The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation

10. Visions and Priorities for the 1990s: The United Nations Strategy for the Fourth Development Decade

ten Visions and Priorities for the 1990s: The United Nations Strategy for the Fourth Development Decade n The Setting: The Need to Revitalize Economic Growth and Social Development The international strategy for the Third Development Decade became history almost before it was adopted. It was overtaken by the economic situation and political climate of the early 1980s. In 1987, however, the UN General Assembly began work on an international development strategy for the Fourth Development Decade (DD4), insisting that short-term adjustment problems of the world economy should not obscure the development of longer-term perspectives. By the end of the “lost decade,” the United Nations had begun a process that aimed at a new start. The process was all-inclusive.1 When work on the strategy began, development prospects were bleak for most developing countries and the objectives set for the Third Development Decade were largely unfulfilled. The preparation of the strategy, which was driven by Third World countries and UN secretariats, was seen as an instrument to break the development stalemate of the early and mid-1980s. It was not the only initiative to this end. During the 1980s, the G-77 had tried to launch a round of global negotiations on international economic cooperation that was originally scheduled to begin in 1980. The General Assembly deferred the issue in 1987 and again in 1988. However, in 1988 it decided to include it on the provisional agenda for its 1989 session.2 The 0.7 percent ODA target was brought to the fore again: transfers of financial resources to developing countries were important for sustained economic growth and development , and ODA was of particular importance for the poorest among them.3 In 1989, the General Assembly decided to convene a special session devoted to international economic cooperation the next year with a view to revitalizing economic growth and development in developing coun- 332 n The Lost Decade and a New Beginning tries.4 Preparations were also under way for the Second United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, to be held the following year. Even the Charter of Rights and Duties of States—the key political document in the struggle for a new international economic order back in the mid-1970s—was dusted off and brought forward again by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, with some hope that the time might be ripe for implementing it.5 The tide was turning. Work on the strategy had been initiated at a time of bleak development prospects, but in 1989 the ongoing relaxation of East-West political tensions reinvigorated the process. The collapse of the bipolar system in 1990, which also created a new setting for NorthSouth relations, added fuel. The General Assembly repeatedly recognized growing interdependence among nations in its decisions. For example, a resolution on preparations for the upcoming 1990 special session noted that it was necessary to overcome the external debt crisis, provide adequate financial flows to developing countries, strengthen the international trading system, enlarge market access for exports of developing countries, address the problems of developing countries regarding commodities, promote regional economic cooperation and integration, and facilitate the creation, transfer, and absorption of new and emerging technologies. These were familiar issues that had featured prominently on the development agenda for years.6 In a subsequent resolution the assembly set the agenda for the 1990s: international cooperation with the goal of eradicating poverty in developing countries. The resolution referred to major NIEO-related resolutions of the mid-1970s.7 In the spring of 1990, the eighteenth special session of the General Assembly served as a prologue to the new development strategy for the 1990s. Symbolically, on International Labor Day, 1 May, the Declaration on International Economic Co-Operation, in Particular the Revitalization of Economic Growth and Development of Developing Countries, was adopted. Its main message was that the major challenge of the decade was the revitalization of economic growth and social development in the developing countries. This would require sustained growth in the world economy and favorable external conditions.8 The Setting: The Need to Revitalize Economic Growth and Social Development On 21 December 1990, the General Assembly proclaimed the Fourth United Nations Development Decade (1991 to 2000) and adopted the Visions and Priorities for the 1990s n 333 International Development Strategy for this decade.9 The strategy was based on the global consensus reached in the Declaration on International...