PRESS CONFERENCE BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT

If the world’s richest countries were genuine in their stated desire to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, they needed to mobilize for the fight against poverty the same political will that was now manifest in fighting wars, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon. 

The world’s richest countries could cancel the outstanding debt of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa with just one quarter of the $26 billion the
United States had been offering Turkey last week, said Henry Northover, of Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, London.  It was a scandal that the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people must take second place to the resources that were being used to pursue the war against Iraq.

Mr. Northover was one of the three participants in today’s dialogue between representatives of civil society and the Economic and Social Council who afterward met with the press.  Also participating in the press conference were Gemma Adaba of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Brussels, and Saradha Ramaswamy Iyer of Third World Network, Kuala Lumpur. 

The dialogue is being held in preparation for the Council’s special
high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) –- scheduled for 14 April -- on the theme of “Increased coherence, coordination and cooperation for the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development at all levels one year after the Conference”.

Mr. Northover said that this morning the participants in the dialogue had set before the Council a choice between carrying on with the existing debt sustainability and debt relief mechanisms, or achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  It was becoming apparent that, without drastic reform measures, most of sub-Saharan Africa would miss out on achieving those goals, which every head of State and government had signed on to. 

Ms. Adaba said that the non-governmental organizations had come to the United Nations today “to keep pushing for the economic and social justice agenda”.  They had started that fight in Monterrey last year.  “We want to look at new mechanisms to free countries from debt, poverty and HIV/AIDS”, she said.  “We are looking at trade policies to see how they could really have development impact.  The current geopolitical developments will not detract us from our focus on the critical human security issues”, which included the right to decent employment and income, the right to food and water, the right to education and health.  Without addressing those issues, the international community could not reach world stability and peace. 

Ms. Iyer said that the world situation now was characterized by huge budget deficits and declining foreign aid.  Unfortunately, the WTO represented a history of unfulfilled promises, and the development part of the Doha Agenda had “all but disappeared into the sands of the Qatari desert”.  None of the promises made at Doha, including those related to the issues of patents and agricultural

subsidies, had been met, and the prospects were not looking good.  Agricultural subsidies favoured 5 per cent of the population in developed countries and impoverished 90 per cent of the people in the South.  So it was a sign of hypocrisy to talk about poverty alleviation in the Millennium Development Goals on the one hand, and perpetuate it on the other through trade practices, that distorted development. 

Subsidies per cow in the European Union, for example, amounted to $2.50 a day, she said.  For a Japanese cow, that figure amounted to $7.50.  At the same time, 75 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa lived on less than $1 a day.  The current trade regime was exacerbating inequities within and between nations, widening the gulf between “insiders and outsiders” of globalization.  Nations could not continue to preach democracy and practice dictatorship, preach free trade abroad and practice protectionism at home.  In fact, the current trade and financial situation could be viewed as a sort of an economic weapon of mass destruction.  In such a case, the regime change that the international community should seek was to make the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund more open, transparent and democratic.  “And we must take preemptive action against these imbalances”, she added. 

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