Global Policy Forum

By Thalif Deen

A meeting of about 1,350 representatives from over 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have called for a UN Global Poverty Eradication Fund to ensure that poor people have access to credit.

At the end of last week's five-day meeting of the Millennium Forum, representing NGOs from over 100 countries adopted a "Declaration and Agenda for Action" spelling out a civil society vision for a United Nations of the 21st century.

The Poverty Eradication Fund was one of several key proposals in the final Declaration. With some 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide, the NGOs argued that poverty is "the most widespread violation of human rights."

The Declaration urged the United Nations to "immediately establish" the proposed Poverty Eradication Fund, with contributions from governments, corporations, the World Bank and other sources.

"Poverty eradication is not an automatic consequence of economic growth, but requires purposeful action to redistribute wealth and land, construction of a safety net and universal access to education," the Declaration said.

The NGOs also called on member states to make poverty eradication "a top political priority" on the UN agenda.

According to the United Nations, the poorest of the world's poor - about 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar a day - is expected to keep growing.

By the next decade, the number of people living in extreme poverty may rise to 1.5 billion out of a global population of more than 6 billion people. And by 2015, the United Nations predicts, the number will rise even higher, to 1.9 billion - provided there are no concerted efforts to fight poverty globally.

Despite the diverse views expressed at the meeting, the NGOs found common ground to adopt the Declaration without a vote.

The co-chair of the Forum, Techeste Ahderom, told reporters that while the various UN conferences zeroed in on specific themes such as population, women, human rights and poverty alleviation, the Millennium Forum was unique because it covered all of the cross- sectoral issues in a single five-day meeting. The final Declaration, he said, will be presented to the Millennium Summit in September.

Addressing the concluding sessions, Deputy UN Secretary-General Louise Frechette said the Declaration was a remarkable achievement considering the diversity of the NGO groups.

The Declaration articulates the views of civil society on six main themes of the Millennium Forum: peace, security and disarmament; eradication of poverty; human rights; sustainable development and the environment; globalisation; and the strengthening and democratising of the United Nations.

Frechette said she will transmit the document to UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan and hoped that it would be well received by the public, as well as by the media and the upcoming Millennium Summit.

Described as an action-oriented document, the Declaration also calls for several concrete steps to ensure peace and security world-wide, including the creation of a corps of at least 50 professionally-trained mediators for conflict prevention, and also the establishment of an international, non-violent, inclusive standing Peace Force of volunteer men and women for deployment in conflict areas.

Additionally, the NGOs have also called for the creation of a Humanitarian Commission to assess humanitarian needs and recommend protective measures for civilian populations in times of armed conflict, and a second UN commission to devise ways of stopping the technological development of new and more advanced weapons that create new imbalances in global power relationships.

The Declaration, which placed heavy emphasis on the impact of globalisation on the poor, described the growing new phenomenon as "a process of economic, political and cultural domination by the economically and militarily strong over the week".

"The present globalisation process is not inevitable, but one resulting from decisions taken by human beings," the Declaration said, "It can and must be redirected to become a democratic process in which the people are at the centre as participants and beneficiaries."

The declaration also urges governments to address issues related to indigenous peoples, HIV/AIDS, economic reforms, nuclear disarmament and debt cancellation. The Forum urged the United Nations to introduce binding codes of conduct for transnational corporations and to act as an independent arbitrator to balance the interests of debtor and creditor nations.

Governments have been asked to initiate a world-wide freeze on armed forces and a 25 percent cut in production and export of major weapons and small arms, and to this end adopt an international code of conduct on arms exports.

The United Nations has been urged to reform and democratise all levels of decision-making in the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organisation, and integrate them fully into the UN systems, making these institutions accountable to the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

On the environment, the NGOs urged the UN to establish a Global Habitat Conservation Fund to purchase comprehensive protection on threatened, critical ecological habitat around the world.

The Fund should accrue revenues from a nominal royalty on world- wide fossil energy production, collecting at least five to 10 billion dollars annually.

The NGOs also sought the creation and funding of a Global Civil Society Forum, which would meet at least every two or three years, provided that such a forum is conducted democratically and transparently and "is truly representative of all sectors of civil society and all parts of the world."

In a preamble to the Declaration, the NGOs said that their vision of the world is one that is human-centred and genuinely democratic "where all human beings are full participants and determine their own destinies."

"It is a world where peace and human security, as envisioned in the principles of the UN charter, replace armaments, violent conflicts and wars," the Declaration said.