Sixty-first General Assembly

Plenary

66^th Meeting (AM)

DEVELOPMENT A PROCESS, NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT, GENERAL ASSEMBLY TOLD,

AS IT CONSIDERS IMPLEMENTATION OF UN CONFERENCE OUTCOMES

 

But Economic Gap Still Widening Between Developed, Developing Countries

As the General Assembly this morning held its first specific meeting focused on development, which also concerned follow-up to outcomes of major United Nations conferences and the Millennium Summit, the United States delegate said that development was an ongoing process and not an achievement.

Why were countries grouped into “developed” and “developing” ones, he asked.  Did “developed” mean that the process of development had stopped?  And why was “developing” always spoken of with concern?  Development was a process of change, improvement and growth.  Didn’t every country desire to be “developing”?  The focus should be on countries that were not developing; those not moving forward and not changing fast enough to provide socio-economic benefits to their citizens.

The main way to drive those benefits, he said, was to provide access to capital and income, help increase productivity, and boost access to health care and education.  His country interacted in many ways with countries that were not developing quickly enough to help improve health and education sectors.  Over the last six years, development resources provided by the United States for education had risen from $98 million to over $465 million, the highest dollar amount to education assistance of any donor.  His country’s $15 billion commitment to combating HIV/AIDS in over 120 countries was the biggest commitment of its kind ever.

Speaking for the Group of 77 developing countries and China, South Africa’s delegate said the economic and development gap between developed and developing countries was still widening and global imbalances in the economic, financial and trade regimes remained, due to the monetary and trade policies of developed countries.  Regardless of implementation of Summit goals, the fact was that globalization had yet to deliver the world’s poor from dehumanizing hunger and poverty.

He said the Millennium Development Goals were off track, especially in Africa and in spite of tremendous efforts on the part of the least developed countries and landlocked developing countries to build enabling national environments.  Support from developed partners was insufficient and sometimes not forthcoming.  Following the suspension of the Doha trade negotiations, it seemed that more protectionist policies would now be put in place.  Without a rules-based multilateral trading system, trade distorting policies would persist and would jeopardize the prospects of developing countries to generate additional export revenue and income from agricultural exports.

India’s representative said today’s meeting emphasized the urgent need to fully implement the global partnership for development and to enhance the momentum generated by the 2005 World Summit.  With that call, the Assembly had recognized the need to shift its debate from principles to practicalities; away from normative debates and on to an implementation phase of its work in the sense of dealing with resources and concrete realities in the outside world.

He called for the Economic and Social Council to hold regular assessments of international economic policies and their impact on development.  That could be done in context of the Council’s review of the Bretton Woods policies and recommendations on the global finance and trade institutions could help make the corrections that would create an environment supportive of development.  The legitimacy of international economic governance would be strengthened, along with confidence in it.  The resultant improvements would benefit both the developing and developed world.

Calling for a strengthening of the Economic and Social Council’s role and for the exploitation of synergies among financing mechanisms, Saudi Arabia’s representative said there should be a humanitarian consensus based on partnerships, justice, equality and capacity-building, to heighten the competitiveness of developing countries on the global scene.

On behalf of the European Union, Finland’s representative recalled that the 2005 Summit had emphasized the global partnership element of development and that enhancing the “capacity” for development was key.  He said that the Union had adopted an ambitious timetable for its States to achieve the 0.7 per cent target for official development assistance by 2015, with an intermediate goal of .56 per cent by 2010.  Half of the increases in aid would be devoted to addressing the special challenges of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa.  While each country had to take primary responsibility for its own development, the Union was committed to enhancing the developing country “voice” in the process of country-led sustainable development, particularly in the international financial institutions.

He said harmonization was essential to getting “more and better results” from development assistance and the United Nations should rationalize its work in the development area by implementing the recommendations of the System-wide Coherence Panel.  The evaluation and monitoring of United Nations effectiveness in the area of development should be strengthened, including by more systematically taking advantage of “lessons learned”.

Assembly Vice-President Mirjana Mladineo of Croatia presided over the meeting.  At the start, she expressed the Assembly’s sympathies to the Government and people of the Philippines for the tragic loss of life and the material damage suffered as a result of a recent typhoon.  She also delivered an address on behalf of Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain.

The representative of the Philippines acknowledged the expression of solidarity and called for assistance on his country’s behalf.

Also speaking this morning were the representatives of Netherlands, Uganda, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Switzerland and Cuba.

The Assembly will meet again at 3 p.m. this afternoon, Wednesday, 6 December, to consider the reports of its First Committee.

Background

The General Assembly met this morning to consider the follow-up of United Nations conferences and Summits, including the Millennium Summit, from the specific perspective of a focus on development.  The meeting was held in accordance with Assembly resolution A/RES/60/265 of 30 June, which called for an assessment of progress made during the previous year at every session of the General Assembly during the debate on follow-up.

Expression of Condolence

MIRJANA MLADINEO ( Croatia), Assembly Vice-President, expressed the Assembly’s sympathies to the Government and people of the Philippines for the tragic loss of life and the material damage suffered as a result of a recent typhoon.  She called on the international community to offer solidarity and a prompt, generous response to any request for help.

BAYANI MERCADO ( Philippines) expressed gratitude for the message and said that more than 500 people had been found dead and some 750 were still missing as a result of the super-typhoon and mudslides.  Initial estimates indicated the cost of the damage to infrastructure and crops to be over $750 million.  More than 1.5 million people were affected in 125 municipalities covering 13 provinces and 10 cities.  While roads in the provinces had largely been cleared, power and communications outages remained and lack of water was a major concern.

A state of national disaster had been declared on 3 December, he said.  The army was carrying out recovery and relief efforts 24 hours around-the-clock with international assistance.  The magnitude of the disaster necessitated an appeal for even more assistance, particularly in the areas of drinking water, water purifiers, emergency shelter, generators and medicines.  Meanwhile, those already helping were owed a debt of gratitude for their speedy response, including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and individual countries, both neighbours and those further away.

Statements

MIRJANA MLADINEO (Croatia), Assembly Vice-President, in a statement delivered on behalf of Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa (Bahrain), President of the General Assembly, said that the internationally agreed-to Millennium Declaration, the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals and the outcomes of the 2005 World Summit, had made an unprecedented contribution to focusing global attention on one of the world’s greatest challenges; the fight against poverty and the promotion of human development for all.  The General Assembly could make a real contribution by integrating and coordinating the outcomes of those major conferences and summits.  Furthermore, as a follow-up to the Assembly’s 60^th session -- the year of promises and commitments -- the current session would be one for action and implementation.

During the preceding informal thematic debate on 27 November, the Assembly had heard examples of effective partnerships, new approaches and success stories, but also of the challenges that threatened faster progress, she noted.  While there were examples of progress made, such as the rate of extreme poverty having fallen from 28 per cent of the world’s developing population in 1990 to 19 per cent in 2002; without further action, progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals would remain uneven.  For instance, on current trends, by 2015, over 90 per cent of the world’s poor would live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Referring again to the informal thematic debate on development, there were four key messages that had emerged.  Those were that commitments made at the major United Nations conference and summits be fulfilled in a timely fashion; implementation of the Millennium Development Goals could be accelerated by creating broader partnerships at the local, national and international levels; the United Nations was central to the implementation of internationally agreed-to development goal, and through collaboration, the international community could implement the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

DUMISANI KUMALO (South Africa), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, said that the economic and development gap between developed and developing countries was still widening and global imbalances in the economic, financial and trade regimes remained.  Further, the impact of developed countries’ monetary policies, trade policies and, in particular, trade distorting subsidies and non-tariff barriers, were still unresolved.  With the full and timely implementation of all the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits still to be achieved, all economic indications pointed to the fact that globalization had yet to deliver the world’s poor from dehumanizing hunger and poverty.

He went on to say that the Millennium Development Goals were off track, especially in Africa, in spite of appropriate measures taken and tremendous efforts made by the least developed countries and landlocked developing countries themselves to build enabling national environments for the implementation of the Brussels and Almaty Programmes of Action.  The support received from developed partners was still insufficient and was sometimes even completely lacking.  He said that following the suspension of the Doha trade negotiations, the Group of 77 and China was concerned that more protectionist policies would now be put in place.  The Group also believed that without a rules-based multilateral trading system, trade distorting policies would persist and would jeopardize the prospects of developing countries to generate additional export revenue and income from agricultural exports.

Developing countries had already prepared strategies and plans for development, and many had accumulated sufficient practice and expertise and knew what would be required of them to achieve sustainable development.  For that reason, the Group called for developing countries to be allowed full policy space to achieve their own objectives.  At the same time, leading international monetary and financial institutions, such as the Bretton Woods Institutions -- which had yet to take into account the policy framework adopted by the United Nations to ensure that their own policies conformed with the objectives of developing countries and were responsible to the real needs and concerns of the poor -- must play a more active and collaborative role with the United Nations in formulating a global poverty-eradication strategy.  He added that developing countries needed to have an active and effective voice in that decision-making process.

He said the eradication of hunger and poverty remained the greatest challenge facing the international community and that more concerted, coherent and coordinated approaches to ridding mankind of the scourge of grinding and degrading hunger and poverty and its crippling effects on the most vulnerable, namely women and children, were urgently needed.  If the developing world was to succeed in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the international community must ensure that the global partnership for development was fully implemented.  It was therefore imperative that the developed countries fully delivered on their commitments, he said, adding that, to that end, the integrated follow-up and implementation of the United Nations conference outcomes in the economic, social and related fields were essential.

JARL-HÅKAN ROSENGREN ( Finland), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, said he welcomed this first formal meeting specifically for follow-up on the development section of the World Summit Outcome.  The 2005 Summit had emphasized that development must be based on global partnership.  The Union had adopted an ambitious timetable for its States to achieve the 0.7 per cent target for official development assistance (ODA) by 2015, with an intermediate goal of .56 per cent by 2010.  Half of the increases in aid would be devoted to addressing the special challenges of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa.

Reaffirming that each country had to take primary responsibility for its own development, he said that the Union was committed to enhancing the development country “voice” in the process of country-led sustainable development, particularly in the international financial institutions.  The United Nations had the opportunity to place itself in an incomparable position to provide technical assistance for drawing up and implementing national development plans, which should be aimed at achieving the internationally agreed-upon development goals, including those related to health, education, gender equality and the environment.  Harmonization was vital to getting “more and better results” from development assistance.  In October, the Union had agreed to improve its decision-making systems to increase policy coherence for development.  The United Nations should do the same in context of system reform by implementing the recommendations of the System-wide Coherence Panel.

He said that the evaluation and monitoring of United Nations effectiveness in the area of development needed to be strengthened, including by systematically taking advantage of “lessons learned”.  Developing “capacity” for development was at the heart of development activities.  The Union was taking initiatives to promote decent work for all, both within its borders and beyond, through social development and trade policy measures in cooperation with the United Nations system.  Trade aid was also being revamped to enable developing countries to integrate into the multilateral rules-based trade system.  Governments were being urged to put commitments on trade-related assistance into operation.

Finally, he said there needed to be a strong partnership between the United Nations system, States and other stakeholders to support United Nations reform and make sure concrete actions were being taken together.  The Assembly had taken steps to follow up and build on the commitments made by leaders at the Summit.  The Special Session on HIV/AIDS, the High-Level Meetings on Least Developed Countries and on Migration, as well as an agreement on reviewing the Monterrey Consensus, were among those discussed.  The current meeting and the resolution on strengthening the Economic and Social Council were other steps.  The Union supported those developments and looked forward to the implementation of Economic and Social Council’s new functions, especially the Annual Ministerial Review and Development Cooperation Forum.

ARJAN HAMBURGER ( Netherlands) said that a new consensus on development was unnecessary:  what was truly needed was implementation in order to meet those commitments already made.  Although responsibility for development lay first and foremost with developing countries themselves, meeting the Millennium Development Goals was a shared responsibility of the entire international community.  Moreover, it was vital that all countries drew up Millennium Development Goal reports, as those would account for national and international efforts in a transparent way.

“We cannot give with one hand and take away with the other”, he continued.  It was imperative to strengthen policy coherence at the national and international levels in support of the Millennium Development Goals.  Trade and integration into the regional and world economy were crucial, and as such, his Government supported an open, rules-based, predictable and non-discriminatory trading system, progressive trade liberalization and the elimination of distorting subsidies and non-tariff barriers.

Expressing deep regret over the recent suspension of the Doha negotiations, he said that debt cancellation for those countries with unsustainable debt burden, as well as the more efficient use of existing resources, were both areas where important gains could be made.  In addition, United Nations funding was unpredictable; incentives for teamwork were lacking and competition for funding led to high transaction costs.  In light of that, the international community needed to reward a better integrated and coordinated multilateral system with greater, more predictable funding.

FRANCIS K. BUTAGIRA ( Uganda) said that the past decade had witnessed a welter of important conferences and summits, at which the international community had committed to actions that, if effectively implemented, would signal a turning point in global efforts to achieve agreed-to goals for poverty reduction and sustainable development.  All those important meetings had given birth to ambitious but achievable outcomes that were central to global stability and prosperity.  The United Nations had spared no effort to forge consensus on those documents, including the Millennium Declaration, and now it was time for the Organization to do all it could to see that the objectives of those documents, as well as other globally agreed-to development goals were met and the efforts of Governments to design and implement relevant national strategies were supported.

He went on to say that, by endorsing a broad vision of development, the 2005 World Summit had firmly placed the Millennium Development Goals squarely on the world development agenda.  That move had given renewed political impetus and significance to the integrated and coordinated follow-up of the outcomes of all United Nations-backed conferences.  But while efforts were being made on national and international levels to implement the objectives of those outcomes, progress remained slow, and there was a considerable gap between commitments and implementation.  He was particularly concerned by the developed countries’ continued lack of political will to live up to their commitments within agreed-to timeframes, especially in the area of official development assistance, where the 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product target, which had been agreed upon nearly 30 years ago, was being met in only a few cases.  Similar challenges were being faced in areas such as debt relief, trade and environmental protection.

But, while the challenges developing countries faced in the implementation of, and follow-up to, the major United Nations conferences was enormous, it was not insurmountable, he said, stressing that the multilateral development system needed better global governance.  To that end, he said, it was crucially important to improve coherence in mandates and roles, accountability and representation in the global governance system.  Uganda believed that that particular challenge could be addressed through ongoing system-wide United Nations reform.

Uganda also called for the establishment of effective and comprehensive mechanism to track implementation of development objectives by all development partners, especially developed countries.  To that end, he noted the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on System-wide Coherence, particularly on the establishment of a United Nations sustainable development board and the appointment of a development coordinator responsible for the performance and accountability of the Organization’s development activities.

Mr. AL-FAYEZ (Saudi Arabia), expressing support for the statement made by South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said that his Government had contributed to the least developed countries by adopting aid programmes to tackle poverty.  His Government believed that development and the eradication of poverty were a moral and humanitarian responsibility, based on collective responsibility without selectivity.

Moreover, he said that peace and development went hand in hand; peace could not be achieved with poverty.  Violence and destruction of property were not conducive to development.  Highlighting the prolonged suffering of the Lebanese and Palestinian people, he said that development could, indeed, only be achieved with stability.

Furthermore, the Economic and Social Council’s role needed to be strengthened and synergies among financing mechanisms should be exploited.  He hoped that a new humanitarian consensus would be created based on partnerships, justice, equality and capacity-building, so that the competitiveness of developing countries on the global scene could be heightened.

RAYMOND O. WOLFE ( Jamaica) said that, since the 2005 World Summit, the international community had made positive steps towards the global development agenda, notably the Assembly’s adoption of a resolution specifically on the follow-up to the Summit outcome’s development objectives, as well as another recent resolution on strengthening the Economic and Social Council.  While Jamaica would have wanted to see more ambitious and bold proposals set out in both those texts, beyond the reiteration of agreed-to language, it was nevertheless pleased that the Assembly had at least been able to pronounce itself on those critical issues.  Moreover, those decisions paved the way for the wider international community to make even more progress towards the achievement of globally agreed-to development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals and towards ensuring that the United Nations was adequately equipped to drive that process.

“Now is the time to move beyond agreed language to implementation of agreed commitments,” he said, stressing that this would involve further reflection on how best to improve coordination and coherence within the United Nations system.  At the same time, however, such an exercise must be informed by the greater objective of ensuring that the United Nations remained responsive to the needs of millions of impoverished people worldwide.  To that end, he noted that that Jamaica would be closely studying the proposals included in the recently released report of the High-Level Panel on System-wide coherence, in the areas of development, humanitarian affairs and the environment.

He went on to say that trade was another area in which Jamaica had hoped to see more significant developments in the wake of the 2005 Summit.  Despite the long-acknowledged importance of international trade as an engine for economic growth and development, there had been no forward movement on the now stalled Doha trade negotiations.  Each day that passed without further progress in those trade talks was a serious blow to the integrity of the multilateral trading system.  Jamaica urged all parties, therefore, especially developed countries, to demonstrate the necessary political will to not only bring those negotiations to a successful conclusion, but, in doing so, to adhere to the development imperatives outlined by the Doha Ministerial Declaration, the 2004 decision of the World Trade Organization’s General Council and the recent Ministerial Declaration issued after the Hong Kong Round.

He then drew the Assembly’s attention to several key issues that must continue to drive the world community’s development debate, including improved coordination and collaboration within the United Nations system and between it and the Bretton Woods Institutions and Member States; promoting respect for national ownership and formulation of development strategies in accordance with national priorities; translating the commitments made at the major United Nations conferences and summits in to concrete action, and giving more attention to the special needs of the small-island developing States, the least developed countries and the landlocked least developed countries.  On that particular issue, he said that the uneven progress made by those countries in their efforts to achieve internationally agreed-upon development goals spotlighted the urgency with which the wider international community should devote itself towards making real the Millennium Declaration’s call for establishing a true global partnership for development.

RICHARD MILLER ( United States) said the Charter made it clear that development was a process, not a goal.  “Development is not something that one achieves, it is something that someone does,” he added, questioning why the world had divided itself into ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries.  What did it mean to be developed?  Did it mean that the process of development had stopped?  And why, when speaking of developing countries, did the international community always express its concern?  But development was a process of change, improvement and growth.  So, didn’t every country desire to be “developing”?  The focus should be on countries that were not developing, not moving forward and not changing fast enough to provide socio-economic benefits to their citizens.

He said that the main way to drive those benefits was providing access to capital and income, helping to increase productivity and boosting access to health care and education.  With that in mind, the United States interacted in many ways with countries that were not developing quickly enough to help improve health and education sectors.  During the Bush Administration, Washington had boosted its allocation of development resources targeted to education sectors from $98 million to over $465 million.  The United States also provided the highest dollar amount to education assistance of any donor.  In the area of health, the United States had made the largest commitment ever to fight a single disease, with its five-year, $15 billion commitment to combat HIV/AIDS in over 120 countries.  It had also been the largest contributor thus far to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

Through contributions such as those, the United States intended to fight ignorance, end suffering and achieve implementation of the Millennium Declaration, all in an effort to help people in countries where development was lagging to live better lives.  Finally, he noted that the Millennium Development Goals had ignored the importance of access to capital, but the United Nations addressed that by adopting the 2002 Monterrey Consensus, which had touched on foreign direct investment and debt relief, among others.  That conference had also other sources of public/private capital, such as remittances.  Subsequently, George Bush had called for a new compact for development, which had since transformed into the Millennium Challenge Account, aimed at helping countries integrate into the international system and providing access to vast sums that were available in the private sector.

IFTEKHAR AHMED CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh), aligning himself with the statement made by South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said that, while many were living in greater prosperity than ever before, one-quarter of the world’s population still lived on less than one dollar a day.  “What we need is a new development paradigm with its focus on poverty alleviation and an appropriate mix of quantity and quality of growth,” he added.

Bangladesh’s experience had revealed that every society performed best when dependent on its own intellectual and cultural resources.  More specifically, advances made within the field of microcredit, where Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus had contributed significantly and women’s non-formal education, had transformed his country’s societal landscape.  The United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report in 2006 also showed Bangladesh as having made impressive gains in the water and sanitation sectors.

Furthermore, he said that Bangladesh’s human development take-off could be attributed to several factors, including active partnerships with civil society; the transfer of resources to targeted groups, and extended health programmes.  Despite such progress, there was still a long way to go in achieving all the Millennium Development Goals.  In order for that to happen, several essential measures were required.  Those needed to include the expansion of ODA; the immediate commitment to write off all outstanding debts of all least developed countries, and the elimination of all kinds of protectionism, among others.

NIRUPAM SEN ( India) said development was the centrepiece for developing countries.  The development follow-up called for by Assembly resolution A/RES/60/265 (2006) emphasized the urgent need to fully implement the global partnership for development and to enhance the momentum generated by the 2005 World Summit.  With that call, the Assembly had recognized the need to shift its debate from principles to practicalities, away from normative debates and on to an implementation phase of its work in the sense of dealing with resources and concrete realities in the outside world.

Outlining areas needing to be addressed, from strengthening national infrastructures to balancing global inequities in the areas of finance and trade, he said it was crucial for the United Nations to undertake regular assessments of international economic policies and their impact on development.  The Economic and Social Council should carry out that study in context of its review of policies of the Bretton Woods Institutions.  Its review of international economic policies would enable it to make recommendations towards the corrections needed to create an environment supportive of development.  That, in turn, would increase the legitimacy and confidence in international economic governance and maybe even improve that governance for the benefit of both the developing and developed world.  The Assembly’s specific meetings on development would go a long way towards building complementarity between the Economic and Social Council and the Assembly.  It would also enhance the Organization’s development agenda.

In conclusion, he said that the process of United Nations reform should be driven by a vision of a strengthened United Nations role in development issues.  The delivery role of the United Nations would be marginal, given the modest funding available in light of huge demands.  However, the catalytic role of the United Nations was important.  It was necessary to address the gap between mandates and financial resources to fulfil them.  Improving accountability was key to that.  The debate on the accountability report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions should provide insight in that regard.

MUNIR AKRAM ( Pakistan) said that, currently, international economic relations were inequitable and unequal for developing countries.  Paradoxically, globalization had enlarged both prosperity and poverty.  At the same time, growth in the developed and developing world had not been matched by greater employment, further enlarging the circle of the poor.  In short, growth with equity needed to be the prime target of development.

There had been general agreement on goals and policies at the national, regional and global levels, he continued.  Decisions had been taken at a number of summits and conferences of the United Nations over the past several years and those were collectively denoted as internationally agreed-to development goals.  This included the Millennium Development Goals.  However, what was missing was an overarching mechanism to ensure the adequate follow-up and implementation of those Goals.  Likewise, it was imperative to ensure that the coherence and coordination of the policies related to them.  Indeed, implementation remained the Achilles heel of the United Nations endeavours in the development field.

The establishment of a monitoring mechanism, which could objectively measure progress -- or the lack thereof -- in the implementation of the internationally agreed-to development goals and the Millennium Development Goals, was crucial.  Such an evaluation, or matrix, would allow for an assessment of actions taken by all relevant players.  He added that such a comprehensive matrix could, in turn, help provide policy guidance and recommend policy adjustments.

ANDREAS BAUM ( Switzerland) said that, while too little time had passed since the Assembly had adopted the “development follow-up” resolution (A/RES/60/265) to comprehensively discuss progress that had been made thus far, his delegation would discuss specific elements of that text.  Firstly, the text called on the United Nations to play a fundamental role in promoting international cooperation for development and Switzerland believed that, because development was such a highly complex matter, the Organization should tackle the various phases and elements in a logically disaggregated manner to avoid “generalities and sweeping statements” that eroded both the relevance and convening capacity of the United Nations.  That would require a structured approach and the collective discipline to implement agreed-to objectives and use that as a basis to take further steps.

To that end, Switzerland believed that the 2005 World Summit outcome offered a unique chance to seize the opportunity to strengthen the Economic and Social Council, particularly by ensuring that the new Development Cooperation Forum, amongst other things, offered a platform where the voice of the beneficiaries, including Governments, was given adequate consideration and provided a comprehensive overview of the existing funding channels, including major private foundations and emerging donors.  Turning next to concrete, effective and timely implementation of all agreed-to development commitments, he said that a lot remained to be done to ensure the implementation of the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review, especially to ensure that the most important and development-related specialized agencies joined the United Nations Country teams.

LUIS PEDROSO BUERGO ( Cuba) said he supported the statement made by South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.  No new commitments to development needed to be made.  The current state of development demonstrated the fate of commitments to that goal.  Five years after the Millennium Summit and Declaration, little progress had been made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  The time had come for moving beyond talking and making speeches about development goals to shouldering the responsibilities assumed in taking on commitments.  The challenges of poverty were created by conditions affecting all countries, rich or poor.  Those challenges must be met and addressed in the spirit of complementarity and mutual benefit for development to become a reality.

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For information media • not an official record