STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. JENS STOLTENBERG

PRIME MINISTER OF NORWAY

 

 

Geneva, 27 June 2000


 




Mr. President,

 The Social Summit in Copenhagen recalled the fundamentals of development:

 That people must come first.
That development is never gained unless poverty is defeated.
That development is never sustainable unless there is democracy and good governance.
That development is never real unless people's social needs and rights are fully respected.
During the last years another lesson has been driven home once more:

 The social needs of people cannot be left to the markets.

 Access to health, education and equitable distribution of welfare are not tradable commodities. No stock market can determine their value. They represent the crucial web which hold our societies together.

 Today we gather to take stock and to revisit our ten commitments from Copenhagen.

 Despite long discussions of a final text one thing is clear: We have all the basic knowledge of what it will take to make a lasting difference in the struggle against poverty.

 Reaching the goal of halving world poverty by 2015 is a tall order. But it is possible. The many UN conferences have told us how. We now need stronger will to translate all that knowledge into action.

 Let us make a real effort on human rights and labour rights.
Development means respecting human rights.

 All of them. Civil and political as well as social and economic rights.

 Poverty is a direct abuse of human rights and human dignity. Combating poverty is the most crucial task for securing human rights of all.

 We must fight unemployment wherever it is present.
We must call for the ratification of the ILO conventions on basic workers' rights.
Freedom of association. The right to organize and bargain collectively. The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour. The effective abolition of child labour.
Some say that implementing labour rights holds back development.
I say it is the other way around. Fundamental worker's rights sustain development and foster democracy.
Let us make a real effort on debt relief.
Without it - how can we expect that poor countries manage to invest in health, education and new infrastructure?
Norway for its part has decided to forgive 100 per cent of its debts to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. Complete relief has been agreed with Tanzania and Senegal and other countries will follow. I urge other creditor countries to do the same.

 Debt must be forgiven. At the same time debt relief does not come at the expense of concessional lending to developing countries. The G8 Summit next month must add new momentum to the process.

 In Lisbon earlier this month donors agreed on the long term financing requirements of debt relief. Based on this agreement Norway has decided to contribute a further 37 million dollars to the HIPC Trust Fund, bringing our total contribution to 79 million dollars.

 A process of debt relief has been started, but there is still a long way to go.

 Quarter by quarter poor countries still struggle to pay their interests and arrears. But the richest countries and the financial institutions are not the ones most in need for these hard won financial resources. They should be freed up to fight disease and to build new schools - to train nurses and teachers - in short to invest in development.

 Let us make a real effort on health.
Since Copenhagen we have gained new insight into the link between poverty and ill-health.

 Today we know that a good health policy can be a highly effective instrument for poverty eradication. More healthy people lead to more sustainable development - which again leads the way out of poverty.

 Nearly 1 billion people - every fifth person on earth - fall outside the scope of any health system. That is the drama, which we must address.

 All countries - also the poor - must invest in health, even if resources are scarce.

 One very concrete need is to secure the right of every child to be immunized against childhood killers. Today 30 million children are not enjoying that right. As a consequence 3 million of them will die from diseases that are easily preventable. That amounts to 6 children every minute.
A global initiative is raising to meet the challenge. Norway lends its full support to the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation. This is a unique initiative, responding to Secretary General Kofi Annan's call for more effective private-public partnerships.
My government has pledged 1 billion kroner - or 125 million dollars - over 5 years to support this initiative. Our aim is threefold:
To help immunize every child. To help build health systems which can secure that right for new generations. And to support the vital research for new vaccines against killers such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
Let us renew our commitment to make a real effort against AIDS
AIDS is a disaster tidewave for the developing world, especially for Africa. It is a terrible disease. And a dramatic roadblock against development.

 We need a global mobilization and awakening.
We need it on every development agenda.
Leaders must talk about it. Opinion makers must talk about it. Civil society must be mobilized. We need broad multi-sectoral action and new partnerships at the national and the global level.

 We must care for those who are infected. They too must enjoy full human rights.

 We must empower women and girls to make them less vulnerable. Education must be the leading tool. Change in men's sexual behaviour is key in turning the tide of the AIDS epidemic.

 We need to make existing drugs and medicines available for all, not just the fortunate few.

 Today - all too often - the diseases are in the south and the drugs are in the north. The poor should not have to pay the same price for essential drugs as the rich. This should be addressed in the next round of world trade negotiations.

 Let us make a real effort to empower women.
Poverty has a striking gender bias. Seven out of ten of the extreme poor are women.

 In large parts of the world women are denied political, economic and legal rights - rights that would help empower them to fight back poverty.

 Combating poverty means investing in women:

In the health of the girl child.
In the education of the adolescent.
In the political and economic rights of the woman.

 And it means focusing on the role and responsibility of men.

 Let us be frank: In too many countries, men do not take their fair share of the burden. Women's rights are far too often abused - by society and by men. We will not win the struggle against poverty unless this is changed. And men have to be part of the solution.

 In conclusion, Mr. President - let us make a real effort to invest in development

 It is and remains above all a national responsibility to chart the road of development. Poor countries must adopt policies and budgets for equity and fair distribution. In too many instances that is not the case.

 At the same time the rich countries cannot turn their back to development. Eradicating global poverty is everybody's business. We all have a stake in making it happen.

 There can be no excuse to the sharp decline in public spending for development. Rich countries have pledged to contribute 0.7 per cent of their GDP. The average, however, has dropped to close to 0.2 percent.

 That amounts to a shame. I believe I can say so since my country maintains a contribution of 0.9 per cent with the aim of raising it to 1 per cent.

 There must also be limits to how donor countries tie their development cooperation. I regret that a few countries last week blocked the attempt by the OECD to end the practice of tying development aid to buying goods and services from donor countries.

 Mr. President,

 The social sector is the web of our societies. A strong and effective public sector is key for securing equity and fair distribution at the national level.

 At the global level this public role goes to the United Nations. We must strengthen the multilateral efforts.

 To help nations cooperate and coordinate policies.
To support capacity building.
To continue the painfully slow process of building stronger public sector functions - in areas such as health and education.
To trigger new partnership with the private sector and the civil society.

 Five years after Copenhagen we have the knowledge of what it will take to fight poverty.

 Time has come to put more of that knowledge into action.