Press releases, 1.7.2008

Convergence needed in the development policy thinking and activities of Southern and Northern donor countries

Press release 237/2008
1 July, 2008

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen attended the Opening Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York on Monday, 30 June. During the high-level Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) organised in connection with the ECOSOC meeting, Väyrynen also moderated a panel on South–South and triangular development cooperation.

During his speech, Väyrynen took a strong stand on the conditionality of development cooperation.

“If we do not pay attention to the stability, peaceful conditions and quality of governance in the partner country, we cannot achieve permanent results. We should not abandon conditionality, because then we do not achieve all the dimensions important to sustainable development.”

Minister Väyrynen also stressed how important it is for Southern and Northern countries to discuss development issues.

“Conditionality is, above all, a question of requiring that the principles of sustainable development are followed. Discussion brings about convergence of different countries’ views, when we can reduce poverty and promote sustainable development more effectively and coherently”, the minister stressed.

The minister also encouraged the panel participants to consider whether Southern and Northern countries should work to converge their assistance profiles.

Under Secretary of State Marjatta Rasi, United Nations Under Secretary General Sha Zukang and Minister Paavo Väyrynen “Developing countries with successful social, health and education programmes could utilise their own experiences in other developing countries. Correspondingly, Northern states could increases their input, for example, in production and infrastructure projects”, the minister proposed.

South–South cooperation refers to cooperation where a developing country assists another developing country. The concept of Northern countries refers to industrialised Western countries. Triangular cooperation refers to cooperation between developing countries providing assistance, developing countries receiving assistance and Northern countries.

Additional information: Head of Unit Riitta Oksanen, mobile tel. +358 40 728 4023, and Päivi Nevala, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, mobile tel. +358 40 753 4375