Grants and debt swaps should be explored in Bali Summit<\/p>\n
Bahtiar Arif, Center for Indonesia Reform, Lecturer, University
\nof Pancasila, Jakarta, bahtiararif@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
The preparatory meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable
\nDevelopment is currently taking place in Bali.<\/p>\n
The Bali meeting will draw a final draft which will be brought
\nto Johannesburg where the summit will run from Aug. 26 to Sept.
\n4.<\/p>\n
The main agenda of the Summit is to push for a sustainable
\ndevelopment agenda that calls for improving the independent
\nrelationship between people and the environment and to address
\nthe needs of the more than one billion people who presently lack
\naccess to clean water, sanitation and modern energy services.<\/p>\n
Implementation of the agendas will be focused on building
\npartnerships between government and private sectors, known as
\nPublic-Private-Partnership (PPP).<\/p>\n
As Nittin Desai, Secretary General of the Summit, said: The
\ngovernment cannot fight poverty and protect the environment
\nalone, so it is important to build a partnership.<\/p>\n
The Bali meeting will discuss and formulate the partnership
\ninitiatives, and the results will be submitted for further
\nconsideration and adoption at the Summit.<\/p>\n
But, who truly gains from the sustainable development agenda?
\nHow effective do the partnership initiatives need to be to obtain
\nthe objectives? Are poverty alleviation and environmental
\nprotection the main and sincere agendas?<\/p>\n
The sustainable development promoted by the United Nations
\nWorld Commission on Environment and Development (UNWCED) and
\nbased on the Brundtland Report has challenged the development
\nideology which primarily focuses on economic growth without
\nconsideration for the environment or human matters.<\/p>\n
The premise is to design and implement "safe" development
\nprograms in terms of environment and human matters.<\/p>\n
However, the costs involved to save our planet will be
\nexpensive in monetary terms.<\/p>\n
Even for developing countries burdened by huge amounts of
\ndebt, it will be difficult to finance such development programs.<\/p>\n
Therefore, a private finance initiative may be the best
\nalternative to finance the sustainable development program.<\/p>\n
If the proposal for a private finance initiative is agreed
\nupon, private sectors, which have sufficient funds, will obtain
\nthe projects.<\/p>\n
They have enough funds to be used for such programs. But, it
\nis common in the private sector that profits come first. Based on
\nthe UK's experience, there has been "a hidden subsidy" from the
\ngovernment budget to the private sector. For profitability
\nreasons, the private sector intentionally re-treats some
\nunfinished projects, so that the government is obliged to give "a
\nhidden subsidy" to the private sector to finish the projects.<\/p>\n
Second, which countries have multinational enterprises ready
\nfor such an initiative? Developed or developing economies? If
\nfirms in developing countries are not ready to participate in the
\ninitiative, those from the developed countries will seize the
\nopportunity -- and therefore, there will profit from the
\ncompensation from recipient countries for the initiative. There
\nwill be two questions: Who will guarantee that no "hidden
\nsubsidies" will occur and how effective will this make the
\noverall sustainable development program?<\/p>\n
Sustainable development has affected countries to obtain
\nsustainable growth. In developing countries, some development
\nprograms supported by the international agencies -- the World
\nBank and IMF, have been designed and implemented. However,
\npoverty alleviation and other human development have not been
\ngood. In addition, environmental destruction such as pollution,
\nlack of clean water, deforestation are by-products of the World
\nBank and IMF programs.<\/p>\n
Then, who should be responsible? It is not only the
\nresponsibility of the private sector or governments, but all
\npeople. All humans -- in developed and in developing countries --
\nlive on the same planet. Environmental destruction in some
\ncountries will usually affect others. So, saving the earth is not
\nsolely the responsibility of any particular country.<\/p>\n
Poverty, uneducated people, pollution, floods, lack access to
\nclean water, sanitation and modern energy services are all of our
\nproblems, both rich and poor countries. In the global society, it
\nis thus the main responsibility of the rich countries. It is
\nimportant to know the motives of transferring their money to poor
\ncountries whether for a moral reason or an economic\/political
\nreason.<\/p>\n
Two alternatives may be better than private finance
\ninitiatives. First, financing environmental and human development
\nprojects must be done with more grants from rich countries to
\npoor countries. The commitments of the rich countries to save the
\nearth and its people should be proven by giving more money for
\nsustainable development to poor countries. This is a moral
\nobligation for the rich, that will not necessitate Mahatir-style
\n(Malaysian Prime Minister) radical ideas of taxing the rich
\npeople in poor countries, because such a tax would be rejected by
\nthose rich people.<\/p>\n
Second, the rich countries and international organizations can
\nask indebted countries to redirect their debt repayment
\nallocations in their respective state budgets for sustainable
\ndevelopment programs. This can be done by swapping debts for
\nnature and human development as has been suggested of late.<\/p>\n
More grants from the rich countries and debt swaps may be
\nbetter alternatives than a private finance initiative.
\nDelegations who are preparing for the Summit need to consider
\nthese alternatives to save our planet and people. Hopefully the
\nSummit will sincerely push for these objectives -- with a "shadow
\nagenda", especially from the rich countries.<\/p>",
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