|
|
His Excellency President Inacio Lula da Silva,
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Let me start by congratulating President Da Silva for taking this very timely
action of calling for a Meeting of World Leaders on Action Against Hunger and
Poverty.
The problem of hunger in the world today is inextricably linked with the
incidence of poverty and unequal income distribution. Dealing with poverty
reduction and asset formation for the poor will lead to a resolution of the
problem of hunger and malnourishment. This indeed is an issue which is central
to the prosperity of the future generations of the world at large. It must be
understood clearly that this is not an issue affecting or to be addressed by the
“Have Nots” alone (Have Nots implying the under developed world broadly and the
deprived segments of all societies). Quite clearly if the Have Nots are allowed
to increase at the pace they are, the Haves or the Developed World will
eventually drown in their midst. Poverty reduction should thus, not be taken in
the narrow terms of transfer of some aid money from developed to developing
countries but, as a global public good whose benefits will be widespread
affecting both the developed and the developing countries. It is a clear
realization of this truth which should lead all of us to seek solutions with
sincerity and apply them with commitment.
This scourge is more acute in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia which are home
to the largest concentrations of hungry people. Therefore, international and
national efforts should be focused on these two regions primarily.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Poverty is the core of all ills. Poverty causes illiteracy, it breeds disease,
malnutrition, weak growth and sufferings. It is the reason for moral degradation
and human trafficking, it leads to drug proliferation; causes grievous
environmental degradation and most of all it provides the gun fodder for
terrorism and extremism. Thus any concerted effort to address poverty will have
multiple positive effects and collateral benefits. Combating poverty is thus a
moral, social, economic and political imperative for all Nations. It, indeed
poses the greatest challenges to all world leaders. The challenge to Third World
leaders is to harness their national resources and assets for optimizing their
domestic output towards poverty alleviation. The challenge to the First World
lies in how much they can share and sacrifice their gains for the more needy
developing countries.
A glance at the prevailing conditions will show how little we are doing or how
little we have achieved in our goal of poverty eradication. The menace of
poverty is stalking our globe. More than 1 billion of the human race are in
abject poverty and more than 3 billion are living on $ 2 a day. The Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) set the lofty ideals of freeing the world from the
abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty. We are all committed to
halving the world’s people earning below $ 1 a day and to provide universal
primary education to all children by year 2015. The Monterey Consensus gave
substance to these goals through calling for organised financing of development
in developing countries. These indeed are lofty ideals. But what do we have to
show on ground? The plight of a number of countries has in fact deteriorated:-
- 54 countries are poorer now than in 1990.
- In 21 countries, larger proportion of people are going hungry now.
- In 14 countries child mortality has risen.
- In 12 countries primary school enrolment has fallen.
At the present pace and with the existing level of financing the MDGs will only
be achieved in the next century.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This certainly is not the way forward. The world has to show sincerity,
commitment and much more resolve. The MDGs may be ambitious but not
unattainable. To achieve them we ought to have a new global partnership between
the developed and the developing world. For such desperate situations we have to
put in extraordinary efforts and adopt innovative and dynamic approaches. What
could these measures be?
A two pronged effort has to be put in. One from the individual country or
government itself and the other through external assistance. The individual
country effort needs to be overseen for rewarding for success as also penalizing
for failure. There must not be any political strings for such checks or even
constraints of overblown, misperceived notions of democracy laid down as
pre-requisites. Social indicators alone should be seen on ground and rewarded or
penalized as such.
Although national effort to alleviate poverty is absolutely imperative, the
external environment in which the nation – states operate also has to be benign
and favourable. We all know that trade and not aid is a potent way to promote
growth and benefit from globalization. But the existing trading rules are
clearly biased against the developing countries as the rich countries provide
huge subsidies of almost $ 1 billion a day to the tiny proportion of their
population who are in the farming. This distortion has edged out the developing
countries from global markets although they enjoy comparative advantage in
agriculture commodities. I am pleased that the Doha round is taking cognizance
of this important issue, but in my view, we need not a level playing field but a
field tilted in favour of the developing countries. In addition to trade, the
developed countries have to open barriers to markets, remove restrictions
against migration of labour, give incentives for locating direct investment,
promote transfer of technology and higher education in science and technology in
developing countries. This is a much better way of assisting the poor rather
than providing aid under conditionalities.
When talking of external assistance, the critical factor is to raise sufficient
finances. This could be done through mandatory, GDP proportioned contributions
or through selected taxation measures. Generating finances through international
taxation has been a familiar theme for some time. This needs to be crystallized
and matured. Some such proposals, even if implemented partially could generate
hundreds of billions of dollars for social and economic development.
I would be remiss if I did not raise the question of “Loot money laundering”
which afflicts about all the developing countries. The illicit transfer of
looted funds by corrupt leaders themselves from developing countries to banks in
Developed Countries is a major source of capital flight. An international regime
to curb this practice and to repatriate the looted wealth is an urgent need.
Similarly, creation of tax havens also indirectly provide an incentive to evade
tax and encourage capital flight. Mechanisms must be devised to discourage this
trend.
OECD countries have rightly made a big issue of corruption in developing
countries. But, in my view, the rating of the countries should be based on the
incidence of corruption at the highest level, at the leadership level and not at
the lower hierarchy level. The lower functionaries indulge in petty corruption
because of poverty and also because they enjoy disproportionate discretionary
powers. However, corruption at the higher levels of decision making is simply
not condonable. Organizations such as Transparency International should,
therefore, modify their approach in assessing corruption and good governance in
developing countries. Corruption is essentially the symptom of the decay of
institutions of governance and unless these institutions are restructured,
revitalized and reenergized, corruption will continue to remain a pressing
problem.
All Third World countries are groaning under the yoke of heavy debts from
various Developed Nations and monetary agencies. Some of these debts are at
exhorbitant rates of interest. The debt service liabilities of these countries
is such a burden on their exchequer that they cannot possibly divert funds
towards the social sector or human resource development. There is an urgent need
to give substantial relief to them in the form of debt write off or debt
re-profiling or at least interest rate swaps to replace high interest with low
interest loans. The developed countries must realize that they either must take
measures to return the looted money to respective countries or give this debt
relief.
Another innovative means of financing can be applied through utilizing Official
Development Assistance (ODA) as a catalyst and stimulant for FDI flows to
specific projects in developing countries. If donor governments cannot raise the
.7% ODA target as promised by them, through their Parliaments they should make
up the difference by raising market money, meeting the interest payments and
providing concessional finance to the developing countries. The issue here,
basically is of a lack of will, otherwise there are many innovative ways of
meeting the .7% ODA target by the Developed Countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would now like to talk of what we are doing in our country – the Pakistan
experience.
My Government, since assuming office in October 1999, is relentlessly pursuing a
three track approach to ensure higher growth, that this growth is pro-poor and
poverty reduction is accelerated:
³ The first track is revival of economic growth through macroeconomic stability,
structural changes in policies and good governance. We have already attained
more than 6 percent growth this year and hope to sustain and enhance this over
the coming decade.
³ The second track is targeted interventions by focusing our efforts on
agriculture, small and medium enterprises, construction, telecommunication and
information technology. Majority of the poor derive their livelihood and
employment through these four sectors and, if we are able to increase incomes
and productivity in these sectors, I am quite confident that high growth will be
accompanied by poverty reduction as these interventions bear fruit.
³ The third track is closely linked with the strength of Islamic economic
system. While promoting efficient allocation of resources through markets and
private sector, Islamic system enjoins upon well-to-do Muslims to share a part
of their wealth and income with the disadvantaged and the vulnerable segments of
the population. Thus, Zakat and Bait-ul-Mal are used to provide transfers as
social safety nets, to the poorest of the poor who are unable to fend for
themselves. Food stamps are given to those below a certain income level.
This three-pronged strategy for poverty reduction i.e higher growth, targeted
interventions and social safety nets will hopefully result in achieving this
goal. Other poor countries can examine this strategy and choose and pick those
elements, which suit their peculiar conditions.
To make this strategy work in actual practice it is essential that benefits of
increase in average per capita incomes should accrue to poor people more than
the other segments of the population. As 70 percent of the poor live in the
rural areas and depend upon agriculture, we have adopted a deliberate policy to
boost this sector. The Government makes sure that the poor obtain international
prices for their output, have access to bank credit and sell their produce in
open market. As part of the public sector development programme we are committed
to provide basic infrastructure facilities such as irrigation water, lining of
water courses to prevent wastage and farm to market roads to enhance
productivity. Other Government interventions include:-
· Water resources development.
· Credit to small and subsistence farmers.
· Khushhal Pakistan program for small infrastructure development.
· Micro finance for the poor.
In addition, greater emphasis is being placed on human development as Pakistan
has low indicators. The education and health services to the poor are being
delivered under a new model of joint partnership between the
public-private-community sectors. A National Commission on Human Development is
working to build capacity at the district level and to promote this partnership.
One of our provincial governments provides stipends to the girl students and the
enrolment of girls in schools has significantly gone up since this scheme was
initiated.
A major problem facing developing countries is weak implementation capacity. We
have decided to devolve powers to local governments in order to empower the poor
to obtain basic services at the grass roots level. This experiment in devolution
is going through the initial birth pangs but we know that this is a silent
revolution in overcoming implementation problems and providing efficient and
effective delivery of services to the poor. Local people are in a better
position to hold their elected representatives accountable for results and thus
leakages, waste and corruption can be detected easily. Management of buffer
stocks at local levels can release food into the market reducing the
fluctuations in prices and reducing hunger.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Pakistan pledges to remain constructively engaged in the process of tackling
poverty urgently and effectively. I am very hopeful that our deliberations at
this meeting would generate the necessary momentum to develop a worldwide
consensus on an action plan to fight poverty and hunger
I thank you