Mr. President, Fox
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are here to discuss the fate of people. Not people in the abstract, but million upon million of individual men, women and children - all of them eager to improve their own lives by making their own choices; and all of them able to do so, if only they are given the chance.
At present, they are denied that chance - by multiple hardships, each of which makes it harder to escape from the others: poverty, hunger, disease, oppression, conflict, pollution, depletion of natural resources.
Development means enabling people to escape from that vicious circle.
And for development you need resources. Human resources. Natural resources. And also, crucially, financial resources.
That is why we are here - and it is good to see so many of you here, particularly those of you from developed countries.
You have realised, as more and more of your fellow citizens are realising, that we live in one world, not two; and that no one in this world can feel comfortable, or safe, while so many are suffering and deprived.
It is equally good to see so many leaders here from the developing world itself.
They are not here asking for hand-outs. They know that they themselves have much to do to mobilise domestic resources in their own countries, as well as to attract and benefit from international private capital.
What they are asking for is the chance to make their voices heard, and ensure that their countries' interests are taken into account, when the management of the global economy is being discussed.
What they are also asking for is the chance for their countries to trade their way out of poverty - which means that the markets of the developed world must be fully and genuinely open to their products, and the unfair subsidies to competing goods must be removed. The promise of Doha must be fulfilled.
What many of them are asking for is relief from an unsustainable burden of debt.
And many of them are saying that, in order to do without hand-outs, their countries first need a helping hand up, in the form of a significant increase in official development aid.
Eighteen months ago, the political leaders of the entire world agreed, at the Millennium Summit, that we must use the first 15 years of this new century to begin a major onslaught on poverty, illiteracy and disease. And they gave us a clear measure of success or failure: the Millennium Development Goals.
Achieving those goals by 2015 would not mean the battle for development had been won. But if we fail to achieve them we shall know we are losing.
And all serious studies concur that we cannot achieve them without at least an additional $50 billion a year of official aid - roughly a doubling of present levels - given in an efficient way, which, for instance, leaves recipient countries free to choose the suppliers and contractors that best meet their needs.
The clearest, most immediate test of the Monterrey spirit will be whether the donor countries provide that aid.
Any new proposals must genuinely add to the resources available for development, rather than leading, over time, to a decline.
Some donors may be reluctant to commit themselves, because they are not convinced that 'aid works'.
To them I say, 'look at the record'. There is abundant evidence that aid does work. Aid brings spectacular improvements in literacy, and spectacular declines in infant mortality, when it is channelled to countries with enlightened leaders and efficient institutions. Indeed, enlightened leaders can use aid to build efficient institutions.
Aid is vital, but it is not the whole story. Development is a complex process, in which many different actors have to work together, and not against each other. To take just one example, it is no good helping dairy farmers in a country if, at the same time, you are exporting subsidised milk powder to it.
That is why it is so encouraging to see finance ministers and businessmen here as well as development ministers. And that is why the process of preparing this conference - with the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the Bretton Woods institutions working together as never before - has been so extraordinary. At last, we are all tackling the issues together, in a coherent fashion.
Mr. President, that is the true Monterrey spirit, which we must sustain in the months and years ahead.
The 'Monterrey Consensus' is not a weak document, as some have claimed. It will be weak if we fail to implement it. But if we live up to the promises it contains, and continue working on it together, it can mark a real turning point in the lives of poor people all over the world.
Let's make sure that it does!
Thank you very much.
