16 February 2004

MAKING GLOBALISATION WORK FOR ALL conference - THE CHALLENGE OF DELIVERING THE MONTERREY CONSENSUS

Speech by President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

I would like to express my appreciation for the invitation to take part in this Conference on how to make globalization work for human development.

Since taking office as President in January 2003, I have stressed the need for the international community to join the campaign to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty.

I view the fight against hunger as a central pillar in the struggle against exclusion and international inequality, as well as a crucial step on the road to greater social justice, sustainable growth, human development and peace for all countries in the world.

The threat that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction pose to international security has received growing attention in recent years.

What has not been sufficiently emphasized is that poverty and exclusion also foster violence; and that peace is the outcome of greater development and social justice.

As I recently stated in Geneva, hunger in itself is a weapon of mass destruction. It kills 24 thousand people a day and 11 children every minute.

Brazil is well aware, as are countless other developing countries, that hurdles in the globalization race are getting higher all the time. This should not, however, be a qualifying heat to eliminate the weakest runners, but rather a team effort.

We are united around the minimum aims we wish to achieve – the Millennium Development Goals – and we need to find the means to help each other.

Rich countries know full well that it is in their own self-interest to give a hand to those who are still far from achieving these goals. After all, world peace and stability depend on the outcome of this challenge.

The international community has certainly moved forward, and took on specific commitments, within clearly defined time frames, at Monterrey and Johannesburg.

Those commitments must now be put into practice. The Millennium Development Goals must be achieved – this opportunity to truly advance in fostering international development must not be lost.

For this reason I consider this Conference's focus on implementing international development programs very timely, including its emphasis on financing mechanisms.

We need to write a New World Social Contract.

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I have met with the heads of developed and developing countries, with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, with high level officials of international organizations and with civil society leaders, with a view to finding objective answers to the yearnings of the excluded for justice, fairness and respect for fundamental human rights.

The most basic of rights – the right to life – depends on vanquishing hunger. At all the multilateral meetings I have attended –the World Forum in Davos, the G-8 Summit in Evian, the United Nations General Assembly, the Extraordinary Summit of the Americas – I have underscored the need for our international cooperation to make this challenge a priority.

We need to muster the political will and increase funding for the eradication of hunger and extreme poverty, by promoting education, improved worker training and health services in developing countries.

Political will is required because we often become hardened to the problems people face and cease to believe that they can ever be solved.

Today the international community runs the risk of not attaining the Millennium Goals, since the resources available for promoting development are insufficient.

Despite their best efforts, many countries will not achieve these objectives unless the international resources at their disposal are substantially enlarged.

Recently, together with Presidents Lagos and Chirac and with Secretary General Kofi Annan, I spoke on the issue of fighting world hunger.

We agreed to set up a technical group tasked with examining the various proposals for alternative financing mechanisms; such as a tax on certain international transactions including arms trade or certain financial flows – above all those benefiting from tax havens – and the proposal for an “International Financing Mechanism” presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gordon Brown.

These are some ideas, then, on how nations might unite around these goals.

Brazil is doing its part – and can do much more by working together with its international partners.

This conference offers us an important opportunity to move ahead in this direction.

The United Kingdom and Brazil should join forces with other partners in the endeavour to make globalization more humane, fair and always geared to social development and sustainable peace.

Yet there is much work to be done.

I am certain that in this seminar extraordinary ideas will arise to help us put an end to hunger in the world.

Perhaps the greatest contribution we can make today to help overcome hunger will be to eliminate subsidies to agriculture in rich countries.

Who knows? At the next meeting of the WTO we might achieve just that.

Thank you and good luck to all of you!

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