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Masked
and hooded protesters demonstrate against the UN summit in
Monterrey, Mexico |
PARIS,
March 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As world leaders
gather in Monterrey, Mexico this weekend to discuss how to reduce
world poverty, the prime ministers of the five leading nations in
development aid urged Thursday the U.S. and Europe to increase their
assistance to poor countries.
The
premiers of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands
issued a joint appeal in the International Herald Tribune published
in Paris for leaders to "do what it takes" in order to
meet their pledge to reduce by half the proportion of people who
live in extreme poverty by the year 2015.
They
criticized the "Monterrey Consensus" for being too
general. "The consensus is good, but it does not deliver
specific commitments on a substantial increase of ODA (official
development aid)," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Citing
that current ODA falls far below the level necessary to meet the
2015 goal, the prime ministers urged leaders to use the Monterrey
conference to "take a hard look at policy coherence."
Industrialized
countries had committed 0.7 percent of their gross national product
in order to reduce the international poverty level at the U.N.
Millenium Summit in 2000. Total world ODA in 2000 amounted to 56
billion dollars, representing an average of 0.22 percent of the GNP.
"We
will not find long-term solutions to common challenges such as
environmental degradation, climate change and the despair that feeds
political violence and crime unless we get more serious about
eliminating poverty," the ministers said.
While
welcoming the recent development aid increases by the United States
and European Union leaders, the group urged for more. "Richer
countries must do better. The stakes are high. The major
stakeholders are the poorest of the poor. We should not let them
down." According to them, increased ODA is not going to be
enough.
"We
should also consider untapped development resources, such as new
private-public partnerships and innovative financial
mechanisms."
Mexican
President Vicente Fox will open the proceedings Thursday, followed
by top international officials including U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan, World Bank president James Wolfensohn, International Monetary
Fund managing director Horst Koehler and World Trade Organization
Mike Moore.
On
the eve of the summit, Europeans were stressing their leading role
in providing official development assistance, government aid that
traditionally has been earmarked for critical infrastructure
projects.
But
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whose country trails the
league of official aid donors, took issue with the notion that aid
-- which he described as welfare -- could lift the world out of
poverty.
"Most
of the real economic development is going to come from capital
coming into countries to create private enterprise that creates
jobs, that create higher levels of living," O'Neill said. "We
are not going to do it with welfare."
O'Neill
noted that while donors provided 45 or 50 billion dollars a year in
total aid to developing nations, private, long-term foreign direct
investment (FDI) in China alone was worth same amount.
European
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Poul Nielsen
agreed that investment volumes were larger, but laid emphasis on the
critical role still played by aid.
Only
two or three percent of FDI went to sub Saharan Africa, he said.
"Something has to happen. We have to create a background that
makes Africa more interesting for investment. This is where ODA
comes in."
The
French also say the new U.S. commitment to aid remains woefully
inadequate -- taking its aid as a proportion of economic output from
a paltry 0.10 percent to 0.13 percent -- while the Europe Union
level rises from 0.33 percent to 0.39 percent.
While
the world leaders held meetings, hundreds of protesters chanted that
it was "more of the same rubbish" of the developed world.
Coming from as far as Quebec, Canada, about 1,500 demonstrators
marched through Monterrey. Police kept their distance and no arrests
or violence were reported.
Marches
were planned throughout the week, but summit organizers predicted
they would be peaceful. Activists also said they did not intend to
become violent, although some did not rule out the possibility.
Because
of eruptions of violence at other international conferences in
recent years, Mexico sent 3,500 soldiers and police to Monterrey.
Many ring the conference site, unarmed in the hot sun, in specially
designed uniforms that resemble janitors' outfits.
Reducing
global poverty, and improving health and education in poor
countries, are the goals of the five-day summit which hopes to
identify the resources needed to achieve these aims - and to meet
the millennium development goals agreed by the United Nations two
years ago.
According
to the BBC’s online news service, the conference is also being
seen as a test as to whether the new spirit of U.S.-led
international cooperation against terrorism will be extended to
tackle world poverty.
U.S.
President George W. Bush, Cuban President Fidel Castro, South
Africa's Thabo Mbeki and French president Jacques Chirac are among
the 59 heads of state who will attend later in the week.
