Attacking poverty, building solidarity, creating jobs: the ABCs of a better life.

More than a billion people live in extreme poverty--without jobs, without basic necessities, without hope. Social inequalities and polarization are deepening. Jobs have become so scarce in most regions of the world that high unemployment may be turning into a permanent feature of the modern economy, swelling the ranks of the poor and undermining social stability.

Poverty, social disintegration, joblessness: the statistics can seem overwhelming, the questions they raise are complex. How can these conditions be alleviated? How can the poor become productive members of society? Can intolerance and racism be ended?

How can regions torn by ethnic and national differences bring their people together? How can nations create new jobs and ensure that they are not only plentiful, but productive and satisfying for all?

National leaders and delegations intend to grapple with these questions--and draw up a plan of action to address them--when they meet from 6 to 12 March 1995 at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark. The gathering will include a two-day summit at the level of heads of State or Government, following meetings among their personal representatives and other high-level officials and experts.

"This will be the first time in the history of the United Nations, or the League of Nations, in which heads of State and Government will convene to deal with social development as a priority issue of the international agenda", said the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Summit, Juan O. Somavia of Chile.

Seeking higher standards

The Summit furthers the commitment made in the UN Charter to promote "higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development with a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being".

Three core issues--poverty unemployment and social disintegration--have been identified by the General Assembly as severe problems of modern society, whose solution is crucially important to social development. These issues will provide the focus of the Summit's work, based on the premise that a lack of security in people's daily lives--for want of productive employment, a decent standard of living and social cohesion--is eroding the moral fibre of contemporary societies.

"In rich countries and in poor countries, in large countries and in small, there is a prevailing sense of imminent social disorder", Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali told the Summit's Preparatory Committee at its first meeting in January. He opened the second session by telling delegates that "the global social crisis threatens many States as much as any foreign army", and "without investment in social development, the foundations of peace will not be secured".

Increased international cooperation for economic and social development would "significantly contribute to the strengthening of international peace and security", the Assembly declared in December 1992 (resolution 47/92), authorizing the holding of the 1995 event. The Assembly decided that in addition to addressing the core issues, the Summit should express a shared worldwide commitment to put the needs of people at the centre of development.

The proposal for convening the Social Development Summit was originally presented by Mr. Somavia to the Economic and Social Council in May 1991 as a follow-up to an address to the Assembly by Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, in which he highlighted the role social development could play in world political stability.

Summit participants are expected to adopt a declaration and a programme of action, which are being drafted by the Preparatory Committee. Following its second session (22 August-2 September, New York), the Committee suggested that a draft declaration would have Governments commit to:

* Giving the highest priority to the promotion of social progress;

* Eradicating poverty in the shortest period possible;

* Enabling all people to earn freely chosen livelihoods;

* Promoting social integration by fostering inclusive, participatory, just, safe and stable societies for all people;

* Making structural adjustment programmes more socially-oriented:

* Generating sufficient resources to fulfil social development objectives; and

* Improving the international economic environment and international financial assistance.

Acknowledging the urgency

The draft declaration would also have world leaders acknowledge that the people of the world have signalled in different ways an urgent need to address profound social problems pervasive in all societies. According to the proposed text, the world's peoples:

* Cannot live and work in peace and in harmony with one another and with their environment when a large part of humanity lives in widespread poverty;

* Cannot accept the indignity, suffering and waste of so many men, women and children caused by a lack of productive employment and livelihood;

* Cannot make our societies places of creative energy and collective prosperity when the capacity of individuals and groups of different cultures, gender, races, economic conditions, interest and aspirations is so fragile.

The draft declaration is expected to include sections on: the current social situation; principles, common values and goals; and commitments. It is proposed that Summit aims should include actions which place people at the centre of development and the economy at the service of human needs". Those actions should protect the environment and integrate economic and social policies.

The Preparatory Committee has so far "set the territory" for the types of issues that need to go in the political Declaration, said Chairman Somavia on 2 September. "After very extensive discussions, we feel that we have all the elements for putting together the next stage of negotiations."

Informal consultations on a draft declaration and a draft programme of action continued in October, in conjunction with discussion of the Summit during the forty-ninth session of the General Assembly. A third and final preparatory session, set for 16 to 27 January 1995 in New York, will iron out remaining areas of disagreement.

Focusing on new strategies

The Programme of Action will complement the Declaration by proposing in detail actions to be taken to implement social development strategies. It is expected to focus on strategies in five areas: ensuring an enabling environment for social development; reducing and eliminating widespread poverty; creating productive employment and reducing unemployment; social integration; and implementation and follow-up, taking advantage of the capabilities of the UN system, international financial institutions and other intergovernmental organizations.

Much of the second session was devoted to identifying areas of agreement in the draft Programme of Action. Numerous additions and revisions were made to the original draft, which emanated from the first preparatory session in January 1994. There was wide agreement that the draft should be restructured to show more clearly the "Basis for Action", "Objectives" and "Actions" proposed under each section, along the lines of "Agenda 21", the action plan adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development--the Earth Summit.

In addition, several key issues must be resolved, including: the right to migrate; debt reduction: structural adjustment; official development assistance; proposal for a social security council; broadening the understanding of work to include informal activities; and the role of the family. Among conceptual points that need further elaboration are: the definition of poverty; the concepts of human security and sustainable human development; and the 20/20 initiative, which calls for donor countries to allocate 20 per cent of their development assistance and developing countries to allocate 20 per cent of their budgets for social development programmes.

Agenda for development

The Social Development Summit is linked to the Secretary-General's report on his new "An Agenda for Development", released in May 1994 as a counterpart to his 1992 report, "An Agenda for Peace", which outlines his vision of the UN's peace-keeping mission.

As the UN struggles to cope with a seemingly endless series of regional and ethnic conflicts, such as those in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the need to revitalize the Organization's preventive role in reducing poverty and bridging global inequalities has also come to the fore.

Spearheading the fiftieth anniversary of the UN, the 199 5 Summit also occupies a central position in a constellation of other international gatherings on global development issues, including the 1990 World Summit for Children, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the upcoming Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements.

In particular, the Summit will build on the accomplishments of the Earth Summit. At that Conference in Rio de Janeiro, more than 150 nations agreed that "human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development" Earth Summit leaders also concluded that preserving the planet for future generations will require nothing less than the eradication of poverty; the elimination of wasteful patterns of consumption; a supportive and open international economic system; and the participation of all concerned citizens, especially women, the young, indigenous peoples and local communities.

The world situation

The world has witnessed unprecedented material progress in the last half of the twentieth century But the benefits of this progress have not been distributed equally The gulf between the haves and the have-nots has widened dramatically in recent years, between rich and poor nations, between rich and poor citizens.

Even in the most prosperous nations, the dimensions of this crisis are unmistakable: in developed countries, 1 of every 10 people of working age cannot find a job that pays a living wage. The young no longer see the usefulness of education, when tried-and-true social values become suddenly obsolete, and when solidarity between individuals and groups is eroded, replaced by individual or political egoism. Moreover, in virtually every region of the world, there is rising insecurity brought on by the effects of crime, substance abuse and drug trafficking.

At the same time, rather than providing a so-called "peace dividend", the end of the cold war has had a destabilizing effect. Cut adrift from the moorings of bipolar super-Power rivalry, many nations have become caught up in ethnic violence and civil warfare. Developing countries have lost the influence they once wielded as objects of cold war competition--and their leaders contend that they are inadequately represented in decisions on international trade and finance.

Development with a human face

Indeed, the entire conception of development at the global level is changing. "Recognition of looming threats of the ecological balance of the planet itself has given rise to a new global consciousness, and the end of the cold war has challenged countries to redefine both their external relations and internal purposes", notes the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's biannual World Education Report, 1993. "Where previously there was an emphasis on military security, alone or in alliance with others, the imperatives now are to ensure economic and social security and the conditions of a civil society. In every region, countries are seeking new forms of economic and political cooperation with their neighbours and trading partners . . . and there is an upsurge of demands for decentralization, subsidiarity and more power for citizens to make decisions for themselves."

The UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Report, 1994 recommends that the Summit endorse the emerging concept of human security as the basis upon which national development strategies, international cooperation and global governance should be organized. "The world can never be peace unless people have security in their daily lives", the report warns.

"Global security can no longer be considered apart from human security, which today means jobs, human development and environmental sustainability and the safety of individuals in their homes, workplaces and streets", noted Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, Special Adviser to the UNDP Administrator, at the 46th Annual DPI/NGO Conference (8-10 September 1993, New York), sponsored by the UN Department of Public information. Ambassador Juan Somavia put it simply: "Security", he said, ". . . is sleeping soft at night."

Seeking a new definition of security has meant re-examining assumptions and posing fundamental questions about the principal sources of insecurity in contemporary societies. "The new approach must be inclusive, must encompass all aspects of social, economic and environmental life, and must seek to promote a society in which each and every individual has the potential and the opportunity to become involved in development", Mr. Boutros-Ghali told the organizational meeting of the Summit's Preparatory Committee in April 1993. "We are abandoning the fragmented, compartmentalized approach of the past, which failed to concentrate on the dynamics of whole societies. We are now beginning to see the interrelationships that exist between social economic and political life ... Old notions and old methods of working will need to be revised and some entirely new approaches must be created."

The Summit will provide the opportunity "to reiterate very clearly that, without the promotion of people-centred development, none of our key objectives can be met--not peace, not human rights, not environmental protection, not reduced population growth, not social integration", says James Gustave Speth, Administrator of UNDP, in a foreword to the Human Development Report." It will be a time for all nations to recognize that it is far cheaper and far more humane to act early and to act upstream than to pick up the pieces downstream, to address the root causes of human insecurity rather than the tragic consequences."

The ultimate goal of the Summit is to help make "ordinary people throughout the world feel less insecure, less threatened, more dignified", Mr. Somavia said. "The dignity of the human being is a great endeavour. It is an ideal well worth fighting for, a fundamental value to orient our life; a moral need for contemporary societies".