By Nicole McIntyre
9 December 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The final outcome of the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development only reaffirmed what was decided in Monterrey in 2002. Developed countries vowed to devote 0.7% of their gross national product (GNP) to official development assistance (ODA). While the reaffirmation is nothing new, it served to reassure vulnerable developing countries that aid commitments would be honored despite the financial crisis. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, echoed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to keep the financial crisis from becoming a humanitarian one. He told MediaGlobal, “Countries should keep up their spending on development of humanitarian issues, whatever the pressures of the crisis. I think what we’ve seen so far is quite good commitments from the main donor countries, whether at the G20 meeting in Washington or in Doha, that they will do that. But we’ll have to see if that remains a reality.”
For representatives from non-governmental organizations, the conference did little to counter the present dangers of food shortages, unemployment, poverty and climate change in the developing world. From the Civil Society Forum in Doha, representatives John Foster of the Social Watch International Network, Gemma Adaba of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Sylvia Borren of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty and Ziad Abdel Samad of the Arab NGO Network for Development read out a statement following the adoption of the Doha declaration. They noted that progress was made on issues of tax and innovative financing methods, and no country had backtracked from previous commitments and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). However, while previous objectives outlined in Monterrey were reasserted, delegates “missed [an] opportunity” to propose concrete measures to address the consequences of the current crises in least developed countries.
General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann told MediaGlobal, “Doha is an extremely important meeting within the context of a process – a not often never-ending process.” The conference confirmed a number of outstanding issues and served as a platform to launch a number of initiatives to solve these issues in 2009. “We have taken the first steps to agree on major changes in our international financial governance,” said d’Escoto.
The General Assembly President is eager to propose new reforms for a more inclusive, cooperative, global financial architecture. He intends to gather political leaders at the highest level, under UN auspices, to review the international financial and monetary systems, their governance and decision-making processes. Of the Doha consensus, d’Escoto said, “[It] sets the basis for an inclusive, democratic, and transparent process to rebuild trust of all nations in the international financial, monetary and trade institutions”.
The Doha Statement, released by d’Escoto and the State of Qatar, acknowledged that the context of the global economy has changed drastically, yet these changes are not reflected in our multilateral financial institutions. First and foremost, global financial reform should provide adequate representation of least developed countries and emerging market economies.
The General Assembly President is calling for an end to the Washington Consensus, and to expand the representation in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Regarding the G8 and even the G20, d’Escoto said it should be the G-192 (the total number of UN member states) that must work towards global solutions. “Only with the participation of all nations can we ensure that these policies truly benefit all people, especially the most vulnerable and poorest amongst us,” he said.
The relationship between the General Assembly and the Bretton Woods institutions is also under review, as well as the role of the Economic and Social Council to ensure “coordination of financial policy across UN systems.” D’Escoto has convened a Commission of Experts on Reform of the Monetary and Financial System. The Commission is chaired by former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz and Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the current Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Sundaram, before leaving for Doha, raised the question, “what kind of rules does the world economy operate under?…[the] 1944 Bretton Woods Conference set the rules for the international monetary and financial system. Many people consider the current moment a Bretton Woods moment [with] the possibility of rewriting those rules.”
D’Escoto’s proposals are expected by March 2009.