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POVERTY STRATEGY ASSAILED
(IPS)- While many government delegations say they are quietly analysing the poverty reduction report released Monday by Secretary General Kofi Annan, NGO representatives at the Geneva 2000 Forum were expressing strong criticism of the document, with some suggesting the need for an alternative perspective.
At one of the seminars promoted by the Forum Lidy Nacpil of “Jubilee South” said:“We are all dissatisfied, to put it nicely” and suggested the NGO sector should come out “with a strong alternative”.
Bishop Bernardino Mandlate of Mozambique answering to frustration among NGO delegates, emphasised that in the recent past, the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) and World Bank, co-sponsors of the document, “have been on the defensive” because of widescale opposition to some of the policies they have been pursuing in developing countries.
Borrowing a metaphor from athletics, the Bishop said that “ in the context of a marathon we need to be prepared to stay the long course” suggesting that it will not be easy to achieve reversal of policy at the Bretton Woods institutions..
NGO representatives who criticised the report prepared by UN, OECD along with IMF and the Bank said they were expecting a more comprehensive statement along the lines of the Copenhagen commitments. Gunnar Garbo, working with Norwegian Peoples AID (NPA), suggested the better strategy “is to go back to our Governments as representatives of civil society and tell them to not accept this report”. Bishop Mandlate said NGO’s are planning to meet to express a joint position on their vision about poverty reduction.
The joint poverty reduction report, called “A better World for All” proposes to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty by half by 2015.
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