Monterrey Consensus
Encyclopedia
The Monterrey Consensus was the outcome of the 2002 Monterrey Conference, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 International Conference on Financing for Development. in Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It was adopted by Heads of State and Government on 22 March 2002. Over fifty Heads of State and two hundred Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Development and Trade participated in the event. Governments were joined by the Heads of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 (IMF), the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

 and the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

 (WTO), prominent business and civil society leaders and other stakeholders. New development aid commitments from the United States and the European Union and other countries were made at the conference. Countries also reached agreements on other issues, including debt relief, fighting corruption, and policy coherence.

Since its adoption the Monterrey Consensus has become the major reference point for international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...

 cooperation. The document embraces six areas of Financing for Development:
  1. Mobilizing domestic financial resources for development.
  2. Mobilizing international resources for development: foreign direct investment and other private flows.
  3. International Trade as an engine for development.
  4. Increasing international financial and technical cooperation for development.
  5. External Debt.
  6. Addressing systemic issues: enhancing the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in support of development.


Some critics suggest that the US has ignored the Monterrey Consensus because the amount of US official development assistance
Official development assistance
Official development assistance is a term compiled by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to measure aid. The DAC first compiled the term in 1969. It is widely used by academics and journalists as a convenient indicator of...

 (0.18% of its gross domestic product in 2008), is still well below the 0.7% target, which it endorsed in the Consensus. It is much lower than some other developed countries, especially those in Scandinavia.

2008 Follow-up Conference in Doha, Qatar

The Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus (Doha,Qatar, 28 November - 2 December 2008) was attended by some 40 Heads of State or Government, 9 Deputy Heads of State or Government, 50 ministers and 17 vice-ministers of foreign affairs, finance, development cooperation and trade, as well as other high-level officials of 170 States and major institutional stakeholders.

Doha Declaration

Following intense intergovernmental negotiations, the Conference concluded with the adoption of the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development (http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/doha/documents/Doha_Declaration_FFD.pdf). The two key messages included in the document were a strong commitment by developed countries to maintain their Official Development Assistance (ODA) targets irrespective of the current financial crisis, and a decision to hold a UN Conference at the highest level on the impact of the current financial and economic crisis on development.

Other main highlights of the Doha Declaration are:

Domestic resource mobilization: the importance of national ownership of development strategies and of an inclusive financial sector, as well as the need for strong policies on good governance, accountability, gender equality and human development.

Mobilizing international resources for development: the need to improve the enabling environment and to expand the reach of private flows to a greater number of developing countries.

International trade as an engine for development: the importance of concluding the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations as soon as possible.

External debt: the need to strengthen crisis prevention mechanisms and to consider enhanced approaches for debt restructuring mechanisms.

Addressing systemic issues: the need to review existing global economic governance arrangements, with a view to comprehensive reforms of the international financial system and institutions.

Plenary meetings

The Conference was chaired by the Emir of Qatar and included seven plenary meetings. A total of 133 Governments made statements to the plenary. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the General Assembly, the Director-General of WTO, the Secretary-General of UNCTAD and the Administrator of UNDP spoke at the opening.

In their statements, Member States took stock of the progress made in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, identified obstacles and constraints encountered and put forward ideas and proposals to overcome these difficulties. Many statements focused on the consequences of the global financial crisis for development and the need for bold and urgent measures to address them. Much attention was also devoted to the food and energy crises and to the untapped potential of innovative sources of finance.

Round tables

Six interactive multi-stakeholder round tables were held concurrently with the plenary meetings, centering on the six thematic areas of the Monterey Consensus. Each round table was co-chaired by two Heads of State or Government and ministers from developing and developed countries and moderated by a high-level official of the major institutional stakeholders.

Panelists included HRH Princess Maxima of the Netherlands; S-G’s Special Envoys for the Conference, Mr. Trevor Manuel, South African Finance Minister and Ms. Heidemarie Weiczorek-Zeul, German Minister for Development Cooperation. Following presentations by panelists, interactive discussions took place among representatives of Member States, inter-governmental organizations, UN agencies, civil society and the business sector.

Pre-conference events

The Conference was preceded by a high-level retreat on the global financial crisis, hosted on 28 November by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Emir of Qatar. The retreat was attended by some 30 Heads of State or Government and ministers from both developed and developing countries, as well as high-level representatives of the major institutional stakeholders. The retreat was meant to serve as a “bridge” between the discussions on the financial crisis that had taken place among smaller groups of countries and the wider membership of the United Nations.

A Global Forum of Civil Society was held from 26 to 27 November on the theme “Investing in people-centered development” and attracted participation of more than 250 civil society organizations and networks. In addition, an International Business Forum, held on 28 November focused on mobilizing private sector resources for development and was attended by more than 200 participants from the private sector.

Side events

More than 50 side events took place at the Conference site. In the spirit of Monterrey, the organizers were Governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations and the business sector. The issues of inclusive and innovative financing
Innovative financing
Innovative financing refers to a range of non-traditional mechanisms to raise additional funds for development aid through "innovative" projects such as micro-contributions, taxes, public-private partnerships and market-based financial transactions....

 for development featured prominently in several side events. High-level speakers included: HRH Princess Maxima of the Netherlands, the President of Tanzania.

Source: http://www.un.org/esa/desa/desaNews/v13n01/global.html#Doha

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/doha/index.htm

Press and NGO reactions to the Doha Conference

The press noted that few leaders of Western countries attended the meeting. The meeting was also marked by the absence of the heads of the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and IMF). The United States aid chief still thought the meeting was worthwhile, and welcomed the outcome. Other, such as the Eurodad
Eurodad
Eurodad is a network of 58 non-governmental organisations from 19 European countries. Eurodad and its members make up a network, this network researches and works on issues that are related to debt, development finance and poverty reduction.Recently this network has focussed on issues such as...

 network criticised it.
  • Conference website: http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/doha/
  • Host country website: http://www.ffd-qatar.org/english/


See also

  • Development Assistance Committee
    Development Assistance Committee
    The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee is a forum for selected OECD member states to discuss issues surrounding aid, development and poverty reduction in developing countries...

  • Aid effectiveness
    Aid effectiveness
    Aid effectiveness is the effectiveness of development aid in achieving economic or human development . Aid agencies are always looking for new ways to improve aid effectiveness, including conditionality, capacity building and support for improved governance.-Historical background:The international...

  • Washington Consensus
    Washington Consensus
    The term Washington Consensus was coined in 1989 by the economist John Williamson to describe a set of ten relatively specific economic policy prescriptions that he considered constituted the "standard" reform package promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries...

  • United Nations Millennium Campaign
    United Nations Millennium Campaign
    The United Nations Millennium Campaign is a UN campaign unit that was set up in response to the Millennium Declaration signed by 189 member states. Established in October, 2002, the UNMC aims to increase support to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and seek a coalition of partners for action...


External links

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