Statement by:  Institute on Agriculture Trade and Policy, CONGO, World Council of Churches , Third World Network, OXFAM International, CONGAF, International Confederation of Trade Unions, Coordination SUD (South Coordination), KULU – Women and Development Denmark, International Coalition for Development Action, WWF International –World Wide Fund for Nature, Public Services International, International Gender and Trade Network and others.
(For mer informasjon, se UNCTAD - de fattige landenes redning?, aktuelt 24.11.03)

In our opinion, UNCTAD XI could be an important forum for tackling the most pressing developmental challenges confronting developing countries.  Indeed, UNCTAD has taken the lead in doing so, addressing these issues through its own activities and analyses. Just last week, it held the 4^th Inter-regional Debt Management Conference where solutions to the intractable problem of developing countries’ debt were explored and examined.

UNCTAD’s analyses contained in the annual Trade and Development Report, the Least Developed Countries report and the Economic Development in Africa Report and other similar documents, have seized upon the burning issues of economic development confronting developing countries. In particular, the TDR 2000 has pointed out the fundamental flaws and weaknesses in the international financial architecture, and last year’s TDR has highlighted the imbalances and deficiencies of the multilateral trading system. Significantly, this year’s issue of the TDR provides a sobering critique and account of the failure of neo-liberal policies in delivering economic growth and development. The African report is one of the few if not the only publication which critically assesses the limits and purported benefits of the World Bank and the IMF’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers initiative. The UNCTAD annual debt report to the General Assembly offers an integrated assessment of the question of debt and its place in the efforts of developing countries to accumulate resources for their development.

The ultimate significance of these analyses and reports is that they enable developing countries to think through the interface between their own national development policies and the global economic environment. This is valuable to all stakeholders in developing countries as they struggle to define an appropriate developmental strategy and their relationship with the global system.  We hope that UNCTAD and the upcoming Conference will continue to fulfill this vital function.

This approach of finding the right development strategy that takes into fullest consideration the particular economic, environmental and social needs and circumstances of each individual developing country stands in stark contrast to the one-size-fits all approach of market fundamentalism and liberalization. Regrettably, this neoliberal ideology has dictated the design of development strategies, ignoring the contradictions and iniquities in the global economic system which developing countries are routinely faced with.

It is thought that this neoliberal approach would usher in a period of sustained economic growth. Strategies for this purpose have required many developing countries to break with past policies and to pursue closer and faster integration into the world economy. However, the past two decades have been characterized by slow and erratic growth, increased instability, and rising income gaps between most developing countries and the industrial world and the unprecedented erosion of natural resource base. In real terms, millions of people especially those in the poorest countries continue to live in abject poverty and resource insecurity . For them, even the pragmatic objective of reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 remains a distant and empty promise. 

Nonetheless, the WTO, World Bank and the IMF dogmatically continue to pressurize developing countries to adopt policies promoting greater market fundamentalism, a minimal role for the state and further liberalization. Perhaps as explained in this year’s UNCTAD Trade and Development Report, “fanaticism calls for a doubling of effort in the face of failure.”

The UN and its agencies, such as UNCTAD operate under a different belief, one that sees public intervention and a proactive state as necessary to enable basic needs to be met and human rights fulfilled. UNCTAD in this regard has been one of the voices demanding the sober rethink on development strategies. Its analyses of the challenges and vulnerabilities facing developing countries have provided guidance to many NGOs, Southern national governments, trade unions and people’s movement who have long witnessed, suffered and are therefore challenging these neo-liberal economic policies. 

More importantly, these reports and analyses have provided not only policy options for governments but have offered a vision of equity to the international economic system and the relationship between developed and developing countries premised on North-South partnership and the right to development, instead of the principles of liberalization and laissez-faire.

This should be one of the cornerstone principles of UNCTAD XI.

UNCTAD XI must recognize that in today’s increasingly interdependent world, developing countries are ever more vulnerable to disturbances emanating from the advanced industrial  countries.

International trade has been an important channel in transmitting the slowdown in the industrial countries to developing countries. Furthermore, in many regions, slower growth in export volumes has been compounded by lower prices, particularly those of primary commodities. In addition, developed countries continue to distort international trade by dumping artificially cheap agricultural products maintained inter alia, through  high export and domestic subsidies.  More importantly, the rhetoric of free trade does not reflect the reality of widening trade deficits, the closing down of firms and farms leading to  the loss of jobs and livelihoods, the degradation of the environment  and the further marginalization of women and other vulnerable groups in many developing countries which have adopted trade liberalization policies.

These critical issues must be taken up and effectively addressed by UNCTAD XI, if trade is to become a genuine tool for sustainable development. UNCTAD’s work in the area of trade has also provided an important counterpoint to the mainstream and uncritical view that greater liberalization would simply usher in economic growth.

Finance has been another channel of transmission of vulnerability. The expectation that looser financial and monetary policies in the industrial and developing countries would trigger capital flows to the latter, has not happened. Rather, developing countries have been and continue to suffer from financial instability and crises, which have ravaged their economies, plunged them into debt and pushed millions of people below the poverty line.

The perils of indiscriminate integration into the unstable global financial system for the promise of development financing have to be highlighted and addressed by UNCTAD XI.

It is crucial that UNCTAD is not diverted onto a path, which is uncritically accepting of globalisation. In this kind of scenario, UNCTAD would end up shepherding developing countries into globalisation, regardless of its negative ramifications.

UNCTAD’s relevance to developing countries is therefore to be affirmed and enhanced by UNCTAD XI.

It is in the light of this (civil society) statement that we see our participation in UNTAD XI and its preparatory process. Our role as potential partners cannot simply be pre-determined as merely “supporting the objectives and policies defined at the intergovernmental level” as envisaged in the preparatory document for UNCTAD XI. The nature, content and parameter of the partnership between civil society and UNCTRAD XI can only be determined through dialogue and other participatory processes that allow civil society’s views, values, concerns and analyses to be taken into effective consideration.

On a more practical note, UNCTAD should enhance its efforts in promoting UNCTAD XI and reaching out to more civil society organisations, especially those from developing countries.  Several practical hurdles such as the issue of accreditation, financing for civil society participation and the lack of information and advance notice of the UNCAD XI process have not yet been effectively addressed. .

These logistical matters and the modalities of civil society participation should be dealt with immediately.  A list of practical concerns and recommendations is appended to this statement.

To sum up, UNCTAD and the UNCTAD XI conference must actively address the need to:

• change the unfair rules and patterns of international trade in support of sustainable development
• ensure greater stability and transparency to the international financial architecture,
• find durable and sustainable solutions to the commodities and debt problems,
•  institute fundamental reforms to the international economic governance structures, by strengthening and enhancing the role of the United Nations on the one hand and to reform the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO to put  sustainable development at the core of their mandate

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Procedural Concerns and Recommendations

We also have a list of Procedural Concerns and Recommendations to effectively manage preparation and the conference itself. The following are our initial concerns and recommendations. Other relevant procedural matters that would facilitate civil society’s participation will be raised accordingly.

1. Preparation of the Conference and holding of the Conference itself:

• The modalities of civil society participation should be open to allow civil society’s views, values, concerns, analyses and proposals to be taken into effective consideration for the purposes of this Conference.  

2. Accreditation.

• Accreditation criteria should be transparent, inclusive and posted in the UNCTAD website
• Accreditation criteria should ensure a broad participation of NGOs and should not be limited only to NGOs having observer status with UNCTAD and consultative status with ECOSOC.
• The notion of “civil society” is broad and should include all civil society organizations concerned with the deliberations and outcomes of the Conference, such as trade unions, local authorities, popular movements, parliamentarians, academia, etc.
• Consideration for accreditation should be a transparent process.
• Rejected applications should be provided reasons for rejection and granted the right to appeal.

3. Host country agreement

• Accredited NGOs should be granted a visa by the host country.
• Third countries should also ensure transit visas to the host country.
• Practical facilities, including open spaces, rooms, copy machines, computers, internet access, translation services, should be made available to Civil Society during the Conference

4. Effective interaction between Civil Society and the UNCTAD preparatory process for the Conference

• Regular meeting between Civil Society and the Bureau and statements by Civil Society at governmental plenary should be ensured.
• Civil society should have the right to observe and have input in thematic sessions.
• Outreach to civil society, especially to developing countries of UNCTAD XI should be intensified, such as holding of meetings on UNCTAD XI outside Geneva, so that civil society can participate at the regional level.
• Financial arrangements to facilitate the participation of civil society organizations, especially those from developing countries.

5. Effective interaction between Civil Society and the intergovernmental body during the Conference.

• An NGO center to be located within the main conference center
• Access to the press center, and access to press conference rooms in the conference center.
• Twice daily briefings from chairpersons, and UNCTAD officials
• Effective avenues for inputs in thematic sessions, in round tables and in other possible governmental events.