Global Policy Forum

By Izzat Abdel Hadi

Ladies and Gentlement, distinguished delegates,

On behalf of the NGOs from the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the United States, we would like to express our deep concern.

If progress made this week in preparing the Geneva 2000 Summit would be measured in terms of removing brackets from the text, we might be doing well. However, if we measure progress in terms of the quality of the text that has now remained, we are deeply disappointed.

Distinguished delegates, We share with our colleagues from the Ecumenical Team the fear that the Political Declaration does not address the key challenges that we face in social development. We agree with them that the Political Declaration is in danger of watering down what was agreed in Copenhagen. With them we worry that the Political Declaration lacks vision. With them, we believe that after Seattle we can not escape to re-examine the relationship between globalisation and social development. The Political Declaration should be based on this reality. Distinguished delegates, We share with our colleagues in the Women's Caucus the concern that women are central to social development. In evaluating how we did, or did not progress on social development we are not enganging in a theoretical exercise. It is the daily life of people, and of women in particular, that we speak of. We discuss whether women are able to feed their children. We discuss whether women are given the care they need when they give birth to the generation of the future. We discuss whether women are able to provide their children with education and health care. We can not discuss social development without including the real lives of women.

Distinguished delegates, People world-wide are looking for leadership in the post-Seattle world. Seattle has given a clear message that globalisation may benefit a few, but does not benefit the majority of the people. In other words, the benefits of globalisation are not spread evenly. Despite years of rhetoric that globalisation would lead to economic growth, and that economic growth would lead to poverty eradication, this has not happened. As the Secreraty General of the United Nations has pointed out, today there are more people living in poverty than five years ago.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The importance of the Copenhagen commitments was given in the acknowledgement of the intrinsic connection between social development and the enabling environment. Since 1995 millions of people, particularly in South-East Asia, have been thrown into poverty due to the financial crises. Hence, a review of the implementation of Copenhagen is not serious, unless it acknowledges the causes of the financial crises and offers solutions. The Geneva 2000 Declaration is not credible unless it gives some perspective on how the International Community intends to create financial stability and deals with problems caused by the movement of speculative capital and portfolio investment.

Distinguished delegates, People have high expectations of the Geneva 2000 Summit. Social development is close to the hearts of most. We believe that the Summit should seen to be responsive to the main issues identified as problematic by our societies. We believe that in the year 2000 the Summit must address the problems caused by the unsustainable burdens of debts which have built up further in developing countries since Copenhagen. World-wide people are convinced that the present system of lending and borrowing is profoundly unjust and that it is dominated almost entirely by creditors. This consensus must be reflected in the Geneva 2000 Summit.

Ladies and gentlemen, Words do not change the world. Nor does silence.

Leadership is built on political dialogue, and couragous leadership is built on facing the problems of society. There is a huge crisis in the international system. We believe that the UN is the most participatory and democratic institution based on the aspirations of humanity that we all share. We believe that your task is to give leadership in proposing changes in the international system in order to address the serious concerns that we have voiced. We strongly believe that we need these processes of political dialogue. And we also need to commit ourselves to remain engaged in these processes of political dialogue. We believe that the Summit has no credibility without political follow up and continuity. For this you must make a commitment to engage in another Summit in 2005 in order to discuss the implementation of the Commitments.

Ladies and gentlemen, As representatives of civil society we offer our expertise, we offer our support and engagement in this process. But we also have to be clear that the failure of Seattle provided us with a warning.

Our leaders must listen to what our people have to say. You, our representatives, have to discuss what people are concerned about. The Geneva Summit must be unequivocally clear that we need a change of the direction in which we are faring and it must strongly address what people are worried about today.

Ladies and gentlemen, Our objective is clear. We are preparing a 'People's Summit'. You can make the Geneva Summit a 'People's Summit'. But if you won't, we will. A 'People's Summit' we will have. We hope you will join us in our effort.

Thank you for your attention.

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