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Politics

Hagamos que las cumbres internacionales sirvan de algo

Jun 26, 2023 Ngaire Woods

OXFORD – Los líderes mundiales que se han reunido en París para la Cumbre para un Nuevo Pacto Financiero Mundial han prometido movilizar recursos para ayudar a los países en desarrollo a hacer frente a las crisis de deuda y empoderar al Sur Global para asumir un papel más importante en la gobernanza global. Si bien estos son objetivos meritorios, este tipo de cumbres de alto perfil muchas veces ofrecen poco más que fotos grupales y promesas vacías.

Aun así, la reunión de París es relevante porque preparó el escenario para una serie de cumbres de líderes en septiembre: la reunión del G20 en Nueva Delhi, el encuentro Finanzas en Común en Colombia y la Cumbre sobre los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio de las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York.

La eficacia de estas cumbres se torna aún más importante si consideramos lo que está en juego. El aumento de la extrema pobreza en los últimos tres años, junto con la creciente frecuencia de los desastres humanitarios y naturales, muchos de ellos causados por el cambio climático, subraya la necesidad de que los países construyan resiliencia.

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Dawood Mamoon Jun 26, 2023

Dear Professor NGAIRA WOODS,

A remarkable article by you moving beyond rhetoric. I am an academic myself and worked in a position of a Director with not only Ministry of Commerce in Pakistan but with two local Universities namely University of Management and Technology (UMT) and Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering (GIK) and therefore I have some experience of organizing international colloquiums attended by Honorable Ministers, Senior Faculty, Deans and Leading Business Leaders of Pakistan. Obviously when compared to Summit for New Global Financing Pact that was held in Paris, the scope of conferences I have organized is very limited and mostly done for the benefit of academia, industry and government collaboration. Nevertheless, I know few standard operating procedures to get maximum results out of a public event. For example, necessary briefings are given to the leaders that are attending the public event by the host. The best outcome is the public speech of all honorable guests that are invited to speak at the event. The commitment for the leaders is if they have spoken with genuine affability and commitment to the cause. Then all opportunities are provided for the invited speakers to interact with each other. Representatives would continuously be noting down the minutes of every official and informal meeting at the venue between the leaders. Many initiatives are proposed in the bilateral meetings. After the event, the minutes of the meeting are consolidated and thereby shared among the relevant leaders.

In case of the Leaders meet up in Paris, I think there were many good things. Being a Pakistani I would concentrate on the activities of our honorable Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif, honorable Environment Minister Madam Sherry Rehman and Honorable Information Minister Madam Maryam Aurangzeb. But first about the speech of our honorable Prime Minister Mr Shebaz Sharif. He spoke all the right words and communicated the case of Pakistan in a remarkable manner among his panel of global leaders forum. He rightly said that Pakistanis are a nation of brave people. WOrld needs to trust Pakistan and its people. He was not asking for any favors there and rightly so. His charismatic personality was at display during his informal meeting with President Macron or with the German Chancellor. He also met IMF head,

Pakistan is awaiting and is near default averted by our talented Finance Minister Ishaq Dar because there is no deal between IMF and government of Pakistan. Yesterday, I was reading the article of Professor Duflo and Michael Kremer and both are Nobel Prize Winners and they mentioned the support that many projects in Africa have received whereby the success is gauged from social returns than economic ones and all the projects are about poverty reduction through social innovation. That is the future of development policy. But IMF recommendations for Pakistan are the same that were in the 1990s and that is to bring more fiscal discipline. Have they tried to request Government of Pakistan to also consider social returns of their development schemes like Benazir Income Support Program or Prime Minister's Lap Top Scheme. Since 2017, I have been jobless for atleast couple of years because I had to move between cities for the purpose of providing best education opportunities for my daughters and had to leave lucrative jobs where my career prospects were far brighter. However, I have utilized my time when I was mostly jobless by writing articles and books sitting home on my laptop. This comment is part of the same activity. In short, my laptop costed only 200 dollars and the research activity that I have performed is worth more than hundred thousand dollars and it should be considered as a social capital. Prime Minister Shehbaz Shareef has equipped every university student with a lap top. Did IMF asked the government of Pakistan to mutually calculate and agree upon the monetary worth of social capital many development assistance schemes government of Pakistan has initiated or for example same is initiated with Industry, University and Government collaborations. IMF is not moving ahead with releasing the 6 billion dollars Pakistan has asked for because IMF thinks Pakistan has not imposed enough taxes on the common Pakistani. Is this the future of Development Assistance and is this the commitment of Developed Countries that know and as you have put in your article have caused mostly the change in Climate and resultant debt crises in developing countries like Pakistan.

Our Environment Minister Madam Sherry Rehman is an eloquent speaker and an intellectual more than a politician. She has attended many international forums where she has highlighted the economic challenges Pakistan faces due to 2022 floods. She has taken up the case of Pakistan most eloquently in the Paris Summit too. I think the leaders who attended the Paris Summit did a marvelous job. They have spoken the relevant language as per the theme of the summit and now it is up to the host to coordinate between the governments of all the countries who were represented in the Summit.

To go beyond rhetoric and words is the job of relevant beauracracies and relevant Ministeries. And I agree that the commitments made in the Summit should reflect on other international conferences like the one on SDGs. There should be continuity of efforts.

Pakistan hasn't requested for a debt right off though it can legally make a sense out of it because of devastating floods in 2022 ravaging livelihood of poor people in at least three provinces. Under a monetary crunch caused by the delay in IMF deal, It is easy to conclude that those hundreds of millions of poor Pakistani's are surviving on some kind of social capital and bringing social innovation to their livelihood that has come after due assistance from the government and Pakistan army through many development assistance schemes and what little aid money and resources Pakistan received disproportionate to its needs for the natural calamity.

Pakistan is duly committed to its development goals as most of the developing countries are that are represented in Paris Summit. There is a need to take the words of honorable Prime Minister Mr Shebaz Sharif that Pakistan is a nation of great people with far greater potential in social innovation and social capital. Let the Institutions of International Governance responsible for development assistance evaluate Pakistan not only with the potential of monetary opulence of individuals but with a perspective of their values and their ingenuity to overcome hardships through locally defined social innovations.
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