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Copyright 1999 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 09-Dec-99 ***
Title: DEVELOPMENT: UNDP Head Allays Third World Fears
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9 (IPS) - Mark Malloch Brown, the new head of
the UN Development Programme (UNDP), says he is taking care not to
harm Third World interests while introducing significant changes
to the operation of the New York-based organisation.
''We put first and foremost, the interests of the developing
countries,'' he says. ''And while we should debate, push, argue
and cajole to make developing countries see where their interests
lie, we must never have a breakdown of our relations with them.''
Malloch Brown has been responding to reservations expressed by
the 133-member Group of 77 (G-77) over some of his proposed plans
to restructure the agency.
In a letter to the new administrator, G77 chairman Samuel
Insanally of Guyana warned that any fundamental changes in
UNDP's mandate would be detrimental to the interests of
developing nations.
''The Group fully recognises your right, as Administrator, to
make appropriate organisational changes within UNDP,'' Insanally
wrote Malloch Brown.
''We feel, however, that such changes should safeguard the
essential characteristics of the Programme and should also be in
conformity with the relevant General Assembly resolution which
established the mandate and overall structure of the
Organisation.''
Addressing his staff this week, Malloch Brown said UNDP was a
''development agency of the developing countries. ''We are the G-
77's development agency - not the G-7s,'' he said.
''This is our most critical differentiating advantage. We don't
belong to any bilateral donor,'' he added.
The G-7, which represents the interests of industrial donor
nations, groups together the United States, Britain, France,
Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada.
Last month some of the developing countries also expressed
fears that the proposed ''new UNDP'' is planning to give undue
emphasis to ''governance'' over ''poverty alleviation.''
Some Third World nations have complained that a higher priority
for ''global governance'' may eventually result in development aid
being conditioned on multi-party democracy, transparency and
accountability: conditions similar to those laid down by the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in return for
assistance.
Malloch Brown agreed that ''what has undoubtedly stirred the
most passion is this word governance.'' Clearly, he said, the word
has assumed in recent months and years a tremendous amount of
baggage.
''And the baggage has only been increasing in recent weeks, and
I think probably we're guilty of not being attentive enough to the
growing volume of political concern about the word governance.''
If one steps back from the immediate UNDP environment, he said,
one can instantly see why the word is evoking so much concern
among developing nations.
''From their standpoint, he said, it looks as though we are on
the verge of a new structural adjustment, a political structural
adjustment, where the political arrangements of developing
countries are to be restructured to promote the political economy
interests and vision of some strong developed countries,'' he
noted.
Malloch Brown, a former Vice President of the World Bank, also
conceded that, ''in donor country after donor country, good
governance'' is popping up as a criterion for selection. This
includes both the World Bank and the IMF.
''So obviously, when a UNDP Administrator, with the dust of the
World Bank barely off his heels, starts talking about good
governance, there is a suspicion that the final piece of the
puzzle has fallen into place, and that they, the developing
countries, are surrounded.''
Malloch-Brown said that, if the developing nations think the
word ''governance'' is the wrong word, ''then I will accept
it...because I am not prepared to endanger what you have all
invested so much in developing over the last years and decades.''
Since he took over in July as head of UNDP, Malloch Brown has
also complained about declining resources. UNDP's core income has
declined from 1.2 billion dollars in 1992 to about 700 million
dollars in 1999.
''The decline in UNDP resources and influence is at least as
precipitious as I had feared,'' he added.
Under the proposed new restructuring programme, he also plans
to decentralise the organisation by shifting more staff to the
field.
''I have come to believe that real transformation at UNDP will
be achieved primarily through changes in leadership style,
accountability, culture, performance and innovative partnerships
rather than through changes in structures,'' he said.
(END/IPS/99/td/mk/99)
Origin: ROMAWAS/DEVELOPMENT/
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[c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
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