Ambassador Bill Richardson, United States Representative to the United Nations
March 19, 1998
Thank you Mr. Chairman-
I am pleased to have this opportunity to address an issue of critical and timely importance to the United States -- the financing of development.
Before I turn to the substance of today's meeting, I would like to speak for a moment about the context of our discussion on development finance. Over the past decade, the United Nations has taken important steps to solidify global support for maintaining international peace and security, justice and equal rights, and the alleviation of poverty through sustainable development.
While nations are individually responsible for their own economic and social development, collectively the United Nations has a unique obligation to achieve international, cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect for human rights. Years of experience suggest that sustainable human development will occur when all potential actors and resources are mobilized in a common development process.
Today we are taking the first step in a multi-year process which, if successful, will launch a new global partnership for development. This is a bold opportunity. It has been almost two decades since the General Assembly's last -- and largely unsuccessful -- attempt to take a comprehensive look at how we cooperate in furthering the development of our global community. The United States recognizes that it will take hard work on the part of all to guarantee the success of our current endeavor.
Mr. Chairman, we are deeply committed to this goal.
Today we set in motion a collective learning experience. Between now and the opening gavel of the ad hoc open-ended working group called for in Resolution 52/179 we will be reviewing current thinking on cooperation, development, and financing.
Informal contacts prior to today's meeting indicate the seriousness with which delegations approach the issue. Studies have been commissioned; capitals have been put on alert; key partners outside the framework of the General Assembly have already been made aware of our endeavors and brought informally into the process.
The United States, through the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has made available to delegations and the Secretariat an annotated bibliography of recent studies on the topic of financing for development. Today we will also formally submit our thoughts on the key stakeholders, themes, and studies, as called for in Resolution 52/179.
We are trying to remain balanced in our approach to this exercise, keeping an ever-watchful eye on the events of the world outside the doors of one UN Plaza. In that world, finance, economic and development ministries struggle daily to promote growth. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail. As we work together this year, we should repeatedly ask ourselves what has been effective and what has not and why.
If we examine for a moment at one aspect of this issue -- official development assistance -- we can look back over the last twenty years and exult in gains in life expectancy and declines in infant and child mortality. We can celebrate improvements in access to-clean water and praise increases in adult literacy. But we must also acknowledge unmet agendas and note the steady decline of recent years in official development assistance flows.
The question we must ask is: how can both bilateral and multilateral assistance be improved to help attain our global development goals in the future?
It is good news that private financial flows to developing countries have increased by a factor of more than five since the beginning of this decade. However, 80 percent of private financial, flows are currently concentrated in 12 developing countries, to the virtual exclusion of Africa. We must examine how private financial flows can be enticed to an expanded number of countries and how the private sector can be integrated more strategically into our global development agenda.
Some of the developing world's best tools for growth are those closest at hand. Studies show that the vast majority of resources for development are from domestic sources, but these can be difficult to tap. We must look for ways to help national and sub-national governments mobilize domestic resources and make use of innovative financing mechanisms.
Our deliberations should also seek to engage a broad range of stakeholders to clarify the roles of governments, the private sector, NGOs and civil society in promoting and sustaining the global development partnership. Nation States should not try and accomplish what global markets are better qualified to do. But states can and should take steps to ensure that global markets operate efficiently and maximize opportunities for people-centered growth.
Perhaps now is as good a time as any to point to the obvious -- the General Assembly is not the only forum where development finance is a hot topic of discussion. Much of our work will be in parallel with the work of the governing bodies of the International Financial Institutions. It coincides as well with the work of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, numerous regional organizations, private sector initiatives, and civil society undertakings.
While we cannot direct one another's thinking, we can learn from one each other. I am reminded that good ideas always carry their own weight. Let us strive in our own deliberations to be a source of good and creative ideas upon which others may draw.
Mr. Chairman, it has been suggested that we should augment our deliberations through a series of informal seminars between now and the 53rd General Assembly. In my view, this is an excellent idea. Representatives of the multilateral development banks, regional organizations, bilateral assistance agencies, the private sector, the NGO community, and individual developing country governments have much to add to this process.
The United States would like as well to thank the Secretary-General and the Secretariat in advance for the work they are about to undertake on our behalf between now and the 53rd General Assembly.
