Points developed by Mr. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD in his statement at the Opening Session^*

Geneva, 15 July 2002—World Civil Society Forum

^*On this occasion, Mr. Ricupero also drew from his statement at the High-level Policy Dialogue of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, New York, 1 July 2002 (copy attached). See also: Audio

Throughout history, civilizations have grown and flourished through dialogue, exchange and new inspiration. The early 20^th century witnessed the emergence of civil society as one of the most relevant forces of change. The League of Nations and especially the International Labour Organization were founded on the basis of large movements of civil societies. Concepts such as transparency and good governance, environmental management, human rights and social values could not have been successfully transferred from the domestic to the international sphere without the crucial impetus provided by groups of citizens around the world.

The sheer number and variety of walks of life represented here today are proof of your commitment to working closely with the United Nations and Governments to make the world a better place. This gathering should enable us to take a closer look at how we can continue to do so. Now more than ever, we believe that such an open dialogue among development actors will foster understanding and consensus, especially in the face of growing challenges to efforts to alleviate suffering and protect the fundamental economic, social and human rights of future generations.

The variety of topics to be covered by this Forum demonstrates that there is probably no area of international policy that can still be considered a monopoly of government. The groups representing civil society are increasingly well organized and have become the main non-economic transnational force. They are “globalized” in the sense that the values they share are not circumscribed by national borders; and they also contribute to the dissemination of ideas, cultures and perspectives on international issues. International public opinion of the 21^st century, as expressed by civil society, is an explosion of diversity.

Your views will help us learn how the United Nations family can make its message more effective on a range of vital issues, from human rights to the environment, from trade and development to disarmament. During the latest cycle of world conferences, you have succeeded in shedding light and setting the pace for many issues, acting as pressure groups and working with Governments. Non-governmental groups are clearly having an impact on shaping the international agenda, as we can see from your work on such issues as environmental protection, poverty reduction, debt relief, market access and HIV/AIDS.

I believe there is a new urgency in implementing the Millennium Declaration as the single, overarching policy framework to guide the efforts of the United Nations system in support of global development. If we are to achieve its goals, we must move ahead as partners. Our partnership must include Governments, which have the primary responsibility for the well-being of their population, the private sector, which produces most of the wealth in the world, NGOs and the United Nations system itself.

The international trade agenda contains an increasing number of topics that are generated and fuelled by civil society concerns. Some of them, such as trade and traditional knowledge, are quite new. Others, such as consumer protection and environmental concerns, have already taken on a life of their own and may well find their way into international rules in years to come. And as the trade agenda evolves, there is a growing role for non-governmental actors in national and international decisions on trade policies that give rise to new issues and, in turn, to a wealth of opportunities for shaping the international trade system – particularly from the viewpoint of developing countries.

Among the most immediate challenges ahead, civil society will have to play a major role in the follow-up to recent world conferences, including the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (Brussels, May 2001), the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference (Doha, November 2001) and the International Conference on Financing for Development (Monterrey, this past March). These three events pointed towards a shift in thinking on international economic relations in two very important respects: first, they emphasized the need to bring the development dimension back into the discussion on managing international trade, finance and investment, so as to help developing countries realize their full potential in a globalizing world, and second, they recognized the need for Governments and policy makers in developing countries to take greater responsibility for their own economic actions and destinies. Next month’s World Summit on Sustainable Development will represent yet another opportunity for further innovations in our thinking on development.

Raúl Prebisch, UNCTAD’s founding father, always insisted that the ultimate responsibility for the development of developing countries lay with developing countries themselves. Again and again he stressed that it was the central responsibility of each Government and people to rely on itself, while at the same time acknowledging the need for assistance from the international community.

The initiative to hold this World Civil Society Forum is completely in line with that statement. Civil society is essential in building the capacity needed to help countries better manage their integration into the global economy and facilitate their efforts to create wealth and meet social challenges.

From UNCTAD's point of view, two key questions will occupy our thoughts and endeavours in the run-up to UNCTAD XI, which is to be held in 2004, in Brazil, my own country: First, what kind of international arrangements will be needed to give developing countries the policy space and the concrete opportunities, the trade opportunities, to address the basic issues of poverty alleviation and closing the income gap? And second, what kind of domestic policy and institutions will be needed to generate the capacity to meet these challenges?

In addressing these two key questions, UNCTAD will need to forge and further strengthen its partnership with all development actors, including civil society, and to allow its critical voice to be heard.

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Attachment to the points developed by Mr. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD in his statement at the Opening Session of the World Civil Society Forum

High-level Policy Dialogue of the Economic and Social Council

Statement by Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

New York, 1 July 2002

Mr. Secretary-General,

Mr. President,

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and gentlemen:

The fantastic image of people demolishing the Berlin Wall with their bare hands or makeshift tools was to become the visual symbol of the exhilarating promises of the 90's. It was an era to abolish all barriers – barriers dividing people, by ending apartheid and the ideological confrontation of the Cold War, and barriers dividing economies, through globalization and liberalization. But 12 years later, the barriers are returning, with statesmen discussing how to erect legal and political walls against economic refugees and poor immigrants. Governments planning fences against suicide terrorists and rich countries raising new barriers to steel, agricultural and other sensitive imports.

Of course, not all walls are alike. They can form a prison or a cage, as in Berlin, or they can provide necessary defence or protection. But whether justified or not, they are almost always an admission of failure to find lasting solutions to the problems at hand.

One of the most insidious types of walls are the barriers we build inside our minds against unpleasant realities and immovable problems. Some of us in Monterrey last March tried to draw the world’s attention to the despair and suffering of the millions of innocent Argentineans who are being punished by the misdeeds of their Governments. Many of us urged prompt action to avoid the contagion. But now, more than three months later, the disease has spread, to Uruguay; Paraguay; my own country, Brazil; and other Latin American countries. In Argentina, the sense of hopelessness and abandon is fast evolving into dark and chaotic agony. I know there are no simplistic, miraculous cures, and I am not playing the blame game. But in the face of such manmade catastrophes, our first and most urgent action should be to relieve the suffering and contain the damage.

Even after several episodes of painful crises in emerging markets, the international community still lacks a realistic strategy for dealing with financial instability and the debt problem. Just “muddling through” cost Latin America a lost decade in the 1980s; and a similar lack of orderly procedures for handling international debt has now been exposed in Argentina. Uncertainty continues to surround the modalities of official intervention in the financial crises, adding to volatility in market sentiment. Current arrangements appear to encourage pro-cyclical policy responses, which risks only deepening the crises. It is time to end such ad hoc approaches and to get on with a genuine reform of the international financial architecture. Only multilateral action under IMF leadership can effectively deal with the debt problem; only cooperation among the major economic powers can deliver the degree of currency stability needed by developing countries to ensure that trade and financial flows complement their domestic efforts.

Mr. President,

Trade has always been one of the channels for transmitting recessions in the industrial countries to the developing countries. We saw a recurrence of this phenomenon just last year, when the United States economic slowdown was the central reason for the sharpest contraction in trade performance worldwide since 1982. The loss in value was three times higher than the reduction in volume, hitting the commodity-exporting developing countries particularly hard. More than ever, the international community as a whole, and not least the developing countries, needs a strong multilateral trading system and the successful delivery of the Doha promises to inject as much growth and development potential as possible into the negotiations. This is why we were dismayed by recent threats to those promises arising from a disturbing sequence of protectionist measures. I once wrote in a book edited by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati in honour of Arthur Dunkel that, after the Uruguay Round, we were living in a paradoxical situation. Developing countries had finally persuaded themselves that they should be among the staunchest defenders of multilateralism, because they needed it more than the others. But the same reason why they needed the system – their vulnerability and lack of power – was also why they could do little to save it on their own. This is as true today as it was then. We must all resist protectionism everywhere, but it is only the major trading powers, which account for the largest share of world trade, that can really make a difference, by exercising responsible leadership.

Among the main victims of the shortcomings of the trading system are the commodity-dependent LDCs. These are the nations caught in a poverty trap in which pervasive poverty ends up perpetuating itself. UNCTAD’s recent LDC Report 2002, the first comprehensive analysis of poverty in the least developed countries, has shown that the proportion of the population living on less than a dollar a day has been underestimated in the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, and that the number of people living in extreme poverty has actually doubled in the past 30 years. But the report also demonstrates that there is a golden opportunity to radically change the situation because at very low levels of income per capital, a doubling of average household incomes can rapidly slash $1-a-day poverty rates. The way forward is with national policies that are development-oriented and outward-looking, in that they seek to manage integration with the world economy through trade and investment. But to be successful, these policies need to be complemented by increased debt relief; more, and more effective, aid; a renewal and recasting of international commodity policy; and greater South-South cooperation.

In each of these three challenges – financial crises in Argentina and Latin America, the negotiation of a more development-friendly trading system, and achieving the Millennium Development Goal of slashing extreme poverty in the poorest countries – we need the decisive and responsible leadership of those who have the power to create a tolerant, pluralistic and generous multilateral agenda. It is much better to take this road than to put up more walls and fences, however strong and invulnerable they may look for, as Gildor the elf tells Frodo in The Lord of the Rings: "The wide world is all about you: You can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out".

Thank you, Mr. President.