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UN Information Center |
The theme of financing for development has been present on the UN economic agenda for several decades now. Having now become a serious global problem, it is graphic proof that the path to achieving genuine economic independence is a long one – one which demands not just intense work, but new approaches and original thinking as well.
It would be unfair to assert that all the efforts made up till now to close the gap between the North and the South have led to nothing. It is just that, with time, it has become clear that it is impossible to solve the problem on the basis of fragmentary approaches, whether they place the emphasis on “technical cooperation for development” or on debt write-offs. To the contrary: as the processes of globalization have developed, all the signs of systemic crisis in the area of economic and social governance have become apparent.
Having given their undivided attention to this problem, participants in the Millennium Summit and the Millennium Assembly have drawn up a number of Millennium Development Goals. One of the most important of these is reducing by half the scale of poverty in the world by the year 2015. Yet another resolution was adopted, one to hold a world conference on financing for development. This forum is to come up with a new, comprehensive approach to solving the problems of human potential, and economic and social progress. It will be held on March 18–22 of this year, in Monterrey, Mexico.
The months following the Millennium Assembly have become a period of intensive preparatory work on an international scale. A broad program of coordinated action that will be presented to those taking part in the Conference, the Monterrey Consensus, has already been produced. A great many original ideas are also being developed on the national scale.
On February 11, as part of the program for preparing Russia to attend the Monterrey Conference, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the UN Information Centre in Moscow held a conference titled “Overcoming the Gap between Rich and Poor in the World: A View from Russia”. Some 40 scholars, experts, government officials, and representatives of international organizations gathered at the Foreign Ministry annex on Moscow’s Spiridonovskii Pereulok. Their main goal was to discuss in detail a set of issues connected with international cooperation for development, so that Russia’s participation in the Monterrey Conference will be as effective as possible. It was important that a survey be done of the main parameters of the position the Russian delegation will bring to Monterrey; and to determine the role and place of Russia as a country with economy in transition, in this process.
In addition to being done constructively and with enthusiasm, the preparations for the conference were well organized. Its success was largely facilitated by the efforts of a number of UN Secretariat divisions that provided the organizer with a series of interesting and useful materials. Translated into Russian, they comprised a valuable source of information, one which many of the participants referred to directly during debates.
The tone of the discussion was set by the well thought-out presentation given by Yuri Fedotov, Director of Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Organizations, of the foundations of the Russian concept; and by the general remarks made by Frederick Lyons, the UN Resident Coordinator in Russia. Participants then heard Julian Schweitzer, Director for Russia and Permanent Representative of the World Bank in Russia, give a professional clarification of the concept’s theses; and the evaluation of Andrei Lushin, the IMF’s Deputy Executive Director from Russia, who had flown specially from Washington to Moscow to attend the Conference. The President of the International Independent Ecological-Politological University, Viktor Danilov-Daniliyan, spoke plainly and passionately on the problems being created in different areas by globalization, and on ways to solve them. This topic was further commented upon by the Director of the Centre for the Problems of Social Development (a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Europe Institute), Marina Kargalova; the Co-chairperson of the Interparliamentary Group and First Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Chairman’s Council on NGOs, Tatyana Yarygina; and many others.
It is premature to speak of the outcome of the UN Information Centre and Foreign Ministry’s initiative before the Monterrey Conference wraps up its work. It is already clear, however, that its organizers managed to launch an unusual “brain storm” on the eve of an extremely important international meeting. Such discussions are capable of effectively assisting diplomats, economists and political scientists in mobilizing their intellectual potential. The only question is: How will the “intellectual baggage” gathered in this way be handled? In order to safeguard what the Conference’s participants have contributed to the “kitty”, the organizers are now thinking about follow-up events. They promise to be most varied: putting together a brief extract of the discussions which might actually fit in the Russian delegation’s briefcases; preparing a more detailed publication to expound on the ideas presented at the Conference; and holding yet another meeting, this time on the results of the summit in Monterrey.
UN Information Centre
in Moscow:
Glazovsky pereulok, 4/16
Tel.: (095) 241-25-37
Fax: (095) 230-21-38
Website: www.unic.ru
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United Nations Association of Russia |
The International Youth Forum of the United Nations Associations took place in St. Petersburg on January 24–28, 2002.
The following issues were discussed at the Forum: youth organizations joining the battle against the use of and trafficking in drugs; the role of youth in the integrational processes of the Northern Russia and Baltic region; and freedom of speech and controlling racism, pornography, terrorism, and incitement to violence on the Internet. A presentation by the Children’s Model of the UN educational program was also given as part of the Forum.
A natural component of the Forum was the St. Petersburg Open 2002 parliamentary debate championship. The aim of the contest was to draw the attention of a larger audience of European youth to the integrational processes in the world community; to the goals and tasks of the UN, and its role in the contemporary world; and to promote the events held as part of UN programs. Organizing the championship were the St. Petersburg UNA-Russia Parliamentary Debate Program, the Tartu City (Estonia) Parliamentary Debate Club, and the Debate International Educational Association. During the competition, discussions were held on the timely topics of globalization; combating the drugs trade; the threat of terrorism; and responsibility for crimes committed.
A number of meetings, conferences, seminars, and round table talks were held around the Forum, and were heavily attended by Russian youth. In particular, the Forum was preceded by a round table talk on the topic “The World After September 11: What Does Russia Say?”, held at St. Petersburg State University with the active participation of the Parliamentary Debate Club.
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The most recent General Conference of the United Nations Association of Russia took place at the end of 2001. At the Conference, the results of the last four years of work were reviewed, and the main outlines of the work for the immediate future were laid out.
The Conference considered a request from the President of the
Association, RF Ambassador Extraordinary and 
Plenipotentiary
Oleg Troyanovsky, to release him from his post on the grounds of his deteriorating
health. Association Chairman Anatoly Torkunov and other speakers noted that
Ambassador Troyanovsky had once headed the Association as its chairman, and
then served as its president during the most difficult part of the country’s
(and society’s) existence; and had made an invaluable contribution to preserving
its character as an independent, public organization, and to the development
of its work.
New members of the Central Directorship and Presidium were chosen. Elected to the Presidium were the Chairman of the Association and Rector of the RF Foreign Ministry’s Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), Anatoly Torkunov; Chairman of the Association’s Committee on International Law and Human Rights Yury Reshetov; Association Deputy Chairman and Chief of Staff Alexei Borisov; Head of the Association’s Committee for Youth and Member of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) Executive Committee Gregory Kovrizhenko. Also chosen as members of the Presidium were UN Deputy Secretary-General Yuly Vorontsov; Chairman of the Moscow City Duma Vladimir Platonov; and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma’s Committee for International Affairs Leonid Slutsky.
