UNCTAD-IX WILL BE A "RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE"

9:02 AM Apr 19, 1996

UNCTAD-IX WILL BE A "RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE"
Geneva Apr 18 (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Provided "the political will is there", UNCTAD-IX, at Midrand (in South Africa) will be a "Renaissance Conference" for setting the institution on an upward path, and the session will turn out to be a landmark UN Conference where the UN will reclaim the high ground on development issues, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero predicted Thursday with an air of confidence.

Ricupero was addressing a press conference where he made public a sweeping secretariat reorganization, reducing the number of its divisions from nine to four, and cutting a number of high-level posts, and what he described as streamlining the secretariat to carry out its tasks and deliver its services in the most efficient way.

The reorganization details, outlined in an internal secretariat note of 15 April, was announced by Ricupero Wednesday at the consultations with delegations.

Some of the thinking behind this had been indicated by Ricupero during the negotiating process in the Committee of the Whole last month, which resulted in a heavily-square bracketed pre-Conference text for the consideration of UNCTAD-IX.

The reorganized secretariat is to handle its future work in four major clusters -- Globalization and Development Strategies; Investment, Technology and Enterprise; International Trade and Commodities; and Services for Development and Trade Efficiency.

The reorganization abolishes the General Programme Support and Management -- a division (with changing names since UNCTAD was established) that successive UNCTAD Secretaries-General had used to keep track of the output (studies and reports of the various departments and divisions of the secretariat) and their internal coherence to the overall policy.

The senior management functions are to be strengthened through a reorganization of "Executive Direction and Management", to enable Ricupero to exercise overall executive Direction of the secretariat, while paying maximum attention to articulating UNCTAD's mission and building of political and public support, the reorganization paper said.

The clearance of documents in future are to be primarily carried out by the Directors of divisions, who are to be charged with responsibility, and accountability, for the quality of the output of their divisions, and for raising major policy issues needing the consideration of the UNCTAD Secretary-General or his Deputy.

A supervisory mechanism for policy clearance is to be established under the Deputy Secretary-General.

Some delegates and observers privately said that one would have to await the actual functioning to see whether the new responsibilities on the Directors would eliminate, or atleast reduce, the policy recommendations and contradictions within the documents or those between the various divisions, including those driven by the donor-driven technical assistance programmes, remains to be seen.

Some of these contradictions that have come to the fore in recent periods have been between the advice to the developing countries to 'liberalize' unilaterally their external sectors, including financial services, and bind them in the WTO, and promoting 'openness' of economies to the efforts of transnational corporate sectors to further globalization and integration (of developing countries) and the macro-economic studies that increasingly have been bringing out the dangers of such precipitate liberalization.

The announcement said that position of a full-time Deputy Secretary-General is to be reinstated, while the Policy Coordination and External Relations Service is to be abolished.

Also being abolished are the separate divisions which have been dealing with the programmes on Least Developed Countries and the Economic Cooperation among Developing Countries.

The work on LDC and ECDC programmes however would continue and permeate the work of the four substantive divisions, Ricupero indicated.

There would also be a steering committee, and a senior coordinator, and a special trust fund to address the problems of the LDCs. The trust fund will start with a modest $500,000.

At the consultations, which had been put on the internal broadcast system for the benefit of staff, it was apparent that while Ricupero himself was announcing the decisions (which technically lies in the his jurisdiction), several of the delegations were making comments on the basis it was a matter of 'consultations'.

Ricupero told the delegations, as he did his press conference, that the staff and reductions of posts was part of the overall UN budget reduction exercise, but that the reorganization was part of the attempt to rationalise the work of the secretariat and make it more efficient.

Ricupero also indicated that the changes into four broad substantive divisions reflected what seemed to be a convergence of views on the pre-Conference negotiating text, but that these would be subject to the detailed work programme that the Conference would have to consider and agree upon at Midrand.

At his press conference, Ricupero said that the reorganization announced had a close link to the outcome of UNCTAD-IX, but showed "our determination to reform ourselves", and demonstrate the institution would be able to implement efficiently the decisions of UNCTAD-IX, and manage its tasks within current resources.

UNCTAD had been seen by many as a test case of the ability of the UN to reform itself.

The reorganization he had made, Ricupero said, had received the "enthusiastic backing" and the "unswerving support" of the UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and his colleagues in New York (Under-Secretary-General Joseph Connor and Mr. Paschke, whose report recommended some of the changes now effected).

The implementation of the reorganization, he said, would commence after the Conference. While there would be financial savings, this was not the primary goal, Ricupero said.

In expressing optimism about the outcome at Midrand, Ricupero said he was basing this on the way member-states were engaging in pre-conference negotiations.

"I recognise that there are sharp differences among countries, but ... there is a clear awareness of the importance they attach to the organization and its potential future role on the world economic scene," Ricupero added.

"UNCTAD, will regain its high ground (at Midrand)," Ricupero said. He noted that for understandable reasons in recent period, the UN had been concerned with problems of peace-keeping and security. But now there was an effort to balance this emphasis with a renewed interest in development.

The most important outcome that he expected out of UNCTAD-IX was the definition of a new consensus on the central subject of partnership for development, a consensus that would have to build on increasing convergence of views on many important aspects, including on keeping a balance between the role of the market, enterprises and need for an efficient State.

Ricupero also spoke of the special efforts to be made in UNCTAD to involve civil society through the proposal for a Development Senate -- where NGOs, academics, corporations (big, small and medium) would be represented and have a dialogue with governments.

If Cartagena (UNCTAD-VIII) was a "reform conference", with UNCTAD taking a new evolution and with the characterises for relations among countries based on partnership, "we are confident Midrand will be a Renaissance conference," Ricupero said.

Asked whether they were now seeing under the guise of new consensus for development, an industry-led trade policy, Ricupero said in his report to the Conference, in Chapter IV, he had outlined his own views about the emerging convergence on market forces, private initiative, enterprises etc. But this did not exclude the role of the State as a regulatory agency nor an efficient state.

Ricupero acknowledged there were still sharp differences on the complementarities among the market, enterprises and the State. But the new consensus saw trade liberalization as a dynamic factor in world growth. There was also a consensus on the increasing role of investment, not only for economic growth, but for trade and for the integration of the world economy.

But frankly there was no alternative paths, though there was some difference on the balance to be maintained among the various elements. But he did not seen countries choosing different paths where economies are ruled by the State.

While there were differences on emphasis, there was not challenge to the basic concept of role of the private sector and the market economy. The differences were not on liberalization, including financial sector liberalisation, but on the pace of implementation. These reflected national factors and priorities.

He cited the example of Latin America where some countries had effected complete liberalization and defended this at UNCTAD while there were others, who had liberalized but were also maintaining some of their instruments of defence, such as Chile in respect of capital inflows.

Asked whether, in striking a balance in the reorganization efforts, there was now the danger of UNCTAD's direction being driven by the major contributors and paymasters, Ricupero said the objective had been to achieve better efficiency and better service. Financial savings had not been the objective of the restructuring.