Official Launch of
Human Development Report ‏2005
Sunday, 25 September ‏2005

Your Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal,
Your Excellency Saoud Nsairat, Minister of Transport,
Acting Minister of Planning & International Cooperation,

Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,

 It is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you to this launch ceremony for UNDP’s Human Development Report for 2005.  It is a particular honour for us that HRH Princess Basma has graced us with her presence on this occasion. As one of UNDP’s Honourary Human Development Ambassadors, you have contributed greatly over the years to ensure that our human development message is listened to and taken seriously.  For that we are most grateful.

 We also extend a special and warm welcome to H.E. Saoud Nsairat, Minister of Transport, who is representing the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation today.

 The 2005 Report brings us back to the start of the new millennium, 5 years ago, when the world's governments united to make a remarkable promise to the victims of global poverty.  Meeting at the United Nations, they signed the Millennium Declaration – a solemn pledge "to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanization conditions of extreme poverty".  This is a bold vision and it will take genuine commitment and substantial resources if we are to live up to the promises.

 To date some progress has been achieved, but there are still many countries off track for most of the Millennium Development Goals.  The limited progress, including access to education, clean water, mother and child care and rolling back of infectious diseases, shows that the promise to the world's poor is being broken. 

 The UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report says that the year 2005 marks a crossroads.  The world's governments face a choice.  One option is to seize the moment and make 2005 the start of a "decade for development" by putting the investments and the policies needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in place now, while there is still time to deliver on the promise of the Millennium Declaration.

 The other option is to continue on a business as usual basis and make 2005 the year in which the pledge of the Millennium Declaration is broken.  This is a choice that will result in the current generation of political leaders going down in history as the leaders who turned their backs on the poor and the marginalized.

 This year's Human Development Report is about the scale of the challenge facing the world at the start of the 10-year countdown to 2015.  Its focus is on what governments in rich countries can do to keep their side of the global partnership bargain.  This does not imply that governments in developing countries have no responsibility.  On the contrary, they have primary responsibility.  No amount of international cooperation can compensate for the actions of governments that fail to prioritize human development, to respect human rights, to tackle inequality or to root corruption.  But without a renewed commitment to cooperation backed by practical action, the Millennium Development Goals will be missed.

 The Report focuses on three pillars of cooperation, each in urgent need of renovation.  The first pillar is development assistance. 

 International aid is one of the most effective weapons in the war against poverty.  Today, that weapon is underused, inefficiently targeted and in need of repair.

 But this is a responsibility of both; the developing countries have a responsibility to create an environment in which aid can yield optimal results, and rich countries that have an obligation to act on their commitments.

 The second pillar is international trade.  Under the right conditions trade can be a powerful catalyst for human development.

 Improved multilateral cooperation on trade is vital if the international community is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and wider development objectives.  International trade rules and national trade policies need to be aligned with a commitment to poverty reduction.  The starting point should be a recognition that greater openness to trade, like economic growth, is not an end in itself: it is a means to expanding human capabilities. 

 The third pillar is security.  Violent conflict blights the lives of millions of people.  Since 1990 more than 3 million people have died in armed conflict.  Almost all of the deaths directly attributable to conflict have happened in developing countries.  Apart from the immediate human costs, violent conflict disrupts whole societies and can roll back human development gains built up over generations.

 There are no blueprints for preventing or solving violent conflict.  However, without much more effective international cooperation to tackle the treats posed by violent conflict, the international community cannot hope to protect basic human rights, advance collective security and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  Putting the threat posed by violent conflict at the heart of the development agenda is an imperative, not just to save lives today but to save the future costs of humanitarian aid, peacekeeping and reconstruction- and to reduce the global threats posed by a failure to advance human security.

 In addition to the three pillars, the 2005 Report argues that inequality matters because it is a fundamental issue for human development.  Deep disparities based on wealth, region, gender and ethnicity are bad for growth, bad for democracy and bad for social cohesion.

 Distribution should be put at the centre of strategies for human development.  At a national level this implies that plans for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, including poverty reduction strategy papers that set out a framework for cooperation between developing countries and aid donors, should include measures for redressing extreme inequalities. 

 At a global level the international community can create an enabling environment in which governments committed to human development can succeed.

  Thank you,