Gabriele Koehler SDL Lecture PowerPoint: Part 2

Editor's Notes

1. .... which roughly corresponds to the G20 grouping. G20 established in 1999 compromising the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7, plus Russian Federation, plus 12 other key countries. It gained momentum in 2008 when it started meeting at head of state level to respond to the massive financial crisis. Additional members of the G20: European Union Presidency European Central Bank Managing Director of the IMF President of the World Bank The Chairman of the Bank/Fund Development Committee UN Secretary General invited as an observor at the more recent meetings
2. The increase in official development assistance (ODA) in 2008 is another argument for seeing 2008 as the beginning of a new development cooperation phase. Total ODA reached app 120 billion US$ in 2010. Interestingly, this does not show ODA from the smaller OECD countries such as Republic of Korea; from the new member states of the European Union such as Poland, Hungary, the Baltics, and others. Nor does it reflect ODA from the so-called emerging donors, such as the BRICs and donors such as Venezuela, Malaysia, Singapore and others. For the emerging BRIC donors, there are new estimates from the OECD DAC that emerging donors are spending $15 billion. Country level estimates suggest China and India are spending $US 1 billion, South Africa 285 million and Brazil $85 million anually (Rowland 2008). These are rough estimates since formal reporting by these countries is not available and development aid is housed in different bodies, and uses different assessment systems. Private foundations are spending an estimated $3-5 billion annually. The combined rise of non-DAC donors and foundations has considerably changed the landscape – or politics - of development cooperation.
3. Health is one example of the fragmenting character of the new aid architecture – independent funds, bilaterals and private entities dwarf the core technical multilateral institution for health issues, the WHO, in terms of funding. Philanthropic foundations: there are currenty 120 special funds into which bilateral donors and foundations are contributing, partly fuelled by new rich. One example: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While philanthropy can be welcomed from its intentions, it creates silos, does not underly the parliamentary processes applied to expenditures financed from tax revenues, and creates a sort of privatist donor community. In the recipient countries, it creates additional management issues and reinforces a silo and skewed approach to identifying priorities and planning for them. For comparison: the total of the UN regular budget for 2010-11 is US$ 5 billion plus US$9 billion extrabudgetary funds (UN Budget 2010-11 at http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/64/6(INTRODUCTION)&refererence).
4. “ G 192” – the 192 member states of the UN – taken as a metaphor for the global community – which, in theory, is the more legitimate group to discuss and decide on global economic, social and political development policies. The UN General Assembly would be the venue for this. It can be remarked however, that governments do not necessarily represent peoples, and some analysts have proposed some type of global senate of parliamentarians.
5. Commonalities of the South and the North are expressed in research such as the Sarkosy Commission Report on human development, or the MDG Reports and HDRs examining some cities in “developed countries”. There is much South - South policy export, inter alia very visibly in the areas of social protection or in the movement for right to information. For examples from South Asia see A Bonnerjee and G Koehler, Hunger and food insecurity, Policy responses from the South. Forthcoming 2011. South-North policy export - Examples: Conditional Cash Transfer, modeled on Progresa and Oportunidades, introduced in the poorest boroughs in NY City; or the Grameen Bank model from Bangladesh, introduced in Chicago.
6. Recent encouraging developments at the UN include the rights-based agenda – examples include decisions of the governing bodies of the FAO and WHO, and the new proposal to create an international convention on social protection for all. A more rights-based understanding of the MDGs is also emerging, and the role of the OHCHR deserves special mention as the reports of the special rapporteurs/experts are well researched, independent but engaged and critical analyses, and becoming increasingly influential.
7. A reorientation of the MDGs. Based on the UN outcome document of the high level meeting on the MDGs, Sept 2010. Also see Voipio and Koehler, Policy innovations in 2010, at www.networkideas.org
8. “ The mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is to protect and promote human rights for all. OHCHR aims to ensure implementation of universally recognized human rights norms, strengthen the United Nations human rights programme, and provide the United Nations treaty monitoring bodies and special mechanisms established by the Commission on Human Rights with the highest support.” Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=article_s&id_article=827 Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are a „special procedures“ mechanism of the OHCHR. They are playing an increasingly prominent role and are moving from more legally-oriented themes to economic and social development. The list includes: on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (1982) on freedom of religion or belief (1986-) on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (1990-) on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (1993-) on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (1993-) on violence against women, its causes and consequences (1994-) on the independence of judges and lawyers (1994-) on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (1995-) on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights (1995-) on the right to education (1998-) on the question of human rights and extreme poverty (1998-) on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living (2000-) on the right to food (2000-) on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (2002-) of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders (2000-) on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people (2001-) of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons (2004-) on the human rights of migrants (1999-) on minority issues (2005-) on human rights and international solidarity (2005- on the effects of economic reform policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights (2000-) on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism (2005-) on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children (2004-) on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (2005-) international solidarity or minority issues in (2005) water and sanitation (2008) TNCs (2009). In 2010, there were 41 Special Procedures (33 thematic mandates and eight mandates relating to countries or territories) with currently 55 mandate holders. See OHCHR Facts and Figures 2010.
9. Source Seoul consensus 2010. G20 Seoul Summit. http://media.seoulsummit.kr/contents/dlobo/E3._ANNEX1.pdf In 2010, the G20, meeting in the Republic of Korea, adopted a development strategy. Interesting here the prominent role accorded to economic infrastructure, seen by many to have been neglected in the MDGs agenda. The points on job creation, human resource development and growth with reslilience - which is largely about social protection –can be seen as a deepening of the MDGs on employment, youth employment, and education. Finally food security has gained the prominence it deserves. However, the Seoul consensus is built on a ideology of private sector led growth, which surprises since the MICs among the G20 countries had growth strategies that relied heavily on the developmental state.
10. Some authors see a “development revolution” in the South (e.g. Hanlon et al 2010), given the broad range of policy innovations of the past few years. The rights-based decent work agenda is spreading more slowly, but social protection has seen a vast expansion in recent years– Brazil, Mexico, many African countries, China, Indonesia, Thailand, most of South Asia with India in a policy leader role – are cases in point.
11. Human development is meant in the broad and the deep sense.
12. These are examples for policies that would move in the direction of rights-based transformative policy formulation: - on overcoming income poverty …
13. ... ensuring equitable access to all social services ...
14. ... and overcoming social exclusion
15. At one time, the UN was “ahead of the curve” (Jolly et al/ UN history project). It needs to get there again by promoting transformational social justice values and project the same dynamic for progressive change for universal human rights that it displayed at its founding and when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was conceptualised and presented. In 2015, the MDG agenda will be reviewed and either extended, deepened or replaced. The innovations need to come from the South and build on the progressive, rights based policy orientation of many “developing countries”, to create a genuinely rights based agenda for global development in South and North. One will need to find a good multidimensional concept. Ideas to inject into the discussions – which need to be led by the South - include, inter alia: the notion of human security, building on the ideas of promoting freedom from fear and freedom from want, which evolved into key domains of human security – food and nutrition, income and employment, health, education, access to water and sanitation, political security, social inclusion – and a combination of objective factors of human security and subjective plane of perceptions; or the notion of “3-dimensional wellbeing” conceptualised at the IDS by Andy Sumner and Allister McGregor; or “ MDGs plus”; and others.