Financing for Development - UN-High Level Intergovernmental Event

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"Monterrey Spirit" does not convince all Mexican President Fox opened today's rose of speeches of Heads of Government by evoking the "Monterrey spirit" as marking the point of a new era of development financing, but some voices did not play to the tune. Especially President Chavez of Venezuela, talking on behalf of the Group of 77, used clear words in criticizing the outcome document as unsufficient. In his words, new tools for financing development are urgently needed and he suggested the creation of an international humanitarian Fund financed by global taxes: "We need a world tax on speculative capital movements." Chavez left no doubt of his opinion of exisiting instruments of assistance, describing international packages of the IMF as "mortal poison for our people" and saying that debt relief fails to achieve its goal to put poor countries back on their feet: "For most of our people, debt is unpayable. The debt situation continuous to be the same, nothing has changed." Chavez intervention puzzled journalists and NGOs here, as whether he was to announce a rejection of the Monterrey outcome document. However, in a press conference in the afternoon, he did not elaborate and declined to answer further questions after a journalist confronted him with his authority in Venezuela. NGOs rushed to meet him, but it seems rather clear that Chavez would not have the backing of the G77 for such a move. He agreed to meet some NGOs on Friday morning. Some nervousness though remains in the conference hall that the Monterrey Consensus could fall to scrambles even before it has been announced. In one of the Roundtables with Heads of States, the NGO representatives received massive critique for calling them out of the Consensus This has been a common position in the final declaration of the NGO Foro Global and most of the 300 civil society representatives participating in the conference are walking around with stickers stating their disagreement openly. It has become a kind of an ongoing demonstration within the halls, accompanying the various demonstrations that Mexican social movements stage in the city of Monterrey. The real scandal though was revealed by Fidel Castro who apologized to have to leave the conference immediately due to "a special situation created by my participation". The Mexican host of the UN conference was at pains to explain why they did not reject US President Bush's desire to not be in the same room with Fidel. In his speech, Castro said: "The Consensus Draft which the masters of the world are imposing on this conference intends that we accept humiliating, condinioned and interfering alms." Talking on CTTs, Castro said that such measures "would be perhaps the only ones capable of generating enough funds, which in the hands of the UN agencies and not awful institutions like the IMF, could supply direct development assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples." A smaller and unnoticed scandal was delivered by Spanish President Aznar talking on behalf of the European Union, when he cheered the Monterrey Consensus as a milestone in the fight for the eradication of poverty "and terrorism". His un-inspired speech left open whether he had confused manuscripts. In the written version of his statement, this is not contained, though. In his listing of the EU's unilateral commitments at Monterrey, Aznar tried its best to truthfully repeat the Barcelona Council wording of the No.8 in the list, on debt: "to pursue its efforts to restore debt sustainability in the context of the enhanced HIPC initiative." In a hand-out of the Spanish delegation on 20 March, that point had a considerably different formulation: "To examine ways of debt relief other than those in practice at present for the Least Developed Countries." The European NGO Caucus tried to have a meeting with the Spanish to clear whether that formulation indicates a move of the EU beyond HIPC-II, but the demand was being neutralized by delays in responding and other time difficulties. To mention are also some points in the intervention of Horst Koehler for the IMF. He "welcomed the ongoing debate on IMF Management's proposal for a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism". He also suggested to develop a comprehensive and transparent system to monitor progress toward the Millennium Development Goals: "I would have no hesitation in subjecting the IMF to the scrutiny of such a monitoring system, provided that it did not produce bureaucracy and would apply equally to all the parties involved." Tomorrow's conference schedule foresees a 5 hour retreat of the Heads of State into the Monterrey Museum, and rumors continue that there could be negotiations on an amendment to the Monterrey Consensus, in the form of an addendum. Martin Koehler Campaign to Reform the World Bank

"Monterrey Spirit" does not convince all

Mexican President Fox opened today's rose of speeches of Heads of Government by evoking the "Monterrey spirit" as marking the point of a new era of development financing, but some voices did not play to the tune. Especially President Chavez of Venezuela, talking on behalf of the Group of 77, used clear words in criticizing the outcome document as unsufficient. In his words, new tools for financing development are urgently needed and he suggested the creation of an international humanitarian Fund financed by global taxes: "We need a world tax on speculative capital movements." Chavez left no doubt of his opinion of exisiting instruments of assistance, describing international packages of the IMF as "mortal poison for our people" and saying that debt relief fails to achieve its goal to put poor countries back on their feet: "For most of our people, debt is unpayable. The debt situation continuous to be the same, nothing has changed."

Chavez intervention puzzled journalists and NGOs here, as whether he was to announce a rejection of the Monterrey outcome document. However, in a press conference in the afternoon, he did not elaborate and declined to answer further questions after a journalist confronted him with his authority in Venezuela. NGOs rushed to meet him, but it seems rather clear that Chavez would not have the backing of the G77 for such a move. He agreed to meet some NGOs on Friday morning.

Some nervousness though remains in the conference hall that the Monterrey Consensus could fall to scrambles even before it has been announced. In one of the Roundtables with Heads of States, the NGO representatives received massive critique for calling them out of the Consensus This has been a common position in the final declaration of the NGO Foro Global and most of the 300 civil society representatives participating in the conference are walking around with stickers stating their disagreement openly. It has become a kind of an ongoing demonstration within the halls, accompanying the various demonstrations that Mexican social movements stage in the city of Monterrey.

The real scandal though was revealed by Fidel Castro who apologized to have to leave the conference immediately due to "a special situation created by my participation". The Mexican host of the UN conference was at pains to explain why they did not reject US President Bush's desire to not be in the same room with Fidel. In his speech, Castro said: "The Consensus Draft which the masters of the world are imposing on this conference intends that we accept humiliating, condinioned and interfering alms." Talking on CTTs, Castro said that such measures "would be perhaps the only ones capable of generating enough funds, which in the hands of the UN agencies and not awful institutions like the IMF, could supply direct development assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples."

A smaller and unnoticed scandal was delivered by Spanish President Aznar talking on behalf of the European Union, when he cheered the Monterrey Consensus as a milestone in the fight for the eradication of poverty "and terrorism". His un-inspired speech left open whether he had confused manuscripts. In the written version of his statement, this is not contained, though.

In his listing of the EU's unilateral commitments at Monterrey, Aznar tried its best to truthfully repeat the Barcelona Council wording of the No.8 in the list, on debt: "to pursue its efforts to restore debt sustainability in the context of the enhanced HIPC initiative." In a hand-out of the Spanish delegation on 20 March, that point had a considerably different formulation: "To examine ways of debt relief other than those in practice at present for the Least Developed Countries." The European NGO Caucus tried to have a meeting with the Spanish to clear whether that formulation indicates a move of the EU beyond HIPC-II, but the demand was being neutralized by delays in responding and other time difficulties.

To mention are also some points in the intervention of Horst Koehler for the IMF. He "welcomed the ongoing debate on IMF Management's proposal for a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism". He also suggested to develop a comprehensive and transparent system to monitor progress toward the Millennium Development Goals: "I would have no hesitation in subjecting the IMF to the scrutiny of such a monitoring system, provided that it did not produce bureaucracy and would apply equally to all the parties involved."

Tomorrow's conference schedule foresees a 5 hour retreat of the Heads of State into the Monterrey Museum, and rumors continue that there could be negotiations on an amendment to the Monterrey Consensus, in the form of an addendum.

Martin Koehler
Campaign to Reform the World Bank