Official webpage of the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Na…

Official webpage of the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Na...               http://www.un.int/pakistan/00home050105




                                                                New York
          Statement by Ambassador Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan
            during the informal Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly to discuss the
          findings and recommendations of the United Nations Millennium Project Report
                                     2005 (January 25, 2005)


                    I thank the UN Secretary General and Prof. Jaffrey Sachs and Mr. John
          McArthur, the Director and Manager of the Millennium Project respectively for
          putting together the Millennium Project and bringing out an unprecedented Report.
          2.   The Millennium Project Report is an outcome of serious research carried out by
          hundreds of academics and professionals. It spans over three thousand pages
          accounting for 13 reports by Ten Task Forces.
          3.    The central message of the report is simple and well meaning. It is a message of
          hope and promise that eliminating hunger and poverty was doable in our life time.
          4.      The core operational recommendation of the Report is that each country with
          extreme poverty should adopt and implement a national development strategy
          ambitious enough to achieve MDGs, while, the development partners should give all
          the support needed to implement the country's MDG-based poverty reduction
          strategies.
          5.      Some of the important and positive messages given by the Report are:
                   a)      Recognition of Monterrey Consensus as a balanced framework for global
                           partnership.
                   b)        Call for significant expansion of ODA flows and to make them more
                           targeted.
                   c)      Need for policy space to the developing countries.
                   d)      Recognition of the central role of State in the pursuit of these objectives.
                   e)      Acknowledgement that market forces alone are not enough to achieve the
                           MDGs.
                   f)        Emphasis on MDG based international trade policy focusing on two
                           over-arching issues; first, improved market access and terms of trade for
                           the poor countries. Second, improving supply side competitiveness for
                           low income country exports. Also the acknowledgement of the


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Official webpage of the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Na...                http://www.un.int/pakistan/00home050105



                           importance of Special and differential treatment.
                   g)       A special global effort to build scientific and technological capacities in
                           the poorest countries.
          6.      The report also has some shortcomings on substance and process.
                  i)       Firstly, it is short on process and institutional follow up issues.
                   ii)       Secondly, despite acknowledging the security and development nexus,
                           the Report has not made any institutional prescription for the UN to meet
                           the development challenges through operationalization of this linkage.
                   iii)     Thirdly, it has also failed to meaningfully address systemic issues in the
                           area of trade, finance, governance and other related spheres including
                           Economic and Social UN structures.
          7.      On substance, among other things following two fundamental questions arise:
                   a)       The seventh key recommendation (page xvi of the executive summary)
                           of the Report calls for a new set of intermediate ODA standards : 0.44 in
                           2006 for MDGs / 0.54 in 2015 for MDGs and the old 0.7 standard no
                           later than 2015 for "MDGs and other development assistance priorities'.
                           This is confusing. It seems to imply that ODA for the next 10 years
                           should be exclusively focused on the MDGs and that ODA for the "other
                           development assistance priorities" and conferences should be postponed
                           to 2015 when the remaining 0.16% becomes available at the 0.7% level.
                           A clarification would be in order.
                   b)       The Report makes a number of recommendations regarding changes in
                           the international trade regime, in the flows of investment capital, and
                           remittances. However, in the `costing tables' (particularly table 7 in the
                           executive summary), there is no value for the estimated net increase
                           flows from a developmentally-oriented trade regime, from investments
                           and remittances.
          8.       We see the Millennium Project Report as an important starting point for
          constructive and meaningful global engagement on development issues.
          9.       It is our hope that it would help revive and stimulate global dialogue on
          development and lead to submission of specific recommendations for political
          discussion at the 2005 Summit.
          10.     At the same time, we look forward to inputs on other aspects of the
          development Agenda from the various bodies and organizations concerned.




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