30-06-2005 - High-Level Segment of ECOSOC - Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations

Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations

New York

Permanent Mission address: 150 East 42 Street, Level 33, New York, New York 10017 - Telephone: 1 212 351 6600 - Fax: 1 212 351 6610

Economic and Social Council
30 June 2005

High-Level Segment of ECOSOC

Statement by the Hon. Mr Bruce Billson, MP
Parliamentary Secretary for
Foreign Affairs and Trade

(Check against delivery)

Mr President,

Australia welcomes the opportunity to provide our voice to the 2005 High-Level Segment of ECOSOC, noting that this will constitute a major input into the 2005 United Nations Summit, to be held in September. Australia sees the Summit as providing the opportunity to take decisions on an ambitious range of development, security, human rights and institutional reform issues – to make the UN focused and fit for purpose.

We welcome ongoing efforts by the Secretary-General to reinvigorate the UN organisation in its 60th year, to build on its achievements and to enhance its credibility and effectiveness to ensure it is able to meet the challenges of the next 60 years.

The MDGs remind us of the scale of the task we face and allow us to track progress – in business management terms, the MDGs are useful KPIs (key performance indicators). Just as we have seen some business leaders ‘buy’ superficial and unsustainable improvements to please shareholders in the short-term, only to undermine future prospects or drain the capacity for ongoing progress, ODA should not just buy short-term remedies to the harm and hardship of poverty but also ‘invest’ in the future capacity for ongoing sustainable improvements in living standards.

Australia is committed to helping developing countries in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We are focused on assisting our development partners deliver services and opportunities to their people.

Tangible, sustainable and self-renewing progress will nourish the leadership commitment and perseverance needed, in both developing and developed countries, to nurture the prosperity to carry us beyond the MDGs. Broad-based growth that includes poor peoples’ participation in the economy is the pathway to poverty alleviation.

The World Bank states that broad-based and sustainable economic growth must be at the centre of any strategy to achieve the MDGs. Australia absolutely concurs with this analysis. Experience from East Asia, where over 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty over the last twenty years, clearly demonstrates this.

Progress towards the MDGs relies on continued improvements in governance and stability; investments in people; and a commitment to private sector growth. Further global trade liberalisation and openness to trade and investment – by both developed and developing countries – will be a key factor driving and supporting sustainable global and national growth and development. We must give our strong support to a successful and ambitious conclusion to the Doha Round of WTO Trade negotiations, and aim to conclude them no later than 2006.

HIV/AIDS

Mr President,

HIV/AIDS is a global crisis. Its impacts are immediate and devastating. We are deeply concerned at the impact of HIV/AIDS globally, and particularly in our own region. Today, almost a quarter of the people living with HIV/AIDS – some 8.2 million – live in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2004 new infections in Asia totalled 1.1 million. Predictions are that if the region is unsuccessful in turning the disease around by 2010, 40 per cent of all new global infections will be in the Asia-Pacific region. It could easily become the new epicentre of the epidemic.

Sadly, the virus still engenders fear and suspicion in communities. Recently, one of our young volunteers working with people with HIV/AIDS in the region wrote:

“This week I lost my first AIDS patient. Funerals are about mourning, respect and honour. But AIDS is changing this and a new culture is emerging. One that is about shame, embarrassment and silence. My patient’s father is respected in his family and community, but feared that on hearing that his child was dying of AIDS it would bring shame on himself and his family. Twenty-four hours after his daughter’s death, in the middle of the night, they took her body from the house to a family village far away in the bush. There they dug a hole, buried her, drank tea and ate dry biscuits and were relieved that no-one knew their daughter was dead. There were no customary speeches, no feasts, no contributions and no extended family.”

The depth of the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS remains very real. Australia is particularly alarmed by the increasing rate of spread of the epidemic among women and girls in our region. Once women become infected, prevailing gender norms increase the likelihood that they will be ostracised and rejected by families. Australia is working with partner countries in the Asia-Pacific on programs to promote women’s and girls’ access to education, prevention and treatment services and to redress violence against women. Most importantly, political leadership is needed if we are to tackle HIV/AIDS effectively. We are backing our strong call to combat HIV/AIDS with resources and action.

Fragile states

Mr President,

Fragile states face enormous challenges in reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development, including the MDGs. They demand our immediate attention.

Australia is working with fragile states in our region to address the development, security and political challenges they face. Through a new Fragile States Initiative, Australia will work with the World Bank, the UN, the Development Assistance Committee and other donors to develop innovative, integrated and pragmatic approaches to address these challenges. We aim to share our experiences in the Asia-Pacific as well as learn from others working in Africa.

Focus on the Asia-Pacific region

Mr President,

We target our aid in our own Asia-Pacific region. While there has been significant progress in parts of the region, it is still home to two-thirds or 700 million of the world’s poor. We are working with partners in the region to address their development challenges. We are also working together to ensure it receives the international attention it deserves. Asia and the Pacific is home to 40 per cent of the total number of people who live in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and yet these countries receive only 20 per cent of ODA to LDCs.

The MDGs set out what we all wish for – the eradication of poverty, hunger, disease and gender inequality, and the achievement of universal education, health and environmental sustainability. While it is the developing countries themselves that remain primarily responsible for driving their own development processes, we will continue to work with our development partners to help them achieve progress towards the MDGs.