Investing in health and education for development: A revitalized Economic and Social Council after Monterrey - The Chronicle Interview

UN Chronicle, June-August, 2002

Ambassador Ivan Simonovic of Croatia is the President of the Economic and Social Council. Following the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico in March, the Council will play a crucial role in implementing the follow-up mechanisms of the Conference. The next Council meetings will he in April, involving Ministers of Finance, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, and the high-level segment of its substantive session in New York, scheduled for July. "I hope that the good practices of Monterrey will he built upon in our preparations for Johannesburg", Ambassador Simonovic said. Horst Rutsch of the UN Chronicle spoke with the Ambassador in his office on 26 March 2002.

On the Council's priorities

At this moment, one of the issues which deserves our full attention is how to structure future dialogue between the Economic and Social Council, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Another issue for our future meetings is whether it is possible for us to have a prenegotiated outcome document, as well as full involvement of the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Until now, our meetings with the Bretton Woods institutions have been closed, but we should continue to build upon successes achieved in Monterrey in bringing society and private sector on board.

Another important issue is to try to precisely measure our improvement in implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The key issue is whether we can agree not only on benchmarks and indicators but also on how to keep an eye on their implementation. It is very important that we can agree on a joint process involving the Bretton Woods institutions, WTO and the Council. It also applies to principles agreed on in Monterrey. The practical implementation, regular monitoring and precise measuring of our achievements regarding MDGs and the Monterrey consensus are crucial for its success.

On the outcome of the Monterrey Conference

The Monterrey Conference was a moderate success. We managed to agree on general principles regulating more successful financing for development. Many new things emerged from it; still, there was some meat lacking. The Monterrey consensus envisages an important role for the Economic and Social Council regarding the follow-up to the Conference, and I hope that this follow-up will enable to fill that gap. The first opportunity to discuss Monterrey will be on 22 April at the Council meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions which, for the first time, will include participation of the WTO. However, the issue of implementation--how to achieve the Millennium Declaration goals with the help of the agreed principles--is still something to be worked upon. What will be very important for our April meeting is to have clear priorities on two or three questions that we would like to address. I sincerely hope we will be able to get as many Ministers of Finance as we can for our April meeting, because that will send a clea r message that the outcome document of Monterrey, on "Staying Engaged", has been taken seriously. We have had many conferences where we had Ministers of Development and Ministers of Foreign Affairs, even Heads of State at the Millennium Summit, but without the Ministers of Finance--precisely the people who plan budgets and who carry their purse with them all the time. I think that the great contribution of the Monterrey Conference was not only to bring them together at a one-time event, but to develop a certain culture of communication between Ministers of Finance, Ministers of Development and Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

On the high-level segment of the Council

The high-level segment of the Council's substantive session, which will take place from 1 to 3 July this year, is dedicated to the impact of human resources improvement, especially in health and education, and on its impact on overall economic development. It is quite clear that the impact of investment in health and education can be measured and that, taking into account the output of the invested resources, it is the most productive investment in a country's future. We have had three well attended high-level round tables on these issues so far.

It is very important that we have the Ministers of Health and of Education attending our high-level segment, so I use this opportunity to lobby their presence at our New York meeting. They can use the high-level segment and its deliberations as a powerful argument for the increased share for health and education in their national budgets.

On the Johannesburg Summit 2002

Johannesburg is a very complex conference. In Monterrey, we managed to isolate key points related to financing for development and were able to produce a relatively concise and clear document. What is important for the Johannesburg Summit is to build upon the success of Monterrey, which means to include NGOs and the private sector, to try to have a prepared draft document--this facilitated our lives in Monterrey and enabled us to go beyond disputing over commas until the last moment--and instead to invest our time spent together in a search for creative solutions.