INTRODUCTION
THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL on Social Welfare (ICSW) has long believed
that regular meetings and specific cooperative action at the regional
and sub-regional levels would be essential for effective implementation
of the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD). We were pleased,
therefore, that the Summit agreements in 1995 proposed that Ministerial
meetings should be held every two years at regional level in order
to assess and facilitate implementation.
The first of these meetings was held in the Latin American region
in April 1997. As described in the June 1996 issue of Social
Development Review, the United Nations' Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) prepared excellent
background papers which demonstrated that in many countries
of the region economic growth had been accompanied by greater
economic and social inequity. The meeting of Ministers, however,
failed to take full advantage of the opportunity for detailed
informal discussion or specific agreement. Perhaps greater progress
will be made at the next meeting, scheduled for 1999.
The second regional Ministerial meeting was held
in Nov. 1997 in the Asia Pacific region. Again it had the benefit
of excellent background papers, prepared on this occasion by
the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP). This included a detailed list of key targets for various
aspects of social development which have been adopted at intergovernmental
meetings. As in Sao Paulo, the meeting format did not allow
sufficient opportunities for detailed and informal discussion
at the Ministerial level. However, the final statement included
a number of important agreements.
A strong theme of the
meeting was the need for accelerated implementation of the WSSD
agreements and ESCAP's own regional agenda for social development
which was agreed in 1994. Accordingly, the Ministers agreed
on intermediate regional targets in areas for which longer targets
had previously been agreed. For example, targets were adopted
of reducing absolute poverty and infant mortality by 2000 to
half of the levels which prevailed in 1990. The meeting also
agreed to bring forward some target dates in relation to education
and women.
In light of the economic crisis which has been
precipitated in Asia in recent months, it is perhaps not surprising
that the Manila meeting emphasised the dangers for social development
of excessive volatility and misjudgment in the international
financial markets. While the causes of the Asian crisis lie
partly in the actions of governments, it has been greatly exacerbated
by the tendency for the markets to be seduced for too long by
simplistic measures of economic development and thereby to encourage
the very weaknesses in public policy and private sector behaviour
which they eventually punish too late and too savagely.
Unfortunately, the Manila
meeting did not take the opportunity to develop detailed proposals
for achieving the enabling international economic environment
which was emphasised in the WSSD agreements. In this region,
as elsewhere in the world, social policy ministers seem unduly
reluctant publicly to emphasise the damage which misguided economic
policies are causing in their areas of responsibility and to
identify directions for reform.
Two other striking features
of the Manila agreements are also of special relevance in other
regions. First, the agreements give special emphasis to the
importance for social development of action by, and cooperation
between, sub-regional intergovernmental organisations. In the
Asia Pacific region, these include the Association of South
East Asian Nations and the South Asia Association for Regional
Cooperation. ICSW has advocated this point repeatedly as being
applicable in every part of the world.
The second feature
is the prominence and support which the Ministers gave in their
discussions and in their final statement to the Message to Manila
(see pg. 12) which was endorsed by a regional NGO Forum held
two months previously in Kuala Lumpur. This applies especially
to the Priority Plan to the Year 2000 which was included in
the Message to Manila and proposed ten priority measures, many
of which involved addressing the underlying causes of poverty
and hardship.
The NGO Forum in
Kuala Lumpur was initiated by ICSW and hosted by our member,
the Malaysian Council on Social Welfare. ESCAP was invited to
be the other principal organiser and it worked closely and cooperatively
with the more than 100 NGOs from 27 countries which attended
the meeting. Other special assistance was provided by the Australian
Council for Overseas Aid, AusAID and the Asian Development Bank.
We were delighted also with the support given by the Philippines
Government, as hosts of the Ministerial meeting, when ICSW's
regional president made a formal presentation of the Message
to Manila at the meeting.
ICSW will continue
to seek similar Ministerial Meetings on WSSD follow-up in other
regions, especially Africa, and to organise NGO Forums in conjunction
with them. We are pleased that in both the Latin America and
the Asia Pacific regions it has been agreed that a second biennial
meeting will be held in 1999. These regional meetings, preceded
by sub-regional activities, are crucial if the global review
of the WSSD scheduled for the year 2000 is to be effective.
We hope that they will be given a central role in the preparations
for that review.
JULIAN DISNEY
President
International Council on Social Welfare
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