‘ODA alone won’t be sufficient to address poor countries’ needs’

‘ODA alone won’t be sufficient to address poor countries’ needs’
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Monday, June 29, 2009 2:41:08 PM

BRAZILIAN foreign minister Celso Amorim has said Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) alone will not be sufficient to address poor countries' life and death needs.
Amorim further said the current structures of the UN itself and of the Bretton Woods Institutions fell short both in terms of legitimacy and effectiveness.

Before the United Nations General Assembly conference on the global crisis that closed on Friday, Amorim charged that the financial and economic meltdown had relegated the theory of the minimal state participation in the economy to the museum of ideological misconceptions.

He said lending institutions must update their paradigms in favour of stimulus measures in developing countries.

"ODA alone will not suffice," Amorim said. "Additional measures by multilateral and regional financial institutions to provide liquidity and trade financing for south-south trade is also necessary."

He said as resources of the IMF and the World Bank are increased, least developed countries should receive priority attention.

"We are in favour of a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights," Amorim said.

He said the regime of restrictive conditionalities imposed on developing countries by multilateral financial institutions must be thoroughly overhauled.

Amorim said counter-cyclical policies targeting social protection, cash transfer programmes, health and education, industry bailouts, infrastructure and employment should not be the privilege of the rich.

"In fact developing countries need them most," he said.

Amorim said the path to full recovery might be long and winding.

He said the world should look beyond short-term aid and define a new framework for development and financing that should outlast the current crisis and prevent new ones.