Questions of Development
Second Committee (Economic and Financial)
By Vikram Sura with V. Maria Morgan
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| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa, Permanent Representative of Portugal and Chairman, Second Committee. (Chronicle Photo) |
Francisco Seixas da Costa said he had maintained the tradition of consensus in the Second Committee. As Committee Chairman, he oversaw debates on hotly-contested subjects, among others, on sustainable development, globalization and interdependence, and international migration. When the Committee finally sent its 38 recommendations to the General Assembly, 36 were adopted without a vote.
“This is a tradition that I try to maintain as much as possible in the Second Committee”, Ambassador Seixas da Costa said in an interview with the Chronicle, “because this is the only way for the United Nations to go ahead with the full commitment of all its membership.”
He said that this commitment was driven by a “trend inside the United Nations”, which was “in favour of a global linkage between sustainable development, trade issues and also financing for development”. Financing for development, he said, should consider issues of debt and institutional financial architecture, and link it to policies of sustainable development. “If we don’t link that to coherent policies in terms of sustainable development, we will not achieve a consensual result”, he noted.
In 35 sittings, the Committee forwarded 16 texts to the Assembly for final consideration. These related to the direction and purpose of development, trade liberalization, the multilateral trading regime and globalization. Some other texts related to the Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in March 2002, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002. Among the important resolutions adopted by the Committee were those on the creation of a special representative for the least developed countries (LDCs) and on a global climate convention.
Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in the Chronicle Interview, said that one of the key issues of financing for development was mobilizing domestic resources. One area where finances could be generated was within countries themselves. He stressed that the Conference “is not a conference on the context of development. This is a conference on the financing for development. It’s about building capacity to develop the financial system domestically”.
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| The first session of the Economic and Social Council, held in Central Hall, London in 1946. (UN Photo) |
55 Years of the Second Committee
Then and Now
... in 1947
- Reports on world economic conditions and trends - The Assembly notes that the Economic and Social Council has made arrangements to make regular reports to the Security Council on world economic conditions and trends, and requests that the Secretary-General (Trygve Lie) “assist the Council … by providing factual surveys and analyses”.
- Implementation of recommendations on economic and social matters - The Assembly calls upon Member States to carry out all obligations on this matter and to “make use of the machinery of the United Nations in settling fundamental international economic problems”.
- Establishment of an economic commission for the Middle East - The Assembly invites the Council to “study the factors bearing upon the establishment of an economic commission for the Middle East”.
... in 2001
- Public administration and development - The Assembly establishes the UN Public Administration On-Line Network as “a powerful tool made available to Member States for the exchange of information and experience in public administration”.
- International conferences - The Assembly requests the Secretary-General to report on the outcome of the following conferences:
* World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg;
* UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Bangkok;
* Third UN Conference on Least Developed Countries. The Assembly establishes the Office of the High Representative for Least Developed, Landlocked and Small Island Developing States;
* UN Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II).
- Protection of global climate - The Assembly urges Member States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to ensure its entry into force.
Source: UN Yearbook 1947-1948
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This was an issue that Paolo Garonna dealt with in Europe. Mr. Garonna, an applied economist who started his career 17 years ago at the University of Padua in Italy, represented the UN Economic Commission for Europe at the Fourth Preparatory Meeting for the Conference in New York. He told the Chronicle that building domestic capacity involves identifying certain “best” practices. “It involves macroeconomic management and issues of governance having an appropriate regulatory framework and working institutions; for example, an appropriate banking sector which channels savings in an efficient way”, he said.
Mr. Garonna stressed that mobilizing domestic resources should begin at the regional level itself. “Two major dimensions can best be dealt with at the regional level: mobilization of domestic resources, and the capability of attracting international capital. That’s where the bulk of the financing will come.”
Globalization
Globalization was a continuing issue in the work of the Second Committee. Reflecting on its debate on globalization, Ambassador Seixas da Costa said this was one of the key issues that must be looked at “in more detail”.
“If we look back a few years ago on this area of development and the way the world looks to the questions of development”, he said, “one needs to take into account that there are different readings of the positive effects of certain factors on the international scenario, namely on the question of globalization.”
The issues of multilateral trade, the pace of industrial development, desertification, climate change, illicit funds and corrupt practices also figured in the Committee’s work.
“It wasn’t easy in the Second Committee to find a common language to address these issues”, Ambassador Seixas da Costa said. “We are saying the same things; we are thinking different things behind what we say. But probably it’s the only way to go ahead.”
He said that one should not put too much emphasis on forging a consensus for consensus’ sake. “I felt since the beginning that we should not make this ‘will’ and this interest in having a consensus a sort of a blackmail of the Committee.”
In the debate, Ambassador Mignonette Patricia Durrant of Jamaica, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community, said small economies were heavily dependent on equitable and fair terms of trade. For that reason, any subsequent multilateral trade negotiation must address the inequities and disparities which exist in multilateral trade arrangements.
Trade, noted Iran’s representative, Bagher Asadi, was critical to overcoming poverty and vulnerability. Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, he said that trade liberalization under the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules was a powerful and dynamic force for accelerating growth and development. However, the benefits of the current multilateral trading system eluded most developing countries.
Speaking to the Chronicle, Ambassador Asadi said: “Though not in a mathematical way, our analysis is that the current multilateral system in a major part benefits the developed more than the developing countries.”
One of the major concerns of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries was the high transport cost, according to the representative of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Alounkeo Kittikhoun. He said that exports of landlocked countries became less competitive in international markets due to the high cost of transportation. While trade liberalization had offered opportunities for export expansion, landlocked developed countries had not been in a position to draw on those opportunities and had become further marginalized, he said.
The Monterrey Consensus
Ambassador Seixas da Costa was cautious in saying what he expected to emerge from March’s Monterrey Conference. “It is prudent for the Chairman of the Second Committee not to work on substance before the meeting starts”, he said.
“What I feel, as concerns the Financing for Development meeting, is we need to take a realistic view of what can be achieved in terms of a consensual approach”, the Chairman said. “In my view, we should try to avoid a declaratory exercise in Monterrey. We should see what could be done in terms of mobilizing financial resources for developing countries, addressing the question of debt, addressing the question of financial architecture and how we see the way official development assistance has been used and has been promoted.”
Many of the Ambassador’s expectations were met in the final agreed draft text of the Fourth Preparatory Conference, which was released on 27 January. The draft had the following highlights:
- agreeing to mobilize domestic resources to achieve social goals;
- commitment to sound domestic and international economic policies;
- tackling the economic effects of the 11 September terrorist attacks;
- enabling an international economic environment to support national policies;
- fighting corruption;
- the importance of social safety nets;
- working towards a transparent banking system;
- developing microcredit for rural areas;
- building human capacities, especially in Africa, and in least developed, landlocked and small island nations;
- committing to liberalizing trade while acknowledging concerns of transition economies;
- urging developed nations to contribute 0.7 per cent of their gross national product as overseas development assistance;
- strengthening regional banking institutions; and,
- addressing external debt relief.
Panel on Genetic Research
The Second Committee held a panel discussion on genetic research, chaired by Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa, the Committee Chairman. Other participants were: Eric Lander, Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Arturo Falaschi, President of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology; Ruichi Ida, Chairman of the International Bioethics Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Michael Doyle, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General; and Bruce Alberts, President of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
“The quality of the intervention of the panel members and the guest speakers contributed a lot, in my view, to deepening the debate on certain basic issues. These helped to forge a more substantive debate and to concentrate our discussion in informal terms”, said Ambassador Seixas da Costa.
Professor Lander said that genetic research would help in understanding more details about genetic diseases and their treatment. As basic genome research moves to gene therapy, he said, a conflict could emerge between the information gained on genes and social ideas.
Other panelists said that national laboratories, research programmes and access to scientific programmes were important to building international capacities.
Mr. Ida said that the scope for discrimination based upon genetic make-up warranted privacy of information.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Michael Doyle said that more diplomatic and political work had to be done by countries in regard to international patents on genes and their ownership.
“I remember that when we planned this panel, some people said that this is not exactly a matter for the Second Committee. In reality, I would say this is a matter for the United Nations”, Ambassador Seixas da Costa said.
“I am very glad that I had the opportunity to chair a discussion with such a distinguished panel even if I had to take a very modest approach in my interventions due to the high quality of the guests”, he said.
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Links:
UN: Second Committee - 2001
About the General Assembly
World Summit on Sustainable Development
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