CONGO Statement to the ECOSOC High Level Segment
28 June 2004
UN Headquarters - New York
Author: Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGO)
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen…
Let me first start by expressing my deepest gratitude to the ECOSOC Secretariat for allowing NGOs to organize an NGO Forum to the ECOSOC High Level Segment (HLS) for the fourth consecutive year. This time it was organized early enough to bring meaningful contributions to this HLS. CONGO has been in charge of the organization of the Forum in the past and this year we had the pleasure to work hand in hand with the NGO Section (DESA), WFUNA and the LDC Watch for this unique opportunity to influence the Ministerial Declaration. The history of UN-NGOs relations is an evolving one and this progression in our contribution proves how important our views and the input from the grassroots are to an organization such as the UN.
The theme of this year HLS is again at the heart of our NGOs concerns and activity. Creating an enabling environment for poverty eradication in the Least Developed Countries means creating the conditions for good governance that allow the state, civil society and the private sector to work together. This should contribute to mobilizing resources for poverty eradication.
If poverty is to be eradicated, then new partnerships have to be established, particularly with the poor themselves. The theme of last year's Forum - that CONGO organized in Geneva on 27th June - was "rural development for poverty eradication". We were able to convene the representatives of 20 NGOs from around the world, most of which from LDCs. As many of the recommendations expressed do also apply to the theme of this year's Forum and since, as already said, they have not flown into the Ministerial Declaration due to lack of time, let me recall some of them which are still particularly relevant.
The representative of an NGO from Uganda(1) reported about a grassroots consultation her NGO had carried out to find out what poverty actually means for poor people themselves. Poverty was defined in terms of powerlessness, lack of education, social exclusion, gender inequality, poor infrastructure and lack of land rights. The consultation pointed to the need to have a rights-based approach to poverty eradication in the LDCs, which goes back to the need of establishing an enabling legal environment. Community consultation and participation and the need of strengthening partnerships were emphasized by many other speakers representing NGOs from around the world, more particularly from the LDCs.
NGOs should champion a rights-based approach to development, which would be the best enabling environment for poverty eradication. We all know that all too often, legal obligations have been ignored or not enforced after major conferences. All states have obligations if they have ratified the main human rights instruments. If we are to oblige states to act in accordance with these, it is first necessary to give an authoritative definition of what rights entail. In this way, a human rights approach can be the best way to ensure accountability, by checking actions against obligations(2). Who else, better than NGOs, can ask governments for accountability and lobby for the adoption of a rights-based approach to development?
The final statement of the Asian Civil Society Forum, organized by CONGO in Bangkok in 2002, acknowledges that: "In achieving the goals set by these conferences (the conference of the '90s), the work and contribution of civil society organizations are vital. These include reviewing current practices, prioritizing policy reforms, identifying means of policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation"(3).
Another participant to last year's Forum advocated for the establishment of National Councils on Sustainable Development made up of NGOs to advise government policy that would allow a virtuous circle of collaboration, linking grassroots action to policy formulation and debate. The key thing to come out of any declaration of an NGO Forum must be civil society's commitment to action and change(4).
"The partnerships, alliances and coalitions we are developing are intended, among others, to foster effective mechanisms and means to hold our governments and international institutions accountable to the commitments they have made at global UN conferences, in addition to the host of legally-binding economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights and environmental treaties and conventions they have signed and ratified"(5) . This is one of the main contributions NGOs can give to the establishment of an enabling environment for poverty eradication.
Coming now to the critical issue of resources mobilization for poverty eradication, participants to last year's Forum stressed the fact that the state cannot disengage itself from the provision of basic social services such as health and sanitation, as it has done too often in the past following structural adjustment programmes. Trade liberalization and privatization of essential services such as water and electricity are one of the main obstacles to development, as they deprive the state of precious financial resources and destroy local production. A whole segment(6) of the Forum's programme was devoted to the issue of participation and decentralization and speakers and participants saw in decentralization a promising way of establishing new partnerships between local authorities and civil society organizations to increase democratic participation and fight poverty. Local economic development agencies have been established throughout the developing world, but the central state has to transfer adequate resources to local authorities in order for them to be able to assume their new responsibilities. Going even further, local authorities should be able to raise their own taxes. If adequate resources are transferred to local authorities - both from the central state and from international donors - and to NGOs, promising partnerships can be created for poverty eradication. NGOs are generally eager to get into this rather new form of partnerships and raise additional resources.
Going back to the MDGs, of which NGOs are the major watchdog towards governments and international organizations, the Final statement of the ACSF assigns a major breakthrough to the 8th MDG, which focuses on international cooperation and where primary responsibility falls on developed countries. Let me recall one paragraph of the Final statement that reads: "Through networks of cooperation with other civil society groups and allies in industrial countries, we will seek to raise public opinion and undertake joint campaigns and plans of action on the deleterious effects of their governments foreign policies on the world's peoples".
We are all responsible of creating an enabling environment and mobilizing resources to fight poverty in the poorest countries of the world. NGOs can and want to become essential new partners in this era of "decentralized cooperation". They want to work hand in hand with the state to help it assume its responsibilities; they want to lobby for change in the governance structure - both at the local, national and international level - for more effective and equitable resources allocation to the poorest of the poor.
Let me now recall some of last year's recommendations, that still apply to this year's Forum and theme:
1. Fostering a people-centered policy framework
2. Establishing an enabling environment
3. Empowering the poor and creating new partnerships
4. Mobilizing resources for poverty eradication
5. Increasing access to assets
And finally, two important crosscutting recommendations:
1. Promoting and enhancing women's role and rights to self determination and
self expression
2. Promoting and enhancing poor people's access to modern information and communications
technologies.
Thank you.
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1. http: www.ngocongo.org/ngones/forumngoecosoc.htm , p. 4, presentation by
Harriet Busingye
2. Op. cit, presentation by Sofia Monsalve, p. 7
3. See Final statement of the ACSF
4. See op cit, presentation by Clive Lightfoot, p. 6.
5. See ACSF Final Statement, p. 4
6. See Report of the NGO Forum 2003, p. 12, presentation by Demba Moussa Dembele