(Brussels, 20 May) A hard-hitting and spontaneous ministerial-level exchange on the final day of a UN conference on least developed countries (LDCs) clarified some of the key tasks that face the world if poverty is to be reduced, and assessed consequences of the week-long Brussels meeting.
Each LDC nations needs to do its “homework” if it is to emerge from its classification as among the world’s poorest countries, Rwandan Minister of Economy and Finance Donald Kaberuka said at a follow-up press briefing. Aid and debt relief are necessary but not sufficient factors in overcoming poverty, and “we have to look at what we can do for ourselves” in terms establishing a stable environment for attracting foreign direct investment.
For her part, Eveline Herfkens, Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, talked about “bad donor behaviour”.
All too often, aid donors “are not transparent as to when they will give money, how much and when”, she said. “There is too much conditionality [that recipient countries must comply with before receiving aid] and often the cost of implementation is too high. Recipients have to spend too much time studying the very diverse regulations posed by different donor countries and agencies.”
“We need to ensure that LDC aid recipients who have adequate policies will not fail because aid is insufficient or undependable”, she said. Her definition of “adequate policies” related strictly to aid mechanisms themselves: that development strategies are decided upon with broad and participatory input; that budgets are transparent; and that recipient governments make pro-poor choices.
Ms. Herfkens said that decisions taken to improve aid delivery, at a meeting of OECD donors taking place last week in Paris, came about due to the challenge posed by the LDC Conference. So did the announcement last month that the European Union would phase out tariffs and quotas on all imported LDC products except armaments.
“Without this Conference, we would have had no market access agreement, no decision to ‘untie’ aid”, she said.
“Tied” aid requires that programme procurement take place among companies located in the donor country, rather than among the most qualified bidders.
Mr. Kaberuka expressed confidence in follow-up to goals stated in the programme of action of the Conference, which would be approved later in the afternoon. On the LDC side, he said, the countries will be conducting peer reviews to ensure implementation of national policy pledges. He indicated that there is a natural motivation – many LDC countries border each other, and can be either harmed or unfairly stereotyped by negative occurrences in a neighbour nation.
Released by UN Department of Public Information