Carter coaches a round: poverty vs development.

World leaders convened on 21 and 22 February in Atlanta, Georgia a high-level Development Cooperation Forum, which was sponsored by The Carter Center (www.cartercenter.org), a non-governmental organization, and co-chaired by United States former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin. Other heavyweights attending included World Bank President James Wolfensohn, United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, the Presidents of Guyana, Mali and Mozambique, and a host of leading development thinkers and experts from both rich and poor countries.

At the Forum, leaders and representatives of developing countries and international development organizations assailed the lack of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty. Most noted that even with more than one billion people living in abject poverty, there has been a lack of political energy by rich countries to help their poorer neighbours. But those in the ring at The Carter Center headed off with a sense of mission, and some fight left in them, to find a way, if not fully by the international Conference on Financing for Development in March in Monterrey, Mexico, then by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg from the end of August to the beginning of September.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (see UN Chronicle No.4, 1999) call for extreme poverty to be halved by 2015, as well as for strides in education, health and preservation of the environment. These targets were endorsed by all 189 Member States, from the richest to the poorest, at the 2000 UN Millennium General Assembly. Yet, almost two years into the new millennium, the need for the Forum as a catalyst into the Monterrey and Johannesburg meetings was all too clear. Constraints to improved development cooperation remain-- the result of a scarcity of adequate resources, a shortage of successful partnerships, the still maturing trend of good governance, the unwieldy duplication of efforts, and the shocking mercilessness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and intractable conflicts, and adding to that, the growing threat of terrorism.

In the face of recent reports from various United Nations agencies that the Millennium Development Goals were unlikely to be met without firmly and honestly addressing these constraints, President Carter pressed participants on the "urgent need to move beyond rhetoric and put into action a plan in which resources are fully committed". He felt. however, that the consensus of nations on how to fight global poverty "has never been as strong as it is today".

Founded in 1982 by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carten in partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center has as its main goal to help create a world where "every man, woman and child has the opportunity to enjoy good health and live in peace". it seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.

At the Forum, participants spoke on the increasing interdependence of developed and developing countries in a global economy. Many felt that the wealthiest countries must commit greater financial resources through more aid and debt relief, and create greater access to markets. For their part, the developing countries recognized the need to take bold steps to reduce corruption and use aid more effectively.

"I do think we have a tremendous amount of self-interest in increasing development assistance", said Mr. Rubin. "Poverty can foment hopelessness, resentment and anger, which in turn can lead to instability and even terrorism." He felt that there needed to be a parallel agenda with private individuals and corporations to help increase the public's understanding of the need to increase development assistance. But public officials, he added, were sensitive to their own public and elected representatives rarely see "political gain from doing so".

President Joaquim Alberto Chissano of Mozambique said that while the poor countries "do have the responsibility to drive our countries towards a normal situation, where the resources are effective and efficiently used, credits reimbursed and aid dependence reduced", nevertheless, realistically "the volume of resources required to significantly implement priority programmes and actions" were in the short and medium term "beyond the real possibilities of mobilization from domestic sources."

The Carter Center's Global Development Initiative (GDI), which hosted the Forum, will continue to track these issues and work with its four partner countries--Albania, Guyana, Mali and Mozambique--to develop comprehensive national development strategies (NDS).

These are meant to "strengthen democracy and respect for human rights by reinforcing democratic institutions and supporting a more participatory, cooperative and democratic culture", according to President Carter. "When citizens have a greater stake in formulating NDS, and feel that it is their own, they view their democratic institutions with a greater sense of legitimacy", he said.

After an invitation from a Government, GDI brings together civil and business leaders, and representatives of non-governmental organizations to contribute to NDS. This diverse input is crucial to foster long-term democratic progress and sustainable development. Such collaboration is likely to result in better, more appropriate development policies, because they are based on the knowledge and experiences of those most affected by development problems.

The Carter Center has been active in Guyana for more than a decade, monitoring the 1992 elections, assisting the country with a national development strategy, and strengthening the rule of law and civil society. In 2001, it sent a delegation of 44 people from ten countries to observe the 19 March presidential election. The delegation was co-led by President Carter, Rosalynn Carter and former Prime Minister Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford of Barbados. President Bharrat lagdeo of Guyana said that despite best efforts being made in his country, and the long-term support being offered by The Carter Center, "sustained intervention" was needed despite such hopeful signs as reduced debts and a balance of payment deficit.

President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali praised the GDI model, saying that his country is in its fight against poverty, but despite programmes and economic development, the economic and social indicators there remained "unacceptable". Poverty has actually increased, although its rate of growth has slowed. The number of countries in that position, he said, was increasing and this constituted a "menace to peace and stability", for example in Mali. Given that two thirds of the people in Africa live in rural areas, he noted gloomily that there had been a considerable reduction in aid to this sector, both by bilateral and multilateral partners. "We must win the battle in the rural areas or it will be lost", he said.

Other experts invited to the Center were equally convinced of the need for substantial changes to global rules. Nancy Birdsall, President of the Center for Global Development, argued that a "social contract" was needed in this era of globalization. Meaningful investments in economic opportunities for the poor had to be possible. There should also be fairer global rules and regimes in trade, foreign investment, property rights and migration, and "global institutions that are more representative and accountable to the poor as well as the rich".

What did emerge at the Forum, according to President Carter, was "the need for an ongoing campaign to build support, particularly in the United States, for the fight against global poverty". Ever the fighter, he wants to convene regular sessions to review development cooperation based on the Center's work with Albania, Guyana, Mali and Mozambique, as well as with other possible country partners.