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Development
assistance should not come with strings – President
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in London yesterday emphasized
that development assistance not come with strings attached.
Attending the Commonwealth meeting discussing reform of international
institutions in London President said that development assistance
is often combined with political and global objectives of
the donor or development partner and that this created difficulties
for the recipients as insufficient attention was paid to ground
conditions in recipient countries.
He also expressed the view that the multilateral financial
institutions should work directly with government rather than
indirectly through non-government agencies that pursue their
own agendas which were often inconsistent with the agenda
of elected governments. He reminded that elected governments
pursue an agenda that has been endorsed by the people.
The President also called for greater democratization of decision
making and transparency in the activities of UN and its agencies.
During the discussion on International Environmental Governance,
President Rajapaksa stated that although there have been many
international summits on environment issues that there has
been very few tangible outcomes. He called for a more pragmatic
approach in dealing with these issues highlighting that nearly
70% of the world’s natural disasters are due to climate
change. He stated that whilst developed countries had the
resources and expertise to face these disasters that developing
countries affected by these natural disasters have difficulties
in finding the resources in bringing their countries back
to normalcy. He referred to the decision to establish an adaptation
fund during the recently concluded Bali Conference and stated
that it was regrettable that no contributions had come in
to start the fund and take it forward.
With
regard to the reform of the Bretton Woods Institutions, President
Rajapaksa stated that policy prescriptions emanating from
these bodies should be more country conscious and not just
‘one size fits all’ solutions. He cited many examples
of how recommendations from these institutions have ironically
contributed to increase of public debts, currency depreciation,
decline in productivity, continued aid dependence, widening
of regional disparities and the gap in incomes.
Referring to the food security plan launched by Sri Lanka,
he said that the country had persisted with intense agricultural
development and that this policy was paying dividends today
as the world prepared to face the worst ever food crisis.
He stated that with subsidized fertilizer given to farmers,
agricultural production had increased and that these policies
had been pursued in variance with the recommendations of these
institutions.
As part of his official visit, President met with British
Premier Gordon Brown. He also met Minister of State for Foreign
and Commonwealth Affairs with special responsibility for Asia,
Lord Malloch Brown where the two discussed a wide range of
bilateral issues and the need to continue high level engagement
between the two countries.
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