STATEMENT BY DR. ARJUN KARKI, INTERNATIONAL CO-ORDINATOR, AT THE POLICY DIALOGUE PANEL ON ACHIEVING THE MDGS BY 2015: AN AGENDA FOR MORE AND IMPROVED DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION, UN DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION FORUM

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK, 30 JUNE 2010

Madame Moderator, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I thank you very much for the opportunity to share my thoughts in this very important panel discussion on behalf of LDC Watch in this policy dialogue on achieving the MDGs by 2015. LDC Watch believes that while reviewing the progress made on the Millennium Declaration at the High Level Plenary in September 2010, progress and setbacks made on the MDGs in the LDCs need to be assessed separately. This is because while the situation in other developing countries may be improving, conditions in LDCs are likely to deteriorate in this decade. Further, we need to break down national data by specific populations - to look at the progress of marginalised groups and not just overall progress. We also need to find ways to measure progress in Human Rights and Gender Justice to accompany the social and economic progress reflected in the MDGs.

Progress has indeed been made in some fronts, in some countries, regarding the MDGs. But as the recent multiple crises have shown, these progresses can be rolled back in no time, and get us back to where we were around the time of the Millennium Declaration. During the past two years, we have seen trillions of dollars being doled out to “too-big-to-fail” banks and financial institutions that were responsible for bringing about the financial crisis in the first place. At the same time, the idea of investing in the poor, through social services or even direct cash transfers has not been able to garner support from the developed country partners. Developed countries do not need to dig deeper into their pockets to find the additional sources of funding. Just the yearly revenue generated through a financial transaction tax would be more than all the ODA combined. According to a report from UN ESCAP, a tax of 0.1 per cent on global foreign exchange transactions running at about $3.2 trillion per day could yield revenues of about $640 billion annually, which is more than 3.5 times the total ODA in 2008.

Madame Moderator, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

The practice of attaching explicit conditionalities has been discouraged by the Accra Agenda for Action of 2008. However, there are still “soft conditions” embedded in policy goals, on which further aid is dependent. We need totally untied aid if we are to prioritize MDG and invest in them accordingly. It is imperative that development aid make use of country systems and promote country ownership, as advanced by the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action. Where country systems are weak, we need to enhance or even revamp the systems rather than bring external control over resources and accountability mechanisms.

One issue that needs considerably more attention, in our view, is that of ‘energy poverty’. Above 1.5 billion people of the world, almost a quarter of the global population, live in darkness without electricity, and 80% of them are in the LDCs (UNDP/WHO, 2009). According to the UNDP/WHO 2009 report, to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015, 1.2 billion more people will need access to electricity and 2 billion more people will need access to modern fuels like natural gases. A vast majority of the LDC population remains deprived of energy security and this is having a tremendous impact on the development of these communities. The availability of affordable energy is directly related to all of the MDGs and to invest in energy is to invest in all of the MDGs at the same time. The downstream effects of insufficient energy production can be felt in every aspect of rural lives in LDCs. Just the access to electricity could encourage so many children to read, allow people to communicate easily and to use all of the wonders modern technology has to offer, to have hospitals with safe reliable equipments, and even stop deforestation. At a time when too much energy consumption is being blamed for the changing global climate, the need therefore is to invest in alternative energy sources that not only provide much needed energy in an eco-friendly way but also create thousands of ‘green jobs’ and use the human resources that would be required to set up the new ‘green economy’.

Madame Moderator, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Finally, clearly, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in LDCs is one of the greatest challenges for humanity. LDC Watch is, therefore, campaigning and advocating for NO MDGs without LDCs! Therefore, I sincerely request the DCF and relevant UN bodies to come up with a SPECIAL REPORT on MDGs in LDCs before the upcoming Fourth UN Conference on LDCs going to held in Turkey in May 2011.

Thank you all for your attention!