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Kathmandu Friday June 08, 2001 Jestha 26, 2058.
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Will
Brussels Declaration contribute to poverty reduction?
By Bhaskar Sharma
KATHMANDU, June 7 - Realization on the part of the
developed countries that they failed to uplift poorer economies from poverty and
marginalization in the past is perhaps the greatest achievement of the Third United
Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC-III) that concluded in Brussels,
Belgium recently.
The Millennium Brussels Declaration explicitly states that
"...LDCs as a whole remain marginalized in the world economy and continue to suffer
from extreme poverty..." And in the context of elongating list of LDCs, up from 25 in
1971 to 49 presently, the inference of the LDC-III meet is surely appreciable. However,
despite all achievements, question remains unanswered - How far will the Declaration help
in the eradication of absolute poverty from the LDCs?
Though some believe that the Brussels meet, held from May
13 to 20, will yield concrete results, many look into poverty eradication from the LDCs as
a Herculean task. The meet adopted a decade-long Program of Action for the LDCs starting
2001, which, among others, aimed at integrating trade into sustainable poverty reduction
strategies.
Says Dr Shankar Sharma, member of the National Planning
Commission (NPC), who participated at the meet, "The LDC-III was certainly better
than the past conferences. It has taken a step forward in helping the LDCs, immersed in
underdevelopment and poverty."
Keeping in view the increasing number of the LDCs, the meet
looked into trade as means by which poverty alleviation strategies could be made more
sustainable, and by which it could help in lifting the economic status of the people
living in the poorer countries. Even the Brussels Declaration reads: "The crucial
importance of trade and economic growth must be reflected in poverty reduction
strategies."
Critics, in the backdrop of the unfulfilled promises of the
past conferences, however, doubt the successful implementation of the program of action of
the LDC-III. "Just recognizing that poverty has increased in the LDCs would do
nothing much. It is important that the Program of Action prepared for the next decade is
implemented properly," says Ratnakar Adhikari, General Secretary of South Asia Watch
on Trade, Economics and Environment, who also participated in the LDC-III.
It is not just the Brussels Declaration that has stressed
on trade as a means to make poverty alleviation programs sustainable. Even the latest
UNCTAD report says that poorer economies need to enhance their trading capacities, for
which a greater market access would be needed.
However, despite the importance of a greater market access
to the LDCs, the meet failed to reach a concrete consensus on the issue. Though the
European Union has opened its markets for all the LDCs, other bigger markets are yet to be
opened, casting doubts over the contribution that the LDC-III could make in uplifting the
poor economies.
The UNCTAD report says that if United States, Japan and
Canada open up their markets by bringing down duties and quotas to zero for products from
the LDCs, exports from the third world economies can increase by as high as 50 per cent.
"USA and Japan at the meet promised to open their markets. And the LDCs, like Nepal,
should be able to cash on it," says Dr Sharma.
"Nepal’s exports have grown tremendously from
below Rs 10 billion a decade back to around Rs 55 billion presently. However, there is a
need to ensure that there exist backward linkages and the exports growth is
sustainable," says Dr Sharma.
Despite all achievements, what came as a major blow to the
LDCs at the meet is the developed countries’ rejection to provide debt relief
measures to Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). Critics argue that unless the debt of
HIPCs are not cancelled, and special and preferential treatment upon them not bestowed,
which is recognized by even the Murrakesh Declaration, poverty alleviation targets can
never be achieved.
"A good portion of the GDP and the annual budget is
spent in debt servicing. Poverty reduction strategies would only succeed if the developed
countries provide debt relief measures by which the HIPCs could divert funds into social
sectors, which is the pillar to sustainable poverty reduction strategy," says
Adhikari.
It goes without doubt that the LDC-III was held with much
openness and with much wider participation of the delegates from around the world,
including representatives even from the non-governmental organizations. Such participation
was able to gather a much wider idea on the problems that have plagued the poor countries.
The meet even recognized that many of the objectives laid
by the first and the second meet were not met, and pledged to sincerely pursue the latest
envisaged targets. However, successful eradication of poverty depends on the degree of
flexibility of the global trading leaders, and this is exactly where doubts exist.
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