Financing for Development - UN-Konferenz zur Entwicklungsfinanzierung 2001

	Pressemitteilungen
Common EU NGO caucus Press Release 20 March Partnership at Monterrey Development conference: interest for business, not citizens Global Companies need global regulations, not moral persuasions Partnership is the buzz-word at the Global Development conference in Monterrey, partnering almost anyone, business with governments, NGOs with international agencies, Bono with Wolfensohn, rich with poor, and all together in yesterday's Round Tables on Partnership for Development. But the level-playing field that the word and the common table suggest do not exist, says Lars Landfald from the Development Forum in Norway: "When the World Bank or governments are talking about partnership in development, they basically mean to get the private business sector into development financing. They want the transnational companies to step up foreign direct investments. The talk about equal partnership of such different actors as business and NGOs is missing the point. Companies work for their own profit, not for people's development. We work for raising public responsibility to provide for a sustainable redistribution of the global wealth. Equal partnership relays on a recognition of our role to balance the huge influence transnational corporations already have." In 2000, foreign direct investment grew by 18 percent to reach 1,3 trillion USD, a continuous spur driven by the more then 60.000 transnational corporations and their 800.000 affiliates abroad. The sales of the top 200 TNCs are now equivalent to more than one-quarter of world economic activity. The growing mobility of transnational corporations has made it ever more difficult for citizens and governments to hold them accountable for their actions. Unchecked corporate behavior runs to the detriment of sustainable development. It leads to a race to the bottom of social and human rights standards and gender equality, and is responsible for severe environmental degradation, as many well-documented cases show. In the already decided Monterrey outcome document, developing countries commit to sound policies to attract foreign investments, but there is no mentioning at all of sound frameworks for human rights or social and environmental standards that foreign investment should be accountable to. "The Monterrey conference totally fails to confront the deficits in the governance of international business activities. In the Monterrey Consensus, you will not even find a reference to existing voluntary initiatives, such as the UN's Global Compact", said says Lioba Diez from Kairos Europe, "we should not let governments get away with that. We expect them to declare their commitment to socially and environmentally responsible investment. Otherwise we should stop talking about partnerships in development with the private sector. There can't be partnership as long as there are no binding rules for its strongest partners". European NGOs in Monterrey demand an independent assessment of the impact of foreign direct investment on the realization of UN development goals. Recent empirical evidence shows that the linkage between foreign investment and development is far from clear. NGOs say they will step up activities to press for a legally binding convention on corporate accountability during upcoming negotiations for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in September 2002.

Pressemitteilungen

Common EU NGO caucus
Press Release 20 March

Partnership at Monterrey Development conference: interest for business, not citizens

Global Companies need global regulations, not moral persuasions

Partnership is the buzz-word at the Global Development conference in Monterrey, partnering almost anyone, business with governments, NGOs with international agencies, Bono with Wolfensohn, rich with poor, and all together in yesterday's Round Tables on Partnership for Development. But the level-playing field that the word and the common table suggest do not exist, says Lars Landfald from the Development Forum in Norway: "When the World Bank or governments are talking about partnership in development, they basically mean to get the private business sector into development financing. They want the transnational companies to step up foreign direct investments. The talk about equal partnership of such different actors as business and NGOs is missing the point. Companies work for their own profit, not for people's development. We work for raising public responsibility to provide for a sustainable redistribution of the global wealth. Equal partnership relays on a recognition of our role to balance the huge influence transnational corporations already have."

In 2000, foreign direct investment grew by 18 percent to reach 1,3 trillion USD, a continuous spur driven by the more then 60.000 transnational corporations and their 800.000 affiliates abroad. The sales of the top 200 TNCs are now equivalent to more than one-quarter of world economic activity. The growing mobility of transnational corporations has made it ever more difficult for citizens and governments to hold them accountable for their actions. Unchecked corporate behavior runs to the detriment of sustainable development. It leads to a race to the bottom of social and human rights standards and gender equality, and is responsible for severe environmental degradation, as many well-documented cases show. In the already decided Monterrey outcome document, developing countries commit to sound policies to attract foreign investments, but there is no mentioning at all of sound frameworks for human rights or social and environmental standards that foreign investment should be accountable to.

"The Monterrey conference totally fails to confront the deficits in the governance of international business activities. In the Monterrey Consensus, you will not even find a reference to existing voluntary initiatives, such as the UN's Global Compact", said says Lioba Diez from Kairos Europe, "we should not let governments get away with that. We expect them to declare their commitment to socially and environmentally responsible investment. Otherwise we should stop talking about partnerships in development with the private sector. There can't be partnership as long as there are no binding rules for its strongest partners".

European NGOs in Monterrey demand an independent assessment of the impact of foreign direct investment on the realization of UN development goals. Recent empirical evidence shows that the linkage between foreign investment and development is far from clear. NGOs say they will step up activities to press for a legally binding convention on corporate accountability during upcoming negotiations for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in September 2002.