A/66/PV.79 General Assembly

Allow me, first, to express how honoured we are to be accompanied at this meeting of the General Assembly by member of Congress Arnaldo Jordy, who represents the Brazilian state of Pará, which is situated in the area we call the legal Amazon. Coming from that region, he follows with great interest the discussions and initiatives on financing for development. Brazil welcomes the opportunity provided by the fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development to review the status of the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development. As we approach next year’s tenth anniversary of the financing for development process, it is important to look to the future, consider the challenges ahead and reflect on needed course corrections. Brazil fully subscribes to the statement made by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, and would like to make additional comments in its national capacity. Brazil considers the financing for development process as a key pillar of the development agenda. We are convinced that the process remains not only relevant, but also central to addressing the multifaceted development challenges faced by the world today. Financing for development is a unique process in that it recognizes the interests shared by developing and developed countries alike in promoting inclusive, equitable and sustained growth in the pursuit of poverty eradication and sustainable development. As we grapple with the ongoing economic and financial crisis, the integrated framework adopted through the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration provides a useful platform for international cooperation on economic and financial issues. The United Nations, together with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO), along with the Group of 20, need to send a clear signal of policy coherence and cohesion in order to address the crisis in a timely and effective manner. The financing for development process provides a comprehensive framework for mobilizing the resources needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Since Monterrey, developing countries have made significant strides in mobilizing additional domestic resources for development. Guided by the overarching imperative to improve their citizens’ livelihoods and promote a better quality of life for their peoples, most developing countries have actively sought to prioritize inclusive pro-poor policies and social welfare initiatives, in pursuit of poverty and hunger eradication and sustainable development. While recognizing that development is primarily a national responsibility, it is important to highlight that international support is also crucial. In that regard, official development assistance (ODA) plays a fundamental role in supplementing domestic resource mobilization and catalyzing private investment to foster development. We are pleased to note that the volume of ODA increased consistently in recent years, reaching record levels in 2010. Nevertheless, it remains substantially below the internationally agreed levels. We join the international community in reiterating the call on developed partners to fully implement their international commitments on development assistance, in particular with regard to delivery on the 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to ODA. Ten years after the launch of the WTO Doha Round, the potential for mobilizing resources for development through trade has not been fully realized. The elimination of agricultural export subsidies, as well as the substantial reduction in domestic measures of support by developed countries, in conjunction with enhanced market access, remains largely an unfulfilled promise. While we may not be in a position to conclude all elements of the Doha Development Agenda in the near term, it is important to send a clear message of forward movement. We must redouble our efforts to ensure a successful outcome of the negotiations and reaffirm the role of the WTO in promoting trade liberalization, keeping protectionism in check and monitoring international trade flows, while fostering development. The economic and financial crisis has highlighted the importance of enhancing the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in support of development. The reform of multilateral financial institutions must proceed, as a matter of priority, with a view to increasing the voice and participation of developing countries. Despite the progress achieved over the past couple of years, much remains to be done. We are also committed to enhancing the quota share of developing countries in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, at least to the level of parity with developed countries. We support the comprehensive review of the current IMF quota formula, to be concluded by January 2013, as well the general review of quotas, to be finished by January 2014. Without an increased voice and participation for developing countries, the international financial institutions will not be have the necessary legitimacy and effectiveness to address the pressing challenges ahead of us. While respecting the mandates of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, we believe it is important to strengthen the role of the United Nations in economic and financial matters. By virtue of its legitimacy and universality, the United Nations is uniquely placed to participate in international discussions on financial reform and economic governance with a view to supporting development. Finally, Brazil considers it necessary to reinforce regulation of the financial system, in order to avoid instability and excessive risk-taking and to ensure predictable international capital flows. In an increasingly interdependent world economy, it is important that national economic policies be submitted to mutual scrutiny, to mitigate undesirable spillover effects on third countries, which may lead to defensive actions and corresponding reactions. As we strive to promote a sustainable and balanced recovery from the crisis, it is crucial to accelerate the reform of the international monetary, financial and trade systems towards a more inclusive regime that ensures benefits to all, particularly to the poor.

Israel welcomes the convening of the fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development and appreciates the efforts of the President of the General Assembly in organizing this highly important meeting. The economic challenges of recent years have rippled throughout the world. Yet, it is the developing world that remains the most vulnerable. It should not bear the burden alone. The message of the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2) about the importance of international collaboration is more relevant than ever. Global challenges require a global response. Israel is committed to the spirit of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration. We continue to enhance our efforts in many areas related to financing for development by contributing our knowledge and resources. Israel has steadily increased its official development assistance, a significant proportion of which is aimed at promoting sustainable development, particularly through human capacity-building programmes. We remain committed to reaching the global targets as soon as possible. In recent years, Israel has also increased its annual contribution to United Nations funds and programmes and is proud to be a United Nations Development Programme board member in 2012 and a UNICEF board member in 2013. However, financial contributions cannot be the only solution to the challenges of financing for development. Development cooperation must aim to create conditions in developing countries that allow them to attract investment and financing. We must disseminate technology, create partnerships and promote capacity-building in those countries. We must promote innovative sources of financing. In that regard, Israel has integrated microcredit as an important part of its development and training activities. Microcredit plays a critical role during times of limited credit financing. It helps businesses grow. It creates jobs. And it helps to shield countries from the uncertainty of economic fluctuations. Israel believes in fulfilling its development commitments by sharing its own development experience to apply creative know-how, innovative technologies and resourceful solutions to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. We share our expertise with developing countries across the globe, particularly in fields such as water management, agriculture, public health and community development. Israel also strives, both domestically and as part of its development programme, to achieve equal access to health care, education for all and gender equality. Israel’s development activities take on many different forms globally, including bilateral, regional, multilateral and triangular partnerships across the developing world. We are proud to play an active role in many United Nations agencies, and we remain committed to working with the international community to ensure that our development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, produce real achievements.

Morocco aligns itself with the statements made by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and by the representative of Tanzania on behalf of the Group of African States. My delegation is pleased to participate in the fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, which seeks to further our thinking about ways to effectively put into practice the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development. This year, only a few years away from the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development takes on a special significance. It should therefore serve to strengthen the international community’s political will and commitment to achieve the internationally agreed development goals. Even as we meet here, great uncertainty looms about any global economic recovery. In that regard, we must underline that policies aimed at correcting the imbalances caused by the financial and economic crisis should go hand-in-hand with efforts to combat their underlying structural causes, so as to be able to foresee and forestall them and to put in place a system of global economic governance conducive to development. The interdependence and interconnectedness of economies mean that a favourable international economic climate is a precondition for developing countries, especially those in Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs), to achieve inclusive and sustained growth and to mobilize the resources necessary for their development. While national development strategies to achieve the MDGs have been instituted, the question of the means — especially the financial means — to implement them remains utterly unanswered — all the more so in the light of the fact that many countries’ pledges of official development assistance have not been completely honoured. In that context, it should be said that, over and above the incomplete delivery on those commitments, the unpredictability of delivery adds to the trouble countries have in carrying out their development policies and strategies. One year after the summit on the Millennium Development Goals, which called for a sustained international drive towards their achievement and for a strengthened global partnership for development, the 2011 report of the Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force emphasizes that the pace and scale of the progress made by the global partnership for development is cause for concern, especially because of the lagging rate of increase in budgeted resources for official development assistance in the period 2011 to 2013. Those saw a rise of only 2 per cent compared with the 8 per cent recorded in previous years. While Morocco calls for the complete fulfilment of all commitments undertaken for development aid — notably the pledge to devote 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to official development assistance — it also supports initiatives to develop innovative financing mechanisms to generate additional resources for development. Development partners’ commitments to Africa should be commensurate with the development challenges faced by the continent, all the more so because the food crisis of 2007 and the financial and economic crisis of 2008 have increased poverty rates. The economic and social difficulties caused by those crises have significantly limited the capacity of African countries to finance their economic and social development. Moreover, the commitments that have been made with respect to official development assistance for Africa have not been completely met. My delegation therefore underlines the importance of establishing an effective mechanism for following up on commitments to development in Africa, as a tool for facilitating and enabling the implementation of commitments made. The experience of the 2008 crisis showed the extent to which LDCs are vulnerable to turmoil from the outside, especially since that crisis has undermined some of those countries’ MDG achievements. Particular attention should be given to ensuring that those countries develop the resilience they need to respond to the various crises they face. The trade negotiations within the World Trade Organization (WTO) are at a deadlock. In order to enable international trade to fully play its role as the driving force for growth and development, it is crucial that WTO negotiations within the framework of the Doha Round be concluded as soon as possible and that they produce results that place development at the centre of the multilateral trade system. They should also serve to strengthen the oversight function over the global economy so as to identify risks in a timely manner and avoid the disastrous consequences of economic and financial crises such as the one that occurred in 2008. Moreover, the United Nations must continue to be the main forum for comprehensively addressing the matter of financing for development. We fully believe in the important contribution of South-South cooperation to international efforts for development. Morocco has therefore built partnerships, in particular with African countries, both through intergovernmental cooperation mechanisms and through increased involvement by the Moroccan private sector in economic activities on the continent. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate the importance that Morocco attaches to the comprehensive and effective implementation of international commitments on financing for development, which is the very foundation of a global partnership for development.

The Thai delegation aligns itself with the statement delivered yesterday by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, and with the statement by the representative of Indonesia on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). While the world continues to be mired in the current economic and financial crisis, we now find ourselves only three short years away from the deadline for attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There is also a real possibility that many countries will not be able to achieve the Goals. Moreover, the financial and economic crisis continues to take the heaviest toll on the poorest and most vulnerable among us, especially the least developed countries. It has been nearly 10 years since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus, in 2002. Since then, the world has faced an economic and financial crisis, a food crisis, skyrocketing oil prices, climate change and natural disasters, youth unemployment and, most recently, the debt crisis in Europe. Those events have together drastically changed the face of the global economic and political landscape from what it was 10 years ago at Monterrey. A crucial question now is how to make the Monterrey Consensus relevant in that new challenging context. In order to put the Monterrey Consensus into today’s perspective, it may be helpful to take stock of the lessons learned and use them to help guide as us as we try to find the best way forward. The past decade has not only shown us that the six themes emphasized in the Monterrey Consensus were all equally crucial to development. It has also shown that such themes complement one another and that, for best results, they should not be taken separately. They are pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle that constitutes the road towards inclusive growth and sustainable development. Thailand, like many others of the oft-cited East Asian miracles, experienced robust economic growth through an export-led growth model and significant foreign direct investment. The importance of mobilizing international resources and promoting international trade for development therefore cannot be emphasized enough. The conclusion of the Doha Round is long overdue, and Thailand calls for the prompt conclusion of the Round, with a development- oriented outcome. As important as international trade is, however, the global financial crisis has also demonstrated that over-reliance on foreign exports can be a source of vulnerability. Hard experience has taught us that developing countries cannot rely solely on external factors, such as exports and foreign direct investment, to drive economic development. Domestic markets must be strengthened to cushion economies against external shocks. The mobilization of domestic financial resources for development therefore deserves serious and immediate attention. Such mobilization, however, must also ensure that the financial resources are evenly distributed among all, including the most vulnerable in society, in order to achieve more balanced and inclusive growth and greater resilience on the part of the people. Policies should aim, in particular, to promote employment and decent work and investment in productive infrastructure. The Thai Government attaches great importance to improved access to finance, especially for the most vulnerable sectors in society. From our experience, initiatives aimed at specific groups, such as village funds and funds for women’s development, are useful tools to ensure targeted development results where people can enjoy direct involvement and, as a result, take full ownership thereof. The positive impacts of foreign direct investment can be further enhanced when such investments come with technology transfer, capacity-building and the upgrading of skills. Foreign direct investment must therefore be coupled with international financial and technical cooperation for development. Both North-South and South-South cooperation are of crucial importance to development. In that regard, Thailand has demonstrated its commitment to global partnership by extending technical cooperation to our neighbours in our areas of expertise — such as agriculture, public health and community development — through regional, subregional and other initiatives. Thailand also recognizes and fully supports the vital role of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in promoting capacity-building and technology transfer to developing countries. It is therefore our earnest hope that the upcoming thirteenth session of the Conference, which will take place in Doha, will yield a fruitful outcome and help to address the various challenges that arise as we pursue development-led globalization. While inflows of foreign investment are beneficial to development, they can also be a double- edged sword. Capital flows that are short-term, volatile and speculative in nature often threaten the stability of the domestic economy. It is therefore vital that fundamental systemic issues be addressed. To that end, Thailand calls for an increased voice and participation of developing countries in the Bretton Woods institutions. Such reforms would allow those institutions to prescribe policies that are better suited to the needs of developing countries and enhance the institutions’ development perspective. Thailand also supports increased coordination with regional arrangements so as to enhance regional and global financial stability. Such regional arrangements include the ASEAN+3 Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization, a multilateral currency swap facility designed to supplement existing international financial arrangements. As I stated earlier, we have only three short years to achieve the MDGs. Only a concerted global effort, with the common goal of sustainable development and inclusive growth, will allow us to reach the goals we have set. Thailand deems it necessary to actively continue the follow-up process to the Monterrey Consensus, which is necessary to ensure that the financing for development agenda continues to be relevant and geared towards development for all.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is grateful for the opportunity to address this critically important High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development. We align ourselves fully with the statements made by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and by the representative of Jamaica on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Our collective purpose in this High-level Dialogue is to evaluate the status of implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, and to consider the tasks ahead. In the time allotted, which does not allow for any single delegation to engage in an exhaustive discussion of all of the complex and interconnected issues surrounding development financing, permit me to focus on the implementation of the commitments made in the area of financing for development. A key pillar of the 2002 Monterrey Consensus was that developed countries would devote a rather modest 0.7 per cent of their national income to official development assistance (ODA). The 2008 Doha Declaration repeated the commitment. At the 2009 United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, it was underscored that an effective response to the global recession urgently required all donors to maintain and deliver on their existing bilateral and multilateral official development assistance commitments and targets, including those made in Monterrey and Doha and at Gleneagles. Let us also remember that the idea of devoting 0.7 per cent of national income to ODA was not born at Monterrey. In 1970, the General Assembly adopted resolution 2626 (XXV), entitled “International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade”. That resolution specified a target of 0.7 per cent in ODA, to be achieved by 1975. In the three and a half decades since the expiration of that 1975 deadline, 0.7 per cent has remained an elusive target and one that is increasingly emblematic of the shortcomings inherent in our global development partnership. So where are we today in the implementation of those decades-old commitments? In 2010, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), developed countries managed to commit only 0.32 per cent of their incomes to ODA, less than half of their 0.7 per cent commitment. Yet this delivery of a mere 46 per cent of pledged assistance has been hailed today as something of a positive achievement. My delegation would respectfully disagree with such an assessment. With the exception of the Nordic States, which, laudably, have exceeded their ODA commitments, no other developed State has managed to meet its agreed target. Further, much of the money counted by many States as ODA has, at best, a tangential relationship to development. These disbursements are motivated by nakedly political calculations, to be used as a lever or a wedge — a carrot or a stick — in the pursuance of broader geopolitical goals and alliances, largely unconnected with developmental needs or priorities. Whatever the relative merits of such assistance, it is disingenuous to call it ODA in the spirit of what was contemplated by the Monterrey Consensus or the Doha Declaration. Nonetheless, by the OECD’s reckoning, in 2010, developed countries missed the revised aid promises of 2005 by more than $19 billion. Further, those countries that pledged an additional $25 billion in aid to Africa fell short of that goal by a whopping $14 billion. As such, in both percentage and dollar terms, we must accept as a fact that developed States annually fail to honour their ODA commitments, to the tune of multibillion-dollar shortfalls. Financing for development will continually fail to meet its targets and objectives if we perpetuate the view that ODA is some form of discretionary charity that is meted out by altruistic donors in times of surplus. ODA is not charity. It is an investment in international peace and security, and it is a necessary counterweight, albeit an inadequate one, against systemic inequalities in global trade and capital flows that are fundamentally unbalanced and disadvantageous to many developing countries, particularly small States. The developing countries that have spoken today to highlight the massive shortfalls between ODA pledged and ODA delivered are neither blaming nor begging. We are simply reminding our partners of the long-standing commitments that they made, upon which we rely and which we expect to be honoured. The proper emphasis on the conceptualization of ODA would also be better served by significant reforms in our global financial architecture and the voice of developing States in global governance. Today we are told that the Group of 20 (G-20) is the world’s premier forum for economic cooperation. Unfortunately, the G-20’s membership is devoid of States for which ODA is a developmental necessity. It is little wonder, therefore, that the concerns of aid recipients are insufficiently understood and are given short shrift in G-20 deliberations. The General Assembly must reassert its role, as envisioned in the Charter, in economic cooperation, and developing countries must continue to push for a greater voice in the deliberations of the Bretton Woods institutions. It remains a constant source of amazement that many States can regularly conjure up billions of dollars to prosecute discretionary wars and unilateral military interventions, almost on a whim, while developmental assistance stagnates, falls short of commitments and is subject to all forms of creative accounting or empty sloganeering that have no impact on the bottom lines of developing States. The global financial and economic crisis is not an excuse for failure to meet ODA commitments. Indeed, the consensus outcome of the 2009 United Nations Conference on the crisis stressed that the crisis, in and of itself, necessitated urgent compliance with existing targets. In four decades of references to agreed ODA targets, I have not seen one instance where the target was conditioned on any calculus of economic growth or surplus. We should not now try to insert such a caveat where it has never previously existed. In an uncertain economic environment where private capital flows, foreign direct investment and remittances are understandably stagnant or shrinking, the need for constant, predictable and sufficient ODA is even more significant. Given its history and the repeated, unconditional commitment to its achievement, the 0.7 per cent benchmark must be an inviolable cornerstone of development financing. It is not simply another variable, to be targeted in times of austerity or conflated with other, additional forms of development financing that are meant to supplement, but not replace, previously committed assistance. The Caribbean subregion is by and large comprised of small, vulnerable, middle-income, heavily indebted States. Among the 14 States of CARICOM, five States have debt-to-gross national product ratios exceeding 100 per cent, and an additional four States exceed 70 per cent. Many countries are borrowing simply to service existing debt and to pay salaries, to say nothing of pursuing our pressing development needs. The Monterrey Consensus, the Doha Declaration and the outcome of the United Nations conference on the global economic crisis all stress that debt relief is a critical component of meaningful development strategies. However, the predominance of so-called middle-income countries in the Caribbean subregion has apparently dissuaded international and bilateral lenders from extending meaningful debt relief. That stance is short-sighted and ultimately counterproductive. While the debt burdens of individual CARICOM States are approaching unsustainable levels and are developmentally debilitating, our regional debt, in dollar terms, is comparatively small. It will cost relatively little for lenders to engage in negotiated debt relief on a regional basis with CARICOM States. That is the morally correct, fiscally prudent and developmentally logical approach to our region’s growing debt burdens. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines stresses the need for urgent attention to this matter. Finally, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines would like to acknowledge and applaud the rise in South- South cooperation in the achievement of development goals. We have benefited greatly from such cooperation among and between developing countries and emerging economies, particularly in the pursuit of social and infrastructural investments. We stress, however, that South-South cooperation is distinct from the traditional North-South/donor-recipient relationship, and that it in no way relieves developed partners from their obligations to meet their ODA responsibilities. While we are grateful for all financing for development and appreciate the efforts of all our development partners, particularly in these times of increased global economic instability, the inescapable fact is that total ODA is far short of the required or promised minimums. To paraphrase Bob Marley, the development pot may be cooking, but the food in it is not enough. Development costs money, and while many States have demonstrated an unerring ability to renege on their commitments to assist, our Governments cannot renege on our own solemn commitments to the people-centred development and advancement of our populations. In this time of global economic recession, the focus should be not on delaying or avoiding the implementation of financing for development commitments, but rather on accelerating and strengthening those promises of assistance to those who played no role in creating the crisis in the first place. Commitments made must be commitments kept, and Monterrey and Doha will be meaningless if the understandings upon which they were based are revised or reinterpreted to the continued detriment of developing countries. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines hopes that this High-level Dialogue provides a meaningful opportunity for all actors in the global partnership for development to recommit to urgently meeting their existing pledges; and we look forward to their imminent, if long overdue, fulfilment.

We thank the President for convening this important dialogue. We align ourselves with the statement made by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. At Monterrey, we agreed that our goal is to eradicate poverty, achieve sustained economic growth and promote sustainable development as we advance to a fully inclusive and equitable global economic system. At Doha, we reaffirmed the Monterrey Consensus in its entirety. As we engage in this Fifth High-level Dialogue to review the status and implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration, our natural starting point is to take stock of our current situation in order to identify how our commitments at Monterrey and Doha have helped us in achieving our goals and to establish what is still required in order to fully implement the Consensus. Since Monterrey, a number of developing countries have made commendable progress towards improving the lives of the poor, increasing literacy rates, reducing child mortality and controlling disease. Official development assistance (ODA) increased from $53 billion in 2001 to $129 billion in 2010. The debt burden of heavily indebted poor countries has decreased. Some developing countries have increased their share in international trade. A select number of developing countries have also been successful in attracting international capital flows. The United Nations system and development partners have made important contributions to these achievements. The progress, however, has been not only less than desired, but also uneven within and among developing countries. Some 925 million people suffered from hunger in 2010. Tragically, 8.1 million children under the age of five died in 2009. Over 2.6 billion people still lack access to adequate sanitation, and 828 million people are living in slums. Today, more young people are poor or unemployed than ever before. Moreover, not all developing countries have benefited from increased ODA, trade, debt relief and international capital flows. Investments in Africa are limited to the natural resource sector and to some commodity-rich countries. The least developed countries have been unable to increase their share of global non-oil trade, which has remained stuck at 0.33 per cent, since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus. Not only has ODA delivery never matched commitments, but it has also remained concentrated in a limited number of countries, where it is allocated to social infrastructure and services, while productive capacity development in developing countries continues to be ignored. A number of low- and middle- income countries are still exposed to the high risk of debt distress. The development gains made by several developing countries have been reversed due to the current world financial and economic crisis. Furthermore, the record high level of food prices has devastated the lives of many in developing countries. Energy insecurity and climate change have aggravated development challenges in the developing world. The good news is that, although our needs are large, our resources are larger. We have the requisite knowledge, resources and tools to open the doors to a better future for the people of our world. Reviving the spirit of Monterrey — a spirit of global partnership and solidarity — can help us to restore confidence in our ability to triumph over the current development emergency. There is no gainsaying the fact that improving the lives of citizens is first and foremost a national responsibility. Pro-growth, people-centric national policies and governance structures are essential to meeting our development goals. Sustained and inclusive economic growth and sustainable development cannot be achieved without sound domestic socio-economic policies and good governance. Pakistan, like many other developing countries, is alive to its responsibilities towards its people. To address the issues hampering economic growth and development, the Government of Pakistan recently adopted a national economic growth framework that focuses on four key drivers of growth. First, it emphasizes the need for market efficiency, mainly through removing unnecessary regulations and barriers to entry. Secondly, it advocates city planning that promotes innovation, connectivity and commerce. Thirdly, it focuses on providing young people with the necessary education and skills to resolve the issue of youth unemployment. Fourthly, it highlights the need for improved governance that provides public goods such as security, rule of law, contract enforcement and property rights. Central to our development paradigm are innovation, entrepreneurship and markets. National development efforts need a supportive and enabling international economic environment. Official development assistance is one of the important sources of financing. We had welcomed the ODA commitment of 0.7 per cent of gross national income made by most of the developed countries. We understand that the current grim economic situation has led to budgetary constraints. We, however, agree with the Secretary-General that cutting aid will not balance budgets, but will hurt the poor, who are the most vulnerable people of the human family. We therefore cannot stress enough the need for enhanced and predictable official development assistance that is aligned with the development priorities of developing countries. Today more than ever, a strong partnership between the North and the South is essential, as is strengthened South-South cooperation. It is also imperative that international capital flows, in particular foreign direct investment, be encouraged to reach a wider circle of developing countries. Foreign direct investment should be attuned to long-term economic growth. An effective resolution of the unsustainable levels of debt of developing countries is crucial as well. We believe that the development potential of trade must be unlocked through an early agreement on an open, rules-based and equitable trading system. Alongside, developing countries should be helped to improve their export capabilities and to diversify their export base. Innovative mechanisms for development financing are important in mobilizing additional resources for financing on a voluntary basis. Ideas, such as the link between special drawing rights and development financing and financial transaction tax, merit consideration. We cannot overemphasize the need for an inclusive and equitable international financial and monetary system conducive to development. The voice and representation of poor and developing countries in global economic decision-making must be increased on the basis of equity, not economic strength, to ensure that the global economic architecture is inclusive, transparent and responsive to the need of the disadvantaged and the most vulnerable. Pakistan looks forward to working with the international community to overcome the implementation deficit in the Monterrey Consensus and to bridge the existing gaps in order to ensure that our efforts are commensurate with our vision. Given its unquestioned legitimacy and representative character, the United Nations should continue to lead our efforts to foster a spirit of genuine partnership.

At the recent fourth High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea, heads of State and Government, ministers and representatives underscored in their outcome document that the world stands at a critical juncture in global development. According to the World Economic Outlook, issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September, global economic activity is uneven and weak, confidence has fallen sharply and downside risks continue to grow. The IMF predicts that world growth will be only 4 per cent in 2011 and 2012, down from growth of more than 5 per cent in 2010. In 2011, real gross domestic product is expected to grow by 6.5 per cent in emerging and developing economies, but only 1.6 per cent in advanced economies. According to the IMF report, if the assumptions on which those forecasts are based, such as overcoming the European financial crisis, are not met, growth throughout the world will further decrease. The Fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development takes place against that backdrop for participants to share views and to renew efforts towards the goals that the international community set at Monterrey and Doha. As the current complex architecture for development cooperation must involve a wide range of actors and various mechanisms, the fourth High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness agreed to establish a new global partnership that reflects the diversity and recognizes the particular roles that each stakeholder can play to support development. Participants recognized that the current economic and financial situation demonstrates the increased interdependence of the world economy and the importance of adopting a coordinated approach to international cooperation. The many stakeholders agreed to take joint action to maximize the impact from the various sources of finance outlined in the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development. All participants agreed to play an active role in a new and more inclusive development agenda on the basis of common goals and principles and differentiated commitments. (spoke in English) Poverty and inequality continue to be our central challenge. With the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) now only a few years away, that urgency has become paramount. Monterrey and Doha underline the critical importance of mobilizing all sources of financing for development, both domestic and international, including foreign direct investment and private funding. Other avenues, such as borrowing of official and private capital, the use of debt relief initiatives and mechanisms, and innovative financing mechanisms should also be used to ensure that trade plays its full part and ensures that donor aid commitments are met. Today, development assistance from Governments and international organizations, once the major driver of economic growth in developing countries, amounts to only 13 per cent of capital flows into developing countries as a result of the growth in areas such as private sector funding, domestic resources, remittances and capital flows. At the same time, there has been a dramatic upsurge in non-official development assistance development financing. As the Secretary-General noted at Busan in 2010, foreign direct investment alone was $574 billion, more than four times the level of total official development assistance (ODA). Development is a key element of the Cannes agenda for global recovery and investment for future growth of the Group of Twenty (G-20) as well as being critical to creating the jobs needed to improve peoples’ living standards worldwide. Leaders agreed to the Cannes Action Plan for Growth and Jobs to address short-term vulnerabilities and to strengthen medium- term foundations for growth and committed to maximize growth potential and economic resilience in developing countries, in particular low-income countries. While stressing the pivotal role of ODA, leaders also agreed that, over time, new sources of funding need to be found to address development needs. They discussed options advanced by Mr. Bill Gates, including forging new partnerships, such as with the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which can make a huge impact by using their experience and technical capabilities. They also discussed innovation, such as Canada’s support for advanced market commitments for pneumococcal vaccines, and reinforcing the role of the private sector as the primary driver of economic growth. G-20 Governments have committed to helping establish conditions to encourage a stronger role for the private sector, including the need for an enabling environment for mobilizing capital. At Cannes, leaders also strongly underlined their support for developing countries’ mobilization of domestic resources and the effective management of those resources as the main driver of development. Broad-based sustainable economic growth, including promoting increased international trade, is crucial for developing countries to achieve faster poverty reduction and economic development. To that end, Canada will continue to work with our partner countries in support of their efforts towards the achievement of the MDGs, our global road map for reducing poverty. The global economic and financial challenges underline the continued fundamental role and importance of international financial and technical cooperation for development, in particular in achieving the MDGs. Canada has met its commitment to doubling its overall international assistance to $5 billion in 2010- 2011 from the 2001-2002 levels. Furthermore, Canada met its commitment to double aid to Africa in 2008- 2009, and has maintained it ever since. Canada has also untied nearly all of its aid, including all its food aid. Stimulating sustainable economic growth is one of five thematic priorities for Canada’s international assistance efforts, which is directly relevant to the discussions that we are having here today. The Busan outcome document provides a strong basis for a broader principle-based partnership that puts country ownership and results at its core. Canada calls on all stakeholders in development to embrace the core principles of effective development cooperation highlighted at the Busan High-level Forum and to participate in a new global partnership so that we can collectively combat poverty. Canada will continue to work to ensure that our development assistance remains focused on sustainable development results — real, concrete and measurable results — centred on the priorities defined by our partner countries as we continue to strengthen our aid effectiveness agenda.

New Zealand welcomes this opportunity to review efforts to achieve the objectives of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration — a debate that takes place against a challenging economic backdrop. Last year’s concern was that economic recovery was fragile and uneven. This year has presented new challenges that potentially affect us all, and which require decisive action. Official development assistance (ODA) plays an important role in financing for development, and statistics show that, in 2010, net ODA flows from traditional donors reached almost $129 billion, which in real terms is the highest level ever. Even so, ODA is under increasing pressure, which means that financial resources from a range of other sources must also be mobilized to achieve sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth, promote sustainable development and, above all, eradicate poverty. Other flows, such as domestic resources and remittances, will be of even greater importance. While there is potential to supplement traditional financing mechanisms by new partnerships, particularly with the private sector, we must continue to focus on how best to use all existing and any potential new flows. The question is not so much about quantum, but rather about how well that funding is used, and about the development results we aim to achieve with that funding. A much greater focus is needed on development effectiveness and donor coordination, so New Zealand welcomes the outcomes of last week’s fourth High- level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea. We particularly note the shift to a broader focus on the various strands of effective development cooperation. Those outcomes recognize the need to modernize, broaden and deepen cooperation, as well as to forge more inclusive global partnerships that encompass South-South and triangular cooperation, new forms of public-private partnership and other vehicles for development, along with maintaining traditional North- South relationships. Overall, New Zealand welcomes the broader, principle-based approach to partnership endorsed at Busan — an approach with country ownership and results at its core. We also recognize that effective development cooperation must go beyond finance to focus on the bigger development opportunities associated with sharing knowledge, and with policy options in areas such as trade, immigration and tax settings. New Zealand is the current Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum and is strongly committed to strengthening development coordination in our Pacific region. The Pacific faces significant and diverse development challenges, and New Zealand will continue to shoulder its share of the responsibility to contribute to the financing that Pacific island countries need to grow their economies and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Our development support now has a particular focus on initiatives that strengthen sustainable economic development and lead to job creation and increased wealth for communities, particularly in infrastructure, fisheries, agriculture and tourism. We will increase our efforts to leverage all forms of finance and to improve the efficiency of our work and that of our country partners, with the aim of achieving significant improvement in the results of those collective efforts. We welcome and support the Pacific Islands Forum compact to improve aid effectiveness, including its innovative peer review mechanism. We were pleased with the positive support that the compact received at Busan. New Zealand believes that trade remains central to economic growth and recovery. One of the most effective steps that could be taken to advance the position of the world’s disadvantaged would be to create a framework within which they can trade more effectively, leading to a better future. It is clear that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha negotiations are facing challenging times, but we must continue to work to nurture a positive political environment for the successful conclusion of those negotiations, which will deliver real reform of global trade, particularly in key areas such as agriculture, as mentioned by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77. We join others, such as Nepal, speaking on behalf of the least developed countries, and the European Union, which have highlighted the opportunity that next week’s WTO ministerial meeting in Geneva presents to reaffirm our commitment to the rules-based multilateral trading system that has been so valuable in safeguarding trade flows and stemming protectionism for the past 60 years, particularly in times of economic downturn. Debt sustainability also remains a key issue and, as we have seen, it is as relevant to developed as it is to developing countries. New Zealand is committed to continuing its role in addressing this issue, including through our ongoing funding for the heavily indebted poor countries and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. We also recognize and welcome actions taken in other forums. The commitments of the Group of 20 (G-20) and other international partners to maintaining a focus on development outcomes, refraining from protectionism and taking steps to promote and facilitate trade and investment are all key to recovery and to building resilience to future shocks. Given the global nature of our economic challenges, the G-20’s willingness to consult with the wider United Nations membership is as welcome as it is important. We urge all stakeholders to embrace the core principles of effective development cooperation highlighted at Busan, and to participate in the new global partnership that should result. It is in everyone’s interests to maximize the impact of the diverse sources of finance we considered in Monterrey and Doha, in order to make progress towards our collective development goals. Those are the objectives, and it is our collective responsibility to see that they are achieved.

My delegation would like to begin by associating this statement with the statements made by the representatives of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and of Nepal on behalf of the least developed countries (LDCs). My delegation welcomes this important High- level Dialogue on Financing for Development. Like others who have spoken before me, we consider it to be timely because we are confronted by a number of global crises, including climate change and the growing financial crisis, which is undermining many of our global social and development time-bound goals. As reflected in the Secretary-General’s report and as stated by the representative of Nepal, the fact of the matter is that many LDCs will not meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The recently adopted 2011-2020 Istanbul Programme of Action for the LDCs looks beyond 2015, and that programme alone represents a North-South, South-South and triangular partnership. The Istanbul Programme of Action has the aim of graduating 50 per cent of LDCs from the group within a 10-year period. That goal is ambitious but achievable if all of the international support pledged at the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries is honoured and invested in the productive sectors of the economies of LDCs. The last Programme, unfortunately, saw only three LDCs graduating within a 10-year period. My delegation remains positive that the world can ride out the financial crisis if we all learn to live within our means. There are sufficient funds available to lift 800 million people, especially in the 49 LDCs, to a point where they can be meaningfully integrated into the global system. It must be ensured that ODA remains not only predictable but also sufficient to allow the economies of the LDCs to make the necessary transformation and trigger an economic takeoff. This also means that the climate change funds pledged in Copenhagen should be managed and distributed in a transparent and accountable manner. We remain concerned at the fact that the current climate change negotiations are creating financial mechanisms that are but empty shells, with no money to operationalize them. We would like to make particular reference also to the Green Climate Fund, which aims to mobilize $100 billion by 2020. This for us is insufficient and greatly undervalues the mitigation and adaptation costs that are impacting developing countries. It is also disturbing to note from the Secretary- General’s report that two thirds of the distribution of aid for trade is skewed to only 10 LDCs. My delegation sees this trend even in the context of the renewable energy climate change strategic funds managed by the World Bank. This fact undermines the credibility of the Bank and stands out like a sore thumb. This situation will not change until the voices of LDCs and small island developing States are heard and they are represented. This will also require clarity in the allocation of funds, including special windows for LDCs. Trade remains the engine of growth. It is a key component in poverty eradication and employment creation. As stated by the representative of Nepal yesterday (see A/66/PV.77), the LDCs’ share of the global trade has, unfortunately, remained well below 1 per cent since the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus. We are concerned about the lack of will to conclude the Doha Round, as the LDCs continue to be deprived of the provisions under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration for duty-free, quota-free market access for all LDCs products and services. The LDCs are calling for the implementation of an early harvest package under the Doha Round, which is currently blocked in the negotiations. We hope that the WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Geneva this month will have a favourable outcome before the Doha Conference in 2012. Enhancing productive capacity is critical for nation-building, especially for post-conflict countries, and to sustain peace. Development investment must remain central to any peacekeeping or peacebuilding initiatives. It is in that connection that the group of seven plus States (g7+) pushed for better aid coordination in post-conflict countries at the recent aid coordination meeting held in Korea. In closing, we hope that the recommendations emanating from this meeting will contribute to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), to be held next year, so as to identify financing gaps within existing sustainable development frameworks that also recognize the special situation of LDCs and small island developing States.

I should like to begin by thanking President Al-Nasser for having convened the fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development and by stressing our expectation that this dialogue will strengthen Member States’ commitment to the development agenda of the United Nations. Since the fourth High-level Dialogue, we have held two major events, the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, and the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries. The positive consequences of those events on the development efforts of the least developed and developing countries have been notable. The High- level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, which was held in September 2010 in this very Hall, represented a major worldwide concerted effort towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The outcome document of the Meeting, which includes an action agenda for achieving the Goals by 2015, reflected a renewed commitment to that end. The considerable number of pledges gave rise to renewed hope. It recalled the urgency of the development needs of the least developed and developing countries and renewed awareness in that sense. The United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in Istanbul from 9 to 13 May 2011, demonstrated a significant commitment to the development agenda of those countries. The Istanbul Declaration and Programme of Action for the least developed countries (LDCs) put forward principles of renewed and strengthened global partnership for the development of the least developed countries. Nevertheless, despite the significant progress made towards the achievement of the MDGs since the adoption and the accelerated efforts through the aforementioned events, we are still lagging behind in terms of the set targets. The progress made has been uneven. Moreover, the ongoing impacts of the financial and economic crisis are still being heavily felt, particularly by the LDCs. As we are fast approaching the target date for the achievement of the MDGs, we should all together refocus our efforts in the field of development, particularly as regards the financing aspect of the issue. First and foremost, I should like to underline the importance of the Monterrey Consensus, which has brought about a new compact among the developing and developed countries. I would like to reiterate Turkey’s commitment to the Monterrey Consensus, in whose implementation the importance of the full involvement of all relevant stakeholders was stressed by the General Assembly in its resolution 65/314. This global partnership understanding should be preserved, involvement in the implementation process should be enhanced, and more concerted actions should be taken by all. We should build our efforts on additional and innovative ways and means of tackling the current challenges of sustainable development. Regional and international trade is an indispensable part of development. With that in mind, the trade capabilities of the developing countries should be developed and a suitable trade environment provided to those countries. Constraints on free trade should be reduced. We believe that, as a complementary instrument, South- South cooperation also provides fertile ground for increased trade, particularly at the regional level, and paves the way for sharing experiences and lessons learned. National ownership of development programmes is yet another dimension of the issue. The harmonization of national development policies with the MDGs is one of the recipes for success. Equally important as the enhancement of trade capacities and national ownership is the scaling up and improvement of the quality of development aid, in particularly official development assistance. Turkey, as an emerging donor country, stands behind its aid commitments. The mobilization of aid to build the required human infrastructure and institutional capacities is a sine qua non for development. For that reason, the international community as a whole should live up to its commitments. We also believe that development assistance should be allocated to employment- generating activities and to financing the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises. Finally, I should like to touch upon the significance of foreign direct investment for long-term growth and sustainable development. We should work on ways and means to enhance the ability of developing countries to attract multinational investment. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio next June, will provide us with an invaluable opportunity to address the development challenges ahead. From the perspective of development, we should prepare for the Conference with an innovative and creative approach. We believe that the engagement of civil society and the private sector is key to success in that regard. Their contributions are integral to national, regional and international efforts. We believe firmly in the continued need for international cooperation and solidarity in order to achieve success in the field of development. Efficient recipes and effective implementation complement each other, and international support is their catalyst. As I emphasized at the beginning of my remarks, we hope that the deliberations of this High-level Dialogue will pave the way for progress and enhance our efforts to meet the MDGs.

At the outset, I would like to express our thanks for the convening of the fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development. Mexico believes that the financing for development agenda is a milestone in the work of the Organization, since it identifies all the sources of financing that are available to support the efforts of developing countries. All chapters of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration are equally important; they are interrelated and demonstrate our collective commitment to development. The financing agenda has shown its usefulness in enabling us to put together a comprehensive and holistic vision of the challenges we face in mobilizing the resources needed to promote development. In that regard, we are pleased that in the draft resolution facilitated by the delegation of Mexico, which is to be adopted by the Second Committee, on the follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus, Member States will decide to implement the Doha mandate. We should make the most of this opportunity to stress the relevance for this High-level Dialogue of the preparatory process for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Mexico firmly believes that the agendas of financing for development and sustainable development are inseparable. We see in the 2012 Conference a valuable opportunity to maintain a comprehensive vision of development in three of its dimensions: financing, sustainability, and the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 development framework. We therefore believe it necessary to put in place as soon as possible the appropriate mechanisms for organizing a follow-up conference to Monterrey and Doha, which should take full account of the results we expect from the Rio+20 Conference, and should therefore necessarily be a step towards the post-2015 development framework. In the current fragile economic and financial context, the international community must act with an inclusive vision of development in order to ensure that commitments are met, resources are used effectively and transparently, and the specific needs of developing nations are taken into account, especially those of middle-income countries such as Mexico and most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In that connection, we welcome the consensus reached on the final declaration of the fourth High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, held recently in Busan, the Republic of Korea. Looking ahead to the next three years, the main challenge facing Mexico and other developing countries is to encourage change that results in promoting production, diversification, innovation, competitiveness, the conservation of ecosystems and sustainable, low-carbon growth. Mexico has achieved growth with stability and has made progress on eradicating poverty, providing access to health services, reducing the use of ozone-depleting substances, and expanding protected natural and reforested areas. That has produced a net rise for our country on the Human Development Index, and our full achievement of at least four of the Millennium Development Goals, along with the real prospect of meeting or surpassing the remaining Goals by 2015. However, among the main challenges still before us are further reducing levels of poverty and marginalization, as well as strengthening social protection mechanisms so as to shield the economy and the people against downturns and financial crises. Closely linked to those challenges is the need to move faster towards sustainability. Mexico hopes to continue moving towards thorough reform of the international financial architecture, making it more strongly oriented towards development. It should be based on the principles of legitimacy, transparency, efficiency and security in order to meet the needs of its members. It should also establish monitoring, regulatory and accountability mechanisms to help it respond to, and prevent, future crises. We particularly support initiatives that seek to increase prudent supervision of the International Monetary Fund, finalize its structural reform and increase emerging economies’ representation and participation in its governance. As President of the Group of 20, Mexico is committed to taking into account the concerns of non-member States, multilateral and regional organizations, international financial institutions and civil society. Our outreach activities will be guided by the principles of openness, respect, diversity, inclusion and transparency. Cooperation with other international organizations, especially the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, will be vital. Mexico recognizes the growing importance of South-South and triangular cooperation, while acknowledging that such initiatives are not a substitute for North-South cooperation but rather a complement to it. In that regard, Mexico, as a developing country that benefits from cooperation, plays a dual role in international cooperation for development. An example of that was the recent establishment of the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development, with a mandate to design, fund, monitor and evaluate cooperation programmes for sustainable human development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This High-level Dialogue should provide a basis for promoting a genuinely inclusive vision of development in all its aspects — the economic, social and environmental. There is no substitute for financing for development, in its various forms, to drive national efforts to achieve development and eradicate poverty, and to which it is key. It is therefore necessary to focus our efforts on promoting sustainable, inclusive development that respects our planet.

It gives me great pleasure to be part of this meeting’s deliberations on financing for development, which is a very topical issue for us as a developing country. Zimbabwe aligns itself with the statements made by the representatives of Tanzania, Sri Lanka and Argentina on behalf of the African Group, the Group of 15 and the Group of 77 and China, respectively. This forum comes at an opportune time, when there is indeed a need to review financing options for developing countries against the backdrop of the debt crisis in Europe and the financial crisis in the United States of America. Zimbabwe recognizes the commitments made by developed countries to support the development agenda of developing countries as set out in the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration. Zimbabwe, for its part, remains committed to the implementation of the programme of action to attain the objectives of the two declarations and has put in place initiatives that will facilitate their implementation. However, members present here will agree with me that the implementation of the principles of the two declarations has been an uphill task, considering the limitations that countries face, including natural disasters, political instability, global economic crises and euro zone debt crises, to mention but a few. That has resulted in reduced financial inflows to developing countries and, in turn, poses a major challenge to our quest for sustainable development. The debt overhang only exacerbates the problem. My country’s $7 billion debt, for instance, has rendered Zimbabwe unable to access any meaningful inflows, which will continue to be the case until the debt issue is resolved. Foreign direct investment in Africa has also declined, shrinking by 10 per cent to $55 billion in 2010. In Zimbabwe, the decline has been very significant, from highs of about 18 per cent of gross domestic product in the 1980s and 20 per cent in the 1990s, to a mere 1.1 per cent between 2000 and 2010. That will translate into $125 million in 2011. Zimbabwe is also experiencing a decline in development assistance, from more than $800 million in 2009 to $618 million in 2010 and a mere $350 million in 2011. That decline is not peculiar to Zimbabwe, as the whole of Africa faces the same dilemma, arising mainly from the global crisis. It is therefore imperative and only prudent that, as stated in the Monterrey Consensus, we look increasingly to our domestic resources as a means of financing development. That has taken on even more importance given the challenges in mobilizing international resources. By extension, developing countries have to adopt more aggressive strategies to mobilize resources domestically. Those strategies include tax reforms, developing and expanding financial markets and promoting savings. In response to the scarcity of resources, we in Zimbabwe have adopted a policy of “eating only what we kill”. Strictly speaking, that is cash budgeting. In order to boost domestic resources, we are also reforming our tax administration and are now in the process of finalizing a new income tax act. The reforms include a review of legislation and initiatives to fiscalize the economy and automate tax administration procedures. We are also reviewing the taxation of extractive industries, particularly mining, with a view to maximizing the benefits generated by the country’s mineral resources. Also critical is the enhancement of transparency and accountability in the management of mineral resources, on which we are also currently working. As developing countries implement measures to help mobilize domestic resources, we call upon developed countries to complement those efforts by ensuring that, in their pursuit of the development agenda, they do not exploit developing countries. In other words, we are also calling for transparency and accountability in their dealings with developing countries, which will enhance the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in support of development.

My delegation associates itself with the statements delivered by the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania on behalf of the African Group and by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. My delegation commends the President for having convened this High-level Dialogue, which helps us to focus our agenda on the key issue of financing for development. We also wish to express our appreciation to the Secretary-General for his two reports (A/66/329 and A/66/334), which contain very insightful observations and key recommendations on the subject matter under discussion. My delegation fully supports many of those recommendations. In his report contained in document A/66/329, entitled “Follow-up to and implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development”, the Secretary-General underlines the importance of financing poverty eradication and expanding employment opportunities, as well as the critical need to work expeditiously towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, despite such major setbacks as the unrelenting global financial and economic crisis, uncertainty in global markets and price volatility. The report further underlines the importance of generating public revenues as a critical component of domestic resource mobilization for the development process. Other alternatives for domestic financing include the enhancement of domestic institutional drivers, for example by broadening the tax system. The report encourages Governments to establish regulatory and policy frameworks to enable private sector participation as the main driver of growth, employment, investment and innovation. We also note that foreign direct investment, trade and investment, international development assistance, multilateral technical support and capacity-building have a critical role in contributing to financing for development and to the advancement of all development goals. Developing countries such as mine continue to appreciate that support. In that context, my Government has endeavoured to put in place the requisite economic and social policy frameworks, including favourable risk characteristics, as well as to prudently manage the country’s limited natural resources, in order to grow the economy and improve the quality of life of its citizens. That has resulted in a number of positive socio-economic indicators, including modest economic growth of about 5.5 per cent. Despite my country’s conducive environment for investment, it has become increasingly apparent that the concentration of foreign direct investment in some developing countries over the past decade has made countries such as my own unable to attract the level of foreign direct investment needed to spur sustained growth and diversify their economies. It is also alarming that even the pool of non-traditional sources of financing for development, as detailed in the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Innovative mechanisms of financing for development” (A/66/334), are not filtering through to the majority of developing countries. Although well-intended, the scale of contributions to innovative financing for development in the health sector, especially in relation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is still very modest as compared with the total volume of resources needed to have maximum impact on global intervention strategies. Clearly, there is a need to broaden the scope of beneficiaries so that all developing countries at various stages of development can gain access to the favourable financing necessary for their development. We are certainly not implying that there should be a shift of focus in financing for development. Rather, consideration should also be given to all countries that are still struggling at the bottom half of the development ladder, where, in the case of my country, 20.7 per cent of the population still lives below the poverty datum line. That situation is compounded by the disease burden, especially HIV and AIDS. We believe that the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General (A/66/220) entitled “Development cooperation with middle- income countries” provide a good basis for expanding assistance to incorporate the broad category of countries that still face huge development challenges such as extreme poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment. My delegation cannot agree more with the conclusions contained in the Secretary-General’s report. A correct observation in the report notes that several bilateral donors are downsizing or phasing out development assistance to middle-income countries, which further heightens the need for the United Nations to strengthen its support to those countries in order to ensure that the development challenges they face are effectively addressed, the gains they have achieved continue and the diminished financial assistance does not adversely affect their development agenda. On the other hand, the trickle in the delivery of development aid also falls far short of expectations and commitments. It is worth observing that the net ratio of official development assistance to gross national income of many of the larger donors is still below the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent, with the exception of a few countries, such as Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. They have all exceeded the target, and we sincerely thank them for their support. We therefore implore other developed partners to do likewise and to make greater efforts to deliver on their obligations, commitments and pledges in that regard. We therefore look forward to the added momentum that the fifth High-level Dialogue will provide towards building a firm platform for the follow-up to the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in 2013.

At the outset, I wish to thank the President for the opportunity to deliver this statement. At the same time, I thank him for organizing this timely High-level Dialogue to deliberate on the important topic of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, on the status of implementation and on the tasks ahead. We believe that this debate provides an important opportunity to review the status of implementation of the Consensus and the Declaration. The Kenyan delegation aligns itself with the statements made by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and by the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania on behalf of the African Group. Kenya is one of the African countries worst hit by the recent global financial and economic crisis, which revealed some of the functional weaknesses of the global economy and the urgent need to reform the international finance and trade architecture. The crisis also posed dire consequences for global trade, investment and growth. For Kenya, and Africa as a whole, the crisis threatens to reverse progress made in economic performance and management. The Kenyan experience highlights that various external and often unforeseen events can continue to jeopardize the global community’s attempts towards inclusive economic development. Those events have included international conflict, natural disasters and the global economic crisis, which have caused key financial markets to lose value and stability. Kenya stresses that a combination of such elements risks reversing progress made in development financing. Kenya reiterates that the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus has been slow, while progress in realizing its objectives continues to be limited. While it is true that some progress has been achieved in the area of debt relief and, to some extent, official development assistance, it is equally true that trends in foreign capital flows and international trade have been disappointing. African countries are experiencing weaker export revenues, decreased investment and growth rates and shrinking remittances and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, which have constrained their capacity to meet the Monterrey commitments. Although the Monterrey Consensus reaffirms the importance of mobilizing domestic resources through taxation, which is the main domestic financial resource for Kenya and most African countries, that has been hampered by limitations in taxable capacity. It is important to note that such taxable capacity is mainly a factor of per capita income, trade levels, agricultural shares and other important sectors of the economy. Domestic savings also play a critical role in investment. However, it is important to note that domestic savings levels in many developing countries remain low, mainly due to exogenous factors, which seriously constrains economic growth. The challenge remains of how to increase domestic savings and channel them into socially productive sectors in the wake of new and emerging challenges such as the recent drought in the Horn of Africa and its attendant humanitarian crisis. Despite such challenges, Kenya has moved forward in exploring innovative sources of financing. Allow me to draw the Assembly’s attention to the 2011 World Forum on the Diaspora Economy, which was held just days before today’s High-level Dialogue. The event was co-chaired by the President of the General Assembly and Benin. My delegation, joined by those of Benin, India, Ukraine and the Philippines, made mention of the draft resolution on financing for development introduced by the Group of 77 and China, which recognizes the important role of the global diaspora economy in global capital flows. As noted, Kenya continues to search for new financing sources to complement traditional development assistance. In order to fund a number of important infrastructure projects, the Government of Kenya recently managed to tap into the savings of its citizens abroad when it launched its first 12-year diaspora bond. While we recognize the potential of diaspora remittances and other innovative financing sources for development, I must emphasize that those cannot, and should not, be allowed to replace or eclipse current financial arrangements and obligations. The indispensable role of international capital flows in investment, technology and economic growth in many developing countries cannot be denied. Foreign direct investment has become one of the most important sources of development financing in Africa. Yet the net FDI inflow to the continent is declining and/or stagnating, and remains largely concentrated in the extractive industries. Kenya has created an environment conducive to investment and urges potential investors to seek the opportunity and invest in its diverse economy, particularly in areas that would generate decent employment and lead to knowledge transfer and local capacity-building. Official development assistance remains an important source of development finance. While available 2009 data show that some countries have met their commitments of 0.7 per cent of their gross national income, there is need to fast-track and fulfil remaining commitments. In that regard, Kenya emphasizes the urgent need for increased aid effectiveness by paying particular attention to aid quality, quantity and disbursement in a timely fashion. Allow me to comment briefly on the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development. Kenya remains supportive of the World Trade Organization in its efforts to promote and strengthen a rules-based multilateral trading system, along with the reforms that it has initiated. We emphasize that for the multilateral trading system to remain viable, now and in the future, there is an urgent need to further inculcate quality political leadership, pragmatism and the spirit of compromise and realism in the process. In that regard, Kenya reaffirms its commitment to the successful conclusion of the Doha Round of trade negotiations. The most significant economic development that the world must strive to achieve is the completion of those negotiations. Indeed, for almost a decade while those talks stalled, developing countries, particularly in Africa, bore the brunt of the impact. Accordingly, we emphasize that the failure to conclude the Doha Round continues to block our only route to international trade. We must all recognize that while the richer and more powerful nations have the capacity to open up new channels of trade, developing countries do not have that option. Our only route to international trade is the multilateral path. Therefore, Kenya urges parties to resolve all long-standing issues, in particular the disputes over agricultural and non-agricultural market access, as well as trade protectionism and other matters, in order to conclude the negotiations in a timely fashion. Failure is not an option and the continued stalemate is worse for developing countries. To conclude, Kenya wishes to note that with the foregoing challenges related to financing for development, it is impossible to achieve internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, by 2015. We therefore reiterate the need for increased political commitment in order to fulfil all the international agreements reached at major United Nations conferences and summits on financing for development.

Madagascar welcomes the holding of this High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, with its particular focus on the status of the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration. This issue is timelier than ever at a time of turmoil for the world economy and as we approach 2015, the deadline set for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the outset, Madagascar aligns itself with the statements delivered by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, by the representative of Nepal on behalf of the least developed countries (LDCs), and by the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania on behalf of the Group of African States. The mobilization of both national and international financial resources is crucial for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs. In order for the results achieved to be lasting, we need sufficient, stable and predictable financing. However, given the current crises, we note on the part of the developed partner countries a tendency towards disengagement and a propensity to abandon their support for development. Faced with this response on the part of developed countries, we developing countries will not shrink from our responsibilities. We are aware that we must rely first and foremost on our own strength. We nonetheless call for aid, without which our efforts will only be in vain, especially in the difficult context in which we find ourselves today, with so many challenges before us. A number of years ago, Madagascar decided to take charge of its own destiny and embarked on far- reaching economic and institutional reforms aimed at promoting better governance. Thanks to the write-off of our foreign debt within the framework of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and thanks as well to progress in improving the management of our fiscal resources, Madagascar’s macroeconomic situation has been quite favourable. The performance of the agriculture, tourism and mining sectors has enabled us to maintain an average yearly growth rate of more than 5 per cent annually since 2004. That progress allowed the Madagascan Government to implement development and anti-poverty policies to benefit the most disadvantaged. Madagascar has made significant progress towards achieving the MDGs, particularly in the areas of education and health. However, in spite of the specific results attained in the fight against poverty and in protecting the environment, our achievements are threatened by the difficulties that the State has encountered in its search for financing the ongoing needs of those projects. Successive global crises, especially the persistent global financial crisis, on top of the political crisis that shook Madagascar, led to a reduction in foreign aid and investment, plunging our population into a situation of deep precariousness and poverty. At the national level, the decrease in fiscal revenue alongside the rise in public expenditure for measures urgently needed to relieve the plight of the population is not conducive to implementing agreed development policies. Like so many other least developed countries, Madagascar is suffering the full brunt of those crises, for which it is not responsible. We therefore call upon our partner countries to honour their commitments to development aid, which is the primary source of development funding for the LDCs. The Secretary-General’s report on that matter shows a steady progression in official development assistance allocated to LDCs. However, it is still far from the agreed goal of 0.15 to 0.20 per cent from now to 2015. In this difficult period, international solidarity and cooperation should be strengthened. From that perspective, South-South cooperation should be supported in order to enable it to genuinely leverage development. Nevertheless, it should by no means be viewed as a substitute for North-South cooperation. International trade is the primary engine of development. Unfortunately, the return of protectionism in the markets of the developed world weighs heavily on less developed countries, which were already non-competitive and marginalized. In the light of the deadlock in the multilateral negotiations of the Doha Round, swift measures are required for the most vulnerable countries. The implementation of the measures agreed in the World Trade Organization ministerial declaration adopted in Hong Kong with respect to duty- and quota-free access for all goods produced in least developed countries must be fast-tracked. Trade support should be directed towards those countries most in need. The quest for innovative, stable and predictable forms of financing requires a comprehensive policy that involves all stakeholders in society, both private and public, and from all levels. There is great potential in the matter of harnessing resources, but as was shown in the Busan High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, it is essential to ensure that the different forms of development financing and the various forms of cooperation function as a true catalyst for development. Moreover, the reform of the international financial architecture and system needs to be stepped up in order to broaden the path for the poorest countries, taking their specific situations into account. Allow me to take this opportunity to inform the Assembly about the latest developments in Madagascar’s post-crisis recovery process. The establishment of transitional institutions as set forth in the road map that was signed by Madagascan political parties is well under way, with the participation of the main stakeholders. The Government of National Unity is already hard at work on preparations for the forthcoming elections, and the transitional parliament has been constituted by the appointment of members of the transition congress and the upper transition council. Now more than ever before, Madagascar needs the support of the international community so that the achievements of the past years are not wiped out.

My delegation associates itself with the statement made by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. We wish to stress our special satisfaction at the holding of the fifth High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, which is a crucial issue for countries of the South. We would like to reaffirm that the crisis is deeper than it was a year ago. It is a global economic, financial, environmental, energy and food crisis affecting the very foundation of today’s world and the United Nations itself, which has been losing legitimacy in a world beset by constant war, hunger, epidemics, climate change, drought, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and many other woes. That outlook is all the more bleak if we take into account that the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Durban, South Africa, is moving forward without reaching any agreements. In the same vein, the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is doubtful. Just as the fate of the Kyoto Protocol is in play at Durban, at stake at Rio+20 is the entire legal platform that has to some degree protected the Earth from the process of ongoing destruction. That would become aggravated if the version of the green economy that implies a generalized commoditization of nature were to be endorsed. How can we speak of financing for development against a background like the one just described, where what was built yesterday is destroyed the next day by war, earthquakes or other calamities? Debates echo each other, financing for development is increasingly scarce, and the commitments made by developed countries are not met; and so there is a lack of capital at the same time that we are experiencing processes of unbridled exponential accumulation of capital. There has been a radical change in the role of banks in the economy and in the relationship of banks with the real economy. Banks today are not institutions with the principal function of channelling savings towards productive investment. Instead, money is channelled towards financial speculation in stocks, bonds, energy, food, land and biological diversity and so on. Billions in profits are generated without producing so much as a needle. As long as measures are not taken to change the structure and purpose of banking institutions and force them to fund activities such as agriculture and industry, it will be difficult to see any solution for financing for development. Banks have not only subordinated the real, traditional economy, such as industry and agriculture, to financial markets; they have gradually changed the economy itself. For example, agriculture becomes transgenic agriculture, controlled by large transnational monopolies that increasingly destroy the peasant economy and that of small and medium-sized producers, all the while polluting the soil and destroying traditional seed in order to monopolize the production of what we eat and to fix food prices. Food sovereignty, food as a human right, and financing for the development of our peoples’ agriculture are now impossible. It is clear that it is more profitable to finance those monopolistic processes than it is to eradicate poverty or to ensure the adaptation of countries of the South to climate change. For neoliberal globalization, education, health and employment are not human rights. Therefore, the right to development implied in the rights I have just mentioned does not exist. The only viable development is that which results from competition in the marketplace. Development as a right therefore cannot be financed — and there we face yet another limitation on financing for development. The representatives of developed countries say that recession makes it impossible to provide financing for development, but the recession is the result of procyclical policies funded by tax cuts, massive worker layoffs, cuts to social spending and so on. Poverty is what is being created thereby, not development. In that recessionary process, risk assessment agencies play an essential role in leading countries towards total collapse. Who, then, evaluates those who assess risk, who so irresponsibly pass judgement on the economy of a country? Those agencies favour putting bankers from Goldman Sachs, former members of the Trilateral Commission, into decisive positions of power. One country in Europe has taken another direction — rejecting the neoliberal prescription, recovering from the recession and taking a direction of sustained growth. Why do we not review the experiences of countries on different continents that have opted for other approaches than that of neoliberal globalization and are moving towards justice, equality and social inclusiveness? Neoliberal policies are being defeated in the academic world and in various experiments. Now, in an act of powerlessness, those circumstantial issues are being declared to be constitutional standards, which is a path towards perpetuating the recession, financial speculation and the Government of Goldman Sachs. Without liquidity, it is very difficult for the South to eradicate poverty, adapt to climate change and comply with internationally agreed development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals. One of the ways forward is for the South to gain financial, fiscal and monetary autonomy. The Bank of the South, the Unified System for Regional Compensation, solidary cooperation and fair trade constitute policies that lead to strengthening sovereignty and independence and to the eradication of poverty.

The Philippines associates itself with the statements delivered by the representative of Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and by the representative of Indonesia on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. My delegation expresses its appreciation for the convening of the fifth High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development. Indeed, as many other delegations have stated, the convening of the Dialogue is most timely as we approach the 2015 deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Furthermore, the chosen theme reflects the urgent need to review the status of the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development. On the topics chosen for the multi-stakeholder round tables, I wish to briefly share our delegation’s observations on the various issues discussed or to be discussed. On the first round table topic, “The reform of the international monetary and financial system and its implications for development”, we wish to again emphasize that it is the United Nations, as the only global body with universal participation and unquestioned legitimacy, that should maintain the central role in the current reform of the global governance framework, including the multilateral financial and monetary system. Obviously, there is a place for other sets of participants to undertake efforts to reform the system, but their efforts should recognize and reflect the reality of the United Nations as the main engine of the process. With regard to the second round table topic, “The impact of the world financial and economic crisis on foreign direct investment and other private flows, external debt and international trade”, we wish to join once again the international call for a fair, open, non-discriminatory and rules-based multilateral trading system and the earliest possible conclusion of the Doha Round. Greater flexibility is needed on the part of developed countries in order to break the current stalemate and carry the negotiations forward to a conclusion that is equitable and can lead to economic recovery and sustainable development. We understand that owing to the current financial and economic crisis, there will be greater tendencies for countries to develop protectionist measures and, on the part of the developed world, decrease their aid flows to developing countries. But that can only lead to greater problems for all of us; even if they are politically expedient for local societies, such measures would cause even greater difficulties for developing countries. In the end, there would be no way for the entire world to embark on the path towards sustainable development. That path cannot be taken by protectionist measures, pitting one against the other. We must all walk down the path together. The third topic of the round table discussions will be “The role of financial and technical development cooperation, including innovative sources of development finance, in leveraging the mobilization of domestic and international financial resources for development”. In that connection, we take note of the report of the Secretary-General (A/66/329), which indicates that many large donors have not yet reached the United Nations target of providing 0.7 per cent of their gross national income as official development assistance. Even as levels have increased, we must urge developed countries, as we approach the 2015 deadline, to fulfil their official development assistance commitments consistent with the 2012 Millennium Development Goals Summit and the Istanbul Programme of Action. With regard to innovative sources of development finance, the Philippines wishes to refer to the recently held 2011 World Forum on the Diaspora Economy, wherein the Philippines and a number of other countries with large numbers of citizens working overseas shared experiences in integrating their overseas nationals in their local development plans. We hope that the world will recognize the important role of the global diaspora economy in global capital flows and the potential linkage between the economies of the diaspora host country and the diaspora country of origin. In the Philippines, we have launched our own version of the diaspora bond, which we call the overseas foreign worker bond, as an innovative source of development finance. In that way, we are also paying heed to the Monterrey Consensus call for the need to reduce the transfer costs of migrant workers’ remittances and to create opportunities for development-oriented investments. The Philippines also pioneered the idea of debit- for-equity swaps a decade ago. In fact, two decades ago the Philippines initiated the debt swap for children. Even as we continue to push for such ideas, we reiterate our position that debt reduction must benefit all developing countries and that debt sustainability should take into account the implementation of the MDGs. We will therefore continue to advocate for debt-to-MDG swap arrangements. It must be realized that the international community will continue to be far from meeting the promise of the Monterrey Consensus if we lose sight of the need to take a holistic approach that ensures the coherence and consistency of development assistance and international monetary, financial and trade assistance in support of development. We must therefore work to truly make the most of the linkages between the United Nations, its funds and programmes, operational activities, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization, which together form the centres of global governance. In that way, we can achieve unity in action, as together we worked to prepare for the Monterrey Summit and its Consensus. We must achieve unity in action so that financing for development, particularly in developing countries, could actually be a living instrument for poverty eradication and sustainable development. In conclusion, let me again thank the President of the General Assembly and the organizers of this event and express my assurance that the Philippines will do its part to ensure that the High-level Dialogue will be another milestone on the way towards the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration.

We have heard the last speaker in the High-level Dialogue. Before adjourning this meeting, I should like to remind representatives that the informal interactive dialogue will take place in Conference Room 4 from 3 p.m. to 5.45 p.m. There will be a short closing plenary meeting immediately thereafter, also in Conference Room 4.