editorial at/@
tortillaconsal punto/dot com
Paul Oquist Kelley's speech at the UN Summit about the Millenium Development Goals
Translated by Karla Jacobs, 28th September, 2010
Paul Oquist Kelley, Secretary of National Policy for the Nicaraguan Presidency, represented the Nicaraguan government in the UN Summit about the Millenium Development Goals which took place last week at the UN General Assembly, New York.
As part of his speech, Oquist gave details about the achievements in terms of poverty reduction and wealth redistribution in Nicaragua since Daniel Ortega's government took office in 2007.
Oquist also emphasized the Nicaraguan government's position that, in order for the Millenium Development Goals to be achieved at a global level, it is necessary to immediately begin transforming the financial, economic and political power structures currently imposed on the world.
At the same time, Oquist described ALBA as a model to be imitated around the globe as part of the struggle to make social justice a realistic objective.
*
* *
To fulfill the Millenium Development Goals [MDGs] it is not only necessary to resolve technical, administrative, financial problems and problems regarding political will, but also to confront structural challenges including the very nature of the current economic and social model which concentrates income and wealth in very few hands.
This tendency has become more acute since 1980 with the rise of neoliberalism and the Washington consensus which have imposed deregulation, privatization and the minimization of the State including its role as redistributer.
The consequence of these policies has been greater inequality between and within countries, something particularly relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean which is the most unequal region in the world.
The same tendencies have also affected developed countries, though. Indeed working class families in the US had, on average, a greater real income in 1980 than they do today, a situation which generates imbalances that contributed to the current financial and economic crisis.
In Nicaragua, extreme poverty increased between 2001 and 2005. Since 2007, however, the government of President Daniel Ortega has been able to reduce extreme poverty despite the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The Nicaraguan government's figure shows that, at present, 14.6% of the population lives in extreme poverty, which means the country is half way to reaching the first Millenium Development Goal [MDG1 - to reduce by half the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015].
A study financed by Holland and Switzerland and carried out with technical assistence from the World Bank, however, found in 2009 that only 9.7% of the population was living in extreme poverty which would imply that Nicaragua had already met MDG1. Similarly, in their 2010 report, the FAO [the UN Food and Agriculture Organization] and the WFP [the World Food Program], also find that Nicaragua, in terms of the reduction of malnutrition, has already met MDG1.
Nicaragua has also registered improvements in all other indicators [used to measure progress in terms of the MDGs], except for the HIV and AIDS rate which has increased. This problem is an international problem that requires greater efforts globally if the MDG is to be met in Nicaragua.
Examples of the reduction in key indicators include illiteracy which has dropped from 22% in 2006 to 3.3% in 2009 thanks to a campaign using the successful Cuban model “Yo Sí Puedo” [“Yes, I can”].
Maternal deaths and infant deaths have also been reduced while the malaria rate has dropped from 4.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the base year to 1.1 at present. During the last three years there has not been a single death due to malaria.
Nicaragua has been benefitted by the most brilliant innovation in development financing of the 21st Century. This consists in Venezuelan solidarity channelled via the PetroCaribe agreements which convert half of poor countries' petroleum invoice into low interest, long term credit for poverty reduction.
ALBA[the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America]'s support of social processes, the ALBA Bank and the new regional currency, the SUCRE, represent other novel elements of this new solidarity based alternative model.
These are examples of the sort of innovative finance methods that are required to confront the challenges of reducing poverty and inequality as well as the costs of climate change.
It has been estimated that an additional US$50 billion in ODA [Official Development Assistance] is required each year in order for the MDGs to be met between now and 2015.
Under current circumstances, however, it appears unlikely these funds will be made available: at present only five countries comply with [the requirement to set aside] 0.7% of GDP [for ODA]. Meanwhile, during the inauguration of this conference we heard the Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, call on donor countries not to cut external cooperation due to the crisis.
It might be more effective, however, to issue US$250 billion in Special Drawing Rights like the ones which were so rapidly approved and distributed to the world's central banks in 2008 and 2009 to maintain global financial liquidity. Special Drawing Rights for the MDGs would establish that reducing extreme poverty around the world by half is given at least as much priority as rescuing banks.
Additionally, it is necessary that the struggle to achieve the MDGs is inclusive. In this sense, we applaud the progress over the last two years in the efforts in favour of peace and prosperity on both sides of the Taiwan strait and we hope that the UN is able to find adequate forms for the participation of Taiwan in this struggle, a struggle that belongs to all of us.
With the government of President Commandant Daniel Ortega it has been possible to reduce poverty by prioritizing the production of micro, small and medium businesses including access to fair credit, seeds and fertilizers as well as providing the tools for production directly to informal sector women in urban areas and female small farmers in the countryside.
On top of this, the human and constitutional right to free education and healthcare, which had been denied as a result of the “cost recuperation” policies of the previous neoliberal governments, has been reinstated. Also public transport, water and electricity has been subsidized for the poor majority in urban areas, and a Christian, socialist and solidarity bonus has been distributed to low income State workers.
In summary, the deregulation, privatization, liberalization and minimization of the State has been replaced with policies that facilitate the State's role of promoting development and redistributing income and consumption in favour of the poor. The result has been the reduction of the inequality indicator, GINI, from 0.41 to 0.36 between 2005 and 2009 making Nicaragua the least unequal country in Central America.
In order for these achievements to be sustained, of course, the economy must grow. And the good news is that Nicaraguan exports this year are up 30% on last year.
However, we and everyone else are faced by serious threats. Would would happen if there was a W-shaped recession? Or a lost decade for many countries due to debt repayments? Which is what happened in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 80s when the regional economy shrunk by 1.9% over the whole decade.
We all need the world economy to recover in order to achieve the MDGs. It should be clear by now that this is not possible only via public spending, and within a short amount of time it will become clear that this also applies to savings.
In actual fact we face multiple, massive imbalances which indicate the need to transform the current financial and economic arquitecture.
This is the case because the process of globalization has been so fast, the market so predominant, the State so weak, regulation so impotent, speculation so profitable, the virtual economy over the real economy so powerful, finance capital so hegemonic, credit so limited, investments so short term, high unemployment rates so resistant, the commercial imbalance so chronic, the debt so enormous, currency emission so astronomical, the main reserve currency so undisciplined and international political power so concentrated.
These factors are interrelated and form vicious circles which impede the transformation to the new model so urgently needed to achieve economic recovery and the reduction of the structural inequality which has contributed to this crisis.
To finish, I would like to point out that, if these issues are not dealt with, the fulfillment of the MDGs by 2015 - or at any point in the future - will be in danger. The same can be said for the possibilities of reaching an inclusive and binding global agreement about climate change within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol and Convention.
The solution resides in inclusion, it resides in the democratization of international political and economic relations as a means to achieving global peace and stability, a world with human rights and social justice, a world without poverty. In other words, the very objectives for which the United Nations was created.
Thank you very much, Mr President.