JOSÉ MANUEL AGUILAR DE BEN INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIST EUROPEAN CONFERENCE: CITIES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Geneva Seminar: Cities ante Right to Sustainable Devolopment OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT AID (ODA): RECENT TRENDS by José M. Aguilar de Ben.

World Official Devolpment aid has been on decline in the last two years due tu a combination of political tendencies and economic realities. In the USA, the balance budget policies have led to a decrease in US foreign aid, bilateral as well as in itas contributio to UN development agencies and international. donors agencies. In addition the US Congress has stop the cuota Increases in the International Monetary Fund which were aim to prevent financial crisis in emerging economies. But direct foreign investment and transfer of technology is on the rise. In the European Union, national development aid has not been expanded in recent years, mainly subject to the objectives of the Maastricht Treaty criteria, The EU common aid for development cooperation is stabilize till the year 2000 by the Lomé Convention IV, but with more conditionalities than in Lomé III to comply with structural adjustment policies, the democratic clause and human rights standards. The post Lomé conventions wich links the European Union with 71 developping nations is now under way at a joint assembly in Barbados with a number of new proposals on the agenda. Japan which only 10 years ago started an ambitious program for official development aid for southern Asia, Africa and Latin America, is now cutting its funding to its developments programs, due to the near recession level of the japaneese economy, which has promted the government of Japan to concentrate available aid to its own economy. With this picture of the G-3 economies, one can on1y say that the 0'7% of GDP as the Official aid goal of the eoonomies of the north towards the south , is not in its best moment, despite commitments by the EU President at the Earth Summit last year in New York, and recommendations by other world leaders, to sustainable development objectives. Six years ago at the I Earth Summit In Rio, world leaders agreed to these objetives: to support the 0’7% of GDP for ODA, to pursue sustainable development policies ( a concept stablized at that UN Summit ) and an action program known as Agenda 21. But the road from Rio has not been an easy one, not a successful one as recognized by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Little has been achieved at national lovels, except for more people awareness of the issues at stake. Yet a few days ago at the UN VI Sustainable Development Commission gathering , 50 Governments have ratified the Kyoto Convention agreed last december. According the OCDE latest figure, provided by the CAD, official development aid has reached the UN objective on1y in a handfull number of countries. The Netherlands and the Nordic Countries, yet the people willingness to increase devolopment aid is overwhelming with rate above 70% in some southern european countries such as in Spain. Despite this international scenario, there are some good news, and they are coming precisely from mayor cities. Not only cities are now on boad to apply sustainable development policies, and some small towns are making real progress with their local Agenda 21 programs, but a few cities are now becoming membors of the 0’7% club. A number of cities are dedicating not the 0’7% of GDP, but the 0’7% of the annual budget to development aid programmes and projects in developping countries, or to the segment of inmigrants to their cities. During the International Conference on Governance, held at the UN General Assembly In 1997, with representatives of governments, parliaments, cities and NGO’s of the civil society, it became abundantly clear that the more dinamic policies and innicitives towards sustainable development policies and development aid around the world were comming from city halls, rather than development cooperation ministries, and from regional and international organizations such as UNDP, World Bank, FA0 and the EU Deve1opment Directirate, now to being reorganized into SCOOP -”Service de Cooperation”-, integrating, EU relations with the 71 ACP countries, plus Latin America, Asia and the southern meditarrean area. Development aid can be placed under the Human Rights movement.There is a right to sustainable devolpment, there is a right to development aid. Art. 22 and 23 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which make reference to the social rights of aII human beings, states clearly, international cooperation and the conditions of labor as Human Rights. We have just seen the mach to eliminate enfants labour. >From this perspective, we can say in this year in which we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration that development aid is a RIGHT, that both citizens have the right to request their government to give aid to developing countries and cities and that recipient countries, cities and individuals have the right to request aid, and not only humanitarian aid buy development aid and tecnological transfers as well as just trade from donors. I therefore would like to finish in a note of hope and optimism, despite all the troubles some realities that we know, as cities are taken more leadership in tho solidarity movement between the north and the south, in the right to sutainable development, while the states are temprarily we hope, baking away from the obejtive of 0’7 % Plus of GDP. Cities should work closer with business and NGO’s to reinforce the role of the civil society for the better wellbeing of the citizens in the cities of the developed world and in the rest of the world and better governance.

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