Note to Correspondents

NGO, BUSINESS LEADERS TO QUERY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL MEMBERS

ON DEVELOPMENT FINANCING –- 20, 21 MARCH

Input Goes to April Encounter of UN with World Bank, IMF and WTO

Almost one year to the day since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus at a United Nations development summit attended by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Presidents Bush and Chirac and other world leaders, civil society experts on finance issues will meet at the United Nations on 20 March to dialogue with United Nations ambassadors and discuss conference results.

Business leaders are also meeting at the United Nations on 21 March to organize their input and dialogue with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) ambassadors.  Both the 20 March civil society dialogue and the 21 March business dialogue will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the ECOSOC Chamber at United NationsHeadquarters. The meetings are open.

Affording the highest degree of international attention directed to development issues since the close of the Cold War, the International Conference on Financing for Development (held 18 to 22 March 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico) established working agreement on development principles between countries of the North and South and was the occasion for pledges of development assistance that reversed a decades-long period of decline or stagnation.

Among the questions that civil society sources expect will be raised at the 20 March review, held by the United NationsECOSOC:

-- Will aid pledges hold up in a period of intensive war preparations?   In Monterrey, the United States and the European Union separately promised increases in official development assistance amounting to a combined $30 billion over a four-year period.  Since then, the world economy has slumped; donor countries have experienced fiscal difficulties; and preparations for a costly conflict in Iraq are under way.  Nevertheless, donor countries at Monterrey recognized that development advances are a precondition for world stability and security.  Can these conditions and priorities be reconciled?

-- Has there been progress on a mechanism for clearing debts of countries in fiscal crisis?  There are many who believe that the existence of an internationally recognized sovereign debt relief mechanism (SDRM) would have avoided human suffering and reduced economic losses to both debtors and creditors during crises in recent years in countries in East Asia and South America.  The Monterrey conference was the first international intergovernmental forum to endorse in general the advantages of an SDRM, but many differences exist on how and whether to implement such a mechanism.

-- Are closer ties between the United Nationsand the International Monetary Fund, the World Bankand the World Trade Organization a good thing?  The International Conference on Financing for Development was the product of unprecedented collaboration between all four multilateral institutions.  Since that time, cooperation and coordination has increased rapidly, and United Nations priorities such as the Millennium Development Goals have been embraced enthusiastically by the two international financial institutions.  What are the advantages of this closer cooperation, and are there pitfalls?

-- The 20 March meeting will provide formal input to a 14 April session of ECOSOC that will be attended by finance ministers en route from the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual spring meeting in Washington, as well as representatives of the World Trade Organization.  The ECOSOC was assigned a key role in conference follow up in the Monterrey Consensus, and the 14 April meeting will be devoted to dialogue on this subject.  Two representatives chosen by the non-governmental organizationcommunity will attend and participate in the 14 April encounter.  So will two representatives of the private sector.

Journalists without United Nations credentials who wish to attend either meeting should fax a letter of assignment to the United Nations Media Accreditation Unit at 212-963-4642, and follow up with a call to 212-963-7164.

For more information or to arrange interviews with United Nations ambassadors and staff or non-governmental organization representatives, contact Tim Wall of the Development Section of the United Nations Department Public Information at tel.:  1-212-963-5851, e-mail:  wallt@un.org.

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