A Fairer Global Order
by
Olusegun Obasanjo
Excerpts from the opening address by President Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and President of the South Summit.
... "International order, economically and politically, has undergone profound transformation since the leaders of the South met in 1964 to establish the Group of 77. The formation of this Group was in response to the challenges of poverty, underdevelopment, poor coordination among developing countries in the face of the general trend to be excluded from the march of progress as primarily determined by the more affluent nations of the North, all within an environment devastated by the Cold War and confrontation between the two Blocs, as they were. It is a sad reflection indeed that the challenges then remain by and large the same challenges of today, albeit in an environment without Cold War but one with proliferation of inter and intra-state conflicts and engulfed in a globalization process that is marginalizing the South."
... "The G-77, as we are now known, has been an effective negotiating force within the UN system on resolutions pertaining to trade, finance, economic and social development, environmental issues, and other items. However, we must acknowledge-- in frustration-- that most of the resolutions remain a dead letter, that many important issues have been shifted to negotiating fora outside the UN system, and that we are confronted, in general, with a weakening role for the UN in vital areas of war and peace and economic and financial decision-making for world economy."
... "Globalization has brought mixed blessings. The prosperity it engenders is unevenly shared among countries and regions of the world. While the industrialized countries remain major beneficiaries, the vast majority of members of our Group have been unable to take advantage of the opportunities. Globalization has failed to spur economic recovery, faster growth, greater employment opportunities and poverty eradication in developing countries. Rather, it has exhibited a tendency to accentuate the income and welfare gaps between the rich and the poor, among and within countries and regions. Never has the world witnessed such massive disparities in international economic and social activities. And nowhere is this trend more glaring than in the countries of the South."
... "The increasing importance of trade in global economic activities and the dominance of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in shaping the character of international economic order demand our special attention. The multilateral rule-based trading system, anchored on the architecture of the Uruguay Rounds Agreements, is in serious crisis, as manifested by the failure of the Seattle Ministerial Conference of the WTO. The enthusiasm and high expectations which motivated developing countries to sign the Uruguay Rounds Agreements have been shattered by the inability of WTO to take into consideration the legitimate interests of the countries of the South, especially Africa.
Given the failure of the Seattle Ministerial Conference, we should, at this Summit, evolve fresh approaches for the equitable management of global trade relations that would be supportive of development and prosperity for all. In this regard, I strongly recommend that this Summit agree on a common platform of action for our Trade Ministers to facilitate the attainment of the implementation of the development dimensions in the various WTO Agreements, when the stalled Ministerial Conference of the WTO resumes."
... "the recent financial crisis in South East Asia has brought to light one of the darker sides of globalization and its direct and profound impact on practical stability and developments. The crisis revealed the vulnerable exposure of even the best performing economies of developing countries to the powerful forces of globalization. This Summit should underscore the urgent need for decisive international actions to reduce the incidence of financial volatility associated especially with short-term speculative capital flows, which have grave social and economic consequences for developing countries. This underscores one specific aspect of a more general and complex challenge. We must be part of the management to ensure that it is not loaded against us and that our interests are adequately, suitably and appropriately taken into consideration.
In this regard, we must make a decisive contribution to the debate on the reform of the international financial institutions. The South must participate fully and effectively in the design and management of a new international financial architecture.
The heavy external debt burden and large unsustainable debt service obligations constitute a major obstacle to social and economic development, the fight against poverty, human security and stable democratic governance. Heavy debts undermine the capacity of our countries to make positive adjustments. It is clearly unacceptable that the external debt burden should continue to constrain our ability to channel public investment into physical and social infrastructures and human resource development. The debt burden also deters new foreign investments.
The countries of the South must be enabled to make a fresh start to grapple with the socio-economic development of their countries. To that end developed countries must agree to effective and speedy debt remission beyond the onerous and protracted HIPC conditions. The categorization of indebtedness into HIPC and others is itself arbitrary and without relevance to the realities of those who have to shoulder the burden of debts. In the spirit of shared responsibility for the debt crisis, developed countries should also consider the possibility of debt moratorium so as to immediately lift the burden from developing countries. North and South must also adopt measures to arrest the growing phenomenon of illegal capital flight and the repatriation of illicit wealth siphoned abroad by corrupt political leaders and their collaborators back to their countries of origin.
Let us send a clear message from Havana to the industrialized countries:
- that their reluctance to change the institutional arrangements, policies and practices that continue to nurture and sustain the prevailing North-South disparities constitute a major threat to international peace and security;
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and that they must demonstrate, not just in words but also in practice and in deeds, their commitment to genuine partnership with the countries of the South."
... "We must resuscitate constructive dialogue between North and South. Such a relationship must be based on the principles of mutuality of interest and benefits, shared responsibilities and genuine partnership. The enhancement of the role of the developing countries in global economic decision-making is an important component of world stability.
It is a matter of concern that the core resources of the United Nations Funds and Programmes that have traditionally brought meaningful improvement to the lives of our people have been declining in recent years. We call on developed countries to halt and reverse this decline. We urge them to fully and faithfully implement their commitment to provide substantial resources to these Funds and Programmes. Similarly, the alarming decline of Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a whole must be arrested.
This Summit should issue a strong statement on the imperative for the international community to take urgent action to reverse the downward slide of ODA.
This is particularly important as the current pace of globalization has made in extremely difficult for most developing countries to mobilize and attract other external resources for development, such as foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment."
... "this Summit also provides a unique forum to redouble our individual and collective efforts in advancing South-South Co-operation. We, the leaders of the South must come up with a practical options and measures to revitalize all aspects of co-operation among ourselves. I hardly need to remind us that many industrialized countries owe their present level of prosperity to successful co-operation, especially in the framework of regional organizations."