DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
SEPTEMBER 22, 2003
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE COMMUNIQUE
1. At our last meeting, we strongly reaffirmed
our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
set out in the U.N. Millennium Declaration, endorsed by Heads
of State and Governments in the U.N. General Assembly on September
8, 2000 and in particular our commitment to the global effort
needed to reduce poverty. Today we renewed that commitment and
continued our work on implementing the strategies, partnerships
and actions agreed in Doha, Monterrey and Johannesburg.
2. We welcomed the paper on Supporting Sound
Policies with Adequate and Appropriate Financing and its country-based
approach. We agreed that there was an urgent need to scale up
efforts if the MDGs are to be met and that this would require
enhanced concerted actions on the parts of both developing and
developed countries and the international institutions. Developing
countries will have to sustain their efforts to strengthen policies
and governance so as to ensure that domestic resources, private
inflows and aid can be used effectively in spurring growth, improving
service delivery and reducing poverty. Developed countries will
need to move vigorously in supporting these efforts with more
and better aid, debt relief and improved market access.
3. To implement this partnership to meet the
MDGs, systematic efforts will be needed to achieve greater synergies
between poverty reduction strategies and longer-term MDG targets,
to specify and implement the actions needed to accelerate progress
on the MDGs, and to identify the volumes and forms of financing
needed to implement agreed strategies. We agreed that ensuring
adequate, timely and more predictable financing and enhancing
aid absorptive capacity through policy and institutional reforms
would both be critical to the virtuous cycle of actions needed
to meet the MDGs. We urge that countries, without delay, take
specific steps to meet their commitments to provide additional
aid resources by 2006. Furthermore, we call upon the Bank, working
with the Fund, to examine the merits of various policy options,
such as an international financing facility, to mobilize the substantial
additional resources that are needed over the medium term and
can be effectively used to achieve development results and in
scaling up progress towards the MDGs. Developing and emerging
market countries should also be consulted closely. We asked the
Bank to report to us at our Spring 2004 meeting.
4. Changes are also needed in the way that aid
is provided as highlighted in the Declaration of the Rome High
Level Forum on Harmonization. In addition to streamlining procedures
and lowering transaction costs, assistance will have to be better
aligned to country need, to country priorities and processes,
to countries that demonstrate the ability to achieve measurable
development results; and to support the development of countries'
capacity. Commitments should also be predictable and long-term;
provided in a form that can meet cash requirements to achieve
the MDGs; and in appropriate country circumstances, especially
in view of long-term debt sustainability, more of it should be
provided in grants and, where conditions warrant, in ways that
can finance recurrent costs.
5. We continue to believe that a successful conclusion
to the Doha Development Agenda is vital to growth, poverty reduction
and progress in attaining the MDGs. We therefore regret the temporary
setback to multilateral trade negotiations at WTO's Fifth Ministerial
and urge all participants to capitalize on progress to date and
put the process back on track as soon as possible. We welcome
the Bank and Fund's recent pledge to support countries to benefit
fully from a more liberalized trading system. We also urge continued
efforts to tailor Bank lending activities to support country-owned
trade initiatives, translating analysis and diagnostics into meaningful
operations.
6. As called for at Monterrey, we have continued
our consideration of innovative and pragmatic ways to enhance
the voice and effective participation of developing and transition
countries in the work and decision making of the Bank and the
Fund. There is no single approach to accomplish this, but rather
action is required over time across a range of issues. The development
of the Poverty Reduction Strategy approach represents a step towards
ensuring responsiveness by the Bretton Woods Institutions to country-owned
strategies and priorities. In this context, we also welcome on-going
efforts to promote greater openness and transparency, decentralization
and staff diversity in all its dimensions. We urge the Bank and
the Fund to step up these efforts.
7. We welcomed the further progress by Directors
on measures to enhance capacity in developing and transition country
Executive Directors' offices and in capitals. We also welcomed
the proposed Analytical Trust Fund for use by Executive Directors
representing sub-Saharan African developing countries in undertaking
independent research and analysis on development issues. We called
for further work on additional capacity-enhancing measures, including
secondments. We look forward to concrete action by our Spring
meeting.
8. The IDA-13 Mid Term Review and IDA-14 negotiations
provide a timely opportunity to enhance borrower participation
in the IDA replenishment process and its Board's decision-making.
We noted that by taking up their full IDA subscriptions, developing
countries could significantly increase their aggregate voting
share and we encouraged these countries to take the necessary
actions in this regard. We urged further consideration and progress
on all these issues.
9. We note that the complexities involved in
changing the voting structure and composition of the Boards will
require time and effort to arrive at the necessary political consensus.
However, we recognize the need to continue our efforts on these
issues. We asked the Boards of Executive Directors to report back
to us on all aspects of the voice issue at the 2004 Annual Meeting.
A roadmap on procedures and next steps will be considered at our
Spring meeting.
10. We reviewed the status of the HIPC Initiative
and reconfirmed our commitment to its objectives, full financing,
and implementation. We also recalled that within existing guidelines,
additional relief can be provided at the completion point, on
a case-by-case basis, and noted on-going discussions about the
topping-up methodology and requested further work on this issue.
Some HIPCs face a continued challenge to reach the decision point
and we encouraged ongoing efforts by staff in this area, including
application of the approach contained in the World Bank Task Force
Report on Low-Income Countries under Stress. We recalled the importance
of full creditor participation and again urged all official and
commercial creditors that have not yet done so to participate
in the HIPC initiative and welcomed the recent decisions by some
non-Paris Club creditors (India and Libya). We look forward to
a report being prepared by the staff of the Bank and Fund on a
forward-looking framework for debt sustainability in low-income
countries and to reviewing the report at our next meeting. We
also encouraged further work by the Bank and the Fund on ways
to help reduce the vulnerability of these countries to exogenous
shocks, including commodity market and weather-related shocks.
11. We are encouraged by the continuing progress
under the PRSP approach. We welcome the increasing openness of
policy dialogue with all stakeholders, improved focus on sources
of growth and the investment climate, and on policies needed to
reduce poverty and achieve the MDGs, greater realism and better
prioritization, increased pro-poor public spending, and efforts
to strengthen public expenditure management and better integrate
expenditure proposals into national budgets. At the same time,
we recognized that PRSPs are charged with multiple and sometimes
competing objectives and the challenge now is to achieve successful
implementation, including through much more effective donor alignment
and harmonization around national strategies. We also asked the
Bank and the Fund to respond to requests for assistance from countries
undertaking Poverty and Social Impact Analyses (PSIA) and developing
alternative scenarios to meet the MDGs, where appropriate.
12. We stressed the need for accelerating progress
and results on service delivery MDGs, including through the Education
for All Fast Track Initiative (FTI). We asked the Bank to report
on progress on funding and lessons from the implementation of
the FTI at our next meeting.
13. We supported the Bank Group's renewed focus
on infrastructure, in light of the important contribution infrastructure
makes to sustainable economic growth and reaching the MDGs
by improving the investment climate and supporting the development
requirements of low and middle-income countries. We welcomed the
report on the infrastructure action plan, as well as the follow-up
to the recommendations of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure,
and asked the Bank Group to work with member countries to secure
its early implementation within their development strategies.
In particular, we noted the importance of scaling-up investments
within a comprehensive development approach, and the catalytic
role international financial institutions can play in this regard.
We stressed that the right policy environment, institutional and
maintenance capacity are crucial for ensuring sustainable infrastructure
investments. We are pleased the Bank Group has intensified efforts
to build on its international comparative advantage, expertise,
and established policies, by investing in infrastructure projects,
supported by country diagnostic work. We also urged the Bank Group
to engage in cross-border investments, especially in light of
the linkages to the trade agenda. We encouraged the Bank, IFC
and MIGA to continue to work together on initiatives that facilitate
and promote the use of joint instruments, and through work at
the sub-sovereign level and via guarantees. Finally we noted that
an implementation progress update would be provided to Bank Executive
Directors before our next meeting, and we will return to this
issue at a future meeting.
14. Progress in all areas we discussed and others
is critical to achieving the MDGs and related development outcomes.
We, therefore, welcomed the implementation report for the global
monitoring of policies and actions for achieving the MDGs, which
will allow the Committee to maintain a strategic overview on progress
on key issues and priorities in the policy agenda and to reinforce
accountabilities. We look forward to the first full report at
our next meeting.
15. Finally, we noted the current difficulties
in the region in which we met. We welcomed the active role of
the World Bank in helping meet the urgent economic and social
needs of the Palestinian people of the West Bank and Gaza. We
also welcomed its role in promoting economic and infrastructure
cooperation in the region. We noted the constructive role played
by the Bretton Woods institutions, in cooperation with other international
organizations, in positioning themselves to work closely with
the people of Iraq in the task of reconstruction and development
towards a future that will enable them to achieve their economic
potential under their own leadership. We look forward to the forthcoming
donors' conference on Iraq, which will play a critical role in
mobilizing resources adequate to placing Iraq on the path of economic
recovery. Success in both the West Bank and Gaza and in Iraq,
while challenging, is nonetheless essential to stability and development
in the region and beyond.
16. We wish to thank the authorities and people
of the United Arab Emirates for their excellent hospitality and
facilities.
17. We welcome confirmation of Mr. Trevor Manuel,
Minister of Finance of South Africa, for an additional term as
Chairman.
18. The next meeting of the Committee will be
held in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2004.
| 
