DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN ADDRESS TO ‘STATE OF THE PLANET’ CONFERENCE, STRESSES

NEED FOR CONCERTED ACTION TO REVERSE NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s keynote address to Columbia University’s State of the Planet Conference in New York, today, 27 March:

I am grateful for the opportunity to address this important gathering on development, a major focus of my work both during my career in Tanzania and now at the United Nations.

At the dawn of the millennium, world leaders met at the United Nations and made a set of bold pledges to the world’s poor.  They outlined a vision of a world where all children complete their primary education, where people have access to safe drinking water, where families are protected from deadly diseases like malaria, and where nations work together to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.  Above all, by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), this unprecedented gathering of leaders promised a world where people are no longer condemned to a life of extreme poverty.  They set a timeline, aiming to slash global social ills significantly by 2015.

National leaders participating in the 2005 World Summit recommitted the international community to achieving our targets for development, including the ambitious MDGs.

Now here we are in 2008, around the midpoint in our timetable for reaching the MDGs.  This is an ideal opportunity to review our progress so that we can move faster toward these life-saving Goals.

Our global scorecard is mixed.  We are likely to reach our goal of cutting poverty by half in almost all regions except sub-Saharan Africa.  The challenge there is formidable because of high poverty rates but we are managing to advance.  It appears we are halting the relentless increase in the number of poor.  The proportion of poor people is also declining, but not fast enough.

The proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day has fallen, and experts predict we may meet the MDG target of halving extreme poverty.  But this welcome progress is uneven, with Africa lagging far behind.

At the same time, considering the negligible growth in Africa over the last quarter of the twentieth century, recent progress is encouraging, even impressive.

It is difficult to identify how we are doing in terms of addressing hunger because we just don’t have the comprehensive data we need.  But clearly hunger is a scourge that continues to afflict hundreds of millions of people.  And rising food prices are a major concern.  During seven of the last 10 years, food consumption has exceeded production.

Climate, weather extremes and other agricultural conditions are deteriorating just at a time when farmers are being drawn to biofuel production and the higher returns they can bring.  Financial turmoil is expected to spark financial speculation in commodities, including food.  The result will be higher food prices and the poor are most likely to suffer.

Of course, addressing poverty involves much more than raising income.  We have seen some good news in other aspects of tackling poverty, like providing access to education and health care.  Progress in these areas has accelerated since 2000, including in many countries where the needs were greatest.

But again, advances are uneven, both among and within countries, and all too often they are not enough for us to reach our promised goals.

Overall, there has been unusually widespread movement in many positive directions.  The important exceptions are countries torn by fighting.  Internal conflict and civil unrest are blocking progress, and sometimes even setting us back.  These countries must step up efforts to resolve their disputes.  And when they need support, the international community must unite in its efforts to foster peace and stability, and to sustain these conditions so favourable to sustainable development.

A major exception to the wide-ranging progress involves the planet’s physical environment.  There are no “quick impact initiatives” that will rapidly reverse the negative trends of the past decades.  If we look specifically at the new information emerging over the past two years on the seriousness of climate change, we see the urgency of forging a global response.  All countries must work together to effectively address this challenge.

Overall, we have to speed up action on the MDGs in a way that enables all segments of the world population to benefit equally.

There is a global partnership for development forged at conferences in Monterrey and Johannesburg as well as the 2005 World Summit.  It is based on two central and complementary pillars, namely that developing countries accept primary responsibility for their own development, while developed countries play their role as active partners who will support these efforts, including by providing assistance and creating conditions that are conducive to development.  If either side breaks their commitment, the partnership will falter.

All of us are involved –- not just countries but the United Nations and its agencies, other inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental groups, civil society and the private sector.

Many countries have already lived up to their commitment to prepare and carry out national development strategies.  The United Nations is working to help all others do the same, offering policy advice and support.

Each development strategy is uniquely attuned to the circumstances that prevail in a given country.  There is no one-size-fits-all approach.  But having said that, experience shows that there are some broad issues that all countries need to address.  National development should be managed in an effective way that benefits all segments of the population, especially the poor and disadvantaged.  Also, women must be empowered to contribute to development and to reap its benefits on an equal footing with men.

In all cases, we must go beyond the income dimension of poverty to address other aspects, especially access to health services and education.  And we have to intensify action to create decent work opportunities.

Another principle that applies everywhere is that development should not be seen primarily in terms of philanthropy or welfare.  All partners should use each country’s development strategy as the framework for their support and tailor their assistance accordingly.

At the same time, donor countries should ensure that they fulfil their commitments to raise official development assistance (ODA).  National ownership must be an essential element of an effective partnership for development.

Unfortunately, ODA levels have declined since the 1990s, except for a brief upturn after Monterrey.  To carry out their strategies, developing countries each need year-by-year projections of how much external assistance they will receive.

We have a number of opportunities this year to improve the effectiveness of our aid agenda.  In July, the United Nations Economic and Social Council will convene its first biennial Development Cooperation Forums, bringing together donors and recipients.  Soon after, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee will lead consideration of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness at a high-level forum in Accra in September.

During these discussions, we can take heart from progress in reducing the external debt burden of the poorest developing countries.  [But a substantial part of ODA growth was accounted for by debt relief, which involved some double counting of earlier loans that were later written off.]

Overall, development partners have made some progress in fulfilling their agreed responsibilities.  But there is a long road ahead if commitments are to be met in full and on time.

On the trade front, unfortunately progress has been negligible.  There is little that is truly “development” left in the Doha trade round agenda –- including in the area of increasing market access for developing countries’ agricultural products.

Rapid growth in some developing countries has resulted in greater demand and higher prices for primary commodities, which have in turn spread growth to many other exporting countries.

These countries have sustained high growth in recent years for the first time in three decades.  But we can hardly credit international trade reforms for these gains.

Until the United States sub-prime mortgage market crisis triggered a credit crunch and a slowdown which threatens to spread, the world was enjoying unusually widespread and sustained economic growth.  This period of relative prosperity provided opportunities for countries to reinforce their efforts to end poverty and hunger, especially by promoting decent employment and improving public services after decades of neglect.

Developing countries must sustain the momentum they have achieved by continuing to improve their development institutions, policies and actions.  Development partners must deliver fully on their pledges to improve the quantity and quality of financial resources available to developing States.

Together, all countries must reach agreement on a new set of trading arrangements that leaves aside narrow commercial and political interests and achieves the agreed goal of establishing a trade regime that actively contributes to development.

We must also work to make global governance regimes more open, including by broadening and strengthening developing countries’ participation while equitably increasing their voice and influence in international financial institutions.  The Monterrey Consensus launched a process on this front, but little real progress has been made so far.  We need practical and visible steps, and we need them soon.

At the end of this year, we will hold the Doha Review of the Monterrey commitments to enhance financing for development.  This is an important opportunity to address these critical issues.

In the face of the multifaceted challenges ahead, all parts of society must join forces, including civil society and the private sector.  For our part, the United Nations is committed to nurturing the partnerships that are so crucial to realizing development goals.

Today the world must refocus its attention, and its resources, on the places and people that are being left behind.  As we do this, we must bear in mind that none are more committed to ending poverty than the poor themselves.  Often, all they lack is the guidance, the tools and the opportunities to win this struggle.

Our task is to bridge these gaps.  We have to view people living in poverty as agents of change.  This requires us to encourage national ownership of development strategies.  It requires citizens to actively participate in policymaking, and Governments to become more accountable in their efforts to achieve development goals.  Above all, it requires a true partnership for development, where rich countries do their part in delivering resources and productive employment opportunities through market access.

We have reason to be optimistic, even in Africa.  Tremendous gains are possible if the international community translates its commitments into results.

Against this background, the Secretary-General launched in September last year the MDG Africa Steering Group, his signature initiative, to accelerate progress towards the MDGs in Africa.  The Group, which features an unprecedented level of collaboration amongst the leaders of the international development community engaged in Africa, met recently in New York and agreed on a set of concrete recommendations which, if fully implemented, could effectively advance Africa’s development.

The facts on the ground in many poor countries are clear:  with carefully designed programmes and sound policies, backed up by strong Government leadership and support from the international community, real change can happen.

Apart from increased agricultural productivity that the former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has alluded to, Malawi has drastically reduced child mortality rates, and Senegal is making rapid progress towards meeting the water and sanitation MDG targets.   Tanzania has recorded creditable achievement in primary education.  These are just three examples that show success is possible.  The challenge now is to replicate them in more countries.

So we have before us a critical set of programmes that need to be carried out in coming years in the face of pressing challenges.  In particular, the sharp rise in food prices underscores the urgent need to invest in raising agricultural productivity across Africa.

At the same time, the high prices dramatically increase the need for additional resources to fight malnutrition and hunger.  We will need at least half a billion dollars to meet the most urgent needs.

We can achieve real long-term gains if we use this crisis to improve access to markets and reduce subsidies for agriculture in rich countries.  Participants in the Doha Round of trade negotiations can jump-start rapid progress if they take the necessary decisions to move forward.

We have in place the systems, knowledge and tools needed to reach ambitious targets in each area, saving millions of lives and empowering African countries to achieve sustained growth.  To finance these programmes, African countries need to mobilize domestic resources, and developed countries must provide the support they promised on an adequate, sustained and predictable basis.  In some areas, particularly in infrastructure, the private sector can provide important co-financing.

Developing countries, including many in Africa, are showing leadership on these issues and we are committed to working with them to reach their development targets, including the MDGs.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has personally pledged to lead this effort.  He is joining forces with the President of the General Assembly to convene a high-level meeting this September in New York on the Millennium Development Goals.  The event will bring together world leaders, civil society and the private sector to help translate commitments into action.

I sincerely hope that this event will make a real difference in bridging the gap between promises and reality, and that it will strengthen the accountability of all parties in the global partnership for development.  Together, we can demonstrate the political will needed to end the scourge of poverty once and for all.

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For information media • not an official record