GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT OF NGOS ON LIKELY OUTCOME

by Chakravarthi Raghavan

Geneva, 30 June 2000 -- Non-Governmental Organizations in the Development Caucus expressed great disappointment Friday over the failures of governments to commit themselves to concrete measures for achieving targets of the Copenhagen (Social) and the Beijing (Womens) Summits, but nevertheless, some minor forward movements are anticipated in the likely outcome.

The NGO representatives were holding a press conference, even as the Committee of the Whole of the Copenhagen+5 Special Session was struggling to negotiate some acceptable language on some key issues including on essential drugs for AIDS and other afflictions, the issues of labour and trade and globalization.

Jocelyn Dow, Chair of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) of the Women’s caucus said that since Copenhagen and Beijing, the downside of globalization has had profound effects on the peoples and countries of the South, and of the North too. The present session and the documents in some matters were shifting the target dates for achieving goals from 2000 or 2005 to 2015, where in effect, a whole generation of people will receive no benefits.

Roberto Bissio of the Social Watch, which has been monitoring the implementation of the Copenhagen commitments by countries and international organizations, said on the positive side there was some minor advance in that the documents that is emerging seemed likely to recognize the right of countries to have a debt standstill during periods of financial crisis, but it would need follow-up at the UN General Assembly.

He agreed with a questioner that if the outcome of the decision would only mean that the UN Secretary-General would forward them in letters to the IMF, World Bank and other institutions—as suggested at a UN press briefing in the day—it may not have much effect.

Another NGO representative regretted that the governments had not committed themselves to take forward such innovative instruments like a currency transaction tax, but that there would be some focused studies, and the role of the ECOSOC to address these had been recognized.

Another NGO representative said that since Copenhagen, it was the NGOs who have been doing the running - undertaking research and several studies including on the currency transaction tax and others for raising global revenues. While it was claimed to be a global economy, and global targets and commitments were being entered into, in relation to financing them, the countries were still clinging to outmoded methods of raising revenues nationally and funding operations internationally. But some of these issues had been put on the agenda or remain on the agenda, and ECOSOC was to study them.

However, while the NGOs were promoting the currency transaction tax as a revenue raising measure and also to reduce volatility of financial markets, they seem unable to address the contradictions, apart from the problems of cooperation of all financial centres for levying such a tax, by definition any tax that effectively reduces or prevents volatility would have no revenue, while a tax levied at a very low level to raise revenues for international development projects would be no more than a ‘sin tax’ that would need ‘sin’ (in this case volatility) to flourish to bring in revenues.

If volatility is to be addressed, and risks of financial crisis avoided, then governments would need to maintain or tighten their restrictions on the capital account, and not open up or open further (if they have already made some commitments) on financial services trade at the WTO, and levy taxes on short-term capital gains on their financial, shares and other markets, and thus discourage speculations, while not penalising longer-term investors.

Bissio said that it was good that the issues of globalization - so far discussed at the G-7, or the secretive and non-accountable WTO or the Bretton Woods institutions - were being discussed, though not resolved, at the United Nations, the only universal, legitimate and transparent international organization.

A representative of the Churches said that it was part of the fundamental hypocrisy of the industrialized nations that they had not put their money where their mouth was, and they had made no specific commitments in terms of targets or dates, and only some vague reiteration of past statements.

Bissio said that the outcome was pretty vague on resources and commitments on the part of the industrialized world. There was a clear imbalance. The commitments and targets accepted by the developing countries at Copenhagen - undoubtedly these were in the interests of their peoples - had been reiterated and accepted, but nothing on what the developed countries had committed themselves or would do in terms of finance, or market access for developing countries.

There are only references to what is already there, but not being implemented by the developed countries.

The NGOs also underscored the importance of constant monitoring and review, and regretted there was nothing specific on this.

“Such conferences and summits are highly expensive and may appear a waste of effort and time,” Bissio told the journalists. “But if we do not have a high-level political process to keep the pressure, how can we hold countries accountable to fulfil their commitments to implement agreed targets and programmes?” he asked.

While highly critical, the NGOs also sought to argue that the minor advances were in the right direction - though these seemed hard put to specifically identify these advances on the Copenhagen or Beijing Summits.-SUNS4699

The above article first appeared in the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) of which Chakravarthi Raghavan is the Chief Editor.

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