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A turning
point towards global social development? The Chinese Government hopes that the special session will become a turning point for the further promotion of the social development of the whole world and that through this session the exchange of experiences with respect of the settlement of social issues in various countries will be intensified, implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action throughout the world will be given further impetus, international cooperation in the field of social development will be strengthened, and further proposals which are practicable and workable will be put forward. Foreword, Chinese Government National Report on implementation of the Social Summit Commitments What ambitious aspirations! Are they realistic, or will the Special Session simply be a talkfest? Can this meeting of the United Nations General Assembly reach sufficiently influential agreements to make a difference to such chronic global problems as poverty, unemployment and social disintegration? If agreement is reached, will the fine words be translated into effective action? Certainly the national delegates who decided to hold the Special Session also had ambitious goals in mind, for they agreed that the Special Session of the General Assembly on social development should have three purposes: to reaffirm the commitments and strategies adopted at the Social Summit; to review and assess progress; and to decide on further initiatives to accelerate equitable social development. The example of the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in March 1995 gives some encouragement to answering the above questions positively. For the Social Summit did mark a turn in the tide of political opinion away from a narrow preoccupation with market liberalisation to more balanced socio-economic development. At last the well being of people and societies was recognised as being the goal of policy, with economic strategy simply a means to that end. Values such as solidarity, tolerance and diversity became more common currency. That the Social Summit was the largest meeting of heads of state and government that had ever been held does indicate the degree of importance that elected leaders place on social issues. And those leaders did sign a strong and detailed agreement setting out new global priorities. The member countries of the United Nations decided to convene the Social Summit because there was a growing recognition that all was not well with the world. Poverty was increasing, unemployment was high and societies were in disarray. After two years of preparatory negotiation the 117 Prime Ministers and Presidents who attended agreed on the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development, which contains ten definitive commitments and a 100 paragraph Programme of Action that outlines strategies aimed at their achievement. The central themes are commitment to eradicating poverty, achieving full employment and strengthening social integration. Reviewing Progress Have words been translated into action since Copenhagen? There has certainly been increasing attention to social issues. Every country that has reported on action since the Social Summit describes attempts to implement the commitments made at Copenhagen. Scores of countries have set national poverty reduction targets and/or introduced or upgraded poverty reduction strategies. Much more attention has been given to growth of employment opportunities, not least in the European Union but also in developing countries. There has been continued progress in global literacy and life expectancy, increased school enrolment and access to basic social services, despite wide national variations and set backs in some countries. The UN system, including the World Bank, has made poverty reduction its principal goal. Significant improvements in the Highly Indebted Poor Country initiative to reduce debt have been negotiated. There has also, however, been deterioration. The absolute number of people living in poverty has continued to rise. Violent civil wars or regional conflicts have set back social integration in many countries. National and international inequality has continued to increase. Despite promises of increased support for development by donor countries, total aid has continued to fall, even though four generous countries have surpassed the goal of allocating 0.7 per cent of GNP to development assistance and five others are increasing theirs. It is clear that there are major constraints. How can countries in which 70 per cent of people are impoverished or that are paying 60 per cent of their budgets in debt service rapidly improve their social services? How do countries in which 20 per cent of the adult population has HIV/AIDS cope let alone improve? How do countries where the national income has nearly halved during the nineties, such as several with economies in transition, reverse deteriorating social indicators? The danger of international financial instability was identified at the Social Summit. This danger was disastrously demonstrated in the financial crisis that caused large economic losses and increased poverty and unemployment and the erosion of social services in East Asia, the countries in the former Soviet Union and others more indirectly affected in Latin America and Africa. Since the Social Summit there has also been increasing concern about globalization. Though liberalization may level playing fields, it is the already powerful who are most able to benefit. There is a growing reaction to the terrible, increasing inequities in the distribution of income and opportunity both within and between countries. Geneva 2000: A Social Justice Summit? The Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in June in Geneva gives another opportunity for international progress in social development. The conflicts at Seattle demonstrate the widespread concern with a narrow doctrine of neo-classical economic policy. The overarching theme of the Special Session is essentially to put the well being of people and of social justice at the heart of the global political agenda. It is a potentially influential opportunity to decide on strategies and policies that would refocus the management of globalization. The Special Session is to be held at a time when there is a crisis of legitimacy about globalisation, because insufficient attention has been given to the social dimensions and to their implications. The central issue is how to manage the process so that everyone benefits, rather than further entrenching the divisions between beneficiaries and losers. To generate proposals for new initiatives the first Preparatory Committee for the Special Session commissioned 25 reports from the Secretary-General, the UN funds and agencies. Rarely, if ever, has there been such comprehensive, inclusive and careful preparation for a major meeting of the United Nations. The commissioning, preparation, editing and issuing of these reports are a particularly striking example of effective cooperation within the United Nations system. Hundreds of UN system staff have been involved. This means that the reports contain much of the most contemporary thinking about crucial social and economic subjects that the system has to offer. They contain much authoritative analysis and many thoughtful proposals and the most significant have been included in the draft of the Geneva Declaration. This draft outcome was discussed in detail at the second preparatory committee meeting and much of the text was agreed and there will be further negotiation before and during the Special Session, so that an agreed text can be adopted at the conclusion of the Session. The value of the Special Session will depend on more than just the final declaration - the sharing of experiences, the ideas circulated, the bilateral meetings held and so on - but the quality of the Declaration clearly matters greatly. The Geneva Declaration will have three parts: a short political declaration reaffirming commitment to implementing the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action and to taking further concrete action; a review and assessment of implementation of the Social Summit commitments; and the major section on initiatives. The effectiveness of the Geneva meeting will depend in part on the significance of these initiatives, scores of which are included in the text. The goals are wide-ranging and complex - but the following ten give a flavour of those that are being actively discussed. Inevitably many relate to the interdependence between economic and social policy, the balance between the state and the market. 1. Recognition that equitable human development is the principal goal of socio-economic policy. This involves replacing the preoccupation with economic stabilization and structural adjustment with strategies for environmentally sustainable, labour intensive and pro-poor social and economic development. One of the specific proposals is to establish a working group to develop guidelines on sound principles and good practices in social policy that could be a useful guide to other major international institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as to governments. 2. Increasing and improving access of products of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to markets of developed countries through the negotiated reduction of tariff barriers and the elimination of non-tariff barriers and other protectionist measures. A specific recommendation is to provide technical assistance to developing and transitional countries to enable them to improve their capacity to participate in international trade and other negotiations. Another relates to the possibility of using the provisions in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) to circumvent normal patent rights with respect to production, export and import of medicines essential to public health by low and middle income countries 3. Beginning a wide-ranging process for discussing global guidelines on the social responsibilities of business including organizations representing private enterprises, trade unions and other civil society groups. 4. Refocusing national macroeconomic policies so that social goals and priorities including employment growth and poverty reduction become central and are in a sophisticated balance with other economic priorities. 5. Supporting the holding of a world employment forum by the International Labour Organisation in 2001 and including the aim of elaborating a coherent and coordinated international strategy aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of the commitment to the goal of full, productive, and appropriately and adequately remunerated and freely chosen employment for all who want it. Such a strategy could well adopt the recent European Union initiative of setting time-bound targets for expanding employment and reducing unemployment. 6. Strengthening action so as to achieve universal and equitable access to quality primary education and basic health services by the target date set at Copenhagen of 2015. Although progress has been made, these targets will not achieved unless funding is increased and policies improved. A high priority, especially for Africa, is agreement on strategy for minimizing the spread of HIV/AIDS, including benchmarks for stages of achievement. 7. Global commitment to affirmative action aimed at gender equality has already been agreed, during the first Preparatory meeting for the Special Session. 8. Strengthening commitment to social security so that social safety nets are not only available when needed during times of economic crisis, but also so that effective arrangements for social protection are available at all times of individual vulnerability or community disruption. 9. Commitment to national revenue policies adequate to provide sufficient resources to pay for these social programmes. One of the important areas of agreement reached during negotiations has been on the importance of improving international cooperation to do this, by, for example, removing tax allowances for bribes to foreign officials where that has not already been done; exploring methods for dividing the liability of multi-national corporations to pay taxes on profits in the various countries in which they operate and exploring limiting the use of tax shelters and tax havens. The Canadian delegation has proposed a study of the implications of a tax on international financial transfers and of the costs and benefits of such a proposal. The necessity of international support for development in poorer countries through reversing the decline in ODA and canceling debt is also being discussed. 10. Initiating a Global Campaign to End Poverty. As UNDP has written for the Prep Com 'What holds back progress in poverty reduction is not so much lack of technical know-how but often lack of political will. Poverty reduction is seen as 'welfare' rather than an investment and a fair win-win strategy for all. The key to enhancing the contribution of international development cooperation to social development is thus to facilitate at all levels of development and among all actor groups, an enhanced understanding of, and agreement about, the fact that poverty - besides being an ethical concern - also constitutes a gross economic inefficiency.' An initial step would be adoption of a new global poverty eradication goal - of halving the number or proportion of people living in poverty by 2015. At present there is no global poverty reduction target, only one adopted by the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD in 1996. Many other issues are on the agenda, but this is enough to show the breadth and potential importance of the meeting. Certainly the Geneva meeting of the General Assembly will be an enlivening and inspiring event, for a fascinating array of special activities will be held. It could also be a social justice Special Session which makes influential decisions on issues that affect our daily life. Whether it will be so depends not only Governments but also on the non-government organizations, businesses and individuals who advocate and take ambitious action in concert as well as within their own sphere of influence. Everyone can contribute to such an outcome. There have been many regional meetings to prepare for the Special Session organized by both governments and non-government organizations. At the end of the excellent meeting in Dublin organized by the Council of Europe the Chair concluded by reading part of a poem entitled 'The Cure at Troy' by the Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. This was a striking coincidence, because this poem had also been quoted at the opening of the first Preparatory Committee meeting in New York - a coincidence that undoubtedly occurred because the words were so appropriate to the occasion. It is worth recalling them: Human beings suffer. They torture one another. They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song Can fully right a wrong Inflicted
and endured. History says, Don't hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore Is reachable from here. … … once in a lifetime … justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.
Could the Special Session be such an occasion? John Langmore is Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development in the UN Secretariat in New York. Previously he was Economic Advisor to the Australian Treasurer, and a member of the Australian Parliament from 1984 to 1996. ********************** © 1998-2000 Arab World Books |