A THREE-POINT PLAN FOR GENEVA 2000

A Statement to the United Nations Preparatory Committee for the Special Session
of the United Nations General Assembly to be held in Geneva, 26-30 June 2000.

     The International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) is a global non-governmental organisation which works to promote social welfare, social development and social justice throughout the world. It was founded in Paris in 1928 and now represents members in more than 80 countries.

     During the last two years, ICSW has consulted its members, and many other civil society organisations, about progress with implementation of the commitments made at the World Summit for Social Development and about their priorities for further action. In particular, we have conducted more than twenty regional and global civil society forums and the reports of many of them have been published in our series of Copenhagen papers. Three further forums will be held next month.

    Many of the priorities identified at these forums relate especially to action at the national and local levels. In this statement, however, we focus on priorities relating to the global and regional levels, especially those which would promote enabling environments for social development. Amongst the wide range of measures which need to be pursued, we have identified three overarching priorities upon which we believe the Special Session in Geneva should concentrate. Each of them seeks to catalyse long-term substantial improvements, especially of a preventive nature, rather than focusing on narrower, short-term responses.

     The priorities in ICSW's Three Point Plan for Geneva 2000 relate to

• adoption of an International Anti-Poverty Pact;
  
• establishment of International Standards for Social Development;
  
• development of the ECOSOC system.
  

     This statement provides further details about each of these three proposals.


An International Anti-Poverty Pact

     The World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995 identified a number of specific anti-poverty targets but they were not given great prominence in the final agreement. In the following year, however, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comprising the major donor countries agreed on a number of International Development Targets for achievement by the year 2015.

     The targets are

• halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty;
  
• achieving universal primary education;
  
• eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education (by 2005);
  
• reducing mortality rates of infants and children under 5 by two-thirds;
  
• reducing maternity mortality rates by three-fourths;
  
• achieving universal access to appropriate reproductive health services;
  
• reversing global and national losses of environmental resources.
  

     These goals, unlike more emotionally attractive ones such as total elimination of poverty, could conceivably be achieved by the target date of 2015. The fifteen-year period is long enough for the necessary initiatives to achieve major improvements but not so long as to condone procrastination. Substantial action must be initiated urgently, however, if the outcomes are to be achieved on time.

     There is no prospect of the targets being met without substantial commitments of resources and other support by the wealthier countries and the international financial institutions which they control. It is reasonable to conclude that, since they established the targets, they should be willing to provide adequate support. If they do not do so, the targets will rapidly be seen as unfair and unattainable impositions on developing countries rather than as realistic and reciprocal commitments by all members of the international community.

     This concept of reciprocal commitments could be implemented by establishing an international Anti-Poverty Pact involving both developed and developing countries, as well as international financial institutions. The Pact would involve commitments to inputs, as well as to the outcomes specified in the International Development Targets.

     The agreed inputs could include specific timetables for improving debt relief, achieving the 0.7% benchmark for official development assistance, increasing support from key international financial institutions, and implementing the 20:20 principle. A coordinated system of national taxes on international financial transactions and some other international services could be adopted, with the proceeds being earmarked by donor and developing countries to finance their commitments to the Pact. The Pact could also include specific forms of financial regulation to improve developing countries' access to sustainable levels of productive financial investment rather than damagingly volatile speculation.

     ICSW urges governments to agree at the Special Session in Geneva upon the key elements to be included in the Pact and to establish an independent task force to prepare a detailed draft for consideration and finalisation at the Millennium Session of the General Assembly later this year. ECOSOC should be principally responsible for facilitating and monitoring implementation of the Pact, and the General Assembly should agree to review implementation of the Pact on International Poverty Day each year (October 17).


International Standards for Social Development

     The United Nations Charter clearly vests the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council with power to develop and agree international standards for social development. Many standards or principles relating to social development have already been agreed by those bodies or by other elements within the UN system. Some of them are legally binding (such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and some have quasi-binding status (such as the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights of Work), while others are merely aspirational.

     First, there is a clear need to improve the profile, status and effective implementation of some of these existing standards. This would be assisted if those of special value and importance were included, without renegotiation, in a special new framework of International Standards for Social Development. It could be agreed that, under the overall supervision of ECOSOC, special priority will be given within the UN and national government systems to monitoring and enforcing implementation of these Standards. It could also be explicitly agreed that the Standards are binding on all intergovernmental organisations, whether or not part of the UN system.

     Second, there is a clear need to refine some existing agreements before their inclusion within the category of International Standards for Social Development. This could involve, for example, developing standards which include explicit variations according to circumstances such as the overall level of national development. Such an approach could apply, for example, to ILO standards relating to social security and labour conditions.

     Third, it is essential to recognise that economic policies and practices frequently have a profound impact on social development. Accordingly, International Standards for Social Development should cover key aspects of issues such as taxation, financial regulation, and business conduct which have substantial social impacts. The recent World Trade Organisation meeting demonstrates the need for a broad and balanced range of concerns and expertise to be taken into account in the development of such standards.

     ECOSOC has both the legal power and responsibility to oversee the development and observance of International Standards for Social Development. It could do so by nominating intergovernmental organisations (individually or jointly) to prepare draft Standards in specified areas for submission to and final authorisation by ECOSOC itself. This would provide a flexible framework within which, for example, standards in an area which impacts on trade, the environment, labour and basic human needs can be drafted and finalised in a cooperative and balanced manner.

     The World Bank and International Monetary Fund recently requested ECOSOC to develop agreed sets of principles and practices for social policy. This strengthens the case for ECOSOC to take the initiative in developing and overseeing a framework of International Standards for Social Development. It is essential, however, that the Standards recognise legitimate scope for variation according to national circumstances and that they are accompanied by an Anti-Poverty Pact which guarantees provision of resources and other support from wealthy countries.

     ICSW urges governments to support progressive development by ECOSOC of a broad-based framework of International Standards for Social Development which addresses key aspects of both economic and social policy and practice.


Development of The Ecosoc System

     The Economic and Social Council has several unique strengths that qualify it to play the leading role in economic and social policy at the international level which is vested in it by the UN Charter. It represents all countries rather than being controlled by those which are rich and powerful. Its mandate covers both economic and social issues, and it has ultimate responsibility for many of the relevant intergovernmental agencies.
To date, however, ECOSOC has largely failed to fulfil its responsibilities and potentialities. This is partly because of sustained opposition from most of the major economic powers. It is also due partly to lack of pragmatic determination by those countries which could have most to gain if ECOSOC became more effective. Despite some useful improvements in recent years, much more remains to be done in strengthening the ECOSOC system.

     First, it is essential that ECOSOC either strengthens the size, role and effectiveness of its Bureau or develops some other mechanism which enables prompt, focused and vigorous action to be taken without calling a full Council meeting of more than 50 members. The smaller grouping could comprise up to about 20 members, who would need to be selected from regional constituencies which are rearranged to reflect modern realities and genuine commonality of interest. It is also essential that a substantial number of major countries, both developed and developing, seek election to key ECOSOC positions and allocate high-quality representatives to them.

     Second, it is essential that effective use is made of the opportunities which have developed in recent years for greater interaction with the leaders of the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organisation. Those opportunities will be largely wasted, and eventually withdrawn, unless their intensity, specificity and frequency are further developed. But it is also important that ECOSOC engages closely with newer groupings which may come to be of major global significance. This applies especially to the new Group of 20, which has several desirable characteristics in its membership structure but nevertheless makes no provision for representation of medium or small countries and of social rather than narrowly economic interests.

     Third, ECOSOC needs to engage more closely with regional groupings which have developed outside the UN system. Its current regional structure does not adequately reflect modern realities, and other regional groupings such as the European Union, Southern African Development Community and Association of South East Asian Nations are usually regarded as much more significant by the highest levels of government. The development of stronger regional interaction through these groupings can help to strike appropriate balances between the benefits and imperatives of internationalisation on one hand and the need for flexibility and sensitivity to local circumstances and cultures on the other. But it is very important that they operate within an effective global framework of the kind which ECOSOC should provide. A useful step in that direction would be for ECOSOC to establish an annual regional consultation, within the annual ECOSOC meeting, involving these groupings as well as ECOSOC's own regional commissions.


     ICSW urges governments to propose and endorse changes of these kinds so that the structures and processes of ECOSOC enable it to fulfil its important Charter responsibilities, including development and oversight of the proposed Anti-Poverty Pact and International Standards for Social Development.