A FIANNA Fail senator has described the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as being "out of touch", and has accused non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of being as divided as politicians on Third World problems.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs sub-committee on Development Co-operation yesterday, Senator Mick Lanigan also dismissed this week's National Forum on Development Aid as "a forum for slagging politicians
The forum, held to mark the EU Presidency, was addressed by the lCRC president, Mr Cornelio Sommaruga, among other contributors.
Senator Lanigan said Mr Sommaruga was "as far removed from poverty as the president of the International Olympic Committee is from a young person running at an athletics meeting in Dublin". A contribution by Mr Nick Stockton of Oxfam was also "highly political", he said. By contrast, Goal director, Mr John O'Shea, gave the gut reaction of people working on the ground.
Responding, Mr Michael O'Brien of the Debt and Development Coalition said his body was a good example of uniformity of opinion, speaking for over 70 different sponsors including the main NGOs.
The coalition, represented by Mr O'Brien, Ms Jean Somers and Ms Maura Leen, was invited to address the committee on EU policy towards multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The lack of transparency and accountability within these institutions stifled a proper debate on their policies, Ms Leen said. The G7, which held its meeting recently in Lyons, was an even smaller and less representative group, she said.
The EU had kept a low profile on the debt issue, Ms Somers said. It had been strongly criticised by the European Parliament for its uncritical support of the IMF and the World Bank. IMF resources should be directed towards debt cancellation, and Ireland should call for a fundamental review of its role in developing countries, she said.
Funding the IMF's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), which lays down very tight conditions for debt repayment, would add to this debt overhang, Mr O'Brien said. The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, has said Ireland will not support the ESAF before a comprehensive debt relief framework is implemented satisfactorily.
Welcoming the Minister's "courageous" stance, Ms Mary van Lieshout, policy director of Oxfam Ireland, told the committee that Ireland should use its EU representation at the forthcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Singapore to push for a series of measures to help the developing world.
Oxfam Ireland recommended that there be closer partnership with UN agencies and NGOs during the review of the GATT/Uruguay Round, to conduct a full assessment of social and environmental impacts.
Proposed discussions of investment policy must respect the principles of multilateralism and transparency, she said. And an inter-governmental panel on trade and sustainable development should provide the WTO's environment committee and other institutions with information to assist reform.
The WTO treaty should be amended to enable countries to impose import and export levies, consumption taxes, and trade restrictions in the interests of sustainable development, she said.
For instance, shellfish was the largest non-oil export from developing countries in 1990, but it was having a devastating effect on the rice-growing areas of Bangladesh and on the mangrove areas of the Philippines.
