Doc. 10013

9 December 2003

Improving the prospects of developing countries: a moral imperative for the world

Report

Committee on Economic Affairs and Development

Rapporteur: Mr Klaus Werner Jonas, Germany, Socialist Group

Summary

The report takes stock of the extent to which the richer countries of the planet are in fact living up to the commitments they made in adopting, in 2000, the United Nations’ so-called Millennium Development Goals. These, it is recalled, were: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; gender equality and women empowerment; reduced child mortality and improved maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and a global partnership.

The sobering fact is that not only are very few developed countries actually meeting the UN target of setting aside 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product for Official Development Assistance, but the situation in several of the world’s poorest countries is in fact deteriorating, both in absolute terms and vis-à-vis other, more rapidly growing development countries - let alone in comparison with industrialised economies.

Apart from advocating greater assistance by richer to poorer countries and calling for more equitable world trade conditions, the report emphasises the need to ensure better governance in the developing countries themselves, accompanied by more democracy and rule of law, a greater respect for human rights, as well as regional and internal peace and stability. More investment should go to services for the poor, especially in basic public health and education, particularly for girls and young women whose empowerment is seen as crucial to development. The report calls reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 a “central challenge” for the world, one requiring “resolute action” and “real commitment”. It concludes by echoing the conviction of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who, in announcing the Goals, said that “the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalisation becomes a positive force for all the world’s people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor”.

I.        Draft Recommendation

1.       Despite solemn declarations at national and international level in recent years on the need to overcome poverty in developing countries, many promises remain woefully unfulfilled. Challenges are not only of an economic nature - such as over a billion people subsiding on less than a dollar a day - but also relate to still deplorable social, demographic, health and other conditions.

2.       Moral leadership was seized by the United Nations in 2000 through its Millennium Development Goals, such as the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reduction of child mortality, improved maternal health, promotion of gender equality and universal primary education, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental stability and building up a global partnership for development. It is a commitment not to be missed, both for the reputation of the world’s supreme body and for the fate of the world. The Millennium Development Goals reflect a shift in emphasis away from pure reliance on the supposedly miraculous effects of market forces on their own, toward a more integrative approach stressing social aspects and partnership with local citizen interests in developing countries.

3.        Notwithstanding the major overall and historically unprecedented creation of global wealth over recent decades, conditions for the poorest segments of our global society have in many respects worsened. The 2003 United Nations Human Development Report estimates that over fifty countries are now poorer than they were a decade ago. Globalization and its uneven effects have become an intensely debated topic. They present the world’s well-to-do countries with a moral imperative to work for a more equitable distribution of global wealth. For the international community to catch up with lost momentum and realise the Millennium Development Goals by the target year of 2015, resolute action is needed now.

4.       Apart from the moral imperative for industrialised countries to counter global poverty, valid security reasons can also be given. Terrorism is less likely in a world working towards lower levels of social inequality and economic opportunity for all.

5.       The nature and causes of underdevelopment differ across regions. Thus, while China, India and several other countries have achieved impressive growth in recent years and parts of Asia and Latin America have seen major changes for the better, much of sub-Saharan Africa remains mired in abject poverty. The causes are complex and varied but can broadly be broken down according to whether they have their origin in domestic or international conditions.

6.       Domestic causes of underdevelopment in many countries include:

i.       poor governance by corrupt elites and judiciaries, combined with a lack of democratic institutions, leading to economic instability;

ii.       often explosive population growth;

iii.       employment challenges such as large-scale unemployment, low employment levels and child labour;

iv.       environmental destruction and rapid urbanization as rural populations move to cities in search of work;

v.       insufficient educational and public healthcare systems.

7.       International causes of underdevelopment include:

i.       a malfunctioning international trading system, through which many developing states are locked in excessive reliance on exports of raw materials in exchange for imported finished goods and services, while persistent export subsidies in industrialised countries, especially for agricultural commodities, undermine fair international competition;

ii.        crippling debt servicing which in some countries, especially in Africa, amount to many times the funds spent on health-care and education;

iii.        insufficient and inadequately spent Official Development Assistance (ODA) – with only a handful of developed countries meeting the target of giving 0.7% of their GDP in ODA and the remainder of richer countries remaining far below that level – even though that commitment was entered into unanimously over three decades ago by all OECD member countries as a contribution to the United Nations’ “Decade of Development”;

iv.       a lack of foreign direct investment – and an inequitable distribution among countries thereof – whereby African countries receive only a small fraction of the total;

v.       a still insufficient contribution by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Assembly in this context refers to its Resolution 1288 (2002) on “The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: challenges ahead”, in which it stated its belief that these two institutions “still have essential functions to fill, provided they adapt their activities and pursue internal reform: the World Bank in particular in areas of longer-term social utility for the poor; and the IMF in preventive action to assist individual countries in exchange for commitments to undertaking domestic reform …”; and that “voting rights [in these institutions] should mirror not only financial contributions but, increasingly, the needs and wishes of those with no say over the inequitable distribution of wealth that accompanies globalisation.”.

8.       The solutions to these problems must thus come from both inside developing countries and the international community. The population of developing countries must be encouraged to hold their governments accountable to promises made to work towards the achievement of the Millennium Goals. Industrialised countries must heed the sharp warning implicit in the breakdown of the WTO Doha Development Round Ministerial Meeting in Cancun in 2003, where the message by developing countries to the world’s richest nations was that the latter must adapt to a new “progressive globalisation” agenda in order to ensure the future smooth functioning of the world economy. This message echoes that of the United Nations Secretary-General expressed at the launching of the Millennium Goals in 2000: “The central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all of the world’s people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor.”.

9.       Tough tasks lie ahead for all parties. Some believe it is not possible to achieve the Millennium Goals in the targeted time frame. However, progress has been made, with examples such as increased education levels and reduced HIV/AIDS infection levels in certain countries, offering hope for all. The issue is one of political will, making the involvement of parliamentarians on a national and international level vital.

10.        In view of the above, the Parliamentary Assembly addresses the following recommendations to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in order to permit Council of Europe member states to realise their commitments to achieve the United Nations Millennium Goals:

As regards suggested remedies for the domestic causes of underdevelopment:

i.       promoting, as an absolute priority, good governance, democracy, the rule of law, an independent judiciary and the rooting out of corruption, as otherwise efforts in other domains to reach lasting development will prove futile;

ii.       the encouragement of policies to reduce population growth in developing countries, including general education, especially of young women, and the promotion of women’s rights;

iii.       stimulating employment prospects via development co-operation policies in such areas as infrastructure development, training, and the active promotion of peaceful settlement of conflicts, such as recently undertaken by the European Union in certain African countries;

iv.        tackling the problem of excessive urbanisation, improving agricultural efficiency by introducing modern farming techniques and encouraging small-scale entrepreneurialism;

v.        having developing countries devote a greater share of their budgets to

As regards suggested remedies for the international causes of underdevelopment:

i.       reducing barriers to trade between the industrialised world and developing countries, such as agricultural subsidies, and encouraging trade flows between developing countries;

ii.        introducing debt relief for the least developed countries, without prejudice to the realisation of the above-mentioned Official Development Assistance goals;

iii.        increasing development funding so as to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, if necessary by intermediary increments.

II.        Explanatory Memorandum by Mr Jonas, Rapporteur

Contents

I.       Introduction

II.        The varying state of countries and regions

III.        Obstacles to development: a domestic approach

IV.       Hindrances to development: the lessons of an international viewpoint

V.        A few proposed means of combating underdevelopment

VI.       Means of surmounting domestic obstacles to development

VII.        Means of overcoming the international obstacles to development

VIII.       Conclusion

* *

*

I.        Introduction

1.       Over the last three years there have been a number of international conferences attended by many national leaders and the most distinguished experts to discuss a common theme, namely the ups and downs of the development process in the poorest countries. At meetings - including the Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000), the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg in September 2002, and the meetings in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001 and in Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002 - the problem of eradicating poverty seems to have been taken on board by the diplomatic community.

2.       The situation in some developing countries is indeed highly critical. The number of people on earth living on less than 2 dollars a day is estimated at some 2,900 million. More worrying still is the fact that 1.2 billion of them survive on less than 1 dollar a day. In relative terms, Africa is the worst-hit continent, in that one in two Africans fail to reach this mark. However, other regions of the world are also badly affected. For example, in eastern Asia 880 million men and women earn less than 1 dollar a day. In southern Asia nearly 500 million people live in conditions of total destitution1. In central and eastern Europe the figures have worsened substantially since 1990, when 8% of the population had less than one dollar a day to live on, compared to 20% in 19992.

3.       These statistics are particularly shocking in view of the economic situation of the industrialised countries. The gulf between these countries and the developing countries is becoming ever wider. A country like Switzerland now has a per capita GDP 400 times higher than that of Ethiopia and 115 times higher than that of India3. Since economic growth in the

industrialised countries is greater than the average in the developing countries, the gap between the two groups continues to grow. In 1960, the average income of the richest countries was 30 times higher than that of the poorest. By the 1990s the ratio was 61 to 14!

4.       However, development should not just be measured in terms of income. Other factors must be taken into account, such as population growth, levels of education, public health questions, the structure of the population of working age, the rate of urbanisation, etc. In all these spheres, the results of the development policies pursued for nearly half a century are still somewhat limited. The isolationist strategies advocated for a time by the theorists of the dependency school (particularly Immanuel Wallerstein and Samir Amin) soon fell into abeyance. The finger is currently being pointed at the ultra-liberal remedies of the Bretton Woods institutions5. Apparently, the famous “Washington Consensus” which guided all development efforts of the 1990s, is now on the way to becoming obsolete6.

5.       The most recent United Nations Human Development Report (HDR) of July 2003 is highly critical of the ‘Washington Consensus’ notion, on which the stabilisation and development programmes of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are based. The HDR argues that it is unrealistic to rely only on market forces and an increase in world trade. Political intervention is necessary, the report argues, in order to create the preconditions for economic growth. It goes on to say that - contrary to the commonly held belief that the 1990s permitted all developing countries to develop economically - today 54 countries are poorer than they were in 1990.

6.       In his Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the Assembly’s Resolution 1288 (2002) on ‘The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: challenges ahead’, the Rapporteur Mr Gusenbauer rightly stated that:

7.       Some people even go so far as to say that the very concept of “development” is now outdated. They say that the idea serves as a moral pretext for the industrialised countries to carry out “paternalist” or even “neo-colonialist”7 projects in the South. This statement is untenable, because its corollary would be the dropping of development policies as they are conceived at present. Developing countries would be left to their fate, and that cannot be the right thing to do. The “neo-colonialist” argument can be all the more easily countered given that the current trend is towards true co-operation between those who provide aid and those who receive it. This has brought about a change from a vertical relationship to increasingly more horizontal links8: as far as possible, development policies are devised and implemented in co-operation with developing countries’ local authorities.

8.       This trend is clearly apparent in current initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), presented in July 2001 in Genoa. Another reflection of the desire for increased co-operation is the Millennium Development Goals9. These eight goals, set in 2000 by the United Nations, would substantially improve the living conditions of the world’s poorest people by 2015. To make this desire more tangible, targets have been set for each developing country, taking account of specific local features. Forty-eight indicators serve to assess progress, such as school enrolment rates, infant mortality rates, and the proportion of pregnant women suffering from AIDS.

9.       The concept of development is therefore far from obsolete, and the initiatives taken in recent years deserve our support. To gain a clearer idea of the extent of poor countries’ problems, we will paint a detailed picture of the overall situation in the countries of the South, making a distinction between domestic impediments to development and international obstacles. After that we will attempt to open up some lines of discussion with a view to solving these problems.

10.       For the purpose of clarity, the problems of the countries of the South may be divided into two categories, namely domestic and international. Of course, these two aspects are interdependent and should not therefore be portrayed like the two heads of Janus, facing in opposite directions. We will nonetheless adopt a dual approach, with a view to clarifying our arguments. Generally speaking, all of the points made in this report are closely interrelated. It is artificial, for example, to separate the issue of the education deficit from that of overpopulation, for if a woman cannot read, she will not be able to decipher contraceptive instructions. On the surface this may appear a somewhat trivial point, but it is important and should be borne in mind. The interplay between all the issues that we will be analysing below is another of the factors that keeps the South in a spiral of underdevelopment. The whole challenge is to transform this vicious circle into a virtuous one of development.

II.        The varying state of countries and regions

11.       If we examine how the various world regions of developing countries have developed in recent years, a complex picture emerges. Overall, China has made major strides forward, growing at annual rates of about 10%. The same holds for India even though here, as in China, many regions of the country fare much less well than others. Certain countries in South-East Asia, such as Bangladesh, are still facing wide spread poverty.

12.       In Latin America, the situation is also diverse. Certain countries such as Chile have made major economic progress. Others, like Argentina, have faced major currency turmoil due to inadequate financial policies, with resulting large-scale suffering by major parts of the population. In much of Latin and Central America, many of the people in the countryside face great poverty and even hunger, and their fate is shared by millions in the slums of increasingly unmanageable mega-cities.

13.       If the situation in Asia and Latin America is far from satisfactory, that in sub-Saharan Africa is desperate in many places and seemingly becoming worse. It is therefore clear that we must devote increasing resources to sub-Saharan Africa on all the fronts described in this memorandum.

14.       Whereas the prospects for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as for the countries in the Arab world look comparatively less bleak, other world regions are confronted with gigantic problems. The “Human Development Index” (HDI) - which tries to measure the wellbeing of

individual countries, including not only per capita income but also life expectancy and education – actually sank in 21 countries in the 1990s. This compares unfavourably with the 1980s, when only four countries underwent deterioration.

15.       In the 2003 Human Development Index comprising 175 UN member states, we find twenty African nations at the bottom end. The last position is occupied by Sierra Leone, where 57 million people live in total poverty. South Africa has sunk from 83rd to 111 due to the rampant AIDS epidemic. Even India, which for years has shown the highest growth rate, has fallen by 3 positions due to lower life expectancy.

III.        Obstacles to development: a domestic approach

16.       The first subject that we need to address when analysing the domestic problems of developing countries relates to population issues. The underlying assumption is simple, namely that the demographic make-up of poor countries prevents them from developing. To judge by the following figures, population is a truly fundamental problem: at present there are some 6.1 billion people on earth. According to UN projections this figure will increase to 9.3 billion in 2050 and 11 billion in 2200, even though the pace is already slowing down as women around the world are having fewer children than before. Ninety percent of the population will then be living in developing countries, compared to around 75% today. Every year the world’s total population increases by 81 million, with a 74 million rise in the developing countries alone. Numerous problems are likely to emerge when it comes to feeding, housing and providing employment for this extra population.

17.       The exceptional population growth in the countries of the South can be accounted for by a combination of two factors: an extremely high fertility rate10 and a constantly falling mortality rate (albeit considerably higher than that of the industrialised countries). Infant mortality in particular is in constant decline. In Ghana for instance it was 11.1% in 1970, but has now dropped to some 6%11.

18.       Because of the extremely high number of births, the population of the South is very young. There is an over-abundance of dependant persons, obliging families to spend their meagre incomes entirely on means of survival (food, clothing and housing). The result is that little if any saving or investment is done. Furthermore, this situation is conducive to child labour, as a working child will generate extra income for his family, whereas if he continues to go to school he will be a financial burden, since education is not usually free in developing countries.

19.       A reduction in the birth rate therefore seems to be crucial to the future development of the South. A start has to be made on this as soon as possible, because the effect of a drop in the number of births is not felt immediately. Even if the fertility rate were to drop significantly from one day to the next, the population would continue to grow for a long period, because of the high number of women of child-bearing age. This phenomenon is well known to demographists, who call it “the hidden momentum of population growth”12.

20.       It was stated above that overpopulation was likely to cause serious problems in terms of employment opportunities. This is all the more true for the fact that the employment situation13 is already highly critical in the countries of the South. Unemployment, under-employment, the unofficial economy and child labour are widespread.

21.       The unemployment rate varies between 10 and 20% of the economically active population in most countries of the South. Sometimes it even goes well beyond the 20% mark, as in Botswana14. A surprising phenomenon that can be observed in poor countries is a positive correlation between education levels and the tendency to be unemployed. In contrast with the situation in industrialised countries, the more qualified a person is, the more chance he has of being unemployed.

22.       The real unemployment rate in the South is masked by two factors – underemployment and the major role of the unofficial economy. The concept of underemployment encompasses situations in which people work less than they would wish or earn a wage under the subsistence income. The International Labour Organisation estimates the number of workers in underemployment situations to be some 850 million, or 25 to 30% of the world’s economically active population15. As to informal work, the proportion is so high in some areas (over 50%) that it seems futile to try to eradicate it. The current trend is actually to assess the potentially positive influence of the unofficial economy16. It is still true, however, that an “informal” worker has no social protection, while, on the other hand, he pays no social contributions, so fails to increase State finances.

23.       Child labour is relatively widespread in the countries of the South. The number of children between the ages of 5 and 14 who work is estimated at 211 million17. The International Labour Organisation has set up a specific programme (IPEC) to try to eradicate this form of child exploitation. In Zimbabwe the ILO estimates that more than a quarter of children are engaged in some economic activity18. These children are said to work in particularly indecent conditions, often earning less than half of adults’ pay.

24.       Most of the irregularities in the South’s labour market are concentrated in rural areas. For example, in Zimbabwe more than 90% of child labour is employed outside urban areas. The truth is that, for the time being, absolute poverty is still a largely rural phenomenon. Mass rural depopulation and urbanisation in the South are the result.

25.       The problem is that the urban infrastructure of developing countries is totally unsuited to accommodating such a major influx of people from the countryside. As a result, urban poverty is increasing dramatically. In 1998 World Bank President, James D. Wolfensohn, said that the numbers of urban poor were likely to increase from 400 million to more than a billion in less than a generation. The population of a city like Lagos in Nigeria is expected to grow from 10.3 million in 1995 to 24.4 million in 2015, while in comparison, the population of New York will increase from 16.3 to 17.6 million over the same period.

26.       Since they are unable to satisfy the demand for housing, the authorities of the countries of the South allow shanty towns to grow. All the regions of the world are affected. 79% of the population of Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia, lives in substandard housing, and the equivalent figures are 67% for Calcutta and 60% for Bogota. Shanty towns amass all the indicators of underdevelopment and trap their inhabitants in a vicious circle. With no fixed abode it is impossible to find work, and without work it is impossible to find housing. This is probably one of the reasons why the unofficial economy is so large in poor countries. The example of Columbia speaks volumes: we have just said that 60% of the population of Bogota lives in shanty towns. It is interesting to note that the proportion of Columbia’s urban population working in the unofficial economy is the same, to within a few percentage points.

27.       The exponential growth in the size of cities also goes hand in hand with major pollution problems. South American mega-cities such as Mexico City or Sao Paulo are among the most polluted cities in the world. Unfortunately, environmental issues only come to the fore when there is a major disaster, as was the case in Bhopal and Chernobyl. Yet it is imperative that the poorer countries are alerted to the issue of sustainable development. The Johannesburg Summit, held from 26 August to 4 September 2002, provided an opportunity to raise an enormous number of problems which will have to be solved in the very near future. It has to be hoped that the results will be better than those achieved after the Rio Earth Summit of 1992.

28.       Sustainable development, employment and population growth. The three issues that we have just addressed have something in common. Neither awareness-raising nor progress will be possible in any of these areas unless the education deficit in the countries of the South is reduced as quickly as possible. Worldwide, 113 million children are not attending school19. However, illiteracy rates have been declining significantly for the last half century. The average rate for all the developing countries decreased from 60% in 1960 to 31% in 1995. Nevertheless, it is still extremely high in some States such as Niger (84.1%), Burkina Faso (76.1%) and Gambia (63.4%)20.

29.       In general, the status of women in poor countries is markedly lower than that of men. This fact is glaringly apparent from education figures. On average, in all the developing countries, for every ten men who know how to read there are only seven literate women. The ratio is even as low as ten to three in certain countries such as Sudan and Afghanistan. It should be noted that one of the main Millennium Development Goals is to “promote gender equality and empower women” by, among other things, eliminating “gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015”21.

30.       As was stated above, the countries of the South are affected by the opposite problem to that of the industrialised countries, in that there is a positive correlation between education levels and unemployment rates. This state of affairs causes the intellectual elites to migrate from the South to the North, a phenomenon better known as the “brain drain”. The brain drain cannot be accounted for solely by the fact that the elites of the South leave their home countries because they are attracted by the higher salaries in industrialised countries. Another factor is that the education on offer does not tally with the real needs of poor countries. Put in crude terms, it would be better to teach Africans living in rural areas to dig wells than to solve equations.

31.       Another point worth highlighting is that education is absolutely crucial to development, because school can serve as a means of passing on basic standards of hygiene. This means that education can make a real contribution to public health. Resources being insufficient, health services are often defective in the countries of the South. Medicines are too expensive and are regularly unavailable. In the least-developed countries there are, on average, only 4.4 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 217 in the industrialised countries. Furthermore, most hospital facilities are concentrated in towns, whereas the majority of the population lives in rural areas22. It is for this reason that the emphasis should be placed on prevention; and prevention should begin at the youngest possible age, for example at school.

32.       Prevention is more necessary than ever in view of the spread of the AIDS epidemic. Forty million people in the world are HIV positive and five million were infected with the virus in 200123. Ninety percent of AIDS sufferers live in developing countries. According to a recent World Bank

report, AIDS has an adverse economic impact equivalent to the loss of two points from the GDP of the countries worst affected24. One of the Millennium Development Goals is in fact to halt the spread of AIDS by 2015.

33.       Although there is always much emphasis on AIDS, the disease is not the main cause of death in the South. Tuberculosis actually claims more victims each year. As for typhus and cholera, they account for 30% of infant deaths25.

34.       The shortcomings of public health facilities, the education deficit, uncontrolled urbanisation, irregularities in the labour market and unchecked population growth are the major domestic obstacles to development in the South. Added to these purely home-grown causes are international factors which mean that the poor countries have not yet been able to catch up in terms of development.

IV.       Hindrances to development: the lessons of an international viewpoint

35.       The integration of the countries of the South into international trade is essential to their development. There seems to be a consensus about this nowadays, although this has not always been the case. However, it has to be recognised that current conditions for poor countries’ participation in international trade are not always to their advantage. Far from it in fact!

36.       It should be noted first of all that developing countries do more international trade than is generally thought. If we take the share of GDP made up by exports of goods and services as a yardstick, the results are even somewhat surprising: it comes to 24% for high-income countries, 30% for medium-income countries and 28% for low-income countries26. The importance of these statistics should not be exaggerated, however: the less-developed countries never account for more than 0.3% of world trade, whereas their population is 10% of the total population of the planet27.

37.       Rather than reasoning in quantitative terms, it may be more appropriate to take a qualitative approach. Emphasis should be placed on the nature of the goods traded by the countries of the South. Their exports consist primarily of raw materials, and this does pose certain problems. Ninety-five percent of exports from countries such as Cameroon, Benin or Niger are accounted for by raw materials28. On the other hand, their main imports are manufactured goods.

38.       The idea of terms of trade must be introduced if we are to understand the reasons for the difficulties caused by the situation described above. This concept makes it possible to measure the relative price of exports as compared to imports. In the case of developing countries specialising in non-oil-based raw materials, it has been noted for more than half a century that there is a tendency for their terms of trade to deteriorate. In other words, there has been a relative decline in the price of exports from the South compared to the price of their imports. If a base value of 100 is adopted for the year 1980, there has been a dramatic collapse in some States’ terms of trade: in 2003, the value has dropped to only 25 for Uganda, 26 for Myanmar and 40 for Peru29.

39.        Some developing countries’ economies, particularly newly industrialised countries’, have taken off impressively thanks to a long-term strategy of export promotion. Advocates of this strategy claim that an immediate opening-up to the world market is the sine qua non of development and cite as an example the rapid growth that has occurred in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. They base their claims on well-known economic theories such as Ricardo’s comparative advantages. Another strategy, which now attracts more criticism, is initially to isolate a country from the rest of the world to enable domestic industries to grow. Once this stage is over, the country can open up and become fully involved in international trade. This strategy is better known as “import substitution”30.

40.       Apart from the deterioration of terms of trade, another major reason why most countries of the South cannot take full advantage of their involvement in international trade is the extent and nature of customs barriers. While GATT and its successor, the World Trade Organisation, have seen to it that customs barriers have been coming down steadily, it has to be said that the interests of the developing countries have long been overlooked. There are still many areas in which protection reigns supreme. The most telling example is probably that of agriculture, an area in which international trade is hindered by a whole range of tariff and non-tariff protection measures, as well as by the large subsidies awarded to farmers in the countries of the North31. One figure neatly illustrates this point: the subsidies paid by the American government to its cotton producers are three times higher than the annual aid provided for the development of Sub-Saharan Africa32. As far as the European Union’s agricultural subsidies are concerned, it is claimed that they amount to two-thirds of the GDP of the whole of Africa!

41.        It is strikingly clear therefore that current international trade conditions are far from favourable to the countries of the South. Debt servicing is another non-domestic factor which undermines all the poorest States’ development efforts. Debt is a fundamental problem, in that it lastingly affects the balance of payments of the States in debt. Some of these countries are trapped in a veritable spiral of excessive debt, meaning that they are obliged to borrow more simply to pay the interest on debts incurred in the past. As the United Nations Development Programme stresses, many developing countries spend more on debt service than on social services33. On average, debt service amounts to 10 to 20% of exports from countries of the South, but some States are particularly deep in debt. For example this indicator comes to 74.3% for Sierra Leone and 48.6% for Argentina34.

42.        Looked at over the long term, the developing countries’ debt statistics are spectacular. Between 1970 and 1999, their foreign debts increased from 68.4 million to 1.98 billion dollars. Debt service has increased by 2,527%35! The regions of the South were particularly affected in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, because of a combination of a number of different factors, namely the explosion in oil prices, the rise in American interest rates, the decline in exports from third-world countries owing to the world recession and the deterioration of their terms of trade.

43.       Africa’s annual debt service is now four times greater than its total annual spending on health and education36. The situation is critical because it is materially impossible for these States to pay off their debts. The ideal solution would be to be able to write off the debts of over-indebted countries, but the prospect of partial debt relief seems more realistic.

44.       In 1996 the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)37 Initiative was launched under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Forty-one countries were involved in this structural adjustment programme. At the end of an initial three-year phase, if a country’s debt is considered sustainable, a second three-year phase of reforms begins. At the end of this second phase, the State in question may be awarded debt relief if it is considered necessary38. To date the results of the HIPC project have not lived up to expectations.

45.       While the industrialised countries sometimes agree to reduce the debt of the countries of the South, such reductions are often made to the detriment of increases in public development aid (PDA). As early as the 1960s the Rome Club stipulated that 0.7% of GDP should be given over to PDA. Only five countries currently satisfy this requirement – Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Luxembourg39. The average for the OECD countries is only very slightly over 0.2%. More worrying still is the fact that this figure is tending to drop. The amount of PDA provided by the OECD countries fell by around 40% in the 1990s.

46.       If we go on in this way, way the Millennium Goals have no chance of being realised, whether we are talking about the aim of reducing by half the world poverty by 2015, or about the progress sought for in public health and education. The only area where improvements have been reached, the report states, is in access to clean water. The World Bank and the IMF are encouraged to devote more of their energies to mobilising more ODA from their member states than to the programmes pursued so far.

47.       Even if the rich nations were to stick to their promise made in Monterrey in 2002 – that is, to increase development assistance by $16 billion per year from the present level of $57 billion per year - this is not enough. According to Mark Malloch Brown, the Head of the UN Development Programme, at least $100 billion per year are needed to reduce poverty and improve living conditions in the developing world.

48.       The previously mentioned United Nations Human Development Report strongly encourages the rich nations of the world to increase their ODA. For example, it states, the United States pays more subsidies to its cotton farmers than it gives in ODA to all of Africa. The same holds for the agricultural subsidies of the European Union. The $320 billion in farm subsidies in the developed world dwarfs its 50 billion in development assistance. Every European cow is subsidised to the tune of some $3 per day, while the number of people in the world that have to make do with only $1 per day has increased in recent years; in Africa this holds for 40% of the population, in India for 35%. The International Monetary Fund estimates that if all trade barriers and subsidies to agriculture in developed countries were eliminated, then this would improve global welfare by about $120 billion. Similarly, if Africa’s share of world exports could increase only by one percent, or by $70 billion per year, then this would amount to about five times as much as the money given to the continent in aid and debt relief.

49.       The Rapporteur is aware that the reaching of the 0.7% goal may not be politically easy. Council of Europe member states should therefore establish intermediate goals on the way to ultimately reaching the 0.7% objective. The Rapporteur’s own country, Germany, is a good example. It has set itself the target of reaching 0.33% of GDP by the year 2007/2008.

50.       The stagnation, or indeed reduction, in ODA given by many of the world’s richer countries would have come out even clearer if the latter had been expressed in absolute figures rather than as a percentage of GDP. To illustrate, a stagnant ODA figure expressed as a percentage of a shrinking GDP will look as if it had risen. What we have to look at is the absolute level of ODA, and if we do we are often disappointed.

51.       A number of points should be raised to play down the excessively positive image that people generally have of public development aid. First of all, the concept does not just cover financial and material gifts, as is frequently thought. It also includes loans for example. These loans are provided at below market rates, but they are still a financial burden, which the countries of the South will have to pay back later.

52.       It would also be illusory to think that aid is offered magnanimously and based solely on moral considerations. Other highly political and strategic factors enter into the equation first. A comparison between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique is highly telling in this respect. The first of these countries was awarded 125.6 million dollars in public development aid in 1998 (its population was 55.2 million and its per capita GDP only 590 dollars). In the same year, Mozambique received more than a billion dollars (for a population of 19.6 million, with per capita GDP of 900 dollars)40. How can this difference be accounted for? Could the explanation have something to do with Mozambique’s oil resources?

53.       Rather than looking at the total amount of aid provided to all the developing countries, it is better therefore to look into the details and consider the geographical distribution of this aid more closely. Southern Asia contains nearly half of the world’s poor, but the inhabitants of this region receive six times less aid than those of the Middle-East, where the per capita income is five times higher41. It should be noted that bilateral aid is often linked to the colonial past of the countries of the North. For example, most of France’s public development aid goes to its African “preserve”.

54.       Lastly, the international approach to underdevelopment problems would not be complete if no mention were made of direct investment and multinational firms. The total amount of private investment in the South has increased extremely rapidly over the last few decades. From 2.4 billion dollars in 1962 it rose to 120 billion in 1997.

55.       However, as has been seen in the case with public development aid, direct foreign investments are distributed extremely unevenly. Africa receives only 3%, while the least-developed countries fail even to reach the 2% mark. China is, by far, the developing country that attracts the most international investors, receiving 50 billion dollars of direct investment in 200242.

56.       When we talk of direct foreign investment, some reference has to be made to multinational firms. These account for more than 40% of world trade and control the production and export of most goods from the countries of the South. The influence gained by multinationals in relation to States is quite striking: the combined turnover of General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Exxon and Royal Dutch/Shell is eleven times higher than that of the aggregate GDP of the 48 poorest countries43!

57.       Four key issues have therefore been identified as major factors in the overall approach to underdevelopment. They are the current structure of international trade, the debt problem, the shortcomings of public development aid and the unequal distribution of direct foreign investment. These four issues can be added to the five domestic ones discussed above. What remains now that the problems have been identified is to propose some solutions.

V.        A few proposed means of combating underdevelopment

58.       In this second part of our report, we will continue to make a distinction between domestic and international issues. We will begin therefore by opening up lines of thought about solutions to the domestic problems described in the first sub-section. Subsequently, we will attempt to put forward a few ideas for countering the international dysfunctions discussed in the second sub-section.

VI.       Means of surmounting domestic obstacles to development

59.       The first challenge which developing countries themselves must overcome is to ensure a system of good governance in their countries. Unless corruption is rooted out among the elites of, not all but many of these countries; unless democratic institutions are allowed to flourish and a truly independent judiciary is established instilling the rule of law into society; then it will not be possible to establish a stable enough foundation for economic growth. The Rapporteur was indeed astonished by the Economic Committee’s unanimous, strong stand on this during the adoption of his report, reflecting how much parliamentary sentiments have swung in recent years from earlier decades’ perhaps naïve belief that development could somehow be guaranteed as a result of aid volumes alone, without considering the quality of government in the recipient countries.

60.       A further hindrance to development that we identified was excessive population growth in the countries of the South owing to a very high birth rate. Ideally, the birth rate in these countries should be brought down to levels closer to those of the North, that is to say an average of two children per woman.

61.       Several methods can be adopted to try to reduce birth rates. The first thing to do is to provide more information and education. Schools can be the best places for publicising birth control policy. There is a positive correlation between reduced illiteracy and a decline in the birth rate.

62.       The provision of family planning for all should also help to slow down population growth. Governments should set national objectives in terms of lower numbers of births, and provide themselves with the means of achieving these. A good way is to subsidise centres which distribute low-cost contraceptives to a broad spectrum of people.

63.       Many governments in the South have already realised what problems excessive population growth causes and have therefore tried to limit births. Methods which we do not approve of and are sometimes frankly immoral have been used. Striking examples are fines imposed on mothers who have too many children or forced sterilisation campaigns.

64.       In the long term, the best way of reducing the birth rate would probably be to bring about a significant improvement in the status of women in the countries of the South. The ideal solution would be to enable them to continue their studies, truly empower them to work outside the home and, in this way, help them to delay getting married.

65.       The second domestic problem which we discussed was irregularities in the labour market. Clearly, questions of unemployment and underemployment form part of the overall economic process. In other words, the best way of promoting employment through a buoyant economic situation.

66.       The ideal method therefore is to create the prerequisites for economic growth, for example by setting up modern infrastructure, introducing tax incentives to attract foreign businesses, training workers in order to improve their productivity and using fertilisers to improve crop yields.

67.       Above all, no economic growth can be achieved and no investment is possible unless political stability is secured. Yet it has to be said that many of the countries of the South are prone to chronic instability or completely devastated by recurring wars. In the mid-1990s, 65 of the 126 developing countries were at war or suffering from latent conflicts44. Action for peace and democracy should therefore be promoted, particularly through the United Nations.

68.       As regards the employment situation, we would like to emphasise our support for the work being carried out by the International Labour Organisation and, in particular, our commitment to the principles set out in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work45. The notion of “decent work” should be endorsed and child labour eradicated.

69.       To combat uncontrolled urbanisation and mass rural depopulation, it is necessary to make the countryside more attractive by reducing rural poverty. In 1995 Japan’s agricultural productivity was 522% higher than that of Nigeria46, while that of the United States was 244% higher than that of Bangladesh.

70.       Improving productivity would enable farmers to move away from subsistence farming to true commercial crops. Various means can be deployed to achieve this aim, including the introduction of training for farm workers, encouraging technological modernisation (equipment, fertilisers, irrigation, etc), and constructing road links between cities and the countryside to cut the time taken to deliver agricultural products to where they are needed.

71.       The governments of the South must create the necessary conditions for agricultural development by opening training colleges, subsidising farmers or backing micro-credit47 projects enabling farmers to purchase more efficient equipment. The success of any policy to revitalise agriculture depends on improving the condition of women, since they represent up to 80% of all farm workers in certain African countries48.

72.       At the same time, to combat urban poverty, labour-intensive small-scale manufacturing industries should be encouraged. Disparities between prices and wages in towns and the countryside should also be rectified.

73.       As already shown, the key to development lies in improving current education conditions. The share of public funds allocated to education in developing countries should be increased and, above all, this budget should be used more appropriately. Different things should be taught in the town and the country. The emphasis should be placed on primary more than on secondary education, which costs much more and reaches a considerably smaller proportion of the population.

74.       Primary education should be available for everyone, boys and girls. This is, moreover, one of the Millennium Development Goals. The deadline for achieving this particular goal is 2015. One way of encouraging parents to send their children to school would be to introduce a premium for regular attendance, compensating for the fact that the children would no longer go to work.

75.       As for secondary and university education, a form of positive discrimination should be introduced to enable the poorest students to continue their studies. Quotas could be established to force the head teachers of lower and upper secondary schools to take children from poor families. These children should, of course, be exempted from enrolment fees.

76.       To curb the brain drain, the idea has been mooted (though never yet applied) of imposing heavy taxes on highly qualified people who wish to leave their country. We do not approve of this type of measure, which would tend to hinder the free movement of labour. The ideal method would be to instil a sufficiently strong sense of responsibility in the developing countries’ elites, so that they themselves were willing to contribute to the development of their home countries.

77.       The final domestic obstacles to development which we identified were the shortcomings of health services and the relatively high rate of mortality, particularly infant mortality, that these entail. The reduction of child mortality is one of the priorities for the leaders of developing countries, as it is one of the Millennium Development Goals. The aim is to reduce it by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.

78.       The best way of improving public health, if it were possible, would be to increase the budget of the relevant ministry so as to build modern hospitals and train more doctors. However, where the appropriate funds are lacking, other methods may prove effective.

79.       It is absolutely essential to focus on prevention, generating increased awareness of hygiene in all public places, particularly schools. Condoms should be distributed free or at an extremely low cost, especially through family planning centres.

80.       As far as medicines are concerned, the multinational companies that manufacture them should be encouraged to waive their patents in developing countries. A fierce debate has already taken place on medicines used to combat AIDS49. The negotiations have not yet been successful, but the Doha Development Agenda has given rise to new hope50.

81.       The above points have opened up a few lines of thought which may lead to solutions to the developing countries’ domestic problems. Now we must put forward some proposals on means of overcoming the international obstacles that are hindering their development.

VII.        Means of overcoming the international obstacles to development

82.       When it comes to the international obstacles which prevent developing countries’ economies from taking off, the first issue we discussed was the failure of attempts to integrate poor countries into international trade. A number of proposals may be made to attempt to improve this situation.

83.       The losses incurred by developing countries because of the protectionist barriers set up by industrialised countries are estimated at some 20 billion dollars a year, equivalent to 40% of the aid they receive51. The industrialised countries must therefore make an effort to reduce or even remove their tariff and non-tariff barriers. It is particularly important for the excessive protection of agricultural products to be removed. In this connection, the negotiations launched in Doha in 2001 under the auspices of the WTO seem to be moving in the right direction.

84.       We are also in favour of increasing trade between the countries of the South and improving their economic integration. The establishment of free trade areas and common markets seems to foster economic development. Initiatives such as ASEAN52 or Mercosur should continue and serve as examples for other regions of the world, as poor countries can increase their influence by working together.

85.       As far as the debt problem is concerned, we have seen that some developing countries are so deep in debt that debt service cripples their development efforts.

86.       In the 1980s and 1990s the Bretton Woods institutions imposed extremely strict stabilisation policies on the most heavily indebted countries. These policies, based on four main aims (trade liberalisation, lowering of exchange rates, combating of inflation and opening up to foreign investment), were strongly criticised because they had serious adverse effects on these countries’ populations, particularly the poorest social categories.

87.       Our Assembly, in its above-mentioned Resolution 1288 (2002) on ‘The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: challenges ahead’, stated:

88.       We advocate a major reduction in the debt of the developing countries, to enable them to escape the vicious circle of debt. The funds released thereby should be spent on development projects (constructing schools, hospitals, etc.).

89.       Of course the price of debt relief should not be a failure to increase public development aid, which must be stepped up as quickly as possible so as to reach the recommended level of 0.7% of industrialised countries’ GDP.

90.       Development funding needs are estimated at some fifty billion dollars per year. For this sum to be reached, public development aid will have to be doubled. At least a third of this aid should go to the least-developed countries.

91.       Diversification is recommended in respect of the countries receiving aid, so as to avoid the sums awarded being over-concentrated in certain areas considered to be strategic. Multilateral aid should be preferred to bilateral aid, so that alliances do not override the main goal of reducing poverty.

92.       Lastly, in order to generate healthy economic development which does not tail off too quickly, poor countries must find ways of attracting direct investment from industrialised countries.

93.       To achieve this, they have to establish a modern transport infrastructure, ensure that potential employees have the minimum skills required, introduce tax incentives and, above all, guarantee their own stability.

94.       Foreign multinationals should not be swayed by a desire to exploit a cheap labour force ready to do its masters’ bidding. Negotiations to incorporate social clauses into the WTO’s agreements have failed, but every effort must be made to ensure that human rights in the workplace are respected. Ideas such as ethical charters and social labels have been put into practice. These are commendable and should be improved still further.

VIII.       Conclusion:

95.       It has been shown in this report that underdevelopment is a polymorphous phenomenon deriving from problems with both domestic and international roots.

96.       Among the domestic obstacles to development, we have identified poor governance in particular, but also excessive population growth, labour market deficiencies, mass urbanisation and rural depopulation, educational shortcomings and the alarming state of public health services.

97.       The analysis of international obstacles centred on five main themes, namely the dysfunction of international trade, the burden of debt service, the inadequacy of public development aid the lack of direct foreign investment, and inadequate policies pursued by international financial organizations.

98.       A number of solutions have been suggested to try to solve each of these problems. On no account can these be seen as miracle remedies enabling poverty to be eradicated overnight. They should be regarded instead as lines of thought, inspired in part by the Millennium Development Goals.

99.       The Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2000 are in truth highly ambitious. If the world community is to meet them, especially the richer countries must show real commitment and be ready to provide sufficient assistance to developing countries. The eight major goals, it will be recalled, are: 1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2) to achieve universal primary education 3) to promote gender equality and empower women 4) to reduce child mortality 5) to improve maternal health. 6) to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7) to ensure environmental sustainability and 8) to develop a global partnership for development.

Reporting committee: Committee on Economic Affairs and Development

Reference to committee: Doc. 9876 and Ref. No. 2869 of 8.09.2003.

Draft recommendation unanimously adopted by the Committee on 13 November 2003.

Members of the committee: Mrs Zapfl-Helbling (Chairperson), Mr Kirilov, Mrs Burbiene, Mrs Pericleous-Papadopoulos (Vice-chairpersons), Mr Açikgöz, Mr Adam, Mr Agramunt, Mr I. Aliyev, Mr Anacoreta Correia, Mr Andov, Mr Arnau, Mr Assis Miranda, Mr Ates, Mr Attard Montalto, Mr van Baalen, Mr Berceanu, Mr Braun, Mr Brunhart, Mr Budin (Alternate: M. Rigoni), Mr Çavuşoğlu, Mr Cosarciuc, Mr Crema, Mr Dimic, Mr Djupedal, Mr Figel, Mr Floros, Mr Galchenko, Ms Griffiths, Mr Grignon, Mr Gusenbauer, Ms Hakl, Mr Haupert, Mr Högmark, Mr Jonas, Mr Kacin, Mr Karapetyan, Mr Klympush, Mr Korobeynikov, Mr Kraus, Mr Krivokapic, Mr Lachnit, Mr Le Guen (Alternate: Mr Hunault), Mr Leibrecht, Mr Liapis, Mr Makhachev, Mr Masseret, Mr Melcak, Mr Mikkelsen, Ms Milicevic, Mrs Muizniece, Mr Naumov, Mr Öhman, Mr O’Keeffe, Mr Opmann, Mrs Patarkalishvili, Mrs Petursdottir, Mrs Pintat Rossell, Mr Podgorski, Mr Popa, Mr Puche, Mr Ramoudt, Mr Ramponi, Mr Reimann, Mr Riccardi, Mr Rivolta, Lord Russell-Johnston, Mr Rybak, Mr Sasi, Mr Schreiner, Mr Severin, Mr Seyidov, Ms Smith, Mr Stefanov, Mr Tepshi, Mr Timmermans, Mr Torbar, Mrs Vadai, Mr Versnick, Mr Walter, Mr Wielowieyski, Mr Wikinski, Mr Zhevago.

N.B. The names of those members present at the meeting are printed in italics

Head of Secretariat: Mr Torbiörn

Co-Secretaries to the committee: Mr. Bertozzi, Ms Ramanauskaite; Ms Kopaçi-Di Michele, Ms Stewart

1 IFRI, Rapport annuel mondial sur les systèmes économiques et les stratégies [Annual world report on economic systems and strategies], 2003, p. 107

2 www.undp.org/hdr2003/, consulted on 10 July 2003.

3 Todaro, M., Economic Development, Pearson Education Limited, Essex, 2000, p.43.

4 Todaro, M., 2000, p.47.

5 In this connection, see the book by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, Globalization and its Discontents, WW Norton, New York, 2002.

6 www.iie.com/publications/papers/williamson/1102.htm, consulted on 9 July 2003.

7 Latouche, S., “Les mirages de l’occidentalisation de monde. En finir, une fois pour toute, avec le développement” [“The illusion of westernising the world. Ditching development once and for all”], Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2001.

8 Gabas, J.-J., Nord-Sud : l’impossible coopération [North-South: the impossible partnership], Presses de Sciences Po, Paris, 2002.

9 www.developmentgoals.org /Poverty.htm, consulted on 10 July 2003.

10 The average number of children per woman in the 48 poorest countries (referred to as the least-developed countries or LDCs) is 5.4.

11 This figure should, however, be compared to figures close to zero in the industrialised countries.

12 See Todaro, 2000, p. 219.

13 See the International Labour Organisation site at www.ilo.org.

14 For more details, see www.ilo.org/public/english/support/publ/wer/tables/tabl_toc.htm, consulted on 15 July 2003.

15 www.ilo.org /public/english/bureau/inf/pkits/wer98/wer98ch1.htm, consulted on 15 July 2003.

16 See the report of the Committee on the Unofficial economy at www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc90/pdf/pr-25.pdf, consulted on 15 July 2003.

17 www.ilo.org /public/english/standards/ipec/simpoc/others/globalest.pdf, consulted on 15 July 2003.

18 www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/simpoc/zimbabwe/report/zimbabwe99.pdf, consulted on 15 July 2003.

19 www.undp.org/french/mdg/mdghome-f.htm, consulted on 8 July 2003.

20 www.undp.org/hdr/2002/indicator/indic_294_1_1.html, consulted on 16 July 2003.

21 www.undp.org/french/mdg/mdghome-f.htm consulted on 8 July 2003.

22 An example cited by Michael Todaro (2000, p. 52) is that, in Bolivia, only a third of the population lives in towns whereas 90% of the hospitals are located there.

23 www.undp.org/french/mdg/mdghome-f.htm, consulted on 8 July 2003.

24 www.liberation.fr/imprimer.php?Article=126643, consulted on 24 July 2003.

25 Todaro, 2000, p. 52.

26 www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_129_1_1.html, consulted on 17 July 2003.

27 Todaro, 2000, p. 461.

28 www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_131_1_1.html, consulted on 17 July 2003.

29 www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_137_1_1.html, consulted on 17 July 2003.

30 Todaro, 2000, p.497-521.

31 See paragraph 9 of the Declaration by the Group of 77 and China on the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference at Doha.

32 M. Turner, Financial Times, 9 July 2003, p.3.

33 www.undp.org/french/mdg/mdghome-f.htm, consulted on 8 July 2003.

34 www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_157_1_1.html, consulted on 18 July.

35 Todaro, 2000, p. 552.

36 Todaro, 2000, p. 561.

37 Also called the SIC (Seriously Indebted Countries).

38 http://users.skynet.be/cadtm/pages/francais/ppte.htm, consulted on18 July 2003. See also www.hcci.gouv.fr/lecture/synthese/sy010.html, consulted on 18 July 2003.

39 IFRI, RAMSES 2003, p. 125.

40 www.jica.go.jp/english/publication/studyreport/country/southafrica/southafrica_01.pdf, consulted on 20 July 2003.

41 Todaro, 2000, p. 593.

42 www.rediff.com/money/2003/jan/14china.htm, consulted on 20 July 2003.

43 Todaro, 2000, p. 581.

44 http://hdr.undp.org/docs/publications/ocational_papers/oc16.htm#P2, consulted on 22 July 2003.

45 www.ilo.org/public/french/standards/decl/declaration/text/index.htm, consulted on 22 July 2003.

46 Todaro, 2000, p. 371.

47 www.microcreditsummit.org, consulted on 22 July 2003.

48 Todaro, 2000, p. 381.

49 www.actupparis.org/1er_decembre/decembre2000/dossier1.html, consulted on 22 July 2003.

50 www.wto.org/french/tratop_f/dda_f/dohaexplained_f.htm, consulted on 7 July 2003.

51 “ The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: challenges ahead”, Report (Doc. 9478), Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, Rapporteur: Mr Alfred Gusenbauer, Austria, Socialist Group, p.9.

52 www.aseansec.org/7069.htm, consulted on 23 July 2003.