Pakistan has outlined specific actions needed to be taken by world leaders at their summit meeting in September 2005 to achieve internationally agreed development goals. Addressing the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) roundtable on "Global Partnerships and Financing Development," Ambassador Munir Akram on Thursday stressed the September summit should take three kinds of decisions to further the global development agenda:
(i) a clear expression of political commitment to transform the Doha trade negotiations into a genuinely development round;
(ii) a set of "quick-wins" in the area of trade; and
(iii) decisions outside the WTO framework to create Trade Capacity Building Fund, revive commodity stabilisation mechanisms, and establish compensatory financing mechanisms.
The roundtable was part of two-day preparatory meeting for the High Level Segment of ECOSOC, due to be held from June 29 to July 1, 2005. The preparatory event concluded on Thursday evening. Ambassador Munir Akram, who is the President of ECOSOC, chaired three roundtables and presided over the concluding session.
A wide array of participants - including intergovernmental representatives, international organisations. IFIs, UN Funds, Agencies and programmes as well as representatives of civil society and private sector - took part in the roundtables that focused on a broad range of issues from poverty and hunger to health and education to gender equality and the environment.
Ambassador Akram stressed that a fair and equitable global trading system, allowing unimpeded market access to the developing country products, was a key source of generating resources for economic growth and social development. He urged the international community to refrain from using standards, safeguards, anti-dumping actions and other import remedy measures to deny market access to the developing country products which was an important source of their export earnings and development financing.
Given the extensive reliance of developing countries on commodities, he called for a renewed focus on addressing the issue of volatility of commodity prices at the international level.
Addressing the roundtable on country level action for millennium development goals (MDG)-based approach to poverty reduction, Ambassador of Pakistan outlined specific actions for national governments and development partners, respectively. He emphasised the need for governments to devise, with proper costing, MDG-based national poverty reduction strategies and to circulate them prior to the September Summit.
The development partners, he underlined, should simultaneously adopt specific policies and decisions to implement their commitments.
He proposed the strategies and policies adopted and actions taken by the national governments and development partners might be reviewed in relevant forums, including by the ECOSOC (in June-July 2005) and their conclusions and recommendations be conveyed to the September Summit.
Professor Jefferey Sachs Special Adviser to Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and Francois ourguignon Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank, also delivered keynote speeches during the meeting.
In his remarks at the conclusion of the preparatory meeting, Ambassador Akram noted that assisting the poor countries in their development endeavours should be seen as a partnership benefiting all, not as charity by the rich. Action plans and strategies had existed for a long time, he noted. What was lacking was the political will to implement. He said there were strong inter-linkages among all the development goals, and achieving one would have a positive spillover effect on the others.
The outcome of the discussions in the seven roundtables concluded on Thursday would form the basis of further consultations in the High Level Segment and developed into ECOSOCs input for the September Summit.
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