Press Release

Will Doha guarantee redress to global finance and development beyond Monterrey?

December 2008

Civil society groups from around the World gathered from 26 – 27 November 2008 in the state of Qatar, Doha, with over 300 representatives, to review the implementation of the Financing for Development Consensus, leading to the Financing for Development Review Conference. The Forum took place six years after the Monterrey Conference of 2002. Opening on a reflective mood, the forum took off amid complex challenges of interlinked global crises of deepening financial crisis, impeding oil crisis and the worrying food crisis. It also came barely a month after the G20 summit which evidently failed to find a people-centred solution to the current global meltdown. The theme “Investing in People – centred development” was a point of departure for the Civil Society debates and discussions in reviewing the Monterrey declaration. For CSOs, the forum was a historical moment to revive multilateral development, dialogue on important issues of development and build synergies for better implementation of the financing for development agenda.

At the close of the Monterrey Conference in March 2002, the international community committed to increasing resources for development, including official development assistance (ODA). At the same conference, developed countries recognised how important it was to seek innovative financing sources to bridge the gap between traditional development assistance and the economically-oriented efficiency to enable redistribution of the benefits of globalisation. However, since Monterrey, there has been an observation that the United Nation’s role in addressing global economic governance, which is a precondition for sustainable development, has been marginalized by profit oriented international bodies.  In addition, it is evident that the rule of law, gender equality, and fiscal transparency, eradication of poverty and creation of employment are not being translated into action according to the Monterrey Consensus. Thus the task for Civil Society representatives at the forum to seek “doable” actions to redress the above shortcomings was enormous.

The meeting was officially flagged off by H. E Mohammed Abdullah Mutib Al Rumaihi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Qatar and Dr. Ali Ben Samiekh El Marri, General Secretary of the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar who both highlighted several challenges faced by several countries in forging ahead on the road to development. He challenged the active participation of Civil Society groups  to develop a strong and constructive civil society position to deliver to world leaders during the International Conference as well as to hold World leaders accountable and responsible for the poor implementation of the Monterrey Conference.

At the end of two days of intensive debates and discussions, the Civil Society drew several recommendations on finance reform which include support for the upgrading of the UN Committee of Experts on tax to become an inter-governmental body, moves to make international financial flows fully transparent, ending illicit transfers of resources, and ensuring rapid fulfillment of aid commitments, enhancement of quality and accountability of aid and total external debt cancellation without conditionality for less developed countries.

There is great conviction within the Civil Society that the Doha Financing for Development Review Conference Outcome will revive the flagging spirit of global solidarity and give the people of the world confidence that clear and decisive action will be taken, complemented with concrete allocation of resources. We all know that, in an inter-connected world economy, financing for development is a complex challenge. A great number and diversity of actions are required to take on the challenge from both government and civil society to guarantee effective and efficient development finance. Building on the example of Monterrey, World leaders and heads of state meeting from 29 November to 02December 2008 in Doha should once again express the urgency and ambition of their intentions to guarantee improvement in financing for development, especially of ailing economies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In moving forward, they should have the confidence to be able to acknowledge successes and shortcomings to each other in the spirit of honesty and fairness. Only on the basis of a fair assessment of progress to date will a promising and actionable way forward be agreed upon.

For Zambia, the significance of the Doha Conference cannot be overstated. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to review our development policies and identify the fiscal stimuli required to support, the most needed, sustainable human development in response to our recurrent development constraints as well as the current financial crisis.   Zambian representatives at Doha should strongly ensure that a new structure on financing for Zambia’s development is established, a structure that will recognise the vulnerability of poor people in Zambia to the negative impact of interconnected crises: financial instability, rising and volatile prices for food and other commodities – as observed from Basic Needs Basket of the JCTR, climate change, and unacceptable levels of hunger, poverty and inequality.

As Civil Society, we would like to have a Doha Consensus that will take us beyond Monterrey and this must be done with the same simplicity, elegance and urgency that was evident at Monterrey. It is a tall order. We look forward to our leaders to demonstrate the courage and skill to give form and content to the agenda on financing for development.

By:       Tina Nanyangwe – Moyo
Acting Coordinator
Debt, Aid and Trade Programme
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection

02 December 2008
In Doha

Related Links

• Other Press Releases...