Statement by Dr. Arjun Karki, International Co-ordinator, at the Ministerial Meeting of the Least Developed Countries, Thirtienth Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII)

19 april 2012, Doha, Qatar

Honourable Chairperson and Co-ordinator of LDC Group Minister Lekh Raj Bhatta, Dr. Supachai, Ambassador Diarra, Ambassador Ali, Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, colleagues and friends,

I would like to thank the Chair and the UNCTAD for allowing me to speak in this very important session of the UNCTAD XIII. This is indeed a strategic political opportunity to voice our people’s concerns to our very own governments at this crucial global conference on trade and development.

Let me start by saying that it is indeed a very positive step that we have gathered here in Doha to deliberate upon and take forward the agenda of “development-centred globalisation”! This agenda is a long overdue departure from the catastrophic finance-centred as well as finance-driven globalisation that has been depriving LDC peoples from the fundamental right to life and livelihoods in today’s world. We as LDC civil society group welcome this progressive move and further want to underscore the imperative of “development-driven globalisation” from the people’s perspective and more specifically, from the pro-poor perspective considering the fact that we have the most vulnerable and poorest populations in our countries.

When we are calling for development-driven globalisation, we mean inclusive and sustainable development in real terms that will address and overcome the present increasing global inequalities in terms of economic, social, ecological and democratic justice. This therefore means that we urge for an urgent shift from the current dominant paradigm of market-driven development that has already proven to be an absolute failure and which is only taking us closer to the doomsday of our mother earth and its peoples. The “Arab Spring”, “indignados” and “occupy” movements are a loud and clear public outcry, spelling out the political and legitimacy crises due to the business-as-usual response by the global political elites to the multiple crises affecting the poor and the vulnerable.

We are therefore, first and foremost, calling for a democratically-accountable developmental state which will deliver socially and economically just and accountable policies that will contribute to building productive capacities, decent employment and social protection floors for our peoples leading to progressive redistribution of income and wealth. We are urging for a democratically-accountable development state that will promote and ensure the universal human rights of our peoples including ecological sustainability.

We call for a rethinking of macro-economic policies that will depart from the current orthodox neo-liberal models. For instance, the structural reforms prescribed for the LDCs in the form of export-led growth strategy have been unsustainable and inequitable resulting only in LDC commodity dependency. Any trade and investment agreements should not compromise on national laws and national sovereignty. The Aid for Trade initiative should follow the international commitments on development effectiveness and the funds should be new funds and not redirected funds from other development sectors. Next is the issue of debt crisis that plagues LDCs and the accompanying debt relief initiatives imposed on us which are but proven failures of freedom from the debt trap. It is therefore an urgency to demand for immediate and unconditional cancellation of all debts of LDCs and a moratorium on current debt payments.

We reiterate that we are the least responsible for the current climate crisis although we are the worst sufferers and hence, we call for climate justice and reparations on the basis of climate debt. We, the LDCs, need full costs of adaptation in the form of obligatory, predictable, condition-free, additional, non-debt creating public finance within the UNFCCC. We need to be cautious about the current pitch on Green Economy, for as LDC civil society, we are skeptical about the new forms of development assistance conditionalities and further commodification of nature which we cannot afford at any expense. The Green Economy concept should not backtrack on the commitments of Agenda 21 adopted at Rio, 20 years ago. Let us remind ourselves that Principle 6 of the Rio Declaration states, amongst others, “the special situation and needs of developing countries, particularly the least developed countries and those most environmentally vulnerable, shall be given special priority”.

In the context of the worst form of human rights violations which is the hunger crisis in our LDCs, we need to defend the food sovereignty of our peoples. I am thankful to Dr. Supachai for highlighting organic farming. In contrary to the current model of market-driven unsustainable agricultural systems that destroys the lives and livelihoods of small farmers, food sovereignty promotes the rights of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. We therefore call for increased support for agroecology and the rights of small farmers - women being the majority of agricultural workforce - that will contribute not only towards freedom from hunger but also towards climate change adaptation and mitigation.

We urge to promote North-South, South-South and triangular co-operation based on solidarity. These co-operations must strictly embrace a development vision that is democratic, inclusive, sustainable, and respects sovereignty.

In conclusion, we extend our support and solidarity towards defending UNCTAD’s mandate in offering important policy advice and research analysis in the interests of the LDCs including the developing countries. UNCTAD’s role therefore should be further reinforced towards promoting the specific interests of the LDCs especially towards enhancing capacity of LDCs and civil society in its thematic areas of priority and concerns. Additionally, we also urge increased capacity support for the UN-OHRLLS to ensure the immediate and effective implementation the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA). We, as LDC civil society, are playing our part by organising both country as well as regional strategy consultations especially aiming towards the global mid-term review of the IPoA including the MDGs scheduled in 2013. We are soon having our Asia and Africa strategy assemblies in May and June in collaboration with the ESCAP, ECA and OHRLLS. We look forward to receiving your continued support and co-operation in engaging civil society towards defending the interests of the LDCs.

Thank you very much.