Welcoming remarks by
Mr. Luc Stevens
UNDP Resident Representative
The National Consultation on
Legal Empowerment of the Poor in Jordan
Thursday, 6 September 2007 at 9:30 am
at United Nations University/University of Jordan
Your Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan
Your Excellency Ms. Suhair Al-Ali
Mr. Naresh Singh
Your Excellency Dr. Tayseer Al-Smadi
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of UNDP, I welcome you all today to the National Consultation on Legal Empowerment of the Poor in Jordan. We are greatly honoured to be associated in the whole process which led to this event.
Allow me at first to start by thanking Your Royal Highness. Your patronage of such an important event is of great privilege to all of us.
I also wish to thank Your Excellency Ms. Suhair Al-Ali, the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation for your presence with us today, and wish to welcome Mr. Naresh Singh, the Executive Director of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.
Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, distinguished guests,
As we are focusing today on the link between exclusion, poverty and legal rights, allow me to remind you that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent an ambitious and explicit commitment by the international community to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015. Virtually all bilateral and multilateral donor agencies have adopted poverty reduction as their overriding objective. Similarly, governments in poor countries have placed poverty reduction at the top of their agendas. Yet, despite the commitments and the efforts, progress on the ground appears slow and some countries are even regressing.
Poverty is a multidimensional concept that is not only about deprivation of income and the basic means of livelihood and well-being. Poverty also means vulnerability and powerlessness arising from both lack of knowledge and opportunities for participation.
As pointed out by the Human Development Report 2002, responsiveness and accountability are critical missing elements in our understanding of the relationship between the powerful elites and the disempowered poor who are asserting their rights. That is why it is becoming increasingly clear that democratic governance, which is a right in itself, is also the tool for ensuring basic human rights observance.
It is also evident that promoting the effective use of laws and legal aid for the poor is essential. It will empower and build the knowledge of the poor and disempowered so that they can successfully use the formal legal systems to ensure that corporations and governments deliver on commitments and actually pay redress for violations to poor citizens.
Our initiative of today aims to promote the empowerment of the poor, in particular, by expanding access to justice and rule of law, protecting property rights, ensuring labor rights, and legally empowering informal businesses. We, at UNDP, are most proud to support this initiative not only for its added dimension in addressing the poverty debate but also for the consultative process undertaken to generate findings and recommendations of the four thematic papers which will be discussed today.
It goes without saying that the participation of all stakeholders in the poverty reduction process, including the poor themselves, is necessary to ensure successful implementation of any poverty reduction strategy. Furthermore, it will advance poverty awareness and stimulate national debate. A frank and healthy debate among all stakeholders will ultimately promote political, social and economic empowerment.
With that said, I wish to end by turning to the participants in today’s consultation, and wish them success. I hope you will have productive discussions around the four thematic papers that were prepared by national authors. We expect that you will generate findings and recommendations that take into account the concerns of all Jordanians, particularly the poor. Our ultimate aim is to improve the capacity of the poor in order for them to have greater control over their own lives and livelihoods.
Many thanks.