PRESS CONFERENCE BY NGO REPRESENTATIVES ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT

The scourge and terrorism of deep poverty and the lack of political will to eradicate it could be seen as a crime against humanity, Joy Kennedy, of the World Council of Churches, said at a Headquarters press conference as she and David Ugolor of the African Network for Environmental and Economic Justice discussed their response to the negotiations now under way for the 2002 Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico.  The press conference was sponsored by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Ms. Kennedy said that a crisis could either breed despair or strengthen the collective spirit to rise above a current threat, oppression or injustice.  Today's hot crisis had demonstrated that when clear and present danger was perceived to be great, the countries in the international community could mobilize almost immediately and galvanize their efforts.  The political will and the human and financial resources were not in short supply.

A slow-burning crisis often only hit the headlines when it burst into flame, she said, and stressed the constant suffering of the 17,000 children that starved to death every day.  There were millions who would not live past the age of five, and millions would never learn to read or write and would probably face a hopeless future.  That was a clear and present danger, she said.  Poverty was not a law of nature; it was only what human beings had put in place.  It was time to act, to invest and to work to turn the situation around.

Financing for development was the best investment a responsible, global world could make to ensure security for all, she continued.  That required democracy, the rule of law, good governance and respect for all human rights.  She added that the paper prepared by the facilitators at the Preparatory Committee contained sound ideas for how to address issues like debt, trade and aid.  New sources of financing must be urgently mobilized.  There were enough resources to be distributed and redistributed equitably.  Governments were now required to show leadership in setting rules to ensure access, participation and benefits for all people.

David Ugolor, focusing on the issue of domestic resources, said that the facilitators' draft discussions recognized the urgent need for a global initiative that would address corruption, money laundering, and illegally transferred funds to private banks in Europe and offshore banks centres.

The issue of corruption was a worldwide phenomenon, he said, but in countries like Nigeria it represented a major barrier to economic and political development and reduced the capacity of national governments to implement poverty- eradication strategies.  Over the years, billions of dollars had been taken from Nigeria's public finances and placed offshore in Western private banks.  The Group of Seven (G-7) governments and international financial institutions had put much emphasis on the problem of corruption in developing countries, he said, but were less vocal on the offshore centres and private bank accounts.

About $100 billion had been looted from Nigerian public funds by the late military dictator Sanni Abacha and previous government officials, he said.  Substantial parts of that amount had been traced to banks in Europe, the United States and other offshore centres.  President Obasanjo had made requests to recover that money to provide opportunities for the Nigerian people, but unfortunately after more than one year not much had been achieved, due to a lack of political will by the banks and their respective countries.

He concluded by highlighting that the attacks on 11 September provided an urgent impetus for the United States-led international coalition against terrorism to join the campaign to eliminate money laundering

A correspondent asked for a comment on a statement made last Tuesday by Terry Miller, the United States representative at the Preparatory Committee.  The statement suggested that the first and greatest challenge for Monterrey was to communicate clearly that there were prerequisites to successful development and that countries must control conflict, commit to freedom and embrace capitalism.  That was to be done through a one-page political declaration of will and commitment, which  must be the primary document emerging from Monterrey.

In response to the correspondent, Ms. Kennedy explained that she was not against idea of a statement of doctrine.  However, it was also necessary to have a more detailed programme concerning actual action against poverty and injustice.  With regard to the comment on "embracing capitalism" she said that was

Mr. Miller's way of stating things.  There was a range of underlying values behind certain words.  There were certain values that people had in common, but these values were often expressed quite differently.  She would not use Mr. Miller's words as a way to summarize the document in a declaration.  Consensus-building and negotiating what people meant by such phrases was very important.  Certain words meant different things to different people.  That was why a text was needed to outline the exact meaning of those words.

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