ECOSOC 2nd July 2007

High Level Segment


HIGH LEVEL INFORMAL ROUNDTABLE
“The big challenges of the elimination of poverty and hunger”

The three big challenges presented at this roundtable were climate change, HIV and desertification.

Mr. R.K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, presented the issue of climate change. He explained that the temperature could have increased by between 1,8 and 4°C by the end of this century. This could have a massive impact on our ecosystem but not in a uniform way. For example the heavy rains and the rise in sea level will hit primarily the mega deltas like those of South Asia. The poorest regions will also be particularly affected due to their lack of infrastructure and the food insecurity that could be increased by climate change.
Mr. Pachauri expressed his worries concerning the lack of early warning system and knowledge among the public about what to do in case of extreme heat, for example. He called on the media to help spread this knowledge and the alert in case of danger.
He finally insisted on the need to use renewable and low-carbon energies.

Mr C. Rahmani, Minister of land management, environment and tourism of Algeria established the link between desertification and poverty. He talked about the rural exodus that desertification caused and the resulting spread of urbanisation.

Mr. M. Kazatchkin, Executive Director of the Global Fund presented the problem of HIV. He highlighted the role of women, education and elimination of poverty in the fight against this disease. He thinks that health is a prerequisite to development and not a consequence. He also introduced the results of the Global Fund, created in 2001 to fight aids, tuberculosis and malaria. Since then, $8 billion have been collected allowing most HIV victims to have access to treatment, the distribution of nets to protect people against malaria etc. The goal is however to triple this contribution in the next few years.

Nigeria complained that the developed countries didn’t take the issue of desertification seriously enough.

Portugal, speaking on behalf of the European Union, explained that their goal was to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 50% by 2050. It also declared that the EU’s motto for development issues was “think global, act local”.

UNvolunteers proposed the publishing materials aimed at young people to create a change in the lifestyle in the North.

FAO proposed to take the example of cooperation on avian influenza as a model of international cooperation.

Russia insisted on the need to get to an agreement for the post-Kyoto period. Asked about its opinion on this subject, the USA refused to reply.

The United Kingdom proposed the creation of a fund to deal with the issue of climate change on the model of the Global Fund for aids, tuberculosis and malaria. This fund will indeed encourage a quicker reaction to this problem.
Finally, in the best intervention of the day, Japan proposed that the ECOSOC secretariat stop the air conditioning at UN meetings if the temperature was below 20°C. It couldn’t see the point of discussing climate change issues, lifestyle change etc without this action from the UN.

SUBSTANTIVE SESSION: ROUND TABLE 2
Coherence and Coordination of Macroeconomic Policies at all Levels


The first panelist of this meeting represented the Portuguese Institute for the Development assistance. He stated that the external environment has a direct influence on national policies and stressed the need of coordination between the different policies. He emphasized the comparative advantage of regional frameworks to define a coherent strategy of development. He insisted also on the role played by multilateralism through institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The second panelist presented the work done by this institution. Indeed, M. Portugal is Deputy-Manager in the IMF. The IMF has increased its collaboration with the World Bank and other international organizations. He explained the process of monitoring through its different forms: bilateral and multilateral monitoring of policies implementation. As for bilateral monitoring, there are currently three pillars: monitoring of the national policies for stability, coherence in the choice of exchange rates, clarification of the information on IMF state-members in order to take into account the particular situation of each country. The multilateral monitoring takes into account the coherence of the country’s own evaluation. Twice a year, the IMF makes an evaluation of the world financial stability. Adopting a mid-term strategy, the IMF develops initiatives for multilateral monitoring with a service of multilateral consultants. The IMF also publishes plans of general policy for each of its members, part of those programs. It aims at imitating the risk at an international level.

Mrs.Carrasquilla, Active Executive President of the FLAR (Fondo Latinoamericano de Reservas) presented the role of this institution. The FLAR was established in order to promote coherence and coordination of macroeconomic policies in order to increase the contribution of those policies to poverty and inequality reduction. FLAR is a regional fund that brings together six countries: Bolivia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. On May 2006, the amount of International Reserves of Member Countries accounted for USD 76.9 billion.
The three objectives of the FLAR are: to support the balance of payments of member countries by granting loans or guaranteeing third-party loans, to contribute to the harmonization of exchange rate, monetary, and financial policies of member countries and to improve the conditions of international reserve investments made by member countries.

The floor was then open to the delegates and the Distinguished Delegate of Pakistan talked first. He declared that before establishing institutions or policies of coherence it was necessary to agree on what coherent is. Is it promotion of development, equity, stability, efficiency?