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1995
has seen a number of projects and conferences pertaining to the
"New Directions" initiative, adopted in 1995 by the Special Unit
for TCDC. Stemming from General Assembly resolution 49/96 of 19
December 1994, this initiative represents some of the concrete ways
the praxis of TCDC is responding to the new global economy and an
ever liberalizing international trading regime. New areas of focus
for SU/TCDC include emphases on strategic interventions, the role
of information and the new information technologies, and on new
cooperative models for disseminating the modality, and policies
for making it structural at all levels. The following are working
examples from the regions of the New Directions initiative in 1995.
African
countries are looking to the economic successes of South-East Asia
in a new and growing TCDC initiative. December 1994 saw the adoption
of the Bandung Framework for Asia-Africa Cooperation, a manifesto
for collaborative development schemes for the 21st century. Thirty-seven
African countries and six Asian nations met in Bandung, Indonesia,
at a conference organized by the Governments of Japan and Indonesia,
the UN Secretariat, UNDP and the Global Coalition for Africa. The
Bandung conference was a follow up to the Tokyo International Conference
on African Development (TICAD), held in Japan in October 1993.
Participants
discussed development cooperation between the regions in the areas
of trade, investment, technology transfer, finance and human resources
development. In an example of the triangular funding approach advocated
by the New Directions initiative, Japanese funding of South-East
Asian-African TCDC exchanges was encouraged at the international
level. Participating countries were also encouraged in more fully
and closely assessing their development needs.
Zimbabwe,
in July of 1995, saw the first of several follow-up regional workshops
held to operationalize the Bandung framework. African nations attending
the workshop made recommendations towards creating a stable foundation
for the framework. Focusing on the areas of peace and stability,
capacity building and human resource development and private sector
development, African planners and officials put forth proposals
to increase the amount of professional contact between themselves
and Asian planners and officials.
Policymakers
across Africa will soon be able to take advantage of timely social
research data through a recently operationalized consortium of university
research facilities. Addis Ababa University serves as the hub of
this six university consortium - a collaborative effort among social
researchers in South Africa, Uganda, Egypt, Ghana and Mexico. The
consortium began in 1994, and is, as of summer 1995, fully operational
thanks to support provided by SU/TCDC. As part of its New Directions
commitment to supporting strategic decision-making, and the information
necessary for such, the Special Unit will be funding research proposals
to study public health, and educational systems, rural and urban
poverty and the environment, impact of infrastructure projects and
case studies in governance, among other topics. By making available
studies which address issues under national debate, the consortium
will communicate critical knowledge from the field, assisting policymakers
in setting national agendas with a knowledge of how the issue has
been addressed in other countries.
SU/TCDC
and other units in UNDP are meanwhile sponsoring research undertaken
by the RAND Forum, a Kenyan NGO. Researchers are putting the finishing
touches on a study examining African food raising and processing
technologies. Looking at indigenous methods of food production,
this study will examine how to make these methods more commercial
and profitable. SU/TCDC will make the results of this study available
at a UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa-sponsored workshop being held
at a yet-to-be-decided location in East Africa in December 1995.
The workshop will bring together researchers, food processing technicians
and entrepreneurs, all of whom are investigating ways to transform
farm surpluses into new business opportunities.
In
April of 1995, a meeting of TCDC Focal Points, jointly sponsored
by the Special Unit for TCDC and the Organization of African Unity
(OAU), was held at Accra. Over 90 participants from 36 Sub-Saharan
countries attended the second meeting of TCDC Focal Points of African
Governments. Acting as a country-level catalyst for TCDC, these
Focal Points emphasized their wish to have the modality present
in all of their countries' development initiatives and policies.
In a first for a regional meeting, Focal Points from other regions
(Latin America, Turkey) and an NGO, the African Secretariat of the
Third World Network, were in attendance. Considerable time was devoted
to the issues of regional integration and economic harmonization,
and training sessions for the use of TCDC-INRES were provided in
both English and French. Overall the recommendations of the meeting
were consistent with those put forth in the New Directions initiative,
particularly with regard to the linkages between TCDC and ECDC.
In keeping with the New Directions thrust to make TCDC a structural
given at the country level, the Focal Points discussed the need
for a national policy framework to implement the TCDC modality,
the need to mobilize resources that would encourage the use of TCDC
and for governments to make budgetary allocations for TCDC at the
regional and subregional level. Their feedback has been very important
in relation another New Directions goal: rethinking the strategic
role of one of the main products of the Special Unit, the Capacities
and Needs Assessment process.
Namibia
in 1996 will be the home of a new TCDC exchange between Africa and
Latin America. An SU/TCDC supported initiative, implemented with
the assistance of an NGO known as South-North Development Initiative,
was carried out. An immediate result was the decision to establish
an institute to deal with African-Latin American issues. Temporary
secretariats based in Namibia and Uruguay will be facilitating the
new cooperative venture of ALA, or Africa-Latin America, TCDC-oriented
programmes. This venture, designed with the financial and technical
support of the Special Unit, will be formally inaugurated at Rio
de Janeiro at a conference early in 1996.
At
the request of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development
of Small Island States, held in Barbados in April/May 1994, UNDP,
through SU/TCDC, prepared a feasibility study on establishing a
Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Technical Assistance Programme
(SIDS/TAP), and coordinated the preparation of (together with UNDP's
Sustainable Development Network Programme) a feasibility study on
a SIDS information network. SIDS/TAP is intended to help SIDS identify
unmet gaps in their development priorities (particularly relating
to capacity building), falling under the 14 chapters of the Programme
of Action adopted at the Global Conference, and to mobilize resources
to fill those gaps. This effort represents one of the New Directions
strategic initiatives endorsed by the High-level Committee for TCDC.
Currently
circulating among SIDS government officials and UNDP Resident Representatives
is a feasibility study for "SIDSNet," a proposed computer on-line
service. SIDSNet is not a new database, but rather an effort to
create interconnectivity among existing databases elsewhere in the
world that have information useful to SIDS' development efforts.
SIDS officials, in collaboration with the Special Unit and UNDP
officials are currently examining the feasibility study to determine
if this is the most cost-effective and technologically desirable
means of meeting the SIDS development information needs, in support
of the implementation of the Programme of Action adopted in Barbados.
Elsewhere
in the Asia/Pacific region, small hydropower has taken center stage
as an environmentally-friendly, locally constructed and managed
solution to communities' energy needs. As a result of the December
1994 meeting in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, the International
Network on Small Hydropower (INSHP) was formed, and will hold its
first meeting at Milan, Italy, in September 1995. China is the acknowledged
leader in small hydropower technology and expertise, and is the
host country for the network. INSHP is the first such international
development organization ever to be established in China and a demonstration
of SU/TCDC's New Directions commitment to fostering and improving
links with centres of excellence in developing countries. INSHP
is also a concrete example of the New Directions triangular cooperation
mandate. China and other developing nations will share and exchange
their expertise on the construction, staffing and maintenance of
small (mini, and micro, in some cases) hydropower systems which
generate electricity for communities from local watercourses. In
turn, the Montreal-based E7, a consortium of major power utilities
of the G7 countries, have agreed to offer technical advice to the
network at no cost. The management of INSHP will be driven by regional
and national developing country energy institutions, informed and
supported by the regional energy institutions in Latin America,
Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. INSHP is a useful model for South-South-North
exchanges seeking to operationalize the TCDC New Directions mandate
on triangular cooperation.
In
support of the Asia/Africa cooperative initiatives provided for
by the Bandung Framework (see Africa region), SU/TCDC is to support
an Indonesia/Africa joint assessment mission charged with identifying
the priorities of six African countries in the areas of agricultural
production, debt management, water supply and sanitation and technology
transfer. This mission will explore the possibilities for the application
of TCDC instruments as a means of addressing priorities in these
areas.
The
countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), undergoing
a rapid process of transition, have become interested in the experiences
gained by some Latin American countries in conducting stabilization
and structural adjustment programmes. Of particular interest to
planning officials is the external aid management aspect of these
programmes. Meetings were held under the auspices of SU/TCDC in
early May 1995 at Buenos Aires, and in June 1995 at St. Petersburg,
to look into practical experiences that could be adapted to, and
replicated in, their region.
Officials
from Latin America and the States of CIS discussed privatization
approaches, social safety networks, information practices, administrative
decentralization and aid management techniques. A number of bilateral
and multilateral exchanges were agreed upon and a systematic follow-up
of these exchanges is expected to take place in the coming months.
During the follow-up period, participating States will design and
implement a number of programmes and projects between the regions.
With
the global demand for information services and infrastructure growing,
a number of Arab and North African States have banded together in
an initiative known as the Regional Communication and Information
Network for the Arab Region. The first meeting was held at Cairo
in December 1994, and was by all accounts a great success in establishing
an overall understanding among the 15 countries of the region. SU/TCDC,
along with the participating nations, supported a workshop in Tunisia
in June 1995, bringing together development officials and information
specialists from the private and public sectors, so as to work out
the practical implications of the regional network.
A
number of Arab States presently have computer on-line networks within
their own borders, however they have limited interconnectivity with
their neighbors and with the countries of the region. This initiative
is an effort to establish direct computer links among countries
in the region - the equivalent of an Internet among the Arab nations.
Work has begun on exchanging databases, computerizing information
and planning for the infrastructure necessary to connect States
with one another. The Regional Communication and Information Network
in the Arab Region initiative will be a lead TCDC activity in the
region in the coming months as countries are currently mandating
the necessary steps in working towards full interconnectivity. This
is a major step towards starting an information highway for the
21st century in the Arab region.
SU/TCDC
has also extended its support to two regional undertakings which
reviewed women's issues in the region in preparation for the Fourth
World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September of 1995.
These were two meetings held at Kiev in April of 1995, and in Chisinau,
Moldova, in May of 1995, respectively. The condition of women in
the region was extensively discussed, and policy positions were
developed that were carried forward to the conference in Beijing.
Among
the items on the New Directions agenda is an effort to increase
participation of third party donors in the experience of TCDC. This
effort occurs at a time when larger countries in Latin America are
themselves beginning to act as providers of aid and expertise to
other countries in the region. Triangular funding arrangements -
a New Directions mandate - occur when South-South projects and initiatives
are supported by a third party (usually a Northern) provider.
In
May of 1995 an SU/TCDC supported regional level conference was held
in Uruguay bringing together country Focal Points and managers of
external aid to discuss the New Directions agenda for TCDC. One
result of the May conference is an October 1995 exchange on triangular
funding arrangements, to be held in Chile. A number of current examples
of triangular funding will be discussed at the conference. As reported
in the last issue of Cooperation South, Luxembourg, Chile and Nicaragua,
have embarked on a project to strengthen education through exchanges
in management training, school construction techniques and school
curriculum development. The expertise is Southern, while Luxembourg
has agreed to play a role in the process by funding the project,
and by supporting the exchange process where all parties deem it
appropriate. A publication examining the results of triangular funding
will be produced by SU\TCDC following the October conference, and
will be available through the Special Unit to any and all parties
interested in learning more about the experience of these funding
arrangements.
Adding
new actors to the cooperation game is also a primary focus of the
New Directions agenda. Increasingly, the commercial private sector
is bringing its contribution to the meeting table, in the form of
expertise with microeconomic development, trade, productivity and
employment. Early November 1995 will see a regional level meeting
in Brazil on exploring strategies for technical cooperation among
small-scale enterprises. Numerous institutions from the private
sector will be there to share their expertise, along with representatives
of the Brazilian government, of the Latin American Economic System
(SELA), and from Programa Bolivar, a Venezuela-based, regional and
semi-private agency which facilitates exchanges of know-how and
technology, and it helps locate financing for joint ventures in
the Latin American private sector.
Of
particular interest in the region at present is an intra-Latin American
and Caribbean solidarity effort towards the Capacities-Needs Matching
exercises programme taking place in Haiti in November 1995. Under
the auspices of SU/TCDC, the SELA countries will operationalize
their decision to jointly support Haiti's development drive. With
the support of UNDP's Haiti Country Office, local authorities are
developing a portfolio of projects to be circulated and matched
with available Latin American expertise and funding.
Report
of the ninth session of the High-level Committee for TCDC: 30 May-2
June 1995
At
the biennial meeting in New York earlier this year, the High-level
Committee adopted a number of decisions with regard to fostering
technical cooperation among developing countries during the next
two years. General satisfaction was expressed at the progress made
in implementing the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, and the new approaches
and initiatives of SU/TCDC were lauded by the committee members.
Of
particular interest to the Committee was the New Directions Initiative
undertaken this year by the Special Unit. Focusing on strategic
action, and on forging increased operational linkages between TCDC
and ECDC, the New Directions Initiative commits the technical cooperation
focus of the Special Unit to greater emphasis in the areas of: trade
and investment; debt; environment; poverty alleviation; production
and employment; macroeconomic policy coordination and management;
as well as education, health, transfer of technology and rural development.
Other key areas of the initiative include restructuring the Capacity
and Needs Matching Exercise to better meet countries' needs in the
new global economy; and an effort to make the upgraded INRES database
of TCDC activities and expertise globally, into a tool even more
user-friendly and relevant to its users' needs.
High-level
Committee members called for both governments and UN agencies to
support, with both mandates and funding, the strategic interventions
proposed by the New Directions initiative. Present timing frameworks
for submission of progress reports on implementation of the Buenos
Aires Plan of Action were maintained, while the essential and semi-autonomous
role of SU/TCDC was recognized and upheld.
The
High-level Committee this year welcomed the establishment of the
Group of 77/United Nations Development Programme Award for TCDC/ECDC.
Established on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding
of the G77 in June 1994, the award is designed to promote greater
awareness of South-South cooperation and to support activities of
economic cooperation and technical cooperation among developing
countries.
The
1995 award was presented to the South Centre in recognition of its
important contributions to the promotion of TCDC/ECDC. The presentation
took place in New York on 29 September 1995, on the occasion of
the Nineteenth Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77
The
Intergovernmental Meeting on South-South Cooperation: 31 July-4
August 1995
In
response to General Assembly resolution 49/96, government experts
from 65 member nations, as well as representatives from inter-governmental
organizations met at the United Nations in New York to discuss South-South
cooperation. Organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development/ Division for Economic Cooperation among Developing
Countries (UNCTAD/ECDC) and SU/TCDC, this meeting explored the fundamental
changes in the world economy and international relations in recent
years, and discussed ways to enhance the effectiveness of South-South
cooperation in the light of these changes.
Attendees
agreed that globalizing markets and liberalized trading regimes,
coupled with the creation and expansion of economic trading blocs
and new Southern economic powers, have created a more interdependent
international economy - one where inter-state relations are increasingly
based on trade and investment rather than traditional diplomacy.
There was broad consensus that there remains a gap between South-South
cooperation in principle and in practice. The intergovernmental
experts made recommendations for strategically enhancing and integrating
TCDC and ECDC in the light of the foregoing considerations and in
an era of declining official development assistance. Among the recommendations
were: calls for the promotion of cooperation and networking among
parties to development schemes wherever applicable; greater awareness
and use of media technologies both new and existing to stay abreast
of current information and to promote public awareness; increased
utilization of private sector resources; an emphasis on social,
as well as economic and technical aspects of South-South cooperation
(following recommendations of UN international conferences in the
1990s); and renewed support for the work of the South Centre as
a forum for developing both South-South and North-South cooperation.
The
First Session of the Council of Representatives of the South Centre
took place at the International Conference Centre in Geneva on 18
and 19 September 1995. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Mwalimu Julius
Nyerere, Chairman of the South Centre and attended also by President
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, 45 representatives from Developing Countries
and a number of observers, dignitaries and guests from the South
and the host country. The Group of 77 in New York was represented
by Mr. Mourad Ahmia, the current Executive Assistant to the Chairman
of the Group of 77 in New York.
At
the opening ceremony, Mr. Ahmia, in his capacity as Special Representative
of the Group of 77 in New York, conveyed to the Council the points
of view of the G-77 regarding the future programme of work of the
South Centre and prospects of a better collaboration between G-77
and the Centre. He also delivered a statement on the G-77/UNDP Panel
decision to present the 1995 Award on ECDC/TCDC to the South Centre.
The award was presented to Mr. Gamani Corea and Mr. Branivlav Gosovic,
representatives of the South Centre at a ceremony held in New York
on the occasion of Nineteenth Annual Ministerial Meeting of the
Group of 77. In attendance at the ceremony were Mr. Rafeeuddin Ahmed,
Associate Administrator, and Mr. Denis Benn, Director of the Special
Unit for TCDC, as representatives of UNDP. Mr. Rubens Ricupero,
Secretary General of UNCTAD and the Chairman/Coordinators of the
G-77 Chapters also attended the ceremony.
The
Special Unit for TCDC frequently contributes to United Nations and
other global conferences, through specially targeted papers, studies
and reports on particular issues. For the Fourth World Conference
on Women in Beijing in September of 1995, SU/TCDC, in conjunction
with the UNDP Gender in Development Programme and the Women's International
Grassroots Network (GROOTS International), commissioned a special
report examining the impact of structural adjustment programmes
on grassroots women. "Restructuring Economic and Social Policy:
Cross-Cultural Gender Insights from the Grassroots", examines the
often adverse effects of macroeconomic reforms on local women and
discusses three successful regional examples of locally-led development
organizations which manage programmes rooted in the experiences
and realities of women in their communities.
The
Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II)
will be held in Turkey in June of 1996. For the conference, SU/TCDC
and international consultants will identify countries and cities
that have developed innovative urban management practices in the
areas of land and real estate, infrastructure, municipal finance
and administration, the environment, poverty alleviation and community-based
dialogue. Once relevant projects and programmes have been identified
and documented, four regional workshops (one in each region) will
be held to discuss local partnerships in urban development and to
look for ways of transferring the identified innovations between
cities. SU/TCDC will be preparing a monograph for the HABITAT II
conference which will synthesize for policymakers and city officials
worldwide, the best findings and practices of these urban initiatives,
and examine the process of their transfer and implementation in
the wake of the regional workshops.
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