DEVELOPMENT: West Backs U.N. Conference on Development Aid

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 1997 (IPS) - The United Nations, after more than 10 years of dragging its feet, has agreed to convene an international conference on the politically-sensitive issue of development financing.

“It is one of the most important decisions this year,” says Ambassador Oscar de Rojas of Venezuela.

The proposed conference is to be held “no later than the year 2001.”

The proposal for an international conference has been on the U.N. agenda since the 1980s, but the United States and other Western donors have argued that development financing is best discussed at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – not the United Nations.

“We were able to weaken their arguments because we were willing to hold the conference in conjunction with the World Bank and the IMF,” Rojas told IPS. “We have set the process in motion for a major event,” and it will be a meeting of “extreme significance” for developing nations.

Western nations have been reluctant to support an international conference fearing they will be forced to make new commitments on development aid to Third World nations. Most of these countries have failed to meet the target set by the General Assembly in 1970: 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) as the quantum of annual aid to developing nations.

Rojas said the 132 developing countries of the Group of 77, along with China, were “very insistent” on holding the conference, the preparatory work for which will begin next year.

The resolution to hold the conference, taken after painstaking negotiations in the U.N.’s Economic and Financial Committee under Rojas, will be adopted by the 185-member General Assembly next week. The United States and other Western nations have urged a moratorium on mega U.N. conferences so the meeting on development financing is likely to be at the U.N. building in MNew York to cut costs.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, well aware his organisation is nearly bankrupt, has proposed that instead of huge conferences, the General Assembly should hold special sessions on selected political and economic issues. He already has proposed the first such session should be on development financing.

As part of the restructuring of the world body, Annan is setting up a new Office for Development Financing next year. “The Office’s mission would be to seek new and additional resources for development through innovative mechanisms and modalities,” he said.

Annan also is establishing a new U.N. Development Group (UNDG) which will encompass the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) under a single authority.

The Office of Development Financing has also been mandated to explore the possibility of creating non-profit entities to enable the UNDG to receive tax-deductible contributions from individuals and especially private sector corporations at the country level. The first such major contribution of about one billion dollars came from U.S. media Tycoon Ted Turner, head of the Cable News Network (CNN).

The decision to hold a meeting on developing financing comes at a time when Third World nations and U.N. agencies are criticising Western donors for slashing development aid.

Annan has lamented the declining trend in official development assistance (ODA) which, he says, “needs to be restored as rapidly as possible.”

In a report released in July, Annan said that following a sharp fall in 1993 and a partial recovery in 1994, ODA dropped by nearly 10 percent in real terms in 1995 and fell again in 1996 to the lowest level in 10 years.

Total ODA has averaged about 55 to 60 billion dollars annually. The figure for 1995 was 58.9 billion dollars and for 1996 about 55.1 billion dollars.

Annan said the composition of ODA has shifted, with a significant portion being used to fund emergency relief and peacekeeping activities and less directed towards long-term development needs. “The declining availability of ODA and bleak aid outlook is particularly worrisome for the least developed countries (LDCs),” he said.

Of the 48 LDCs, described as the poorest of the world’s poor, 32 are from Africa.

Annan also argued that the rationale for ODA needs to be reaffirmed and placed on a strong footing for the years to come. “This calls for a clear understanding and a sense of partnership and shared purpose between donors and recipients,” he said.