Printer FriendlyEdgar Vasiliu-Rab
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system. It is responsible for promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It has the power to make or initiate studies and reports on these issues. It also has the power to assist the preparations and organization of major international conferences in the economic and social and related fields and to facilitate a coordinated follow-up to these conferences. With its broad mandate the Council's purview extends to over 70 percent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system.
- Mexico and Indigenous Issues
- Promoting Pro-Poor Economic Growth
- Transition from Relief to Development
I. Mexico and Indigenous Issues
According to official statistics reported by the Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples (CDI), Native Americans make up close to 12% (as of 2000) of the Mexico's population, even though only half of them (6% of total population) still speak an indigenous language and close to one quarter (3% of total population) are not bilingual with Spanish.
As an independent nation, Mexico declared the abolition of slavery and the equality of all citizens under the law. And indeed, some indigenous individuals integrated into the Mexican society, including Benito Juáre, the first indigenous president of a Mexico. Can you put in one or two sentences about what Juare did during his presidency? Especially good would be something that relates to indigenous issues.
The greatest change, however, came about as a result of the Mexican Revolution, a violent social and cultural movement that defined 20th century Mexico. The Revolution produced a national sentiment that the indigenous peoples were the foundation of Mexican society. Several prominent artists promoted the "Indigenous Sentiment" (sentimiento indigenista) of the country. Throughout the twentieth century, the government established bilingual education in certain indigenous communities and published free bilingual textbooks. Some states of the federation appropriated an indigenous inheritance in order to reinforce their identity.
The government has made certain legislative changes to promote the development of the rural and indigenous communities and the preservation and promotion of their languages. The second article of the Constitution was modified to grant them the right of self-determination and requires state governments to promote and ensure the economic development of the indigenous communities as well as the preservation of their languages and traditions.
In spite of the official recognition of the indigenous peoples, the economic underdevelopment of the communities, accentuated by the crises of the 1980's and 1990's, has not allowed for the social and cultural development of most indigenous communities. Some of the indigenous peoples have revolted for example, in 2000, the Chiapa Zapatista Army of National Liberation which is an armed revolutionary group revolted demanding better social and economic opportunities.
The average per capita monthly income of the indigenous household is close to the average income of the non-indigenous poor – slightly above in rural areas and slightly below in urban areas. The income gap is highest in urban areas, where the income of the non-indigenous is more than three times higher than that of the indigenous. In terms of labor sources of income, indigenous incomes come mostly from agriculture and derive above all from waged agricultural work. Non-indigenous incomes, on the other hand, derive primarily from non-agricultural income sources. Even when compared with the non-indigenous poor, the incomes of the indigenous are more highly concentrated in agriculture.
A major problem to development is access to financial assets – credit and savings – plays an important role in determining rural economic opportunity as it complements other assets, for instance, by helping increase the productivity of land or reducing the volatility of agricultural incomes. Only a small fraction of indigenous households have access to formal (or informal) credit, while the non-indigenous have 2-3 times more access to credit. Reasons why this is may vary. It is a possibility that education increases the likelihood of obtaining credit for indigenous peoples, mainly through increased access to information. In rural areas, more indigenous business owners are deterred form seeking a loan due to high interest rates than non-indigenous – 36 percent and 23 percent. Further, interest rates of formal credit are indeed higher for indigenous businesses and farms.
The marginal value of land in rural area depends not only on complementary assets such as education, but also on infrastructure such as access to roads. Lack of infrastructure and basic services is of course related to welfare outcomes. At the same time, the higher poverty rates experienced by indigenous peoples may be the result of an uneven distribution of public assets across households within a particular area.
Key Ideas
• Sustainable Development
• Greater Autonomy
• Education
• Healthcare
• Access to water and sanitation
• Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)
II. Promoting Pro-Poor Economic Growth
Over the last three decades, the share of world population that is poor has declined significantly. The rate of decline has, however, slowed over the last two decades. Looking beyond global aggregates reveals that there is a wide variation in poverty rates (as measured by $1 USD per day poverty line) across countries and regions. Indeed, between 1970 and 1998, the poverty rate increased significantly in Africa while it decreased in Asia and Latin America.
These developments have sparked much discussion regarding the growth-promoting “Washington Consensus” and the related question of whether growth is sufficient everywhere to reduce poverty and ultimately to promote equitable development. The Washington Consensus is set of ten economic policy prescriptions that he considered to constitute a "standard" reform package promoted for crisis-wracked countries by Washington-based institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and U.S. Treasury Department. The recommends include: fiscal discipline; a redirection of public expenditure priorities toward fields offering both high economic returns and the potential to improve income distribution, such as primary health care, primary education, and infrastructure; tax reform (to lower marginal rates and broaden the tax base); interest rate liberalization; a competitive exchange rate; trade liberalization; liberalization of inflows of foreign direct investment; privatization of state enterprises; deregulation (to abolish barriers to entry and exit) and secure property rights. Although, today’s policy discussion, however, might still be understood by using the term as a reference point as the term has “augmented” to include other economic policy prescriptions such as corporate governance, anti-corruption programs, “prudent” capital-account opening and targeted poverty reduction. There is strong criticism against the Washington Consensus because of the World Bank and the IMF since numerous countries have experience severe economic crises due to accumulation of crippling external debts.
The wide variance in poverty rates between countries exhibiting similar growth rates supports the notion that growth may be necessary but is not sufficient for maximum poverty reduction. Reducing economic poverty is vital for over 3 billion people, roughly half the human race, with incomes less than $2 USD per day and who are challenged to meet their basic needs – and even more crucial for the 1 billion people with incomes less than $1 USD per day, who struggle for survival. The experience of many developing countries in achieving economic growth and reducing poverty has been far from satisfactory. Large numbers of poor women and men have been able to escape economic poverty in countries such as China and India that have sustained high rates of growth. But in most developing countries, growth has been low and has not enabled the poor to lift themselves out of economic poverty. In terms of regions, sub-Saharan Africa is in danger of not meeting the poverty reduction and Latin America has, in recent years, experienced little reduction in income poverty. Even where, on the whole, growth and poverty reduction have been satisfactory, the evidence shows that a significant proportion of poor people have been marginalized in the growth process and have not been able to escape poverty as there has not been enough equitable and sustainable growth.
In developing countries, the distribution of productive assets and the opportunity to participate in and benefit from growth are most unequal, resulting in a high level of inequality in the distribution of incomes. Inequality in the distribution of assets reduces the ability of poor people to increase their incomes and contribute to growth. Men and women work harder and invest more on land they own or over which they have secure use, as evidenced in China and Vietnam. Investment in land and natural resources by poor people and market-based approaches to land redistribution will increase pro-poor growth. Greater equality of opportunity contributes to higher growth.
With a high level of income inequality to begin with, growth needs to be faster and longer sustained to achieve the same level of poverty reduction. If income inequality increases, it will reduce the effect growth would have had on raising the incomes of the poor. In Ethiopia, between 1981 and 1995, growth should have resulted in a 31% reduction of income poverty, if the poor had benefited from growth equitably. Instead, increased inequality undermined the potential benefits from growth on the incomes of the poor and resulted in income poverty rising by 6% rising inequality is not inevitable in the early stages of development.
Growth reduces income inequality as frequently as it increases it. Where inequality is high or rising, there will be a need to examine the pattern of growth and ensure that poor women and men are not being marginalized in the growth process. High levels of income inequality in Latin America and
rising income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa are thus a cause of major concern that require policy responses from governments and donors.
Market failures are common in developing countries and when they occur, outcomes undermine pro-poor growth. The causes of market failure are manifold: inappropriate policies and institutions, unequal access to market information, concentration of market power, high cost of transactions and co-ordination failures or failing to take account of wider impacts such as on the environment. Even if markets do not fail, the poor may be disadvantaged when participating in them though discriminatory formal or informal institutions and higher costs of accessing markets.
Key Ideas
• Property Rights
• Microfinancing
• Removing barriers to formalization
• Promoting the supply-side response
• Constructing inclusive public-private dialogue
• Increased and better use of financial resource
• South-South Development
III. Transition from Relief to Development
Over the last few years, large-scale conflicts in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur and Democratic Republic of the Congo, and disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, locust invasion, epidemics and droughts, have tested the humanitarian response capacity of the United Nations to the limits. The Consolidated Humanitarian Appeal for 2005 reported that 26 million persons in 20 crises worldwide needed humanitarian assistance worth US$ 4.5 billion.
These disasters, however, have demonstrated that the humanitarian community is capable of launching a massive response, when called upon. It has become equally apparent, however, that such a response cannot always be guaranteed, and there remain many difficulties and cases when response capacities could have been strengthened, and where the humanitarian aid system was unsuccessful. For example, deployment of humanitarian staff was delayed in Darfur. The tsunami response also highlighted several sectoral weaknesses such as the lack of capacity in the areas of water and sanitation, shelter and camp management and protection. Coordination among NGO's and between NGO's and the United Nations, particularly in the health sector, was poor. These and other failures also demonstrated the need to improve the system’s ability to tap into regional and national capacities. Building local preparedness is key to a more effective response effort. Regional and local actors, often the most effective at carrying out rapid assessments and coordinating the initial response, should be engaged and their capacities strengthened. Not only their participation, but also their preparedness is one of the most important preventive conditions to reduce further risks and damages.
Financial capacities must also be improved by enabling immediate response, ensuring equitable funding of crises and of sectors and providing funds to address existing gaps. Strengthening the capacity of the humanitarian system requires both expanding the mechanisms that can ensure appropriate and predictable deployment and tapping into existing skills and expertise to enlarge the system’s deployable base.
Emergency situations needing a global response have grown in complexity. Funding has to be made more predictable and timely. Measures to provide immediate access to start-up funds could be established, or funds could be set up to cover unforeseen development. Another key to the transition is national ownership in people-centered activities, the challenge being to balance short and long-term efforts. Better coordination has to be built up, especially by national authorities, adequate funding has to be given as early as possible and better preparedness and a higher risk reduction level must be reached. This is the only way for the international community to better respond to these transition situations, which are the key process for further global stability.
Afghanistan is a relatively successful example as it has been provided with technical support for development of its’ infrastructure, energy and engineering sectors to monitor major construction and rehabilitation projects completed by contractors. These projects are reopening vital transportation routes, rebuilding schools and clinics, improving irrigation channels and providing sustainable energy and water sources. It has been provided with technical support in all sectors, including providing advice and support for policy and legal reform, institutional capacity building, and human resource development and training to both USAID and the Afghan government staff. There has construction of 311 clinics, two 100-bed hospitals, one 50-bed hospital, two new midwife centers, 465 schools, and 12 new teacher training centers. In the transportation sector, there has been the construction of approximately 6,000 kilometers of regional, national, provincial and secondary highways. Also international aid provides capacity building for the Ministry of Public Works and assists in the creation of a private sector for the operations and maintenance of these roads, as well as helps the Afghan government draft and adopt policy measures that will ensure sustained maintenance. In the energy sector in 2006, monitoring the rehabilitation and construction of 24 power stations, including hydropower and natural gas plants, as well as 25 irrigation and water projects. In addition, the nurturing a growing Afghan press to report on all infrastructure projects.
Key Ideas
• Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the UN
• Cooperation with other actors
• Harmonization and simplification of procedures
• Hand over/transition
• Risk reduction
• Funding