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As UNDP's Kemal Dervis Dodges on Dome-Gate and Spain's
Development Aid, Will Doha Conference Be
a Dud?
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 24 -- In the run-up to the
Doha meeting on financing for development, the UN Development Program's
Administrator Kemal Dervis was asked what should have been a simple
enough
question, about Spain's
use of its international cooperation and development
aid budget for a $25 million dome at the UN in Geneva. Inner City
Press asked
Dervis, is that an appropriate use of development aid, in this time of
financial crisis?
"I was told that you might be asking
that question," Dervis said. But then, instead of answering, he said "I
don't have the details," but wanted to take the opportunity to "pay
tribute to Spain." Video here.
If some of the too-few funds available for the
Millennium Development Goals can be spent on lavish rooms and the UN
Development Program has nothing to say, the UN should not pretend to be
survived when the MDGs are missed.
Dervis was
asked if any countries have curtailed their aid because of the global
financial
crisis. Dervis said no, which means either he is not paying attention,
or
worse. Iceland has already publicly said it is cutting the aid it had
promised;
other UN agencies have publicly named Italy as cutting back its aid.
Dervis
says he hasn't heard.
The Financing
for Development Review Conference upcoming in Doha threatens to be a
dud. The
heads of the IMF and World Bank have decided not to go. Dervis claimed
this is
only because of their busy schedules. But the Group
of 77 has threatened to
walk out of the Doha meeting, and no text has been agreed to.
Success has
multiple parents, but failure is usually an orphan.
UNDP's Dervis with UN's Jomo K.S., $25 million ceiling not shown
Inner City Press asked Oscar
de Rojas, Executive Secretary of the Conference, about the threats. "I
don't
think anyone is going to walk out," he answered, after acknowledging
that
no agreement on a text has been reached.
On tax
evasion, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the UN's Assistant Secretary-General
for Economic
Development, told Inner City Press that this is one of the sticking
points, and
to to expect any breakthrough in Doha. No wonder the IMF and World Bank
don't
want to fly to the Gulf. Some joke that the head of the World Trade
Organization is only going because he thought Doha meant the Doha round
of
trade talks. Whatever it takes...
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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