A view from the United Nations
January 2005
No more excuses!: The Tsunami must not be allowed to wash away the Millennium Development Goals
By Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS UN Representative (New York)
May the horror of the recent Asian and African Tsunami disaster bring about a new global consciousness of human solidarity. The outpouring of help and human sympathy from around the world has amply exceeded all expectations. The International Red Cross received in one day more donations than in an entire year, and in less than two weeks the United Nations had received pledges exceeding US$2.2Billion. Celebrities and civic institutions as diverse as football teams, symphony orchestras and rock stars have reacted swiftly and generously, along with their millions of followers. In some countries, citizens donations have initially surpassed official humanitarian assistance.
Young volunteers the world over have flocked to the affected areas and, in an edifying and spontaneous global action, millions of citizens in rich countries scaled down or totally cancelled their New Year´s celebrations and instead held vigils and redirected their party expenditures to global humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF, the World Health Organization, Save the Children, OXFAM or ActionAid. The European Union is leading all donors, with Germany pledging over US$700Million, followed by Japan, the US and others. Even relatively poor countries, such as Poland or Argentina, have moblized resources in ways heretofore unimaginable.
The enormity of the Tsunami catastrophe and the extremely encouraging response of human solidarity to the victims has somewhat sidelined another quite successful show of world solidarity: I am referring to the recent democratic process in Ukraine. A Ukranian friend recently told me how plesantly surprised and encouraged he and many of his countrymen and women were upon realizing the level of support their plight for democracy was receiving from all over the world. Ukraine’s return to democracy constitutes a remarkable achievement by people locally, supported by people globally. Yet another encouraging example that global solidarity works; and it is on the rise.
The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has adjudged 2004 a “horrible year”. I couldn´t agree more. From the victims of the Iraq war to the refugees in Darfur, the cowardly 11 M terrorist attacks in Madrid, the massacre of Beslan in Russia, the horror of the Tsunami and the fire tragedy in Buenos Aires on 30th December, 2004 shall stand out as a year of particular gloom and misery.
And yet, sadly enough, 2004 was not any more horrible than any other year in terms of the tragic predicament of millions upon millions of human beings, women and children in particular, condemned to live and die quietly in the most abject poverty in forgotten corners of our world. Trade justice, debt cancellation, increased development assistance and institutional reform have been, once again, largely absent from the centres of power. Our very own man-made Tsunami, where 25.,000 children die, each day, due to unclean water and preventable diseases, lives on.
2005 seems to be starting off on a better footing. Might this be the year when the world finally understood the true meaning of human solidarity? Are we closer to making real progress toward eradicating extreme poverty, preventable diseases and malnutrition? Are we closer to insuring the availability of clean water, basic health and sanitation, and primary education for all? Closer to complying with the UN Millennium Declaration and achieving the Millennium Development Goals on schedule in 2015?
I believe we are; but it is going to take a lot of hard work by all people of goodwill to make their governments, as well as international financial and trade institutions, and the private sector understand this is no longer a diplomatic game, or at best a low level priority. Citizens and their civil society organisations are telling those involved in the decision-making process that the ongoing posturing and public relations talk is no longer acceptable. No more promises and no more excuses!
Civil society, local, national, regional and global, have their work cut out for 2005, with key international events focusing on poverty spread throughout the next 12 months where the voices of solidarity must and shall be heard. Loud and clear. Later this month, in Porto Alegre, citizen organizations and civil society networks, in addition to focusing on the plight of indigenous peoples, will have a unique opportunity to develop common positions and strategies on how most effectively to influence the outcome of decisions made, among other venues, at the next G8 meeting focusing on Africa, the Millennium+5 summit at the UN in September on the review of the Millennium Declaration and progress of the MDGs, and the WTO´s resumption of the Doha Round as the year bears to its end. In order to do so, civil society, in all its rich diversity, must find ways to set aside different nuances in emphasis and perspectives.
Unfortunately, our task to insure sufficient development assistance has been made more difficult by the fact that the Tsunami humanitarian and reconstruction efforts are likely to be drawn, at least in part, from development funds already allocated to such development assistance. In addition to pressuring Northern governments to make available the financial resources required to achieve the MDGs, they will need to be pressured as well not to divert those resources toward humanitarian crises. Governments from developed countries will need to understand that the total price for both humanitarian and development assistance has unfortunately gone up.
The time is now for each of us to push along this new impulse of global solidarity. The victims of the Tsunami catastrophe deserve nothing less, and the same goes for the victims of poverty, disease or malnutrition.
At the heart of the issue is the individual citizen in community with family, neighbours and friends, or as part of citizen organizations from the local to the global. As was the case in Ukraine´s breakthrough toward democracy, in the fight against poverty, people locally, supported by people globally, shall, too, carry the day.
In solidarity,
Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative
Please send your comments to CIVICUSUN@aol.com
Below you will find all previous columns:
• A Call To Action 2005: Global Civil Society mobilizes to demand an end to poverty and the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals
• TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Should civil society and the Global Compact live under the same UN roof?
• The UN Global Compact: A big red herring disguised in UN blue?
• Happening now: A global revolution of consciousness
• Lasting security for all: Shifting from state security to security of the people
• The UN – Permanently relevant or temporarily relevant?
• The UN: It's our world?
• Letting the United Nations be all that it can
