Thursday, September 30, 2010

Prof. Leonor Briones's U.N. Speech: "FULFILL YOUR PROMISES"


(Editor's note: In light of the Diliman Diary's policy of providing balanced coverage over time, we are reposting below the speech of National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) Professor Leonor M. Briones regarding the Millenium Development Goals to world leaders in the 2005 World Summit High Level Plenary Meeting of the 60th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The link from which the speech was taken from is the Facebook page of Prof. Leonor M. Briones for U.P. President (http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1472018239607&sk=messages#!/note.php?note_id=121381014582448&id=105231616202962&ref=nf). However, the link itself was emailed by Professor Briones to one of our readers, Lila R. Shahani, who forwarded the link to the Diliman Diary. Ms. Shahani is the sister of the Editor, Mr. Chanda Shahani. The Diliman Diary is encouraging any or all the nominees for U.P. President to email us at dilimandiary@yahoo.com any relevant material in the interests of giving our readers the maximum amount of information regarding their capabilities).

(Facebook page Admin) Five years ago, it was Professor Leonor Magtolis Briones, faculty of the University of the Philippines' National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), who delivered a strongly-worded statement on the Millenium Development Goals to world leaders in the 2005 World Summit High Level Plenary Meeting of the 60th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. She was selected among the best and the brightest in the world's civil society in a very rigorous selection process on choosing who to speak for and in behalf of them. Here's a copy of her statement:

FULFILL YOUR PROMISES

Statement Submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in behalf of Civil SocietyPresented by Prof. Leonor Magtolis Briones, Social Watch, International Facilitating Group on FfD and Global Call to Action against Poverty.

14 September 2005.

The Millennium Development Goals will not be reached by 2015. This is the assessment of civil society organizations five years after their adoption by the global community of nations. The promises of the Millennium Declaration are not fulfilled; the financial resources identified under the Monterrey Consensus have not all been generated. The leading actions on financing for development which heads of state and leaders of government agreed upon have not been fully implemented.

As a consequence, more than a billion people continue to live in absolute poverty, girl children are not able to go to school; infant mortality rates remain high; mothers still die in childbirth, the HIV pandemic continues to escalate, the environment continues to be devastated, and global issues on trade, on debt and on ODA remain unresolved.

Mobilizing domestic financial resources for development. Developing countries are continually reminded that they are responsible for mobilizing domestic financial resources. But, how can they collect more taxes when their economies stagnate and are stunted because of unfair terms of trade, because of massive debt burdens and structural adjustment programs?
Mobilizing foreign direct investment. We deplore conditionally in structural adjustment programs which compel countries who are unprepared to open their markets and their natural resources to foreign investment.
Developing countries demand that foreign investors should not only exercise corporate responsibility. They need to be transparent in their operations. They have to be accountable to their host countries whose natural resources they exploit for profit.

International trade. Trade is the single most important external source of development financing. Ironically, developing and least developed countries continue to suffer from unfair terms of trade. As poignantly stated by an African official, “You demanded that we faithfully pay our debts, and we did. You asked us to restructure our economies. Our people underwent indescribable suffering but we did it. You even demanded that we change our leaders, and we did. But you refuse to buy our cotton, our cocoa and our other products!”

ODA. Substantial increase in ODA to developing countries has not been achieved. A number of rich countries steadfastly refuse to honor their 30-year commitment to share .7% of their GNP. We ask the General Assembly to remind recalcitrant member countries of this promise.

External Debt. The debt crisis continues to rage in many countries in Asia, in Latin America and in Africa. While the G8 committed to cancel all the debts of eligible HIPCs, countries which are euphemistically described as “middle-income” teeter on the brink of disaster as they struggle with unsustainable debts.

It has been two decades since the last global debt crisis. The babies who have survived are now 20 years old. They still carry the scars of malnutrition, inadequate education and poor health. They have been tragically deprived of the basic capacities for human development.

These countries have been further shaken by natural catastrophes, bad terms of trade, bloodletting and conflict.

We therefore urge the General Assembly to support debt relief for “middle income” countries whose economies have been devastated by natural catastrophes like the tsunami, as well as those with high levels of poverty and debt.

The persistence of debt crises underscores the need to reform the international financial system. We demand transparency and accountability from multilateral institutions. Developing countries voice and vote in the governance of these institutions need to be strengthened.

Follow up of Monterrey Consensus

Gender Equality. We likewise urge the members of the General Assembly to allocate resources to promote gender equality in their respective countries.

Promises, Promises. The heads of state and leaders of governments have made many promises for decades, some of which are the World Summit on Social Development in 1995, the Beijing Conference also in 1995, the G7 meeting of 1999, the Millennium Summit in 2000, the International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002, the Johannesburg Summit, also in 2002, and the G8 Summit in Gleneagles.

Promises, promises. This General Assembly is not the time for more promises. It is time to fulfill old and new promises. The poor of the world cannot wait until 2015. Fulfill your promises!

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