UNITED NATIONS: UNDP Seeks Donors Among Recipients

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 1996 (IPS) - The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) wants some of its relatively prosperous Third World aid recipients to become donors.

But whether the beneficiaries can make up for the huge gaps in funding created by shortfalls in contributions from the United States, traditionally’s UNDP’s biggest donor, remains unclear.

Drastic cuts made by the Republican-controlled Congress last year have moved Washington far down the list of contributors. At 52 million dollars, Washington’s contribution to UNDP in fiscal 1996, which ended Sep 30, was less than half the 113 million dollars it provided in 1995.

“The reduction undermines the leadership of UNDP Administrator Gus Speth, an American who has been highly responsive to our concerns about improving the quality, value and accountability of U.N. programmes,” U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright admitted recently.

Indeed, Denmark is considering running its development minister, Poul Nielson, against Speth when his term expires next June, according to sources here. Copenhagen may get strong backing from its European partners who have expressed increasing exasperation with Washington’s failure to pay the U.N. system the more than 1.5 billion dollars it owes in arrears.

Of the rich countries, Japan is the largest single donor (106 million dollars), followed by Denmark (105 million dollars), the Netherlands (103 million dollars) and Germany (94 million dollars).

In fiscal 1997, which began Oct. 1, the Clinton administration had asked Congress for 78.7 million dollars for UNDP. “And we expect right now, based on some initial consultations up on (Capitol) Hill, that we might be able to get an amount close to that,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Friday.

“If that is the case, I think that’s a very strong demonstration of U.S. support of the UNDP,” Burns noted.

While an improvement over Washington’s 1996 performance, U.S. shortfalls are spurring Speth to seek new donors.

“There is a real opportunity for some of the rapidly growing middle-income developing nations to become donors and participants in Third World economic development,” UNDP Administrator Gus Speth told IPS.

South Korea is the only former UNDP beneficiary providing help to the New York-based agency. The 22nd most important contributor, it currently provides some 1.5 million dollars annually. In contrast, the three largest donors — Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands – provide more than 100 million dollars each annually.

“We are working closely with Korea on development assistance,” Speth said.

South Korea, one of the 132 members of the Group of 77 developing countries, is set to join the rich man’s club, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) early next year. Eight current UNDP aid recipients — India, China, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Cuba, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka – are designated “major contributors” to the agency.

All of them contribute more than one million dollars to UNDP, although a few pay in non-convertible local currency. With an average yearly contribution of about four million dollars, India is the largest recipient-donor. It is followed by China (three million dollars) and Saudi Arabia (two million dollars).

Speth singled out Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia as three developing nations which have successfully overcome Third World poverty. “In Singapore, poverty had been virtually eliminated,” he said.

Behind the “East Asian miracle,” Speth said, was a long period of successful development cooperation with UNDP.

Asked why UNDP continues to have a presence in some of the world’s newly-industrialised countries which need little or no assistance, Speth said middle-income countries must finance the agency’s office and programmes there.

“We have a very large programme in Brazil which is entirely funded by the Brazilians,” he noted. “Our experience is that middle- income countries want a U.N. presence. In fact, every country in the world wants a strong U.N. presence, and every country wants UNDP to be there.”

Speth pointed out that only 10 percent of its total resources of two billion dollars is earmarked for middle-income countries, while 90 percent went to countries with per capita incomes of less than 750 dollars.

Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, chairm,an of the current session of the U.N. General Assembly, questions the necessity for UNDP to have offices in every single country in East Asia given the strength of these nations’ economies.

“When you have a UNDP office in Malaysia, is there a need for one in Singapore and another in Indonesia? Surely, ASEAN can be seen as a subregion,” he said.

ASEAN – The Association of Southeast Asian Countries consists of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.