Sir, Gordon Brown has identified strong and credible priorities for Africa ("Brown places debt relief for Africa at heart of UK's agenda for G8", December 9). I particularly welcome his initiative on HIV/Aids...

For a few years I have been a member of the board of the New York-based International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). I was in Uganda in the summer and was extremely impressed by the work IAVI is doing. Clinical trials are going well and there is strong political support for efforts to develop a vaccine.

It is a disgrace that research and development funding for an Aids vaccine represents less than 1 per cent of the global total of health-related R&D. Only an effective vaccine has the potential to halt the pandemic. Scientists are confident a vaccine is within reach. However, we have so far not seen the advocacy or financial strategies to accelerate this task. An Aids vaccine could be ready in a decade but a significant increase in funding is required.

The search for a vaccine is being spearheaded by IAVI. Our efforts and the efforts of others are bringing significant advances but progress is still far too slow. More scientists, more incentives for industrial participation and more investment from the public and private sectors is needed.

This is where I believe Mr Brown's plans for an International Finance Facility could have a real impact. As a mechanism to boost external financing for development, and finance global public goods, use of the IFF to increase resources for finding a vaccine seems ideal.

GLENYS KINNOCK
Member of the European Parliament
"Chancellor's HIV/Aids Plan Could Have a Real Impact"
Financial Times
December 13, 2004

"Este esfuerzo, pues, puede reportar beneficios a todos, porque estamos convencidos de que superar la pobreza contribuye decisivamente a establecer un patrimonio colectivo de bienes públicos mundiales. El primer bien público mundial ha de ser la paz, la salud, la calidad medioambiental, la seguridad humana, los mínimos derechos de la condición de hombres y mujeres."

JOSÞ LUIS RODR¡GUEZ ZAPATERO
President of the Government of Spain
Summit of World Leaders for the Action Against Hunger and Poverty, New York
20 September 2004

Available at:
http://www.la-moncloa.es/web/asp/muestraDoc.asp?Codigo=p2009040

The Netherlands opts for an approach in which the distinction between "us" and "them" or "our interests" and "wider interests" is not a mutually exclusive one.

Our efforts in the area of development cooperation are intended to afford other areas of the world access to peace and prosperity. Our human rights policy aims to increase access to fundamental freedoms and democratic values, so that they become genuine global public goods. We pursue these aims with the passion for which we are known, not because the Dutch know something that others do not, but because we realise that the impact of poverty and civil war, human trafficking and the plunder of raw materials, environmental degradation and water problems, is also felt by us in a globalising world.

When challenges and threats disregard national borders, we must likewise provide an international response. This is also why development cooperation, human rights policy, and security policy are more interconnected than ever before. Some might call this an idealistic vision of foreign policy. I would call it the realpolitik of the 21st century. As we know, diplomacy is the art of exploring the boundaries of the possible. In the 21st century, we are called upon not just to explore these boundaries, but also to push them back. The world is placing ever-stricter requirements on us. We will therefore have to elevate diplomacy to the art of making things possible. The Dutch are just as good at this as other countries, and secretly our European friends admit as much.

BERNARD BOT
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
"What is Whispered"
Slovak Spectator
28 June 2004

Available at:
http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok-16522.html

International jurisprudence has conceptualised the question of development through calls for a new economic order, the right to development, the definitions of rights and duties of states and sustainable or environmentally friendly developments. These concepts recognise that international relations between developed and developing countries have been prejudicial to the latter and that industrialisation has been taken in a manner responsible both for growing social inequalities and for unprecedented environmental damage. Presently, governments are increasingly forced to compete with one another in a worldwide "race to the bottom" on wages, taxes, and environmental protection and any other factor that might influence investment decisions.

With regard to the protections for investment and intellectual property rights that have been embedded in international agreements Stiglitz said they "are stronger than business groups could have achieved even in the pro-business environment of the United States." According to him "Global public goods and externalities -- actions which affect others throughout the world -- need to be dealt with at the global level; local public goods and externalities -- those which affect only those within the local community -- should be dealt with at the local level".

Conservatives often preach the best government is the least government. In this regard, the views of Stiglitz are very relevant and heart warming: "Economies can suffer from an over intrusive government, but so too can they suffer from a government that does not do what needs to be done -- that does not regulate the financial sector adequately, that does not promote competition, that does not protect the environment, that does not provide a basic safety net."

MUHAMMAD HABIBUR RAHMAN
Former Chief Justice and Chief Adviser to the caretaker government of Bangladesh
"Speaking at the International conference on emerging global economic order and developing countries organized by Bangladesh Economic Association"
Dhaka, Bangladesh
28 June 2004

Available at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/07/06/d407061501106.htm



In light of the growing shortage of clean water in the developing world and the international trend toward the privatization of water systems, Public Citizen applauds U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and 29 co-sponsors of the Water for the World Resolution, which was introduced late Thursday and calls for water to be regarded as a public good and fundamental human right.

It is essential that Congress support this measure. More than a billion of the world’s inhabitants lack adequate access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion have no proper sanitation. Thousands, mostly children, die each day from preventable waterborne diseases. Because of increasing pollution and a rate of global water consumption that doubles every 20 years, by 2025, 48 nations will face severe water shortages, according to the World Health Organization.

The Water for the World Resolution affirms that water is a global public good and should not be treated as a private commodity. It recognizes that government policies should ensure that all individuals have equitable access to water to meet basic human needs and that no one is cut off from water due to economic constraints.

WENONAH HAUTER
Director of Public Citizen’s Water for All Campaign
"Public Citizen Urges Congress to Adopt ‘Water for the World’ Resolution"
25 June 2004

Available at:
http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=845

There is of course a need to clearly understand the potential impact of major new arrangements. But analysis should not become an excuse for paralysis. We need action. There is an urgent need for a critical mass of new resources to deal with a wide spectrum of human hardship.

Indeed, even if we achieve the Millennium Development Goals, there will still be many millions of people living in extreme poverty, and we will need to keep working for its complete eradication. We will need to mobilize resources for infrastructure such as roads, ports and telecommunications. "Global public goods", such as a clean environment and action against disease, will continue to cry out for attention. I say this not to overwhelm you, but to be sure we all understand the need to act with greater urgency, and then to sustain that effort over the long term.

The new resources we need should not be thought of as charity, as an imposition on already strained budgets, or as a hand-out. Rather, they are a hand up that will enable countries to stand on their own feet. They are, ultimately, an investment in the future well-being and security of the world as a whole.

KOFI ANNAN
Secretary-General of the United Nations
High-level panel on innovative sources of financing for development
Sao Paolo, Brazil
15 June 2004

Available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=982

If the world is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, we will need not only significant changes in policies and priorities, but also a major effort by developing countries and the international community to mobilize additional financial resources. Most estimates suggest that on top of domestic resources, this would require at least a doubling of recent levels of official development assistance (ODA).

But even if such unprecedented levels were attained and the Goals were reached, there would still be a vast backlog of human deprivation. We would still need a broader, longer-term strategy that would provide the financing for the complete eradication of poverty for infrastructure such as roads, ports and telecommunications, and for "global public goods" such as fighting communicable diseases and protecting our planetÐs air, water, land and other essential resources, upon which all nations depend for their well-being.

JOSE ANTONIO OCAMPO
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs
"Major Effort needed to Mobilize Additional Financial Resources for Development"
Ministerial Forum on Financing for Development in Paris
08 April 2004

Available at:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sgsm9248.doc.htm

For my part, I will present the European Commission's external policies for fighting communicable diseases in developing countries...

The third main part of the Programme for Action involves increasing investment in research and development of global public goods targeting the three major communicable diseases. Research and development in the pharmaceutical industry is very largely driven by the demands of the industrialised countries' markets. Those diseases prevalent in developing countries, where markets are perceived to be small, are to a large extent neglected. Hence we have seen several new drugs developed in the past few years for heart diseases but not for TB. Just 10% of global health research efforts target the diseases that account for 90% of the global disease burden.

POUL NIELSON
European Commissioner for Development
and Humanitarian Aid External EU
"Policy on AIDS Conference: Aids in Africa:
What are the Priorities as for Medical Assistance"
European Parliament Brussels
08 December 2003

Available at:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guestfr.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=speech/03/598%7c0%7crapid&lg=en&display=

The main challenge international institutions face today is how to provide the best framework for the governance of globalization such that this process becomes a win-win situation, in which all economies ultimately benefit through productivity and growth effects. This means that a level playing field should govern the international division of labor and the integration of national economies via trade in goods and services to minimize unfair cross-border competition. This also means that there have to be rules which regulate corporate and foreign direct investment as well as financial flows. In the political arena, the United Nations (UN) attempts to deliver global public goods, while the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organisation, the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund are charged with delivering these goods in the economic arena.

I believe that the market is the best coordinating mechanism between free agents. However, there is also no doubt that market forces alone are not sufficient. That is why we need an international regulatory framework for the global community, with recognized and clear rules and with effective institutions. This framework also has to ensure that global public goods such as international financial and monetary stability, a clean environment and free trade are defined and provided, even if this requires nation states to give up part of their sovereignty.

Dr KLAUS LIEBSCHER
Governor of the Austrian National Bank
"Global development and stability - the challenge for
international institutions"
the Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche
Fakult°t der Universit°t Innsbruck (CSI)
Innsbruck
21 November 2003.

Available at:
http://www.bis.org/review/r031127b.pdf

When you think of the fact that in 20 years time about 70 million people have become infected with HIV they're all connected with each other. And secondly, that no country will be safe from AIDS when there are still others who have a major AIDS problem. So it has become a global public good, as economists would say.

PETER PIOT
UNAids Executive Director
BBC Talking Point "Ask the head of UNAids"
17 November 2003

Available at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3248715.stm

The EU is firmly committed to tackling the issue of global public goods, as confirmed in Council Conclusions on Monterrey and Johannesburg as well as the EU's Strategy for Sustainable Development.

The concept of GPGs is not new. But in a world of increasing global interdependency, the need to ensure effective provision is becoming more urgent. We must stop waiting for the emergence of global public bads, such as international financial crises or the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is more efficient and effective to take preventive action and provide global public goods, such as disease control...

There are close links between the development and GPG agendas. Developing countries are often least able to protect themselves against global public bads. Failure to provide effective control of HIV/AIDS will totally undermine prospects for achieving poverty reduction and sustainable development. Also, developing countries are less able to represent their interest in global flora where decisions about GPGs are taken (which is why we need to tackle governance issues in parallel).

Because of those links, it is both artificial and unrealistic to try to separate these two agendas, including on financing. We are committed to give priority to interventions that contribute most to poverty eradication. On principle, core GPG activities that benefit developed countries and developing countries equally should not be funded from aid budgets; nor those of most interest to developed countries. We must also continue to make the case for additional funds and make full use of non-financing mechanism e.g. incentive structures, rules and regulations.

We need a more coherent global framework to provide GPGs. But, at the same time, we need to ensure ownership in developing countries. GPG activities, such as health or environmental protection, need to be better integrated into regional/national development strategies. This poses major challenges to development agencies, which will have to continue to adapt to contribute effectively to regional and global initiatives.

CHARLES JOSSELIN
Former Minister for Cooperation and Francophonie
Special Adviser
Directorate General Development
(Commissioner Poul Nielson)
European Commission, Brussels
International Policy Workshop on
Global Public Goods: Concepts, Experience, Financing,
Berlin
5 November 2003

Available at:
http://www.dse.de/ef/gpg/josselin.htm

Germany wishes to lend impetus to the national and, above all, international discussion on the Global Public Goods approach (in parallel with and in support of the Task Force). And if we are to do so, the whole range of players must be brought together.

After all, the concept is still relatively recent, when one considers that the first publication on the topic, Kaul, Grunberg and Stern's "Global Public Goods - International Cooperation in the 21st Century", only came out in 1999. First of all, therefore, we need to find a common language and achieve a common understanding of the concept so that there can be no misunderstandings and we can take a constructive approach to the concept.

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have with the Global Public Goods concept is essentially a means of tackling the problems and concerns of the whole world, or at least of a large proportion of people in many countries and, above all, the problems and concerns of future generations; it is an approach based on shared responsibility and common efforts...All these have merged to form an - albeit embryonic - system of global governance. Indeed, we could even speak of a step being taken towards a cooperative global domestic policy, something we need now more than ever given the growing interdependence that has come with globalisation.

Increasingly, one aspect of this global domestic policy is seen to be the provision of Global Public Goods - in other words, goods that are useful, and indeed often indispensable to everyone, and transcend national borders, meaning that they cannot be guaranteed by one country acting on its own.

I think that the concept of Global Public Goods - similar to the concept of national public goods in national policy-making - can be helpful in establishing a common political understanding at global political level and in agreeing on how best to deliver the safe future people desire.

HEIDEMARIE WIECZOREK-ZEUL
German Federal Minister for Economic
Cooperation and Development
International Policy Workshop on
Global Public Goods: Concepts, Experience, Financing,
Berlin
4 November 2003

Available at:
http://www.dse.de/ef/gpg/zeul.htm

France, Sweden and the United Nations Development Programme have launched a new initiative for promoting global equity into the political forum with the task force on global public goods. I expressly support this initiative. I would like to focus on the concept of global public goods in the environmental sector. Not because this concept should be restricted to the environmental sector, but because I want to use this sector to illustrate successes so far and the need for further development. This could provide impetus for the development of suitable instruments in other sectors.

The prerequisite for protecting global environmental goods is, - that we recognize their crucial significance for the lives of all people and - that we finally define the global environment as the property of today's generation and future generations. It does not belong to today's global privileged classes, which appropriate most of it for themselves. I very much value the model of the ecological footprint to help internalize this perspective.

Users of global environmental goods have to restrict their interference and take responsibility for the ecological costs of their actions. This is in their own interest. Because if we don't protect global environmental goods it will neither be possible to achieve the millennium goal of halving poverty nor to preserve the wealth of the North.

MARGARETA WOLF
Parliamentary Secretary
German Ministry of the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)
International Policy Workshop on
Global Public Goods: Concepts, Experience, Financing,
Berlin
4 November 2003

Available at:
http://www.dse.de/ef/gpg/wolf.htm

Mit dieser Gesprächsrunde unterstützt das Entwicklungspolitische Forum nicht nur die Arbeit der Task Force sowie der "Freunde der Task Force", sondern auch die Ausgestaltung der Politik der Bundesregierung hinsichtlich der Weiterentwicklung des Konzepts Globaler Öffentlicher Güter. Im Erfolg des Rio-Johannesburg-Prozess im globalen Umweltschutz haben sich Instrumente der Bereitstellung, Regulierung und Finanzierung von Globalen Öffentlichen Gütern bewährt. Nun gilt es, Ansätze zu entwickeln, dieses Konzept für das Erreichen anderer weitreichender Ziele der internationalen Zusammenarbeit zu nutzen. Insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Millennium Development Goals und die Aufgabe, den Anteil der extremer Armut lebenden Menschen bis 2015 zu halbieren.

GUDRUN KOCHENDÖRFER-LUCIUS
Managing Director
InWEnt - Capacity Building International, Germany
International Policy Workshop on
Global Public Goods: Concepts, Experience, Financing,
Berlin
4 November 2003

Available at:
http://www.dse.de/ef/gpg/lucius.htm

Die Task Force selbst ist Ende September an der Yale University zu ihrem ersten Treffen zusammengekommen. Bei ihrer weiteren Arbeit sollte versucht werden, zunächst den Begriff wieder etwas einzugrenzen, dessen Verwendung in letzter Zeit inflationär ausgeweitet wurde. Seit etwa zwei Jahren gibt es eine intensive Diskussion wie der Begriff 'Globale Öffentliche Güter' definiert werden könnte. Lanciert wurde dies insbesondere durch die Arbeiten von UNDP, namentlich von Inge Kaul. Dabei ist es bisher aber nicht gelungen, diesen Begriff so zu definieren, dass er allgemein anerkannt wird...

Ohne zu weit vorgreifen zu wollen bin ich der Meinung, daß die Definition von 'Globalen Öffentlichen Gütern' letztlich zu einer politisch legitimierten Entscheidung führen muss. Die Task Force kann und soll dazu die notwendigen Vorarbeiten leisten und Empfehlungen geben. Als Scharnier zwischen der unabhängigen Task Force und den Regierungen könnte die Gruppe der " Friends of the international task Force " eine vermittelnde Rolle spielen.

KERSTIN MÜLLER
Minister of State
Federal Foreign Office (AA), Germany
International Policy Workshop on
Global Public Goods: Concepts, Experience, Financing,
Berlin
4 November 2003

Available at:
http://www.dse.de/ef/gpg/mueller.htm

There is repeated evidence that existing international structure do not deal adequately with the management and financing of these dimension of global interdependence - what some observers refer to as global public goods. This situation needs to be rectified. I fully appreciate that legitimate questions and concerns still surround the concept of global public goods but this should not detract us from capturing the main message, namely the need for collective policy responses to aspects of interdependence that are global in character.

JOSE ANTONIO OCAMPO
Under Secretary General for
Economic and Social Affairs
United Nations
General Assembly's Second Committee
6 October 2003

The Monterrey Conference also stressed the importance of other initiatives related to the effectiveness of aid, the reform of the international financial system, trade and development, debt sustainability, global public goods and innovative sources of financing. The European Commission is committed to advocating change and actively monitoring the concrete steps to be made in those areas as well.

POUL NIELSON
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Chief Executive Officer for Europe Aid Co-Operation Office
"The EU Push to Development Finance"
The Hindu Business Line
29 July 2003

Available at:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/07/29/stories/2003072900010800.htm

For the first time this century, we can eradicate a terrible disease from our planet. Together, if we all step up our efforts, we can attain this global public good and ensure no child will ever again know the pain of polio paralysis.

Dr LEE JONG-WOOK
Director-General of the World Health Organization
Geneva, 9 July 2003

Available at:
http://www.who.int/entity/mediacentre/releases/2003/pr60/en

The World Bank is catalyzing a market in which private capital can flow from OECD countries to developing countries for clean technologies and for development that is sustainable. The work of the PCF and the real life example of Chacabuquito shows how the Bank can help make markets work for global public goods through private capital. This not just a win-win situation, it is a triple win, for the private sector, for the environment, and for the people of Chile. This project is proof it can happen.

AXEL VAN TROTSENBURG
World Bank country director for Chile.
Santiago, Chile
June 17, 2003

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS...

We know the issues at stake. Every 30 seconds, a child in Africa dies from malaria. Every 10 seconds, a man or woman in a developing country dies from AIDS. To prevent tuberculosis, our only option today is to use a vaccine developed during the 1920s and which is not very effective. Tackling these issues means fighting for global public goods. These can not be promoted and safeguarded at the national level only.

POUL NIELSON
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Chief Executive Officer for Europe Aid Co-Operation Office
"Accelerating the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria: an EU perspective"
Columbia University
New York, 28 April 2003

Available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/nielson/speeches/20030428_en.htm

While we fully endorse the priority given, in the same paper, to the need for developed countries to increase market access for developing country exports and to provide more and better aid, we also note that this leaves out other important imbalances in the functioning of the global economy. Progress on issues such as the reform of the international financial system, the provision of global public goods, and the reform of the global governance are also important for easing the external constraints faced by developing countries

JUAN SOMAVIA
Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO)
"Statement to the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee"
Washington D.C.
April 12, 2003

Available at:
http://www.imf.org/external/spring/2003/imfc/state/eng/ilo.htm

... the disconnect remains between the long-term requirement for crop diversity conservation and the short-term nature of most funding for such conservation. Fortunately, there is a movement toward improvement. The Global Conservation Trust, which was established to strengthen and expand public and private resources in agricultural research, has made a good start on establishing an endowment to protect this global public good.

DONALD KENNEDY
Stanford University President Emeritus
Washington Post, "Save the Seeds"
3 January 2003

Available at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A3920-2003Jan2&not

It is now over a year since the tragic 11 September attacks made us all more aware that the world is not a safe place while perverse inequalities prevail. International co-operation, with co-operation for development as an essential part of it, is key in promoting lasting peace and security…The European Union can play a leading role in giving an answer to these challenges. It is the major world trading partner and the world's largest donor of development assistance. We have grown to recognise that lasting prosperity depends on pursuing mutually reinforcing strategies for stable economic growth, social development and environmental protection. We believe we can share this experience in addressing the challenges at the global level. And we need to do it by embracing all stakeholders.

POUL NIELSON
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Chief Executive Officer for Europe Aid Co-Operation Office
"World Solidarity and Global Stability: The role of the EU Development Policy"
University of Economics
Prague, 11 November 2002

Available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/nielson/speeches/20021111_en.htm

The subject of today's seminar – how to ensure effective provision of global public goods – is relevant to us all. The consequences of insufficient collective action are all too obvious. Whether it's extreme weather patterns. I just came home from the pacific region where I had the opportunity to visit a school on the shore. This year it was flooded twice. It had never been flooded before. Their worries about rising sea levels are real. It could also be financial crises, concerns about international security, the spread of contagious diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, the need for action beyond the nation state is likely to increase in future. To deal effectively with increased interdependency between countries we need global governance, global policies, global institutions and global actions inspired by concerns for equity and solidarity. We should not wait for the emergence of global public bads before we react.

POUL NIELSON
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Chief Executive Officer for Europe Aid Co-Operation Office
"Global Public Goods"
Europe and World Affairs (EWA) Forum
Brussels, 17 October 2002

Available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/nielson/speeches/20021017_en.htm

In the provision of the global public good of financial stability, the IMF has a crucial role to play. Executing this core task should however always be in a close partnership with both countries' authorities and the private sector. Otherwise IMF support might, by absorbing part of the costs of instability, provide incentives for private lenders to underestimate risks–and for national authorities to refrain from adopting policies that provide stability. Not only would it be an illusion to believe that the fire squad of the IMF is to quench all fires, nor should it be considered the sole party to be responsible for all extinguishing water for combating a crisis. Acknowledging this reality would also set a limit to the size of the Fund and would imply a stricter policy with regard to access to IMF facilities. The (improved) Fund is necessary, but not sufficient to promote global stability and prosperity.

HANS HOOGERVORST
Minister of Finance of the Netherlands
"Statement at the International Monetary and Financial Committee"
Washington D.C.
September 28, 2002

Available at:
http://www.imf.org/external/am/2002/imfc/state/eng/nld.htm

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