Among other issues raised this afternoon were migration and
refugees, gender equality and participation of civil society and the private
sector, capacity-building, anti-corruption efforts and decentralization.
The session was organized in two panels. The panel on improving the parliamentary and
electoral systems and improving human rights and access to justice included
State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Abu Hasan Chowdhury; United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson; United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, Luud Lubbers; and a member of Parliament from
Uganda, Benedict Mutyaba.
The panel on public sector
institution performance to enhance good governance, peace and stability
consisted of Nepal’s Minister of Finance, Ramsharan Mahat; J. Chicote of
Angola; Maj-Inger Klingvall, Minister for Development Cooperation, Migration
and Asylum of Sweden, Brunson McKinley, Director-General of the International
Organization for Migration; and Cheryl Gray, Acting Vice-President and
Director, Public Sector Reforms, World Bank.
The event was co-chaired
by Anne Kristin Sydnes, Minister of International Development of Norway, and
Leonardo Santos Simao, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mozambique.
On Tuesday, 15 May, the
Conference will hold thematic sessions on:
enhancing productive capacities -- the agricultural sector and food
security; and intellectual property and development -– an instrument for wealth
creation.
Thematic
Session: Governance, Peace and Social
Stability
One of
the session’s co-Chairs, LEONARDO SANTOS SIMAO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Mozambique, said that over the last 10 years the international community
had witnessed a dramatic political, social and economic transformation, which
had had a significant effect on the situation in the least developed countries
(LDCs). Institutional deficiencies,
debt burden and the deepening of poverty were among the impediments standing in
the way of achieving good governance, peace and social stability. Appropriate guidelines were needed to
achieve those goals. As each country
had its own peculiarities, no single formula could be found, however.
Among other priorities, he
mentioned the importance of decentralizing the system of governance and the
participation of interest groups. The
rule of law was also an important element, which could be achieved through
strong democratic institutions. Governments
should be involved in efforts to eradicate poverty and create a culture of
peace. Most LDCs lacked the resources
to achieve their development needs. The
LDCs and their development partners should devote their efforts to improving
the standards of living and eradicating poverty. He hoped that the event would result in the adoption of an
action-oriented and effective document.
Anne Kristin Sydnes, Minister of International Development of Norway,
and also a co-Chair for the session, said there was broad consensus that
governance mattered as a means of:
preventing and resolving conflict; providing social stability; promoting
economic growth; enhancing public sector management; and promoting sustainable
human development.
She
said the urgency of the issue of governance was underscored by findings of the
high-level panel that reviewed the LDC plan of action for the 1990s. That panel found that weak governance in the
LDCs had manifested itself in, among other things, poverty, corruption, erosion
of norms, and the culmination of socio-political conflicts. There were also, however, some positive
changes in a number of the LDCs. Some
had embraced democracy and various civil society organizations promoting good
governance had flourished, as well.
The starting point for
good governance was political will, she said.
Governments must seek policy responses that reflected national
will. She emphasized that the role of
donors might also not always be as positive as it was claimed to be at
international conferences. She further
observed that aid for improved governance in the past might have been overly
concentrated on the executive sector.
She asked, “Have we done enough to support the building of legal and
institutional systems?” The plan of
action would commit LDCs and their development partners to take sustained
action for good governance. The task
today was not to hold an academic discussion, but to create a sustained
platform that would deliver.
In a
keynote address, MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Administrator of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), said that good governance had to be looked at in
the context of the last 30 years of economic development. The number of LDCs had, in fact, increased
over that period, and many in the 1990s had suffered financial losses. There
had been a sharp reduction of official development assistance (ODA) and foreign
direct investment (FDI), as well as LDC share in the world trade. It was in that context that good governance
had to be stressed.
He
said, however, strengthening of government institutions in the context of
worsening poverty was not “a happy context”.
Good governance was not a panacea, but only one element of a
solution. Tied to strategies to secure
much higher rates of growth, it mattered.
It was a means by which society could decide on the allocation of
resources and make development a transparent and effective process, instead of
a violent one. In the view of the UNDP,
there was no such thing as a solution at the national level without redressing
the problems at the global level.
As pointed out this
morning, many LDCs had followed the way prescribed for them, liberalizing their
economies and opening their markets, yet their performance had not led to an
improved economic performance. Some countries,
including Mozambique, had been rewarded with strikingly high rates of
development, but other LDCs had not been blessed with the same rate of
success. For that reason, the
imbalances in international development needed to be addressed, including the
lack of access to markets and lack of foreign investment.
He said a Trust Fund for
Democratic Governance was being launched.
In many areas, he said, the UNDP was working with other international
organizations, including the World Bank and the European Commission. Partners from both the North and the South
were important for the work of such a Trust Fund. The building of partnerships should be encouraged for the development
of capacity-building. Work against
corruption and decentralization was also needed. Efforts were continuing in the development of indicators, which
would allow evaluation of the situation in developing countries. He hoped that an international campaign
would be built, and that both civil society and the private sector would participate
in the international efforts towards poverty reduction, education and health.
Panel I:
Improving Electoral and Parliamentary Systems
Abu Hasan Chowdhury, State Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Bangladesh, said transparency, responsiveness and
accountability to the people were still the basic foundations for good
governance. By their very nature, the
states of development in LDCs were extremely varied and circumstances affected
processes.
He said ensuring an impartial and transparent electoral
process was vital for people to exercise their will. Bangladesh was the only country that had instituted a neutral,
non-partisan caretaker government. In
his country, the electoral process was not a farce and it was the mandate of
the people that selected the Government.
A grass-roots revolution had been started. There were now 13,000 elected women and members of parliament.
MARY ROBINSON, United High
Commissioner for Human Rights, said the importance of the role of human rights
was no longer accompanied by a question mark.
An important shift had taken place in the views on the relevance of the
issue. She said that first there was
the broad and balanced approach to human rights that placed equal emphasis on
all human rights. That was the approach
that made sense to LDCs.
She said development
agencies were increasingly adopting rights-based approaches. Those were simple approaches, which were
grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two main Covenants,
the four key human rights treaties, and encouraged governments to report to the
various treaty commissions and committees.
She also emphasized that the recent thinking on poverty eradication by
the international financial institutions drew on human rights directives, such
as empowerment. She also drew attention to the growing demand by people in LDCs
for human rights education.
The human rights community
was very focused on governance and even had a resolution on the issue. One priority area for her Office was helping
LDCs strengthen the rule of law and prison administration. Achieving that, however, required expertise
and support. The Conference must,
therefore, be used to double support for the priorities mentioned. She concluded by saying that if
“deliverables” were not delivered during this Conference, then coming here
today would have been a waste of time.
RUUD
LUBBERS, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that refugees were
people without a government to take care of them in situations of war and armed
conflict. The mission of the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was to protect
them. That was also a duty of
governments, acting together. As one of
the most vulnerable groups, refugees should be treated with respect.
Not many development projects took into
consideration the needs of the refugees and internally displaced persons, he
said. What was really needed was to
avoid such an approach when dealing with the needs of LDCs. A modest percentage of development assistance
should be distributed towards refugees and internally displaced persons. People who wanted to once again participate
in human life should be taken into account.
They had an enormously rich potential for the goals of development and
conflict resolution. He thanked
countries for their humanitarian assistance and added that changes were needed
to return refugees to their countries, where they could play a key role in
reconstruction and development.
BENEDICT
MUTYABA, Member of Parliament of Uganda, said that parliamentary
institutions and an independent electoral system were needed to bring about
good governance and accountability. In
many LDCs, such mechanisms were very weak.
One of the limitations to their establishment was the lack of resources. That was where the international community
could assist developing countries.
Civic institutions and political activity were essential components of
democratic society.
With more than half the
LDCs’ population illiterate, there were no structures to ensure interface among
legislature, government and civil society, he said. Uganda had made sure that youth were represented in
Government. One third of any council
had to be women, and quotas existed for women in all government
structures. People with disabilities
were also represented. People needed
access to justice. It was imperative to introduce government agencies with
investigative functions, to redress the wrongs suffered by people unable to go
to court. That had been done in his
country. Village councils were useful
in conflict resolution, which were empowered to make decisions on minor human
rights issues.
Panel
II: Improving Public Sector
Institution Performance
RAMSHARAN MAHAT, Minister for Finance of Nepal,
said his country had started serious decentralization after the establishment
of democracy. Stakeholders were the
principal actors and the development process was more demand-driven. Decentralization was a long process and
involved the gradual transfer of authority.
As such, there were still more than 50 laws, for example, that needed
amendment.
He went on to say that,
nevertheless, from this year onward, full responsibility and authority for
primary health care and education had been transferred to local bodies. Twelve per cent of the national revenue had
also been transferred to local bodies.
Yet, although resources had been put at the disposal of those local
bodies, many were hesitant to take decisions for decentralized activities. The Government was, therefore, still called
upon to play a key part. He said
measurable indicators had also been developed to define the responsibility of
civil servants.
He said Nepal had suffered
from armed conflict through underground attacks by underground Maoist
movements. Thousands of lives had been
lost. Violence was preached openly,
especially on media, and that was undermining the task of guaranteeing human
rights.
J. CHICOTE (Angola) said in the
last decade Africa had experienced 19 conflicts and seen about 7 million of its
people turned into refugees. The
challenge for the continent’s governments today was, therefore, how to prevent
conflict through sustainable political measures and how to manage policies of
national reconciliation. That was the
case for Angola in all of its 25 years of independence. Most of all it needed to find solutions to a
long-lasting conflict through democratic means.
He said his Government had not given up on
possibilities for peace through dialogue and negotiation. It had developed a global strategy for
peace. It had also identified that the
potential for conflict was bred by poverty, exclusion, and lack of education
and information. Angola had put $20
million into a national programme for reintegration and reconciliation that
would enable all ex-combatants to start a new life. His Government had also created a $150 million fund dedicated to
poverty eradication.
MAJ-INGER
KLINGVALL, Minister for Development Cooperation, Migration and Asylum of Sweden,
said that to achieve change, it was important to: identify the scale of the problem of poverty; have information
and knowledge; and have an effective
plan of action. Poverty-reduction
strategies were in place to guide national efforts and ensure international
support. It was also necessary,
however, to challenge the structures that presented obstacles and to prevent
armed conflicts. Peaceful mechanisms
for conflict resolution must ensure a balanced outcome acceptable to all.
Good governance was a tool
for bringing about the desired results through political means and, as such, it
entailed clear decision-making procedures and transparent structures, she
said. That meant that both women and
men must take part in the democratic process and that gender mainstreaming
should be at the centre of attention.
Responsible use of the resources available was also needed to achieve
good governance. To that end, Sweden
was planning to increase its contribution to development assistance.
BRUNSON
McKINLEY, Director-General, International Organization for Migration, said that
the migration issue in the context of LDCs was increasingly important, because
those countries were particularly vulnerable to such phenomena as ”brain drain”
and population loss through migration. No
government was dealing with migration in a completely effective way, but all
were trying.
Among the challenges were
having the management capacity for migration, the problem of diasporas and
migrants’ human rights, he continued.
The problem could hardly be resolved on a single-nation basis, and
integrated policies were needed for management. The human rights of refugees were not respected in many cases,
and countries could hardly defend the rights of their citizens abroad. In the context of the development agenda,
the role of migrant communities needed more attention.
CHERYL GRAY, Acting Vice-President and
Director, Public Sector Reforms, World Bank, said the message here was that
more aid, trade opportunities and governance were critical. Governance, in particular, provided the
opportunity to take better advantage of the former two. The Bank had recently adopted a strategy on public
sector reform. It was a multi-pronged
approach, since there was no one to answer when addressing the issue of
governance. It involved getting
government’s role right, horizontal and vertical checks and balances, good
economic policies and good public sector management.
Yet,
that was only one part of the equation, she continued. The second part was the bottom-up approach
-- addressing the voices that created the demand for reform, paying attention
to feedback from citizens and providing transparency. The third part was the forgotten element of competition, which
included both the private and public sectors.
The second theme of the Bank’s new strategy was being cognizant of the
fact that there was no one size fits all.
One had to understand what was on the ground and look for
opportunities. There was no perfect
recipe for reform.
The representative of Malawi,
speaking on behalf of the 40 LCD members of the Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP)
Group of States, said he wished to formally submit a ministerial declaration on
behalf of those 40 nations. The
Conference was another attempt to address the special needs and challenges of
world’s poorest countries and to help them move out of the LDC category as soon
as possible. The Conference should,
thus, chart a path for the graduation of the ACP’s 40 LDCs from the list of the
49 poorest countries.
