Communication and Commitment

DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND PERFORMANCE
In its new concentration on policy support and advisory services for institution building, UNDP needs to adopt a participatory approach to program development and implementation listening, forging partnerships, promoting mutual learning and sharing of experiences. To this end, John Ohiorhenuan presents the full rationale and an actual case study of this approach in his article, "Learning to Listen, Listening to bution concludes his tenure as Editor in Chief of this journal (he recently became the new United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Republic of South Africa).
There is an "enormous imbalance" in the measurement and monitoring of aid relationships, as described by Gerry Helleiner. He sees that many measures for policy change and performance that would be useful to recipient countries. He argues for example, that an important performance indicator for donors should be whether they provide timely data on their aid to recipient governments.
Reviewing the UNDP Human Development Report 2000, Paul Martin considers it an important instrument for bringing human rihts advocacy and development closer together. He sees its two main strengths as: highlighting poverty as a major cause of human rights violations and a prime target for remedial action; and advocating a human rights approach that introducts the concepts of duty, accountability and culpability into development thinking.
Assessing the new "Africa Growth and Opportunity Act" of the U.S., Julius Nyang'oro concludes that this trade law has little direct benefit for African countries, in large part because Africa's economic transformation really depends on what happens inside the continent. He argues that Africa needs to "set its own house in order" through a dynamic approach to regional cooperation, and that this is the essential key to breaking into global markets.
The new Partnership Agreement between the European Union (EU) and 70 African, Caribean and Pacific (ACP) countries improves on the previous Lome Conventions, according to Severine Rugumamu. Its flexibility, allows nonstate actors to participate in managing development cooperation, and complements other international development commitments for poverty reduction and sustainable development. However, he cautions that EU-ACP power asymmetry leaves room for reinterpretation of the Agreement by the dominant party to suit its own needs.

WORLD ISSUES AND WORLD CONFERENCES
The year 2000 has been a turning point in the world's treatment of development issues. Major international conferences assessed the actions taken and still outstanding issues on women's concerns, population and reproductive health, and social development, as well as the broad range of future tasks for the world community in the new century. The main coalition of the developing countries also rethought and re-enforced its functions in its first-ever summit meeting. Five articles offer some signposts at this crossroad.
Hilkla Pietila examines international efforts towards women's empowerment and advancement over a quarter century. The Platform for Action adopted in 1995 is "rich and progressive", but its implementation has been weak. She concludes that there is still a long way to go to "mainstream" gender perspectives and assessments of gender impact as part of national laws, plans and programs. To travel that distance, the momentum of the global women's movement must be maintained.
Assessing the follow-up to agreements reached at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, Balla Musa Silla finds that donors, country planners and health agencies are still puzzled about the shift in programming and funding the activities it prescribed. He explains that Cairo resulted in a shift towards building community services, which cover the full range of people's reproductive health needs and choices, not just family planning. This for many countries is still a new and complex idea, Silla concludes.
Under the auspices of Social Watch, NGOs and civil society organizations from around the world evaluated that was happened since the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) in 1995. Key problems identified are that donor promises to assist developing countries have not been fulfilled, citizen participation is paltry, and globalization is not benefiting those most in need. An article based on Social Watch monitoring reports looks at ten benchmark issues taken up at the WSSD follow-up conference, and compares expectations with delivery.
Reviewing the first South Summit, Bhaskar Menon notes that it resulted in bold moves by the Group of 77 to increase its capacity and revive its effectiveness in support of economic and social development. Focusing on globalization, South-South cooperation and North-South relations as priority themes, the summit's decisions have potentially significant impact, but the Group must surmount serious internal obstacles in implementing these decisions.
The UN Secretary -General outlined new challenges for the new century in his report to the UN's year 2000 "Millennium Summit." The Executive Summary of that document highlights such issues as globalization and governance, freedom from want and fear, environmental and natural resource protection, and renewing the UN.