UN Pacific economics chief previews Vanuatu keynote
Updated
Government ministers and officials from fourteen Pacific countries are gathering in Vanuatu for a week-long series of meetings on how their economies can cope with the impacts on them from the global economic meltdown.
The main conference which starts on Wednesday is titled the Pacific Conference on the Human Face of the Global Economic Crisis.
One of the keynote addresses to be given by the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Dr Noeleen Heyzer. Dr Heyzer previews what her message will be to the Pacific leaders and bureaucrats.
Presenter: Sean Dorney, Australia Network's Pacific correspondent
Speaker: Dr Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
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HEYZER: There are basically three messages, one is that there are new shocks and vulnerabilities external to the Pacific Islands but unfortunately making it extremely difficult for them to achieve their development goals, including the ESCAP Mauritius strategy. And it's a combination, it's multiple shocks if you like and this is the combination of not just a food-fuel crisis that we have seen, but increasingly the financial global economic crisis that have in fact been combined with the climate change extreme weather conditions that we have seen recently in terms of natural disasters. And all this has meant that the transmission belts in terms of what would help development be it in terms in trade and investment, in terms of remittances, in terms of tourist flows, have in fact affected the countries. But unfortunately more than ever they have also affected some of the poorest households and therefore we need to look at how this gets transmitted into increasing poverty, and also increasing difficulty for people to survive in this environment.
The second message is that we need to then re-understand these new belts of transmission and their effect on the households and on individuals, but out of that understanding we need to forge development strategies that deal with coping strategies in terms of the impact, but also in terms of building resiliance and recovery, and finally of long-term development strategies.
DORNEY: I suppose in a way the Pacific is right at the end of the line in the economic crisis isn't it, it's sort of the last to be affected?
HEYZER: It is affected but at the same time because it's a bit more isolated you still have relative growth, I mean you haven't really fallen into deep depression. So you have a growth rate overall of one-point-nine per cent. But because we are highly inter-dependent, what happens in Australia, what happens in Asia, unfortunately affects the Pacific Islands. There is unfortunately a decrease in consumption patterns because of the high cost of living, and increasing crime rates because of unemployment. Even if we just take the export sector alone, the export sector has been affected by decreasing employment in the garment sector which affects women, and even if we take Fiji, one-thousand women have lost their jobs. If we look at the commodity sector like in PNG and so on because of the falling prices, again you find that the rural sectors have been affected. But also the increasing cost of fuel, I mean to do trade, especially in the Pacific, the cost of transportation is extremely high and therefore one needs to take all that into account.
DORNEY: It's interesting to me that both yourself and the head of the UNDP, both women, are here in Port Vila this week. What's the message there do you think?
HEYZER: The message is very clear that the UN is highly committed at the highest possible level on behalf of the small island states and this is critical because the Secretary General's agenda is definitely one of the climate change agenda, Copenhagen has just ended. But we need to make sure that whatever new resources that comes in, in terms of the climate change adaptation fund and so on, the small island states will benefit. And that the interest of the small island states and the decision-making powers are reflected as negotiations are taking place.
DORNEY: So in a strange way it's a bit of a follow-on from Copenhagen?
HEYZER: Well I would say that it is and it's not, because this is the time when all the reviews are taking place. I mean there will be a review of the least developing countries. There's a review of the ESCAP Mauritius strategy, and it's all coming together, together with a review of the ESCAP Millenium development plans, and all these things are really coming together. And I think that what we want to make sure that when there are monies going into climate change agenda it does not affect the development agenda, and that the interests of some of the poorest and some of the most risky and vulnerable countries are not sacrificed in the reallocation of resources. It cannot be the reallocation of all resources, there has to be new and additional funding. And if we can save the banks we can definitely save the small island states and our least developed countries from the vulnerabilities of shocks and of, in fact for some of the small island states, of extinction.
