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Mr. President,
Secretary General,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is a pleasure for me, representing ECOSOC, to participate in the Second High
level Dialogue on Financing for Development. The Dialogue is taking place at an
important juncture in world history for the world economy.
2. The Monterrey Consensus outlined the comprehensive national and international
policy actions required to achieve the internationally agreed goals. It
recognized that enhanced financial flows are critical to the realization of the
internationally agreed development goals. And, it acknowledged dramatic
shortfalls in the required resources.
3. At Monterrey, the world’s leaders agreed to address the challenges faced in
generating the required financing for development. Unfortunately, like other
such global agreements, Monterrey also suffers from a serious implementation
deficit.
4. The Monterrey Consensus assigned ECOSOC important responsibilities for follow
up on the implementation of commitments. The Council is to promote greater
coherence, coordination and cooperation between the UN and the other
international financial and trade institutions in the implementation of the
agreed development goals. The ECOSOC’s Special high level meeting is designed to
perform this function.
5. The ECOSOC Special High Level meeting with the BWIs, WTO and UNCTAD held on
April 18, 2005 focused on three sub-themes: i) policies and strategies; ii)
trade, investment and private flows; and iii) official development assistance,
innovative sources of financing and debt.
6. The ECOSOC’s discussions – held in a Special Plenary and six Roundtables –
benefited from the IMFC and Development Committee meetings and the Secretary
General’s report ‘In larger Freedom’.
7. In terms of policies and strategies, it was recognized that a nationally
formulated and owned development strategy, adequate policy space, greater
overall coherence and coordination, including donor-recipient coordination,
employment creation, greater support for private sector led growth are critical
elements in attaining the agreed development goals.
8. Good governance, particularly enhancing transparency and combating
corruption, was recognized as central to the effective implementation of
national strategies. At the international level, the need to strengthen the
voice and participation of developing countries in international financial
institutions was viewed as an important factor for good global governance.
9. There was universal recognition of the key and substantial contribution that
trade can make in securing enhanced resource flows for development.
Consequently, unanimity existed in calling for an early, successful and
genuinely development-oriented outcome of the Doha Round of multilateral trade
negotiations.
10. On investment and private capital flows, several participants underscored
the need for generating favorable business conditions for both domestic and
foreign investors, including a stable macroeconomic environment, an effective
regulatory framework, transparency, and an enabling infrastructure.
11. Concern was expressed about the stability of international private capital
flows. It was noted that besides sound national macroeconomic policies, other
initiatives were needed to mitigate the effect of the volatility of capital
flows. These could include the use of innovative financial instruments, as well
as improved multilateral official liquidity and adoption of effective prudential
regulations. There was also general agreement on the need to reduce the cost of
transmission of worker remittances.
12. With regard to ODA, the discussions recalled the 0.7% ODA target, confirmed
in Monterrey, and emphasized the need for a rapid increase in aid flows to reach
the amount necessary to meet the internationally agreed development goals. It
was also noted that aid effectiveness should be improved through greater
coordination and harmonization.
13. The ECOSOC discussion generally supported recent initiatives on innovative
sources of financing. These sources should be additional to the existing ODA
commitments and targets. On the implementation of innovative financing, there
was a general preference for an incremental approach.
14. The discussions noted the urgency of solving the huge debt burdens of the
HIPC countries, consideration of the situation of debt-distressed non-HIPC
low-income countries, and the need for a comprehensive framework for solving
debt problems of middle-income countries. Views on defining debt sustainability,
however, remained divergent.
15. I am confident that the ECOSOC’s deliberations will contribute significantly
to your deliberations and to the outcome of the September High-Level Event.
Mr. President,
16. The draft Outcome Document, and the Secretary General’s report ‘In larger
Freedom’, have presented several proposals to strengthen ECOSOC. On 10 June
2005, I also forwarded to you, in my capacity as the President of the ECOSOC, a
non-paper outlining several steps to strengthen the role and contribution of the
Economic and Social Council to development. This paper was developed on the
basis of informal consultations and with the collaboration of several
delegations, including Belgium, Germany, Sweden and the 15 member “Group of
Friends of UN Reform” The informal consultations held by ECOSOC on 5 May also
contributed to the evolution of this paper. It is my view that the measures set
out in this paper will enable ECOSOC to: one, promote global dialogue on social
and economic policy trends; two, serve as a development cooperation forum;
three, enhance the linkage between peace and development; and four, strengthen
the operational coordination within the UN system. I trust this paper will
receive full consideration in this meeting and in the Outcome Document for
September.
I thank you, Mr. President.