General Assembly hears calls for donors to fulfil development aid promises

Amid the global economic crisis, which has left no country – big or small – untouched, it is vital that donor countries deliver on their past pledges for development assistance, the General Assembly heard today.

Prime Minister Pakalitha B. Mosisili of Lesotho highlighted the importance of fulfilling commitments by noting the severe impact that the economic crisis is having on the least developed and developing countries, which are the hardest hit.

“Their exports have been severely reduced, and their capital flows choked. Its impact is felt in all aspects of life; be it in the increase of unemployment, illiteracy or in the incidence of the HIV and AIDS-related deaths due to unavailability of drugs,” he told the Assembly's annual high-level debate.

His own country, as a small economy, has been adversely affected by the crisis with demand for textile exports having dropped dramatically, resulting in unprecedented loss of livelihoods, and eroding the gains that had been made to eradicate poverty, he said.

Mr. Mosisili noted that the Group of 20 (G20) major economies have pledged a $1 trillion stimulus package, the bulk of which will be available for developing countries.

“My concern is that, this initiative seems to have stalled and it is unclear how the funds will be distributed,” he said, stressing that disbursement must be informed by the needs of individual countries, and be free of quotas and conditionalities.

“While I remain optimistic that the pledge will see the light of day, I appeal for the fulfilment of commitments that have been made on overseas development aid,” said the Prime Minister.

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines also called on developed nations to abide by their commitments, while urging all countries to resist protectionism in order to expand trade and investment flows.

“Furthermore, the voice of the developing world must now be fully heard in reforming international financial and development institutions so that we can forge a more equitable and stable global economic system to avoid future crises,” Alberto G. Romulo said in his address to the Assembly yesterday.

He also highlighted the “intolerable” strain placed on the poor by the global economic crisis, and especially on the efforts of countries to achieve the globally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) .

Likewise, Foreign Minister Jean-Marie Ehouzou of Benin spoke yesterday of how the economic crisis was jeopardizing his country's efforts to combat poverty, which it was trying to do through the promotion of microfinance, youth training, mechanization in agriculture and promotion of education. 

This made it all the more urgent to reform the global financial architecture, and for countries to fully shoulder their international commitments.

The global economic crisis also posed particular difficulties for the world's landlocked developing nations, such as Kyrgyzstan , its Prime Minister told the Assembly today.

This group faces special needs owing to their lack of territorial access to the sea, remoteness and isolation from world markets and high transit costs, all of which continue to impose serious constraints on their overall socio-economic development.

Igor Chudinov said the international community, under the leadership of the UN, “can and must” more actively assist this vulnerable group of countries, particularly through the use of debt swaps. For example, he proposed swapping some of his country's debt for, among other elements, aid that it provides to Afghanistan .

The real danger, said the Prime Minister of the Netherlands , Jan Peter Balkenende, was that those who had no part in causing the crisis would suffer the most. In rich countries, that meant a loss of jobs and assets; in developing countries, it meant rising child mortality and rising hunger.

“In poor countries it is a matter of life and death,” he said in his address today, urging countries to “honour an old promise” and set aside 0.7 per cent of their gross national income for official development assistance (ODA).

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a similar call in remarks addressed to yesterday's G20 summit in Pittsburgh , urging the world's major economies to fulfil their pledges of tens of billions of dollars in aid to the developing and poorer nations.

“Today we must send a signal that we will not overlook the oft forgotten people of our world,” he stated, calling for concrete assistance, beginning with the $50 billion for the poorest pledged by the G20 summit last year.