Session marking 50th anniversary of Non-Aligned Movement hears calls for expanded South-South solidarity, steps for sustainable growth
Geneva, 1 December 2011 - The world´s emerging economies are amassing impressive global influence and wealth, but their progress is uneven and collectively the South should take an approach that emphasizes solid improvements in living standards and not merely finance-led growth, several experts said this morning.
A day´s discussion on the topic, "The global South agenda for a sustainable world", held to mark the 50th anniversary of the of developing countries - featured calls for careful thinking about how economic expansion in such nations should be managed now that countries such as China, India and Brazil are moving ahead even as the developed world struggles to recover from a recession.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, opening the meeting, urged international and national reforms to enable the developing world to build resilience to external shocks and to help it achieve balanced, reliable benefits from the global economy.
UNCTAD, he said, "always has strived with the Non-Aligned Movement to support the creation of a more development-led globalization as opposed to the finance-led globalization that has recently led to the recent session and has in part dragged the global economy down."
The challenge, he said, is about "getting development right" through a pragmatic, well-designed and socially inclusive approach.
He and others went on to note that while China is now the world´s second largest economy and India has posted two decades of strong economic growth, other nations, particularly least developed countries (LDCs), continue to struggle. They said strategies that merely echo the debt-driven, financially focused approach of the industrialized West may not help these more vulnerable nations to link effectively with global markets and may not lead to the truly desired result, which is better living conditions for broad sections of their populations.
The meeting was held on the culminating day of the three-day UNCTAD-Energy Pact Foundation conference on "How Emerging Economies Will Green the World".
Benjamin Mkapa, former President of the United Republic of Tanzania and current Chairman of the Board of the South Centre, said that despite the much-trumpeted advances of some emerging economies, "the income gap continues to widen and grow between developed and developing countries". He said that climate change is a mounting problem that will have severe effects on the developing world and that advanced nations must take practical and rapid steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. They also should provide sufficient resources to help poorer nations cope with the effects of climate shifts and to establish sustainable forms of economic growth so that emissions do not continue to expand.
Seyed Mohammad Reza Sajjadi, Ambassador of Iran to the United Nations at Geneva and upcoming chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, told the meeting that all countries must face together the challenges involved in sustainable economic development. Temporary, partial, or unilateral decisions should be avoided in addressing such issues as poverty and climate change, he said. Instead, deep changes are required to the global economic system. "We are all in one boat. The situation can only be resolved if all members of the international community are deeply engaged. . . The United Nations should be at the heart of any decisions that affect the international community," he said, "even if the United Nations alone isn´t the means of solving all problems. It is the best place to bridge gaps," he said.
During the afternoon debate on the subtheme of "global South and sustainable development", Maurice F. Strong, who served as Secretary-General of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development (the "Earth Summit"), said in a video presentation that the South makes up the world´s underprivileged majority and deserves the right to its fair share of global wealth and well-being. This majority must now begin to take the lead. China, which has carried out such remarkable economic growth and also is setting a leading example in the use of renewable energy, can serve as an inspiration for other developing nations. "We must have a new movement, a mass movement, where the people who live in the developing world actually assume command. . . and build a sustainable and equitable future for all," Mr. Strong said.
And Nitin Desai, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Johannesburg Conference on Energy Futures told the meeting that reconciling growth, social inclusion and environmental protection requires most significantly the transformation of the world´s energy economy. It is important for countries of the South to think of the matter as posing not only constraints but opportunities. Most developing countries are net importers of fossil fuels and must, to reduce poverty, raise energy consumption. A shift to renewable sources is critical for them, and as effective new technologies become available this transformation also will give them a priceless opportunity to leap ahead economically, Mr. Desai said.
