As world leaders, bankers and non-governmental organisations gather in Monterrey, Mexico, for the Financing for Development conference, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan tells The Banker about his hopes for the summit.
At times, the planet seems increasingly like a small boat driven by a fierce gale through dark and uncharted waters, with more and more people crowded on board, hoping desperately to survive. None of us can afford to ignore the condition of our fellow passengers on this little boat. If they are sick, all of us risk infection. And, if they are angry, all of us can easily get hurt. This is no idle metaphor; numbers easily support the concern it expresses. About one fifth of all humanity must subsist on less than a dollar a day. In developing countries, more than 113 million school-age children are not in school, and 16 million die each year from preventable and treatable diseases. HIV/Aids has rolled back life expectancy in some countries to levels last seen in the 1950s.
Globalisation is creating enormous opportunities but its benefits, and global wealth in general, are so unevenly distributed that, while a fortunate few live in opulence, billions of others are denied the fundamental requirements of a life in dignity.
The role of business
There is a role for business in improving this unsettling and unsustainable state of affairs. But what precisely is it that business could and should do? It is not enough to say - though it is true - that without private initiative, the poor would have no hope of escaping their poverty. Too many of them have no hope as it is.
Some business leaders may say it is not the business of business to care about poverty; that their job is only to look after the bottom line and the interests of shareholders. They might also argue that social policy is a matter for governments and that it is up to governments to create a business-friendly climate in each country so that more people enjoy the benefits of open global markets. Certainly, there is much that governments can and must do but governments cannot do everything alone.
There are many ways for businesses to make a difference in the lives of the poor, even without waiting for governments to act. They can, for example, transfer technology to developing countries. They can help developing countries to build up their human resources by training employees and fostering entrepreneurship.
Many businesses are participating in the Global Compact, the corporate citizenship initiative that I announced at the World Economic Forum in 1999, which seeks to improve respect for human rights, labour standards and the environment.
Such efforts are not philanthropy - though that, too, is very important. Rather, these are initiatives that, over time, will serve the interests of business itself by opening up new markets, promoting stability and, not least, enhancing their reputations and the respect they enjoy among consumers and in the wider community.
The business sector at Monterrey
The business sector has taken a great interest in the International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be held on March 18-22 in Monterrey, Mexico. The conference offers an opportunity to take decisive action on urgent issues such as debt relief, aid, subsidies, commodity prices, management of the global economy and creating an enabling environment for investment. Private sector leaders, recognising their interest in promoting the participation of all nations in the global economy, have been closely involved in the preparatory process and have tabled a number of proposals, for example on information-sharing and venture capital. Governments, recognising their interest in private investment and business engagement in general, have taken many of these suggestions on board, ensuring that they are reflected in the document that will be adopted in Monterrey. (For details of the proposals put forward by business, and the Business Forum to be held on March 18, please see the conference website - www.un.org/ffd/business.)
From Doha to Monterrey
Coming at a deeply troubling time for the global economy, the conference in Monterrey should be seen as an opportunity to sustain the momentum generated by the agreement in the World Trade Organization meeting at Doha last year to launch negotiations on trade.
Developing countries carried out many of the reforms demanded of them at the Uruguay Round and have been distressed at the developed countries' incomplete implementation of Uruguay Round reforms. These developing countries, in particular, should leave Monterrey convinced that the developed world has committed itself to truly open markets and new expressions of solidarity for the enterprise of development.
Even when doors are opened, often help is needed in crossing the threshold. Many developing countries need help to strengthen their capacities and infrastructure so they can take advantage of the opportunities created by lower trade barriers. In this respect, Monterrey is a necessary complement to Doha. We badly need new commitments of official development assistance, since almost all donors are far from meeting the long-agreed target of 0.7% of GNP.
Monterrey should also be the occasion for creditor countries to give a clear commitment to implement, fully and promptly, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative - and even to go beyond it so the debts of those countries become truly sustainable. Something also needs to be done to ensure more equitable sharing of burdens when middle-income countries are unable to service their debts, as in the tragic case of Argentina.
Developing countries, which have as big a stake as any country in the future of the world economy, merit a bigger voice where decisions are taken. Many more ideas are on the table at Monterrey but these are the areas in which concrete progress is considered both most urgent and immediately possible.
Millennium development goals
Monterrey, Doha and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, due to take place later this year in Johannesburg, are related efforts to implement the millennium development goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000. The goals are ambitious. An extra $50bn of overseas development aid will be needed each year to reach the goal of halving extreme poverty by the year 2015; African countries, which in the past decade have averaged 2.2% annual growth, will need to sustain growth of 7%. Still, there is a global consensus that the goals are both realistic and achievable.
The Monterrey conference offers the best chance we have had in many years to unlock the financial resources that are so desperately needed. I hope business leaders will contribute their own initiatives, practise corporate citizenship and convince their governments to take this year's conferences seriously. They are uniquely placed to refute the arguments of protectionists and penny-pinchers.
This process will not end in Monterrey. We all have a sense today of having come to a turning point in history. We already felt that with the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new millennium. Then, last September, we found ourselves entering another era of insecurity.
A world in which the benefits of globalisation are more widely shared is, ultimately, a society in which fewer contagious diseases roam the globe and fewer violent conflicts erupt and cross borders.
Business can help show that properly applied economics and wisely invested profits can bring social benefits within reach not only for the few but for the many, and eventually for all.
