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Generally, Filipinos are intensely focused on the
Philippines. They hardly notice what is going on with
the rest of the world except when global crises erupt.
It was therefore a wonderful but tiring break for me to
go to four European cities for a week and catch up with
what is happening in the rest of the world.
The
cities visited were Berlin, The Hague, Utrecht and
Amsterdam. All in the space of one week, including
travel time! I realized once more how interconnected we
all are and how global events impact on the ordinary
Filipino.
Berlin:
Global finance and the Filipino
This
coming November, a very important global conference will
take place in Doha, Qatar. This is the Financing for
Development meeting, which will assess the status of
efforts to generate adequate financing on a global scale
for development, particularly the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG).
All
country members of the United Nations, including the
Philippines, are expected to come. The multilaterals,
e.g. the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,
including the regional development banks, will be in
attendance. The proceedings will be observed by
international civil-society organizations and business
organizations.
Preparatory meetings and discussions are already held in
the United Nations. Many countries are readying for
active participation in the Doha meeting by conducting
national consultations.
Germany,
one of the G-8 countries and a major global player, has
gone beyond domestic consultations. On September 9, the
German government convened a big development-policy
forum involving not only the government, the business
community and civil society, but also experts and
officials from different parts of the world. In this
way, the concerns of developing countries were
articulated. These inputs situated German interests in
the context of financing requirements of developing
countries for the MDGs.
Senior
United Nations officials participated in intense
discussions, along with representatives of the
multilaterals, private banks, finance ministers of South
Africa and Mali, the state secretary for International
Development of Norway, religious leaders and
representatives of global civil-society organizations,
including Social Watch.
Three
topics were covered in vibrant sessions: the global
status of the MDGs and benchmarks for common action;
mobilizing international resources; and mobilizing
domestic resources.
I was
part of a three-person panel which critiqued the
proceedings. The other two members were the deputy
executive director of Unicef and the director general of
the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development of Germany.
Focus of
the debates was largely on what is still needed for MDGs
to be achieved, and the roadblocks to adequate financing
for the MDGs. Lively discussions focused on official
development assistance and alternative sources of
financing.
As for
domestic resources, passionate discourses centered on
forgone taxes due to perks, holidays and exemptions
offered to investors. There were detailed discussions on
how to protect the interest of host countries in
extractive industries like mining. Exchanges on
governance and corruption were inevitable.
I ended
my critique with a description of the Alternative Budget
Initiative convened by Social Watch, which advocates for
increased budget allocations for the MDGs. I warned that
the MDGs may not be attained by 2015 and emphasized the
need for a sense of urgency and, at the same time, of
hope.
Yes, the
very issues which are currently being debated in the
Philippines are debated globally. So when is the
Philippine government calling for a national
consultation?
The Hague, Utrecht and Amsterdam
When
they learned that I was in Europe, Filipino graduate
students of the Institute for Social Studies, led by
Marivic Raquiza, asked me to visit them in The Hague and
give an update on developments in the Philippines. We
had a very lively exchange on social and economic
issues, with politics thrown in for good measure.
The
proposed theses of the
students are very interesting and provocative. One of
them is on homosexuality in the New People’s Army,
entitled “Comrades and Lovers in Arms.” Hmm.
The
Netherlands is one of the most active countries
supporting the work of civil-society organizations
through its international nongovernment organizations
(NGOs). There, Janet Carandang of the Social Watch
Secretariat and I had meetings with Dutch NGOs. It was
stimulating to share updates and views on Philippine
developments as well as the global scene with Oxfam-Novib
and Cordaid in The Hague; Icco in Utrecht; and
Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.
Touching
base with like-minded institutions from across the globe
enhances global solidarity. It assures us that we are
part of an international movement and that we are not
alone as we struggle and carry on our sometimes lonely
advocacies for the wretched of the Philippine earth. |
