Sunday Times 2
UN tells Lanka: Don’t leave anyone behind in development process
The United Nations Development Programme has warned Sri Lanka that inequality between the rich and the poor is widening and the country should give priority to inclusive growth and try to include vulnerable groups, such as women-headed households, people with disabilities and people in the poverty groups. “Help them, don’t forget them in the development process,” the UNDP’s Asia Pacific Regional Director Haoliang Xu told the Sunday Times in an exclusive print media interview. Excerpts from the interview:
- We understand you visited the North also during your trip to Sri Lanka. What special programmes are being scheduled for the North and what are your impressions of Sri Lanka’s post-war development process?
A lot of progress has been made since the end of the war. Again one may have different views about what is happening. I think the importance of what has been achieved cannot be underestimated at the same time. Tens of thousands of IDPs have been resettled and the infrastructure has been developed. Of course, more can be done. For instance, the inner roads need to be developed. Our
Haoliang Xu: The UN encourages reconciliation through development. Pic by Indika Handuwala
contribution is to encourage reconciliation through development.
Another area we focus on is livelihood. It is clear infrastructure building alone is not sufficient. There is a need for people to have income – increasing income so that they can live a better life. Some of our projects I saw have helped increased the people’s income. For example, they had an ice factory where the fisherfolk kept the fish for a long time. They cannot sell all the catch immediately. But now as part of our skills development programme we are training them to dry the fish, process it and have a higher value for their catch. These measures have helped increased the income of the people in this industry.
Yet another project we do with donor support is for the schools in the north to establish relationship with schools in the south. We bring young people together. By bringing them together, they exchange views and understand the need to learn each other’s language.
We have been doing this since 2005. Through our effort we have brought 22 schools together. We have involved 150 teachers and about 1500 students. This is clearly helpful for reconciliation. This is not a political project but a development project. A lot of projects we do have contributed to the implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). While our involvement is not political, our work makes a useful contribution to reconciliation. I think a lot needs to be done. But we are making our contribution.
- Will the United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions have an impact on UN projects here, and if so how?
The UNHRC is a membership-led process. It is outside my mandate. It will run its course. There is a lot of discussion. I think Sri Lanka has to go through the process to arrive at an acceptable conclusion. It is a process and it will take time. But for us, we have to look at what we can to do encourage reconciliation and development. We want to bring in lasting peace. I had meetings with the (Northern Province) governor and the chief minister. There is a clear desire to work together and move the development agenda forward. In my view, we have seized every opportunity to work constructively, keeping the people’s interest as a top priority.
- The UNDP’s Humanity Divided report by its Adminsitrator Helen Clerk talks about widening global inequality. What is Sri Lanka’ status as far as inequality is concerned and what advice can you give to Sri Lanka to correct the situation?
Sri Lanka has achieved a very high level of human development. The GDP per capita is not very high. But it is a lower middle income level country. This is because successive governments have focused on investment in education, health and social service. On the HDI Sri Lanka is ranked 97th out of 180. It is not bad for a country of lower middle level income. Sri Lanka can compare its achievement with countries with much higher level of income. Besides, Sri Lanka’s poverty rate is low — 7 per cent, according to latest government statistics. But when we look into the situation deeper, we see additional development challenges. For example, though the poverty rate is low, the next question is to ask how many people live close to the poverty line. According to our national human development report published in 2012, top 20 per cent of the income earners (in Sri Lanka) have more than 50 percent of the income whereas the bottom 20 percent account only for 4.5 per cent of the income. This is an indication of disparity. This is not a problem for Sri Lanka alone.
Every country has this disparity. I want to make it clear that the worrisome issue is that this inequality is widening. To deal with this issue, there should be inclusive growth – try to include vulnerable groups, such as women-headed households, people with disabilities and people in the poverty groups. Help them, don’t forget them in the development process. One of Helen Clark’s slogans was, ‘Don’t leave anyone behind’.
-UNDP launched a new programme, jointly with four Ministries this week, to scale-up efforts to strengthen access to justice. But in December 2012, the Government refused to accept UNDP funding for a judges conference in what was seen as an attempt to undermine the judiciary. Against this backdrop, do you believe the programme will succeed?
I think it is important to look at what we have achieved in the last eight or ten years. This is not the first time we have worked with the Sri Lankan Government. We have worked on this issue at the implementation level. We have made good achievement and we have documented these achievements. This new programme is at policy level and institutional level. For example the issue of the people’s awareness of their rights; the people should know what their rights are so that they can protect them. This programme is part of the reconciliation effort as it involves the language issue. The UNDP pays a lot of attention to (all three national) languages in our communications.
The programme also focuses on legal aid. The people need legal help. How do we institutionalise it? How do we institutionalise their capacity to ensure their access to justice? These are some of the issues we are trying to address. The UNDP is not shying away from discussing issues and challenges with governments. But again we also need to recognise that for development to be effective we need a national ownership. We need a government on board for our programmes to be successful. On this programme, we are working with four ministries. It is a good partnership. Working in coordination with four ministries is not easy. But we have agreements. I am confident in the next few years we will make a useful contribution to bring benefit to the people.
-The Charles Petrie report on the UN’s role in Sri Lanka alleged that the UN did not do enough during the last stages of the war. “The protection by presence” doctrine was not followed by the UN Staff, the report says. Has the report been acted upon?
It is not my mandate to comment on the report. The report was handed over to the UN Secretary General and the UN officials have been briefed on its recommendations. The Secretary General has said the UN action in Sri Lanka identified systemic failure and measures are being taken to protect civilians in armed conflicts. We believe the report’s recommendations are being studied.