PRESS CONFERENCE ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT

                Development must be a shared goal for all, said Shamshad Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as he and Ambassador Ruth Jacoby of Sweden, the two co-Chairs for the Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development, briefed journalists at Headquarters this morning.  He added that development must be pursued in a coherent and consistent manner, with the participation of all stakeholders.

The two co-Chairs of the Preparatory Committee announced the conclusion of its fourth and final session.  After having negotiated for nearly two weeks, agreement on the final outcome document, now called the Monterrey Consensus, had been reached.

The financing for development process had taken a big leap with the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus outcome document, said Mr. Ahmad.  This document would now be presented to world leaders in Monterrey, and it was a real opportunity to build global partnerships in the pursuit of development.  He stressed that the Monterrey Conference was not a stand-alone event, but that it was the first building block in a long and continuing process.  Financing for Development was about building synergies, strengthening mutually supportive economic norms, enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation, and the sharing of the benefits of globalization in the pursuit of development. 

Developing countries were expected to make every effort to bring about reforms of their economies; improve governance and the rule of law; follow pro-poor growth policies; invest in the social sector and poverty eradication programmes; strengthen workers' rights; environmental protection; and ensure macroeconomic stability through fiscal discipline.  Developed countries were expected to take measures that ensured the transparency of the global trade regime and equitable market access to the products of developing countries.  They were also expected to avoid linking trade with environment and labour standards; refrain from anti-dumping and countervailing duties; provide 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) for official development assistance (ODA); reduce the debt burden of developing countries; and assist them through capacity-building and technology transfer.

Ambassador Ruth Jacoby said it was extremely important to realize the uniqueness of this process.  Throughout the preparatory process, the purpose had been to include the so-called stakeholders, in particular representatives of civil society and the private sectors.  The institutional stakeholders, primarily the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, had been along in the process since the very beginning.  It had been particularly difficult to ensure that there had been no trespassing of mandates and responsibilities of other institutions.

When asked about the significance of the word “doubled” having been left out in the paragraph concerning ODA targets (paragraph 34 of the final document),

Ms. Jacoby explained that there had been negotiations on this paragraph from 12 to

18 hours.  Without naming names, she explained there were two aspects of the paragraph that had caused divisions between countries.

One aspect had been the goal of reaching 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for ODA, she said.  This target had been agreed upon 32 years ago, and at present there were only five developed countries that had reached it.  One major donor had not even accepted the target and was not part of the consensus

32 years ago.  The second concept concerned the doubling of ODA, and it had been difficult to reach an agreement here as well, she said.  She stressed that the important outcome had been to try to send a signal, which showed the direction to which the world was committed, and she believed this had been achieved in paragraph 34.

When asked about the controversy regarding paragraph 64, calling for a follow-up international conference to review the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, the modalities of which must not be decided upon later than 2005,

Mr. Ahmad referred to chapter 3 "Staying Engaged" which reflected that a long process had begun.  In the view of the developing world, a time frame for when leaders would reassemble and take stock of the implementation process was important.  The other view had been that it was too early to determine the date of the next stage.  This was why there was a consensus compromise, as reflected in paragraph 64.

He concluded by saying that process must not only be seen in the context of ODA.  It had a holistic approach and six main areas, domestic resource mobilization, external capital flows, trade, debts and ODA, and finally systemic issues.  Official development assistance was just one of the six areas which were being addressed as a means of financing development.

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