In Brazil, Annan calls for new funding sources for development

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, reviewing new recommendations for collecting development funding, today said financial resources are urgently needed to deal with human hardship and to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aim to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

“Analysis should not become an excuse for paralysis,” he said in remarks at a high-level panel on innovative sources of financing for development, part of the ongoing 11th ministerial meeting of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) this week in São Paulo, Brazil.

“We need action. There is an urgent need for a critical mass of new resources to deal with a wide spectrum of human hardship,” he said.

One of the most innovative ideas being discussed was an International Financial Facility, proposed by the United Kingdom, that would “frontload” aid to meet the MDGs, he said.

Once agreement in principle was reached, the Facility could be put in place quickly, but would need mechanisms to guarantee that aid levels stayed high enough to meet development needs beyond 2015, Mr. Annan said.

The next General Assembly session would discuss a joint study of this and other proposals by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the UN University, he said, adding, however, “The democracy deficit in international economic and financial decision-making remains a serious problem.”

New resources would help countries to rely on themselves and would be an investment in the future well-being and security of the world, he said.

After delivering his address, Mr. Annan and his wife visited an innovative new educational centre in nearby Campo Limpo, designed to bring education, the arts, culture, education and sports to the community of nearly 200,000 people.

They were accompanied by São Paulo Mayor Marta Suplicy, who had initiated the project.