terms of technical assistance, it focused on capacity-building, South-South cooperation and other issues. The Programme had played a profound role in capacity-building in public administration, health delivery, education, programmes dealing with women and children and science and technology development, among other things.

In the 1990s, however, the Programme had fallen increasingly short of funds required for what it needed to do. He hoped, therefore, that the 50-year commemoration would not only look at the past, but also at the future, and that the best was yet to come.

DAN GLICKMAN, United States Secretary of Agriculture, said he strongly believed that international development had to begin with the promotion of food security. Last year, the United States Government had shipped 9.6 million metric tons of food overseas. Almost 80 countries had been on the receiving end, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Viet Nam, which had not received a shipment since the Viet Nam war.

He also announced that the United States Department of Agriculture was making a new donation –- 350,000 metric tons of farm commodities to drought- afflicted and war-torn nations, including Afghanistan, Kenya and the nations in the Horn of Africa. That package, worth an estimated $145 million, would consist primarily of wheat, corn and rice. It was a donation that came at the request of the United Nations, the bulk of which would be distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP).

He said that American food aid and food security efforts were successful in large part because of the commitment and cooperation of the entire United Nations system. It was also important to remember that there was more to food security than food aid. Encouraging open markets and trade liberalization was also a part of food security. It was with that security in mind that the United States crafted its proposal for the next round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. The proposal recently presented in Geneva, reached out to developing and least developed nations. On the export side, “we want to give them the opportunity to compete on a level playing field, without having to go up against subsidized farm exports from the European Union”, he said.

Biotechnology was one of the hottest issues in agriculture today, he went on to say. Not only could it increase the quantity of food produced, it could enhance the quality as well. Biotechnology’s benefits were far-reaching with all kinds of implications for food security. It could allow farmers to cut input costs, use less water and fewer pesticides, and thus lessen the strain on natural resources. It also had the ability to create crops with drought- pest- and disease-resistant features, as well as with certain medicinal qualities. The biotechnology dialogue had too often ignored what transgenic crops could mean for food security, especially in the developing world.

Instead, he continued, there had been a “loud, contentious, transatlantic food fight” focused primarily on the safety of the new food varieties, their environmental impact and the ethical question of whether genetic engineering was an inappropriate manipulation of nature. The United States had a sound, transparent science-based regulatory system, designed to ensure –- as best it could –- that no biotech product came to the market that was environmentally hazardous or unsafe for human consumption. Both sides, however -- biotech opponents and advocates –- were guilty of losing sight of the process’ humanitarian potential. Many of the opponents could afford the luxury of their opposition -- they did not have to worry about food insecurity, since they lived in prosperous, agriculturally abundant societies.

Biotech’s champions, especially the multinational corporations who developed the products, were often too narrowly focused on the bottom line, he added. They had geared their marketing research and development towards products that would bring immediate profits, rather than tailoring their efforts to meet the needs of the Third World. “One of the challenges of the coming years will be to move past the somewhat stale current debates and harness the power of biotechnology for the benefit of the poorer food insecure regions of the world”, he said. That would have to be a joint effort on the part of governments, the private sector and the multilateral community. “Food is the most basic of human essentials. It is the very first step towards empowerment and self-reliance. Noting is possible without it”, he said.

MARY CHINERY-HESSE, former Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said the surest way to wipe out the gains made by development cooperation was to continue with the senseless wars, civil strife and corruption plaguing so many countries. Counteracting those phenomena were such actions as building sustainable programmes, addressing issues of ownership and forging new partnerships.

Capacity-building needed emphasis so that nationals would have control of programmes in the interest of sustainability, she continued. Governments had to take hold of the development process or else programmes initiated through technical cooperation would not endure. The guiding principles for United Nations assistance had always stressed sovereignty and independence of recipient countries, as well as responsiveness to changing national priorities.

The leadership of government helped to ensure that United Nations programmes were synchronized with governments’ own development programmes, she emphasized. It helped ensure sustainability of programmes beyond the assistance offered by the United Nations system and helped eliminate the bureaucratic problems of “turf battles” among organizations and other external partners at the country level. That was important because assistance offered by the United Nations system in relation to total external assistance was small and growing smaller still. Even so, such assistance was strategic if well used. It also had advantages. It was not tied to any particular source of expertise or equipment, did not reflect vested interests and, at its best, was neutral and altruistic. In addition, it tended to be better targeted to the poorest of the poor.

To ensure maximum impact of United Nations assistance, she said enough flexibility had to be built into programming for adjustments to be made in a timely manner in response to changing national imperatives. United Nations technical cooperation programmes must respect the diversity of their clientele. They had to avoid a “one size fits all” approach. Further, since national administrations worked under pressure, it was unacceptable for hard-pressed officials to interact with a multiplicity of agencies on the same or related issues and with a multiplicity of frameworks, formats and deadlines. Simplification and harmonization of agency policies and procedures, as well as coordination of programmes and operational activities, especially at the country level, was a matter of the system’s very survival.

WANG QIMING, Director of Information Networking Division, Administrative Centre for China’s Agenda 21, Ministry of Science and Technology, Beijing, China, said development was imperative for any country, but sustainable development was a complex matter. In China, it was part of a two-pronged fundamental transition away from a planned economy and towards a market-oriented one, as well as away from a quantitative to a qualitative growth, as, for example, by using new technologies to transform traditional industries and thereby improve the ecological environment. Simultaneously, some 38 million people needed to be lifted out of extreme poverty.

He said the lesson his country had learned was that tackling the environmental issue required a diversified approach, while the development issue needed immediate attention. When developing countries faced problems of poverty, gender, environment and so on, two leading questions needed to be answered, namely, what caused the problems and how they could be solved for the long term. The answers were grounded in information technologies, which provided an opportunity for developing countries to catch up with developing countries without repeating mistakes. Developing countries could “leapfrog” development, but the key was to take the appropriate measures for such technologies to be rooted and localized in developing-country homes.

Information technology had originated from the developed countries, he continued, but such technology had been pouring into the developing countries recently. Those countries had not been developing Internet and communication technologies, however. China had been able only to buy and sell products or use limited knowledge to assemble computers. Chips, routers, hubs, optical fibers and other materials had to be imported. Such minimal capability was neither economical nor feasible for China’s Internet industry to enter the large-scale world market.

The nature of such technology advancement and its expansion in uses and among users had led to the recognition of critical “missing pieces”, he said. Reducing physical barriers to communication in the developing countries had been emphasized, but the need to develop content and put in place the necessary capacity to manage content and connectivity had been less appreciated. Similarly, development of information systems had been emphasized, but little attention had been given to improving modes of access and providing mechanisms enabling use of information. Data needed to be turned into accessible information and information needed to be transformed into effective knowledge for decision-making and operational uses.

The United Nations could help provide technical assistance to the developing countries, he concluded, by addressing such technology as an essential issue. It could move from being a “fire brigade” and become a “leading goat” for the knowledge organizations in helping developing nations “leapfrog” development. It could help ensure more equitable share of information and better governance of Internet use. It could also help in adoption of a coherent strategy for modern technology use, which could be integrated into current programmes. In short, the United Nations could help solve developing world problems for the long term by coupling sustainable development with information technology. MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Chairman, United Nations Development Group (UNDG), said he felt some pride and responsibility for having picked up the battle for technical assistance in the United Nations. A good description of the remarkable achievements over the last 50 years was lacking. By any rational measure, the Programme had been a huge success. People were living longer, mortality rates were lower, and levels of literacy had been increased. Life for the young and everybody in the developing world had been transformed over the last 50 years, and the United Nations agencies and programmes had played a role in that.

That success had been very little credited in the countries of the North, he said. One of the reasons official development assistance (ODA) was at an almost all time low was that growth in ODA, based on altruism, had followed growth in defence spending during the cold war years. After the cold war, however, defence spending had followed a flat track, while ODA had perversely fallen away dramatically.

In the South, there had also been less credit given to United Nations development assistance in recent years, not because of failure, but rather because of success, he said. Development cooperation had become a less important part of economic activities.

During the early post-cold-war period, the international development community had not been in one of its most harmonious moments, he noted There had been conflicts between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. The “Civil War” years had led to lower donor and public confidence and had contributed to a loss of ODA flows.

There was now a new relationship between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, and there was less ODA, he said. The nature of the development challenge had, therefore, evolved. The critical role of the United Nations was to champion new, progressive ideas about development. It did not stop with the promotion of ideas, but continued also with partnership. The great peace with the Bretton Woods institutions had come about when those institutions had accepted the United Nations ideas about social development, and United Nations agencies had accepted the Bretton Woods institutions’ ideas about macroeconomic development. In the interest of achieving the maximum impact of lesser ODA, it was imperative to cooperate with the Bretton Woods institutions fully, he said.

There were several challenges ahead, and one of them was the challenge of Governance, he said. There had to be a focus on local and national governance, but also on global governance. A focus on integration was also necessary. Integration of capital, resources and ideas should not suffer under the backlash of globalization. There was no substitute for integration as a driving force in economic growth.

In advocacy, a constant case for stability had to be found, he said. One had to focus on the scourge of internal war, which was undermining much of what the agencies did. A focus on information technology was also necessary, he said. Such technology represented a revolutionary transformation of how development was delivered. That critical tool for assisting the poor should be recognized. In this changed world, no amount of United Nations development cooperation resources were going to transform development. The Organization’s role was in the advocacy area, in the forming of partnerships.

Questions and Answers

During a question-and-answer segment, a number of questions were raised by delegations. Mr. DESAI then put the following key issues to the panellists for their responses: how could support for development assistance be rebuilt; what was the vision of development that was being projected in both donor and programme countries in order to mobilize support; within the overall development framework, what was the special role of the United Nations funds, agencies and programmes; and what were the new things that had to be done in terms of partnerships.

Mr. MALLOCH BROWN said there was a need to build up public interest in non- governmental organization involvement and how to reach out on United Nations issues.

Commenting on the special niche of the Organization’s system, he said the present time was where technological opportunity often combined political scepticism and fear. What was the price of technology? was one of the questions being asked. The United Nations had a critical brokering role to ensure that those technologies did not threaten the political and cultural interests of the South. Developing countries must also not just be given technology that was felt to be good for them.

The Organization needed to take on and champion a kind of global advocacy, he said. The global develop agenda required unpopular choices at times and there was a need to advocate for better global policies and governance. South-South partnerships were also critical to any new model going forward.

Ms. CHINERY-HESSE said the various success stories must be brought to the attention of decision-makers –- those who finally allocated the money for development assistance. Opinion leaders must be able to see at first hand that there really was a difference and that it was not all about the negative images on television.

She said the United Nations system was not only about official assistance. It needed to try and forge modalities and innovative methods to tap into the private sector and other groups in society. The trouble with the Organization was that its development programme had been launched as an intergovernmental arrangement. There was still a large area that needed to be covered, because it was now a changed world. Governments might not have the appropriate resources to address those changes. The United Nations also needed a minimum critical mass at its disposal if it was to make a difference at all.

Mr. WANG said that developing countries must be helped to leapfrog into development. China had resolved its own issues of food security through a mixture of its own efforts and technology. Modern technology was a key in resolving many issues.

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