Social Summit Mrs. Mubarak Statement

We are here once more as partners to review our efforts in addressing the goals of national and international social development, and I welcome this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the lessons so far learnt and on the challenges ahead.

Five years after Copenhagen and we are still looking for the human face of “globalization”. In our new globalizing world of accelerating change, the forces of unrestrained free markets have exposed large numbers of people to uncertainties unimagined by previous generations. The evil of unemployment, the pain of poverty, and deprivation, the burden of debt have all become magnified by the closeness of our societies. It has become increasingly clear that the challenges of “one society for all”- as envisioned by the Copehagen Social Summit- remain largely unmet.

The question we must ask ourselves is why is it that this lofty ideal has fallen short in implementation. Were our expectations too high? Were we too ambitious? Why is it so difficult to meet the vital task of ensuring an equitable balance between nations who live in plenty and those for whom plenty is still a hope?

One answer -I am convinced- lies in the absence of a new dynamic development model that creates not only the conditions necessary for economic progress, but that also binds such progress to social development. There is a complimentarity between “growth and redistribution”, as opposed to the old “growth and trickle-down” model for poverty reduction. And it is here that I believe that the value of this Summit lies. We must all go beyond “wish lists”, beyond socially responsible rhetoric - to ensure that action plans provide the incentives and the tools needed to translate the Copenhagen goals and values into concrete accomplishments on the ground.

This will not be an easy task. So far, we in the developing world have seen well meaning attempts by international organizations and indeed, by many governments, to link aid to social protection, which amount to little more than good intentions. Countries have initiated a range of policies aimed at integrating economic and social development – a highly complex task, with varying degrees of success. These efforts will continue to meet with mixed results unless the fundamental rules of the game are changed. Today, third world Countries are expected to implement reforms at a fraction of the time it took first world countries to absorb change. We have a new revolution on our hands where “transformation” and “transition” have become the buzz words for progress.

Third world countries, by definition, have less resources to meet the conflicting claims on them. When these resources are made even more scarce by the demands of debt repayment, then we are talking about an ever-shrinking slice of the cake, which is required to feed ever-growing numbers.

We are all subject to the pressures and risks of globalization, yet we do not share equally in its burdens. Globalization, and its attendant, the so-called “open” market gives an extra edge to those individuals and groups who have the initial advantage of wealth, knowledge and networks.

We have been led to believe that Transnational Companies will replace our failing public enterprises in generating investments, employment and exports. And yet, their activity is increasingly concentrated in the few countries and regions that were able to make an early transition and are backed with strong political support from OECD countries.

The role played by national governments in the area of social policy is undermined by donor-mandated reform requirements, which insist upon reduced government intervention. Yet greater social responsibility requires stronger regulation and closer monitoring by the relevant national government, to ensure that international and national market actors such as Transnational and local entrepreneurs balance the desire for profit-maximization with the duty, and I repeat “the duty” to serve the public good.

Mr. President

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Egypt has been grappling with these difficult equations of progress. Our economic reform has proceeded successfully in the last decade of the last century. And the question we ask ourselves after this long reform is whether Egypt has matched this economic success story with a social one? The short answer is a qualified yes.

Despite the constraints just mentioned, and indeed, many other constraints, the spirit of bottom-up partnership has permeated all of our efforts to promote grassroots participation, expand budget allocations for social sectors, successfully attain the 20/20 objective, streamline the national budget and focus support for Vulnerable households.

Elements of success can be found in such projects as low income housing, the rehabilitation of squatter areas, operationalizing the indicators of Human Development at the regional level, and the creation of information decision support centers for decentralized governance.

But there are priorities as to how we “ slice the pie” that constitutes our available resources. We have chosen to focus our social policy on the three pillars of 21st century society: human development, gender equity, and overall poverty reduction. And in all of these areas we have had success stories. I will mention only a few achieved during the 1990s. A decade which, to emphasize both its focus and strategy, was declared by President Mubarak “The Decade of the child”. A decade which –to this end- witnessed the establishment of institutional mechanisms as well as the introduction of legal frameworks.

In Education, Egypt has quadrupled the number of school buildings in the last decade; it has increased school enrollment to over 96 percent at primary level and 78 percent at the secondary level: We are especially proud of our achievement in closing the gender gap which stood at 30 percent at the beginning of the 1990s and is now at less than 5 percent at the two stages of basic education. One very effective instrument in our educational program has been a joint initiative with UNICEF in establishing hundreds of one-classroom schools in remote or rural areas.

In Health and Nutrition, Egypt introduced some five years ago a universal children's health insurance scheme which now covers over 20 million participants. Average caloric intake has increased by 40 percent since the 1970s. Infant mortality rates have sharply been reduced from 80 per thousand in early 1990s to 40 per 1000 in the late 1990s.

On Gender Equality, as mentioned earlier, the gender gap in education is rapidly closing. To further develop this trend, we have transformed Egypt's National Commission for Women into a fully-fledged Presidential Supreme National Council for Women, devoted to promoting equality in all spheres of public life.

Earlier this year, Government agencies and civil society worked hand in hand to achieve a major objective. A new law was passed which ensures gender equality in divorce. The UNDP Human Development Report for the year 2000 highlights this important development. The report's Gender Empowerment Measure places Egypt in sixty eighth position, a considerable achievement if compared to Egypt's eighty sixth place last year.

On Poverty Reduction, Egypt's government has actively countered the impact of the Structural Adjustment Program by providing direct financial help to the poorest of the poor, estimated at one million heads of households. The program has a built-in incentives system to encourage

recipients to get training or start up their own micro business and develop their income-earning capacities. Egypt has also instituted a Social Development Fund to help young people start up their own micro and small enterprises. Some half a million have benefited from this initiative to date.

Some of the challenges that still lie ahead are the creation of more job opportunities for young graduates, as well as the provision of low-cost housing and better social security coverage for the vulnerable. What we are striving to design are policies that create dynamic comparative advantage for the small, the traditional, the poor and self- employed as means to overcome the roots of poverty and social exclusion.

Mr. President,

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen

In the context of the vital role played by the informal and micro-enterprise sector, I would like to turn to the ten commitments endorsed in Copenhagen, five years ago. The needs of the small and micro enterprises, including those in the informal sector, cut across at least seven out of the ten commitments. And yet they are only mentioned in two. For most of the Copenhagen goals to materialize, I suggest a focus on this particular socio-economic group. This sector may in fact provide the answer in our search for a viable engine of growth with equity and grassroots participation.

I propose that here in Geneva, we think together of a mechanism whereby the micro and small enterprise sector becomes a vehicle for a new development model. For too long, and in line with the old development philosophy, our economic policies have dwelt on the formal, the large, the modern. Studies across the world now show that self-employed entrepreneurs and informal activities have been growing as a share of employment and GDP over the past two decades. The informal and micro-enterprise sector is organically linked to those very poor households that we wish to target. It represents the greatest number of those striving for a decent livelihood in the labor force, and it accounts for the bulk of private entrepreneurship, which we aim at dynamising.

And while the absolute figures for the number of the poor and illiterate are growing at the global level, development assistance has declined to 0.23% of donor countries' GNP. We owe it to these more than one billion marginalized citizenry of the world to close the gap in both welfare and opportunities.

Important lessons are emerging from the concrete attempts made by a number of pioneers from the developing world to promote assistance for the informal sectors and the poor. In the areas of micro-finance, social insurance and institutional reform, we have successful examples from different countries of frontline work by Mohamed Younes, Ela Bhatt and Hernando de Soto. Many similar examples deserve better recognition as model from which to draw elements of a new development paradigm.

What we need are new mechanisms whereby the fruits of successful practices can be harnessed to help micro entrepreneurs. We also need the results of research in IT applications, to serve this marginalized segment of the private sector, through the transfer of market information, and extension of services to reach those vast numbers of working men and women in remote villages and overcrowded urban areas. In this context, it is up to the advanced world -with its public and private research centers– to support our efforts to transform the physical and human assets of this sector into a living dynamic capital.

Such an initiative could become part of a number of new initiatives that would operate in parallel, including the one I presented at the recent Beijing plus Five meeting in New York. The proposal I made then was for a “ Global Trust Fund (or Facility) for Women”, similar to the “Global Environment Facility”. Such facilities would act as an umbrella to existing institutions, programs and funds charged with the formulation of strategies and the implementation of concrete actions. They would consolidate presently fragmented efforts as well as mobilize more resources to meet priority needs on the gender and micro enterprise agendas.

These suggestions are meant to pave the way towards realizing the goals and commitments of Copenhagen with better coordination, more resource mobilization and increased partnership. I trust that this special meeting of the international community will bring closer the views of stakeholders from the South and the North on how best to resolve our shared concerns for global equity and participation. A new development paradigm could evolve from a true partnership between the South and North. It can be done. For the sake of future generations in our global village, it must be done.

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