PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNDP ADMINISTRATOR

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNDP ADMINISTRATOR

“We may be at the historic moment where the fight against poverty and associated ills really enters a critical new phase”, Kemal Derviş, the new Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Speaking to the press on his second day in his new position, Mr. Derviş said that, due to a new commitment to the development challenge, the international community now “may be able to achieve an amount of progress” that had not been possible in the past.  During the cold war, a lot of foreign assistance had been provided for political purposes; now, it was possible to concentrate squarely on development.  Also, many lessons had been learned, both in developing countries and the donor community.  It was also important that today’s global private sector had the capacity to invest and participate in the development effort.

Another “major revolution” concerned the tremendous breakthrough in communications technology, which opened doors to much more effective global development, he continued.  People could be connected, market their products and gain information more easily.  “If we are able to put all these things together, we really might have a chance to make poverty history”, he said.  To be at the heart of that struggle with colleagues from all over the world, was “terribly exciting”.

Mr. Derviş was introduced by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, who said that the Secretary-General and she were convinced that he was the right person for the job.  Having served both as a government minister and an international adviser, he had seen development from both sides of the aisle.  He was the first Administrator from a UNDP programme country, rather than a donor country.  As Turkey’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Treasury, he had implemented reforms that had pulled the country out of a deep financial crisis.  Equally notable was his 22-year career at the World Bank.  As Director of the Central Europe Department, he had coordinated donor community support for the peace and reconstruction process in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ms. Fréchette added that he was also a widely published author, whose most recent book, For Better Globalization, had won critical acclaim for its innovative ideas on global governance, including its proposals on strengthening the United Nations.  UNDP was central to the Organization’s poverty eradication efforts.  During his six years as the Programme’s Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown had reformed the UNDP and led the global effort toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  “We are looking forward to working with Mr. Derviş, as he consolidates those reforms and leads UNDP, with its extensive global network, in its work to fight poverty, promote democratic governance and foster crisis prevention and recovery”, she said.

Remarking on UNDP’s tremendous progress in the past few years, Mr. Derviş said that he was grateful to Mr. Malloch Brown and the management team of the Programme for all the work they had done to create the current opportunity to now move even further.  “We must be relentless and very strong in continuing on the message that, indeed, development needs resources.”  Unless financial resources were made available for the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction challenges, they would not happen.  On the other hand, resources needed to be put to good use and deployed in an environment that would allow them to be productive.  Resources must be made available by the more fortunate countries, but “the development constituency” needed to make sure that those resources were deployed in the most effective way.  The UNDP had a critical role in that respect.  Also, he intended to work closely with all the parts of the United Nations system to coordinate efforts and make the Organization’s programmes as effective as possible.

He also emphasized the role of the Programme in post-conflict and post-disaster reconstruction.  It was necessary to work with others, including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to develop an integrated strategy for the transition from immediate disaster relief to economic recovery and sustainable, long-term economic development.

Responding to several questions about the work on the draft outcome document for the September Summit, Mr. Derviş said that he had seen some progress towards language that would be “acceptable to all”.  With some 180 leaders from around the world coming to New York, the Summit was a great opportunity to bring the whole world together.  It was very important to make sure that the economic and social part of the Summit did not get overshadowed by other issues.  While Security Council reform was now among the most important issues before the world body, all attention and effort should not be highjacked by that issue.

He added that many social and economic questions required attention, including the resource mobilization effort, the proposal regarding the Peacebuilding Commission, and reaffirmation of Member States’ commitment to development policies, as well as transparency and private sector participation.  Despite all the difficulties on all fronts, he hoped the international community could focus on the substance of the agenda and have a summit that produced some real results.  The world, particularly the developing world, had a lot of expectations.

The draft, in its current state, contained “quite a bit” of language on the development and social side, he added.  “I wish there was a little bit more, and maybe at the end it can be a little bit more, but a lot of progress has been made, and I certainly would like to work with everybody to put even more emphasis on economic and social development”, he said.

To a question regarding possible timetables for meeting the goal of contributing 0.7 per cent of rich countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) for the purposes of official development assistance (ODA), he replied that those targets were important.  The world needed those resources.  It was fair that the rich world, on the whole, made an effort.  While each country came from a somewhat different starting point, it did not seem fair to have one country do much more relative to its overall income than others.  He had a full understanding of fiscal concerns in rich countries and for the need to have responsible budgetary policies, but the amount devoted to development aid was still so small that even doubling it in many countries would really not cause tremendous fiscal stress.  Most rich countries could afford a significant increase in their development resources, without jeopardizing their fiscal policies.

Asked about the efforts to avoid possible overlap between the Programme and the World Bank’s activities, and to ensure that assistance went to those who needed it most, Mr. Derviş responded that many actors were involved in aid.  “I don’t think we can monopolize everything”, he said.  Various bilateral and multilateral players had a role to play, as well.  The UNDP and the World Bank needed to work together, harmonize and coordinate their procedures.  He would also work with all other agencies and such regional organizations as the European Community, for example.  However, “some degree of healthy competition” could also be present, particularly when it came to ideas.  The UNDP and the World Bank could have their own ideas on some issues and, with the help of the press and the civil society, they could “debate them”.  Harmonization should not mean “uniformity”.

Asked to provide his thoughts on the United States’ idea that the focus in development aid should be on results, and not necessarily on good governance, he said that one of the most important aspects of the Millennium Development Goals was their emphasis on the achievement of concrete results by 2015.  However, it was not enough to just proclaim the goals -- it was important to regularly measure how much progress had been made and analyze the successes and failures.  Monitoring and evaluation were very important in making sure results were achieved.  The UNDP had started doing excellent work in that regard and he wanted it to continue.  To make sure that the Goals were not just “quantitative targets just hanging there by themselves”, it was necessary to link them with other parts of policy and institutional frameworks, such as agricultural pricing, trade policies and educational frameworks.  Capacity-building was also very important.

To several questions regarding a report that some bumper stickers distributed by a Palestinian agency in Gaza had carried the UNDP logo, he said that he did not have all the facts on the story.  The United Nations system was doing its best to help the peace process and end violence in that region.  However, the neutrality of UNDP was of great importance.  If UNDP was perceived as taking sides, its basic development mission would be undermined.

To associate the UNDP logo with a particular view on “how final peace is to be arranged” was not appropriate, he added.  But, he needed to find out exactly what had happened before acting on the matter.

To a question about the efforts to “sell the UNDP image”, he said that the Programme’s visibility was already increasing.  The UNDP had to be an integrator, helping to put the pieces together.  In a sense, that was “the UNDP brand”, with a lot of institution and capacity-building attached to that.  The role of the Programme was to help countries build their own capacity, and that was the way he would try to market it.

Responding to a query regarding his hopes of overcoming the main constraints and challenges of today’s world, he said that, historically, there were examples of countries that had overcome tremendous difficulties and achieved success, although they had been considered hopeless cases.  In the 1950s, for example, the World Bank mission had come back from the
Republic of Korea, saying that its situation was hopeless.  And then, of course, the country became a success story.  Among the main factors that could bring success were increased cooperation among small countries and modern technology, which held great promise for developing countries.

As for the main priorities for the UNDP for the rest of the year, he said that there would be a lot of continuity from what had been done under Mr. Malloch Brown’s leadership. One of the main priorities would be to create linkages between the Millennium Development Goals and poverty-reduction strategies that were often sponsored by the World Bank, making sure that fiscal measures put into place really focused on the achievement of the Goals.  There was also the overall issue of capacity-building -- “the bread and butter of the UNDP”.  The Programme could help the poor countries in building their capacity to benefit from trade globalization.  He did hope that the next Doha round would become a real development round that would help the process all over the world.  For the poorest countries to take advantage of open markets and world trade, they should have real capacity in infrastructure, incentives and policymaking. And, finally, it was very important to focus on gender mainstreaming.

Asked about his recommendations on United Nations reform, he said that his latest book had been written “way before the UNDP thing came up”.  For all its problems, the world needed the United Nations.  Its legitimacy was a tremendous asset.  In the book, he had put forward some proposals on how the international community could strengthen the Organization.  Those were personal proposals from “somebody who was an opposition Parliamentarian”, which could be characterized as either ambitious or naive.  On the security side, Security Council reform was needed.  On the economic and social side, the United Nations had to play an overall governance role.  Some of his proposals could be interpreted as a reform of the Economic and Social Council, and the Secretary-General had mentioned some of that in his own report.

On globalization, he said that one could not be for or against that phenomenon, because, like technological progress, it was happening and he did not think anyone could stop it.  To make it work in favour of development, trade had an inherent potential of bringing greater prosperity, wealth and employment.  However, if the rules of the game were not fair, or if the markets worked in favour of the powerful, the weaker parts of the global economy had little chance of building their capacity to participate.  Thus, as a development institution, the UNDP needed to work with the poor countries and the private sector to reinforce their capacity to benefit from trade.  The World Trade Organization (WTO) could facilitate negotiations, which were carried out by countries.  The UNDP had a special job of helping the developing countries in that game.

Asked if he really believed that world poverty could be halved by 2015, he referred to an article by former President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, on the power of the powerless.  While the issue of resources was very important, it was also possible to bring some of the emerging and middle-income countries into the game.  They could contribute not only in terms of cash, but also in terms of people.  The challenge was to organize the framework.

And yes, he did think that the international community could achieve the Millennium Development Goals, if it tried hard.  It would not happen automatically.  All players had to do their bit, but there was a chance of making a breakthrough and that was exciting.

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For information media • not an official record