Brussels, 20 May - A “new momentum” has been created for the world’s poorest countries by a UN conference that ended here today.
"A conference like this generates thinking and networking and activities long before it begins, and long after it ends", said Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, in his closing statement today. “It is important that we view this week as but one moment in an ongoing process. Implementation begins the day after the conference ends – tomorrow.”
In adopting a political declaration and programme of action for the development of the LDCs over the next 10 years, the conference committed its 193 participating governments to lowering trade barriers to LDC exports, reducing the debt burden and increasing official development assistance (ODA).
The conference, which opened here on 14 May, focused on the 49 least developed countries (LDCs), 34 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. A year-long preparatory process had provided the impetus for such trailblazing measures as the EU’s “Everything but Arms” initiative, which grants duty- and quota-free access to the European market for all LDC exports with the exception of arms, and the untying of $2 billion in LDC aid by OECD members. Neither of those would have been possible without the conference, which had created pressure on member States to take action, concurred European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, European Development Commissioner Poul Nielson and Netherlands Development Cooperation Minister Eveline Herfkens.
The Conference was “not a solution, but an important building block”, claimed Swedish Minister of Trade Leif Pagrotsky, who presided over the conference on behalf of the European Union. In the absence of consensus or political will for a lasting solution to problems of debt, ODA or trade, rather than opting for resignation or confrontation, a new approach had been sought, Mr. Ricupero said.
The conference had “changed the way we do business”, he added. It had involved such non-governmental actors as musicians, businesswomen, young entrepreneurs and e-commerce professionals, who spoke eloquently about the successes and difficulties of making a living in the LDCs: Madame Nancy Abeid Arahamane, for example, who is exporting camel cheese from her native Mauritania, or Dawit Bekele, whose online shopping site, Ethiolink/Ethiogift, capitalizes on the cost advantages of doing business in Ethiopia.
Commissioner Nielson termed the mood of the weeklong conference “sensible and realistic”. He said the programme of action (A/CONF.191/L.18) adopted this afternoon after negotiations that lasted far into the night was “something the world has been needing and waiting for”, and that “viewed in this way, the Conference marks a turning point”.
Among the other initiatives to emerge from the conference and the momentum it has inspired were the EU’s commitments to forgo payments on all outstanding LDC debt arising from special loans under the Lome Conventions, institute a tiered pricing mechanism for key pharmaceuticals and untie EC drug procurement from other forms of development aid. Other financial pledges were made to combat HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases and promote good governance, particularly in the LDCs – the latter through the creation of a UNDP multi-donor trust fund. Previous commitments to devoting 0.7% of GNP to ODA were reaffirmed, with some countries (Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden) setting more ambitious goals of 1%; over the coming decade, Sweden will boost its ODA to LDCs alone to 0.25% of GNP. Debt relief measures were announced by Italy, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
A number of countries also announced contributions to a new integrated framework for trade-related technical assistance to LDCs. A World Trade University was launched, to serve as an institution of higher learning for entrepreneurs and policy makers, primarily in developing countries. Twenty-eight bilateral investment treaties were signed by nine LDCs, paving the way for increased foreign direct investment. City-to-city cooperation agreements were signed as well for cooperation in such areas as public works, health centres, vocational training, water and sanitation, and computerization of municipal services.
UNCTAD, which served as secretariat for the conference and is the focal point for the least developed countries within the UN system, announced the forthcoming launch of an e-tourism package to help LDCs reach, and sell to, potential tourism markets worldwide, without the need for intermediaries. UNCTAD and other UN agencies will also set up an Investment Advisory Council for LDCs, involving CEOs from large transnational corporations on the one hand and ministers from LDCs on the other, to discuss concrete projects. FAO, WTO and UNIDO will establish a trust fund facility to support national capacity-building in food quality standards for LDCs, while FAO and UNHCR are creating a trust fund to enhance refugee women’s capacities in the area of food security. Other announcements include a joint UNCTAD/ILO initiative to promote school attendance in LDCs through cash grants to poor families and plans to foster the local assembly and manufacture of renewable energy equipment. The US Agency for International Development announced its intended 20% budget increase for education.
Implementation of the conference’s goals will be guided by the Programme of Action for the Decade 2001-2010, which calls initiatives to arrest the marginalization of LDCs an “ethical imperative”. It outlines a broad range of measures to be taken by the developed nations and the LDCs themselves in the form of a framework for partnership and specific commitments on, among others, good governance at national and international levels; building human and institutional capacities; enhancing the role of trade in development; reducing vulnerability and protecting the environment; and mobilizing financial resources.
The aim of the action programme, through its partnership framework and seven commitments, is to significantly improve the conditions of the LDCs’ 630 million people, and to that end it outlines within each commitment policies and measures for the LDCs and their development partners. Throughout its 60 pages, it describes ambitious goals, such as halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, while acknowledging that the objectives and goals set at the last LDC Conference in Paris 10 years ago “have not been achieved.”
The Programme points out that, while the LDCs have pursued the economic reforms called for in Paris -- including reducing trade barriers and strengthening regulatory frameworks -- the results have been “below expectations”. Their growth and development prospects have diminished during the decade through a combination of, among others, declining financial aid, an increasing debt burden, and complex trade barriers. Reversing their increasing marginalization and promoting their integration into the world economy is, the Programme says, “an ethical imperative”.
The Programme’s partnership framework describes implementation of the mutual commitments by LDCs and development partners as a “shared responsibility”. The commitments that follow fall under the headings of: fostering a people-centred framework; good governance at national and international levels; building human and institutional capacities; building productive capacities to make globalization work for the LDCs; enhancing the role of trade in development; reducing vulnerability and protecting the environment; and mobilizing financial resources.
The Programme concludes with a chapter on implementation and follow-up which calls for an “efficient and highly visible follow-up mechanism”. Follow-up at the national level is stressed, with governments being urged to translate the programme into specific measures for development and poverty eradication, based largely on the national programmes of action prepared by each LDC for the conference. Civil society, including the private sector, is to be involved through a broad-based and inclusive dialogue.
In a closing statement today, the representative of the least developed countries, Abdul Jalil of Bangladesh, said the LDCs had reiterated their primary responsibility for their own development, but assisted by their global partners. Cooperation would ensure that the newly adopted Programme of Action would not fail like its two predecessors. The conference had rekindled hope in the minds of 630 million people that their aspirations might finally begin to be realized.
The Programme of Action will be submitted to the UN General Assembly this fall for approval. It will be accompanied by a Declaration (A/CONF.191/L.20) also adopted today which recognizes that “the most important financing of development comes from domestic resources” and emphasizes the need for an “enabling environment for savings and investment”. Such an environment, the Declaration contends, should include reliable financial, legal and administrative institutions and transparent management of public resources. The Declaration further calls for using the WTO’s upcoming meeting in Qatar to “advance the development dimension of trade”.
Both the Declaration and Programme of Action draw heavily on the development goals set forth in the Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN Millennium Summit last September.
The conference was attended by some 6,500 participants from governments, parliaments, UN specialized agencies and civil society, which organized an NGO Forum in parallel. It was hosted by the European Union at the European Parliament in Brussels.
