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Second Committee Dialogue
“Inter-regional cooperation: An enabler for the post 2015 development agenda”
Dr. Rima Khalaf
Executive Secretary
October 31st, 2013- New York
The Arab region: diversity and multiplicity of actors
South becoming global driver of growth for Developing
Countries.
The Arab Region : Diversity and Complementarities
•
Resource rich, vs. LDCs
•
Aid donors vs. aid dependent
•
Labor exporters vs. labor importers
•
Conflict afflicted and post-conflict countries
•
Only remaining occupation in the 21st century,
•
Budding transformations to democracy
Traditional partnerships revisited and new inter-regional partnerships considered
Abundance of opportunities and challenges for cooperation
within the region and with other regions
Opportunities for Arab-South Cooperation
Financial Flows in the past 30 years
Saudi Arabia
United Arab
Emirates
• FDI outflow:
$30 billion
• FDI inflow:
186.8 billion
• FDI outflow:
$56 billion
• FDI inflow:
$86 billion
Arab Region
• FDI outflow:
$175.8 billion
• FDI inflow:
almost equal
Opportunities for Arab-South Cooperation (cont.)
Sovereign Wealth
Funds
Development
Assistance Flows
•Amongst the top 10 richest in the world
•Investment strategies primarily to engage in foreign
investments
• Arab donors average DA of 1.5% of GNI in 35 years, twice UN
target (0.7%) and 5 times average of OECD-DAC countries
• Outreach of the region is increasingly spanning to Africa and Asia
• Arab DA from merely Arab and Muslim countries to over 100
countries
Arab Development
Funds
• Total estimated resources of Arab Development Funds:
$80bn (2011)
Remittances
• In GCC over 75% of private sector workers are migrant workers.
• Almost 75% are Asian
• Positive impacts of remittances: increase household income,
reducing poverty, aiding construction and local economies…
Inter-regional imbalances
• Asia claims over 80% of all South-South trade
• Shares in South-South exports in 2010: 6% Africa and 10%
Americas.
• Asia exports manufactured goods to Africa, the Americas and
Arab regions export commodities to Asia
• Lack of technological transfer exacerbates the lack of
technological diversification, which increases the development
divide even within the South
Addressing these imbalances should
be put a priority on the political agenda
Regional perspective in the post-2015 dev. agenda
•
MDGS SHORTCOMINGS
Lack of clarity “on how to tailor
global targets to national realities and
regional dynamics”
•
Insufficient attention to the
conditions of vulnerable groups
•
Qualitative dimensions of service
provision, such as health and
education not addressed
•
Implementation problems: including
disregard to national specific
conditions
•
Weaknesses in achieving an effective
global partnership for development
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REGIONAL COMMISSIONS
Consultations to ensure regional voices
heard and regional priorities &aspirations
captured in post-2015 development
agenda debate
Report “A Regional Perspective on the
Post-2015 United Nations Development
Agenda” to identify regional priority
areas post -2015 .
RCs can contribute to the global
sustainable development agenda and
the agenda could benefit from the RC's
experience and assets.
ARAB REGION PRIORITIES
Economic sustainability
Social sustainability
Environmental sustainability
Governance & institutions
The role of Regional Commissions
Alignments
with regional
and national
challenges &
priorities
Regional
Commissions
Post-2015
development
agenda
Bottom-up
approach
Regional
dimension
to analysis
and policies
• regional priorities are
integrated into global
development debates
• capacity-building
• Convene regional
actors
• Offer space to share
lessons learned
• inter-regional
knowledge networks
• Inter-regional approach
to global governance
imbalances
• inter-regional dialogue
High Level Meetings Series: Challenges and
Opportunities of Democratic Transitions
• Five Regional Commissions mobilized their expertise and networks
for two high level meetings (January 2012 and February 2013) to
address the challenges and opportunities of Democratic Transitions
to support Arab countries going through this delicate phase.
Swift, highlevel
response
Convening
power
Strategic
dialogue
New ways
of doing
business
High Level Meetings Series: Challenges and
Opportunities of Democratic Transitions (Cont.)
• Interconnections between different aspects of democratic transitions
– Chile
– Slovakia
– Mauritania
– South Africa
• Transition to democracy is a long, drawn out and multidimensional
process
• A favorable regional and international context can support a
democratic transition, while unfavorable conditions can
undermine such transitions and maintain totalitarian regimes
Inter-regional cooperation
• Promotion of inter-regional cooperation underpinned
– By adherence to globally held values of human rights, good
governance and freedoms
– By alignment to regional priorities: economic, social and
environmental sustainability, democratic governance and public
sector accountability
• Focus on key sectors while developing intra-regional body of
knowledge for the design, implementation and evaluation of
cooperation programs
• Addressing inter-regional imbalances and establish a genuine
partnership among countries, based on our citizen’s aspirations:
freedom, dignity and justice
• Code of Conduct to address imbalances among regions, but not
emulating harmful patterns of interaction from the past
Thank you
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