PRESS CONFERENCE ON SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was a clarion call to both complement and challenge the South at all levels, this year’s Nobel Peace Laureate told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today, on the observance of the first annual United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation.

Wangari Maathai, who is also the founder of the Green Belt Movement and Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, explained that, in winning this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, a challenge and honour had been brought to the South.  The Prize had been awarded not in response to something “pre-packaged”, but as a result of trying to address the issues raised by ordinary people over time.  The South needed not only peace, but also the ability to manage its resources sustainably and to share its resources equitably.  The resources in the world were not limitless, and future generations needed to be remembered, she said.

The recognition was not hers alone, she added, but for all those working in the field.  The Norwegian Peace Committee had helped to bring the issue to the centre, so the international community could appreciate that realizing a standard of living for which ordinary people yearned would be impossible without managing resources in a sustainable manner and without embracing “democratic space”.  She had been encouraged by the Assembly’s decision to create the Day, as there was much to learn from each other.  The people of the South were committed to changing their lives within the constraints they faced, but they needed to create an environment that was conductive to development.

Describing the background of the United Nations Day, Zephirin Diabre, the Associate Administrator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), noted that the Day, which had been declared by the General Assembly last year, was a way for the Organization to focus attention on the issues to which it was committed.  It was customary for the Organization to mark special days, weeks and decades in ways that reflected its interests and priorities.  South-South cooperation referred to the effort of developing countries, working together, in the pursuit of shared objectives.

The countries of the South made up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population and formed the majority of the United Nations Member States, he said.  The South faced some of the leading challenges of the time, including the spread of HIV/AIDS.   The United Nations Day was an opportunity to highlight the need for policies that would give more practical expression to the solidarity binding the countries of the South, so that ordinary people could benefit from globalization and improve their standard of living.  The UNDP was the lead organization in supporting South-South Cooperation.

Responding to a question on the management of resources in different environments, Ms. Maathai said that, in every situation, people had their own ways of managing resources.  The broad agreement was that resources should be managed sustainably, and with the realization that they were limited and should be shared equitably.  It was not fair to allow a few people to enjoy resources at the expense of a large number.  Without a democratic space, those in positions of power could not be held accountable.  A “democratic space”, she said, must be a space where citizens could be both creative and productive.

Asked to comment on donor behaviour, she said it was important for the South to create an environment in which friends were able to help.  Over the years, she had tried hard to share her experiences in many United Nations fora.  The Green Belt Movement had been projected as anti-government.  Many governments would have welcomed it.  She hoped to be able to share her experiences.  They had travelled to India to learn from their experiences, and had created a learning centre in Nairobi.

Explaining tree planting in Africa, she said it was a way of mobilizing ordinary people to take action about their immediate environment, and to address some of their immediate needs.  In Kenya, women needed firewood for cooking and clean drinking water, which necessitated the protection of forested mountains.  Some 60 years ago, forested mountains had been cut clear and used first by colonial powers and then independent governments to develop huge plantations for the timber industry.  That process had destroyed bio diversity and the capacity of the forests to conserve water.  Facing a water shortage, Kenya needed to move plantations from the forested areas.

The Nobel Peace Prize, she said, had sent the message that a bottom up approach and concern for ordinary people was needed.  Resources needed to be managed and could not be used by just a few.  For that, democratic space was needed, which was why Africa was being asked to embrace dialogue and democratic governance, and to reduce conflict.  That was the choice and the challenge African leaders had been given.  They were free to embrace it, or ignore it.

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