THE FFD DOCUMENT — LDC NGOs CONCERN

 We, representatives of NGOs from LDCs, participating in the FfD Conference and the Global Forum, referring to:

 •     The Millennium Declaration

•     The Declaration of the Governments at the Third United Nations Conference on LDCs

•     The LDC Programme of Action adopted for the Decade 2001 —2010

•     The statement made by the NGOs at the Global Forum of UN LDC Ill

 Observe that the Monterrey consensus has not given any attention at all to the commitments made at the Brussels Conference for LDCs. The Monterrey Consensus is a step backwards towards fulfilling the declared Millennium goals.

 1.   At Brussels the Governments committed themselves under point 7 of their Declaration to “seizing the opportunity of the Conference on Financing for Development for the mobilization of resources for development, in particular for the LDCs”.

But at the Millennium Summit, at Brussels, as well as in the FfD here in Monterrey, the matter is still about lack of resources. This shows the lack of political will from the governments and reluctance from the international community to put in place clear strategies needed to avail the resources to develop LDCs.

 2.   In Brussels the governments committed themselves to expeditious progress towards full cancellation of outstanding official bilateral debt. But it was limited to HIPC initiative (pt. 9 of their declaration). But we are saddened to note that there are still no concrete commitments on the issue of debt cancellation in the Monterrey Consensus, though the debt cancellation remains an essential condition to development and poverty eradication in LDCs.

3.   We appreciate the appointment of a High Representative for LDCs at the Office of the Secretary General of the UN, as a step in the follow up process of the implementation of the Brussels programme of Action. However, it falls short of the NGO’s recommendation at Brussels for a mechanism that ensures their involvement, and the “genuine partnership” mentioned in the declaration of the governments (point.3). Likewise, in the Monterrey Consensus the issues related to LDCs raised by the civil society in Brussels are not addressed.

Therefore we would like to see concrete commitments from the FfD Conference regarding the following LDCs issues:

Ø      Total, immediate and unconditional debt cancellation.

Ø      Untied Aid.

Ø      Increase of ODA to at least meet the UN target of 0.7% of GNP.

Ø      Market access to LDC’s products in developed countries.

Ø      Radical reform of the international financial architecture.

Ø      A concrete plan for financing the Brussels Programme of Action.

 List of NGOs signing on to this STATEMENT is attached    

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SIGNATORIES TO FFD DOCUMENT – LDC NGOs CONCERN