Statement by Mr Andrew Goledzinowski, Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, as delivered on behalf of CANZ on 23 March 2010.
(as delivered)
Thank you Mr President,
I am privileged to speak today on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
We gather together today as the global economy is emerging from the most significant and widespread downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Global GDP declined by an unprecedented 2.2 per cent in 2009.
Developing countries were severely affected, with economic growth falling to 1.2 per cent in 2009 compared with 8.1 per cent in 2007.
Progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has slowed as a direct consequence of the economic crisis, following directly from the food and energy crises. The food price crisis alone was estimated by the World Bank to have pushed 100 million people into deeper poverty.
Despite these setbacks, Canada, Australia and New Zealand remain fully committed to assisting developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Now, more than ever, urgent, coordinated and decisive action is required to harness all available global resources to build long-term resilience to shocks and finance sustainable development.
We strongly support the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration. And we welcome the progress since those meetings.
But much more needs to be done.
The restoration of the health of the global economy, by entrenching the recovery and laying the foundations for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, can contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit in June will provide a useful opportunity to check on implementation progress on the commitments made at Washington, London, and Pittsburgh.
Let me highlight four other key areas that are needed to build long-term resilience to shocks and finance sustainable development:
• honouring our aid commitments;
• exploring new financing mechanisms and partnerships;
• promoting broad-based sustainable economic development and doing more on trade and development; and
• making our aid more effective.
First, we will continue to honour our commitments on aid.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand have taken significant steps to boost the volume of our aid.
Australia has increased official development assistance by more than 70 per cent over the last five years, from A$2.2 billion five years ago to A$3.8 billion this year. The Australian government has formally committed to further substantial increases in aid volume through to 2015.
New Zealand remains on track to increase its aid programme from $NZ470 million in 2008-09 to $NZ600 million by 2012-13. In 2008-09, Canada met its commitment to double aid to Africa from 2003-04 levels and is on track to double international assistance overall to $5 billion in 2010-11 from 2001-02 levels.
Together, we call on others to reaffirm and, more importantly, to realize their existing commitments.
Second, we encourage the exploration of new financing mechanisms and partnerships – particularly those that harness the private sector.
Official development assistance alone is insufficient to meet the needs facing the world’s poorest countries.
We support the Doha Declaration’s recognition that achieving a significant development impact requires better mobilisation of public and private sector resources, both domestic and from overseas.
Many new financing mechanisms and partnerships offer considerable potential to generate additional resources for development. Australia is undertaking a $75 million Debt to Health swap with Indonesia, and has committed $250 million to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation. Australia is also represented on the newly established UN High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. Canada has been a leading contributor to new financing mechanisms, including providing US$200 million to the Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines and $25 million to the World Bank’s Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility.
Third, we believe that supporting broad-based sustainable economic growth, including promoting increased international trade, remains critical for developing countries to achieve faster poverty reduction and economic development.
We will continue to support trade liberalisation unequivocally and resist protectionism. And we are committed to helping developing countries gain access to international economic opportunities.
But developing countries face many challenges in realising the benefits of increased trade.
We will continue to provide assistance to developing countries to support broad-based sustainable economic growth and to translate the benefits of trade into progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
Our Aid for Trade will continue to help developing countries to boost their trade and investment flows and diversify their trade activities.
We remain strongly committed to the World Trade Organization and to the multilateral trading system.
We have pushed, and will continue to push, for a successful conclusion to the Doha Round in 2010. This would provide a much needed boost to developing economies.
Fourth, in line with our undertakings in the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action, we are undertaking a range of reforms aimed at increasing the effectiveness of our aid to build long-term resilience, promote sustainable development and contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.
We align our support behind partner country priorities. And we are committed to better donor coordination and ensuring aid flows are more predictable.
We are also supporting our partner countries’ efforts to strengthen their own public financial management capacities. We will increasingly channel our assistance through partner governments’ public financial management systems in support of agreed national development plans.
We recognise that effective aid requires commitments from all partners. We continue to support the emphasis given to governance issues in both the Monterrey and Doha Declarations, and fully support the principle of mutual accountability for development results.
We are also working to simplify the global aid architecture and to harmonise donor funding and reduce the burden on partner governments.
CANZ is committed to untying aid in line with OECD policies, the Paris Declaration, and the Accra Agenda for Action.
Untying is good development policy. It is one of the best ways to make aid more effective and to ensure responsiveness to developing country needs.
Australia and New Zealand both have untied aid and Canada will untie all of its Official Development Assistance by 2012-13.
These are four key initiatives that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are committed to pursuing to ensure that all developing countries build their long term resilience to shocks and regain momentum towards achieving the MDGs.
Thank you.