Professor Nurul Islam serves as Chairman of the United Nations Committee for Development Planning. He is also Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, and Emeritus Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C. Dr. Islam, who has held senior positions in his Government, academia and the United Nations system, is the author of several books and numerous articles. He spoke to the UN Chronicle during the Committee's session in May.

The CDP is the only non-governmental expert body in the United Nations system, as distinguished from other UN expert groups, which are intergovernmental. It has been like that since its inception and, as such, has in my view a unique role to play. That role is to act as a think-tank and, therefore, as a bridge to thinking in the rest of the world on development policy issues--originating from various academic thinkers and national and regional think-tanks--and to bring these to bear on the deliberations of the United Nations in ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council), other intergovernmental bodies, as well as in the Secretariat itself. ...

You have, in a group of 24, expertise available from all kinds of backgrounds and all schools of thought, and I consider it is so important that the Member States and the Secretariat of the United Nations have access to this rich source of information in order to help in its deliberations.

As the United Nations redefines itself, in particular, as regards its development efforts, should it consider working more closely with such experts and policy makers who have important insights to contribute?

... That's essential if the United Nations has any role to play in the future in the economic and social fields -- and the UN Charter does provide the Organization with a fundamental role to play in promoting world economic and social development. It therefore has to take a forward-looking view and seek out various sources of thinking about present and future developments in the world economy. The UN has to play a role in economic and social development. It doesn't have many resources at its disposal, admittedly true, but it has to play a role in promoting dialogue between the various sets of countries, in debating policies, in order that a consensus on development and the future of the world economy can emerge. ...

What do you expect to come out of the CDP during this session?

This session of the Committee is dealing with the impact of globalization and how to meet the challenge in developing economies and transitional economies of ensuring growth and alleviating poverty. For example, short-term capital flows are highly volatile, moving rapidly across national borders. This generates instability in the domestic economies of those countries. How do you handle this situation? What kind of policy do you pursue? The globalization does put some constraint on national policy choices. How do you devise new policy instruments? What kind of international intervention or policy instruments do you need to deal with the impact of globalization? There are middle-income countries which have been integrating with the global economy more successfully than the low-income countries, including the least developed countries that are unable to take advantage of the opportunities. How do you differentiate policies for these two sets of countries?

With official development assistance now declining drastically, alternative resources, such as private capital flows, are available from many countries. But the least developed countries -- the poorest ones -- do not receive it. What is their source of capital? How do you increase and redirect official development assistance to those countries? Also, how do you match private and public capital flows to meet the requirements of the poorest countries? These are some of the new challenges which the CDP is looking at.

If the poorer developing countries are not likely to receive in the near future much in terms of private capital flows and, at the same time, official development assistance is declining, and if this trend is allowed to continue, a large portion of humanity will be marginalized. This challenge has to be met so that marginalization of the poorer countries is reversed and sustained growth is generated in them.

How does one do that?

I think that the international community and developed countries have to come to grips with two things. Firstly, the problem of expanding development assistance to them and, secondly, that of devising special trade measures for them to expand their access to world markets. I think it's already beginning, or is bound soon, to dawn on developed countries that perhaps they have gone too far and that something has to be done to help. And we hope we can stimulate that process of thinking a little bit in order to stimulate growth in the poorest countries through special initiatives and new measures.

That kind of reasoning was behind the debt relief initiative, which originated in the United Nations but has now been taken over by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: to lift the debt burden from the back of the poorest of countries. It was only one step, and it took time to come to that deal. It took several years of argument, debate and analysis before reaching agreement that something had to be done. The process is long and time-consuming, but one has to keep at it. That's how I see the situation. ...

Borders are becoming in some ways more porous, less monolithic. At times, this can be for the better, as when you see growing regional cooperation among countries. Other times, it can be for the worse, for instance, looking at the Great Lakes region in Central Africa, where ethnic issues have allowed conflict to spread across borders, caused massive displacements, and made development difficult if not impossible. Is the CDP also looking at this issue?

This is a question that needs to be considered in depth in the near future. In other words, there is a range of issues relating to what can be called "economics of conflict"? The impact of intra- and inter-country conflicts -- for example, within ethnic groups -- and the displacement of individuals within countries as well as across borders is a serious humanitarian issue. It also has a serious economic impact on production, growth, the future development and even stability of Governments.

While it seems to be heavily concentrated in Africa these days, it could spread also to other parts of the world. I think it is the kind of issue to which the United Nations has to devote a lot of its thinking and resources. Because the United Nations, after all, has as a major responsibility -- the prevention and resolution of conflict. It is also responsible for addressing the economic and human implications of conflict.

On the one hand, you have a globalization of the world economy through greatly expanded flows of trade and capital in all forms; and, on the other hand, in some countries you have disintegration -- economically, politically and socially. It is an almost paradoxical situation. And it also brings in the whole question of governance -- of how to promote administrative and political mechanisms to keep societies together and to let them function normally. This is a tremendous challenge for the future. ...