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30 April 2004
1. I am delighted to be here in New York, and to have this chance to talk to you today. I know that the International Peace Academy has many ties with the UK, and particularly with our UN Mission and consulate here in New York…. So it is a pleasure to be here in person – to thank you for this and to bring with me the personal greetings of Tony Blair and our Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
2. I would also like to pay tribute to the work of the IPA. In the words of Kofi Annan, “as the challenges and obstacles facing peace-keeping have burgeoned, the IPA has unfailingly proven itself a stalwart ally – at once critic and friend.” It is in this dual role, as both critic and friend, that the contribution of NGOs and think-tanks is so unique and so valuable.
3. Today I want to highlight why the UK believes it is imperative for us – the developed world – to rededicate ourselves to tackling poverty and destitution around the globe – and why this is so important for global stability and indeed global peace.
4. Neither should we underestimate the absolute scale of this challenge. More than 100 million children worldwide never see the inside of a classroom. It is estimated that some $5 and half billion dollars of extra aid every year is needed to change this situation, and to ensure that every child has the chance to go to school. That is only around half the amount spent on ice cream a year here in the US….
5. The bitter truth is that in some areas we have gone backwards not forwards. I myself had a very salutary experience recently. I was at a meeting in Africa with other Finance Ministers…all of a certain age, all educated in Africa. And when we looked around, not one of us could honestly say that, in the African country where we had been educated, there is now a higher proportion of children receiving primary education than there were when we were boys and girls. Indeed, in every case, less was being spent per head on primary education than back then.
6. I believe the developed world has a responsibility to do something about this…and it is more than a moral imperative, it is also a practical one: tackling poverty and the root causes of political instability is becoming ever more important if we are to deal effectively with the new and alarming security challenges facing us in the world today.
7. Weak and failing states are an ever-growing challenge for the stability of several regions, especially on the borders of Europe, in the Middle East, and in Africa. Such states not only provide potential havens for terrorist groups and criminal networks, but their internal conflicts often overspill into neighbouring states – thus spreading that instability. In fact, in recent years, African conflicts have caused more death and displacement than natural disasters such as famine or flood.
8. When conflicts do arise, it is essential that the international community works to resolve them effectively. That is why the UK is committed to effective conflict prevention, both through bilateral efforts, and through the United Nations, where we have been helping to build capacity in UN peacekeeping, crisis prevention and recovery. And it is why the UK Government is pressing for agreement to a commitment from all Member States at the UN Small Arms Conference in 2006 to curb the export of small arms to countries where they would be likely to fuel conflict or oppress human rights.
9. We also strongly support the vital role that non-governmental organisations and think tanks like the IPA are taking in research and policy development on conflict prevention. I particularly welcome you underlining the need to take a holistic approach to the issue of conflict prevention, one that tackles the underlying global and strategic issues which cause or fuel conflict.
10. Already the international community has done a great deal of work to tackle many of these underlying issues. In the past decade, primary enrolments have increased at twice the rate of the 1980s. In the last 30 years, the numbers of illiterate have nearly halved, and life expectancy in developing countries has increased by 20 years. To date, some 5 billion dollars has been pledged to the global health fund – and some countries have shown that it is possible to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS and halve the number of deaths from TB.
11. However, this is not enough progress. While the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 10 per cent in the last ten years, there are still one billion people living on less than one dollar a day. Every year 3 million die unnecessarily from TB and malaria alone – curable diseases – and 40 million suffer from HIV/AIDS. Today and every day 30,000 children die. As I have already said, today and every day over a hundred million children do not go to school – continuing the cycle of poverty and low expectations.
12. This is not just tragic, it is wrong. I believe that the rich countries of the world have a responsibility to do what they can to help alleviate the poverty, suffering and despair in which so many people around the world continue to live…in George Bernard Shaw’s famous words: poverty is “the greatest of evils and the worst of crimes.” It brings with it illhealth, illiteracy, destitution, and the lack of opportunity to change any of these things. The AIDS pandemic sweeping Africa leaves behind not just death but millions of orphans. It is destroying communities and setting back economic progress by decades if not more. Indeed, when I was in Malawi recently I was taken to a rural village outside Lilongwe – where I witnessed first hand the scale of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Families torn apart…. communities struggling to cope. Not as victims – but as people suffering a terrible crisis.
13. The UK Government’s commitment to effective poverty reduction is a very real one. Since 1997 our overseas aid has doubled in real terms and is set to go on increasing. From 2005 onwards, a billion pounds (£s) of bilateral aid is guaranteed to go to Africa. And Tony Blair has said that, for the sake of Africa and the poorest countries, the UK will make its 2005 G8 presidency a ‘Development Presidency’ – building on the work achieved during the US presidency.
14. I also believe that civil society has a crucial role to play in this area, which we very much support. In the UK, Government ministers regularly hold breakfast meetings with key non-governmental partners, who as both “critic and friend” are partners in the true sense of the word. We do not always agree, but we both understand that this partnership is vital if we are progress in international development.
15. Indeed partnership is the key – an international consensus that, under the leadership of the UN, is rededicated to meeting the Millennium Development Goals agreed almost five years ago… Goals to halve world poverty, to cut child mortality by two thirds, and to guarantee every child primary education by 2015. The entire international community is challenged to redouble its efforts to meet these goals.
16. The imperative is even greater when one considers that the barrier to doing so is not technology, expertise, money or geography – it is political will. The sad truth is that the real barrier is indifference.
17. Next year leaders will meet here in New York to review progress against the Goals we set and the commitments made at the Millennium Summit. It is also the year in which the first of the historic Millennium targets becomes due – as such it will be a defining year. It will test both our progress and our resolve.
18. Sadly we already know that this first target – the 2005 target to ensure that girls have access to the same opportunities in primary and secondary education – is going to be missed. And missed by a long way. Over 60 per cent of developing countries will not just miss this target, but are unlikely to achieve this degree of gender equality even by 2015.
19. Unfortunately this is not the only one we may miss. At the current rate of progress, more than 70 countries will fail to achieve universal primary education by our target date of 2015. Indeed, in sub-Saharan Africa, we estimate this target cannot be met until 2129. One hundred and fourteen years late. And, as estimated by Sakiko Fukuda Parr’s 2003 Human Development Report, at the present rate of progress sub-Saharan Africa will not reach the hunger goal until 2165. One hundred and fifty years late. This is clearly not good enough.
20. The Millennium Declaration was truly historic. Every world leader and every major international body signed up to these goals. It was the most significant international commitment of recent years, and a tribute indeed to the unique power of the United Nations to forge a global consensus – and the personal dedication of Kofi Annan.
21. The Goals represent an enormous challenge. However it is also true that they will become meaningless unless we begin to deliver on our promises. They will become nothing more than empty words.
22. So the challenge now is to dedicate ourselves to taking action – and for all of us as partners – governments, businesses, NGOs, faith groups and international institutions – to dedicate ourselves to working together and to make the radical changes required.
23. At Monterrey we reached consensus on what needed to be done. Rich countries had to open their markets, to curb protectionism, to transfer resources and to embrace the opportunities that this will bring through increased trade.
24. We also agreed responsibilities for the poorest countries – to pursue policies that tackle corruption and build stability, to open their doors to investment and trade, and to use increased growth to tackle long-standing problems in health and education.
25. We know developing countries need greater access to our markets, especially for higher value added products. We know they need help to build supply side capacity to take advantage of increased trading opportunities. And we know they need support that is tailored to their level of development.
26. Yet, while trade and economic growth is essential for developing countries it is not the only factor to consider. Economic growth on its own it is not enough to meet the Millennium Development Goals. This is certainly true for sub Saharan African countries – where even with a tripling of economic growth, they would fail to reach the Millennium Development Goals.
27. Debt is also an essential part of the solution. But yet again, it is not enough on its own:
· …While 27 countries have been freed from the burden of unpayable debt, with 70 billion dollars written off;
· …And while debt payments are down from an average of nearly 30 per cent of national income to 11 per cent, with 65 per cent of their income now going to health and education
· We can still do more: For example by helping countries face the high export ratios that hold them back from a sustainable exit from debt. And by ensuring that countries currently emerging from conflict receive the debt relief they so desperately need.
28. So we also recognise that unless there is an overall increase in the volume of resources available from donors, we will simply continue to reallocate resources from one form of financing to another, and from non-HIPC poor countries to HIPC countries… without adding to the overall financing available for poverty reduction. And so, the real issue becomes one of total resources.
29. The 2001 Zedillo report on Financing for Development estimated that an additional $50 billion a year in aid is needed to help meet the Millennium Development Goals. The UN Millennium Project – under Jeff Sachs – is doing further work on this, using country level costings to analyse what is needed to achieve the Goals on a case by case basis. We await the final results of this work, but early signs are consistent with our call for a doubling of aid.
30. But while the international community is committed to reaching 0.7 percent of national income on aid, globally we are currently at 0.2 percent. The UK supports the need to increase development aid, on the road to 0.7% of GNI. The EU at Monterrey agreed to increase its development aid from 0.33% to 0.39% by 2006, and the UK will reach 0.4% by that time.
31. However, we also acknowledge that a number of donor countries have fiscal constraints that will not allow them to increase aid levels in the short to medium term. If we are to meet the MDGs we cannot wait for all countries to achieve the 0.7% target – we need to urgently increase the amount of aid now.
32. To do this, the UK proposes that, more immediately, we create an International Finance Facility with the ability to leverage an additional $50 billion each year until 2015. This could bring forward the development aid and investment that is needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
33. It is, in essence, a proposal for a stable and predictable financing vehicle – one that can raise the level of resources being invested in education, health, economic development, debt relief and trade. And so address the root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms.
34. The International Finance Facility would leverage in additional money from the international capital markets by issuing bonds based on legally-binding long-term donor commitments. It would be responsible for repaying bondholders by using future donor payment streams. And it would disburse resources to the poorest countries through existing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms.
35. The practical benefits of this finance facility could be profound. We could write off more debt and ensure a sustainable exit from debt for more countries. We could meet our global aims to cut child mortality and reverse the spread of malaria and other preventable diseases. We could make more AIDS treatment available and work towards permanently ending this scourge on the world. We could make education and individual opportunity more than a dream for millions of children. We could build the capacity for trade, and so provide countries with a sustainable route to economic growth and prosperity.
36. And I’m pleased to say that the Facility has received broad support from emerging markets, developing countries, international institutions, faith communities, NGOs and business. On 8th April over 55 countries, 35 ministers, the President of the World Bank, the Acting Managing Director of the IMF and the UN Under-Secretary General for Economic Affairs gathered in Paris to address this very issue.
37. Discussions chaired by our Chancellor, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy concluded that in the short to medium term the IFF is a feasible financing solution that could provide the necessary, critical mass of predictable, long-term aid flows. And, during the course of the Paris conference, emerging markets and developing countries – including Brazil, China and Nigeria – together issued a statement strongly endorsing the IFF and urging donors to implement it.
38. The World Bank and the IMF are currently examining the details of our proposed Facility – alongside other financing proposals. At last weekend’s Spring Meetings, they confirmed that the Facility is technically feasible, and that frontloading aid to meet the MDGs holds considerable attractions. We look forward to hearing their final report on our proposal in September of this year. Also last weekend, African Governors of the IMF issued a statement reiterating their support of the finance facility.
39. In the next few weeks, a global conference in Shanghai will focus further on the possible methods of scaling up finance for poverty reduction, as will the UNCTAD conference in Rio in June. I hope that these conferences and debates will help take us towards a greater degree of international consensus on the methods available to increase development finance.
40. I hope this, because I believe… the UK government believes… that it is imperative to provide the additional resources needed to overcome the barriers of indifference and the continuing lack of political will. It is true that we will miss the first of the Millennium Development Goals – but we still have the chance to meet the rest. It will not be an easy task, but neither is it impossible.
41. Giving up now must not become an option. And so, we must all – governments, international bodies, NGOs and think tanks like the IPA –rededicate ourselves to the task ahead. In the words of one of the IPA’s founding members and a former UN Secretary-General, U Thant, “the worth of the individual human being is the most unique and precious of all our assets and must be the beginning and the end of all our efforts.”
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