Commonwealth chief urges members to pursue development issues

By Duruthu Edirimuni

The Commonwealth top brass is urging all member nations not to give up development issues and keep them on top of the agenda despite seemingly bigger issues such as tensions in the Middle East and the high oil prices.

“We have to see a successful outcome to the Doha Development Round. We want to see it moving from a point of lethargy to a point of activity,” Secretary-General Don McKinnon told The Sunday Times FT in an interview.

He said that high oil prices and the massive conflict in the Middle East can diminish people’s minds, but we need to keep them on top. “The World Bank annual review sessions are coming up in Singapore and we want to keep them alive and highlight their importance,” he added.

Speaking about Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, he said that despite all the military activity and conflict it has to end in discussions. “At the very end there has to be talks. We need goodwill on both sides to do so and the ultimate objective must be peace,” he added.

Meanwhile delivering the opening statement at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Meeting, McKinnon said that one of the biggest disappointments in trade has been the suspension of the Doha Round. “We face a real risk of unravelling global trade agreements, with a proliferation of bilateral and regional deals that we can be sure will not be to the advantage of the poorest or smallest,” he said.

He also highlighted the importance of seeing issues through the lenses of others from all over the world and to arrive at decisions with long term and far-reaching impact.

“If ‘long term view, short term decision-making’ is a fair description of local and even national political life, it certainly does not characterise Commonwealth Ministerial meetings,” he said, adding that the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Meeting is a chance to take a long term view, improve the participants’ vision by seeing issues through the lenses of others from all over the world and to arrive at decisions with long term and far-reaching impact.

“When 53 nations come together freely and equally, representing 30 percent of humanity, 25 percent of all countries, 20 percent of global trade, and 80 percent of all those on this planet living in poverty, then we have tremendous potential, and an obligation to speak up,” he said.

Highlighting the importance of delivering the promises of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Gleneagles G8 Summit last year, he said, “the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Meeting is a good time to take stock on the need for three things – ‘delivery, delivery, delivery’”.

He said that during the last few years, developing countries as a group have enjoyed a period of strong growth and virtually every developing region, including Africa, has performed well, but despite per capita growth in Sub-Saharan Africa having turned positive over the past decade, most countries in the region are unlikely to meet the majority of MDGs, especially in health.

“On debt, there has been progress including the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, but there are a number of implementation challenges. I am particularly concerned to avoid what I see as, “paying once and claiming credit twice” where donors’ debt reduction payments are claimed as part of aid flows when they should be additional to them,” he said, adding that the commonwealth countries also need to ensure that they never again incur excessive debt.

He said the headline aid figures for 2005 will show a sharp rise, due to exceptional amounts of debt relief, but the underlying trend is falling well short of what is needed to meet the Gleneagles pledge.

“Yet we know and the country studies of Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi and Bangladesh confirm that there are many poor countries that could absorb and make excellent use of really substantial increases,” he said.

Highlighting the importance of aid modalities, he said that the Commonwealth studies show that donors are making only slow progress on the commitments made to align their aid with country priorities, use country systems, increase direct budgetary support and enhance aid predictability.

“Developing countries have their own commitments to keep as well. One of the most important is to improve governance and tackle corruption absolutely essential elements for successful development,” he said, adding that this will be one of the issues at the Singapore meetings.