Briefing Note for Journalists

At the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD), convened by the United Nations in March 1995 at Copenhagen, Heads of State and Government adopted the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action, which represented a collective commitment to treat social development as the highest priority of all national and international policies.

The holding of the World Summit for Social Development, and the attendance of 117 heads of State or government and the representation of 69 other States were a powerful global expression of commitment to social goals. These were stated in terms of the central goals of poverty eradication, full employment and social integration and developed in the preparatory process into the 10 commitments agreed at the Summit.

Creation of an enabling environment: Heads of Governments agreed at the Summit that social development was inseparable from the cultural, economic, political and spiritual environment in which it took place. They committed themselves to adopting a series of measures to enable people to achieve social progress. Those measures, once implemented, would facilitate the creation of an environment that was supportive of productive economic and social activities at all levels of society. These measures included legislative and judicial reforms to make national and international laws and regulations compatible with the principles of equity and full respect for human rights, human dignity and integrity, and also incorporate reforms to improve the governance of public institutions and systems so as to make them more accessible and responsive to the needs of all.

Eradication of poverty: Commitment 2 called for decisive national action and international co-operation to eradicate poverty as "an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind". To that end, countries committed themselves to formulating and/or strengthening national policies to reduce overall poverty and inequality, as well as to eradicating absolute poverty. At the international level, the international community and organizations, including the financial institutions would assist countries in fulfilling this commitment.

Promotion of full employment: Commitment 3 aimed at the promotion of full and productive employment. Countries agreed to pursue strategies in which the promotion of employment and the reduction of unemployment would be central to national policy-making. At the international level, Governments agreed to foster international co-operation in macroeconomic policies in order to promote sustained economic growth and job creation.

Promotion of social integration: Social and economic advancement of societies depends on co-operation among its members. This, in turn, is shaped by and depends upon the existing institutional system. The Summit viewed institutionalised inequalities as impediments to social participation — and, hence to social integration and solidarity — because of their effect on the distribution of opportunities and the resulting impact on market outcomes. In this context, the promotion of social integration entails the elimination of existing inequalities in fundamental rights and freedoms, and the creation of an institutional framework at the national and international levels that is conducive to participation and co-operation.

Achievement of equality and equity between women and men: In 1995, both the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women recommended specific and practical strategies to be implemented at the community, regional and national levels as a means to address the specific institutional, socio-economic and cultural barriers that impede the advancement of women. Commitment 5 of the Summit called for achieving equality and equity between men and women, full respect for human dignity, and enhanced access and participation by women. The General Assembly, in its resolution 50/203, advocated the development of comprehensive national strategies or plans of action on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration by member States. Since that time, 105 Member States have officially submitted national action plans to the United Nations Secretariat, which has analysed them in terms of adherence to the recommendations of the Platform for Action, preparation, content, actions defined and resources allocated.

Access to health and education services: The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action called for countries to make efforts towards achieving the goal of universal coverage and access by all to quality education and primary health care. The Summit recognised the importance of the provisions of these services as a means to eradicate poverty, promote full and productive employment and enhance social integration.

Acceleration of development in Africa and in the least developed countries: World leaders committed themselves at Copenhagen to accelerating the economic, social and human resource development of Africa and the least developed countries. Many African and least developed countries, with the assistance of the United Nations organizations and the international community, subsequently set out to undertake various actions to support the implementation of the Summit’s commitments for Africa.

Inclusion of social development goals in structural adjustment programmes: Commitment 8 reflected Governments’ concerns about the negative social consequences of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). Accordingly, countries committed themselves to including social development goals in their SAP, including the eradication of poverty, the promotion of full employment and the enhancement of social integration. At the international level, this Commitment encouraged multilateral development banks and other donors to complement adjustment lending with targeted social development investment lending, and to support national requests to give priority to social programmes in the formulation of SAPs.

Allocation of resources for social development: This commitment addressed issues of financial resources for social development. Countries committed themselves to increasing significantly and/or using more efficiently resources available in order to achieve the goals established at Copenhagen. It envisaged a series of measures at the national level, including the implementation of macroeconomic policies to foster growth, the promotion of domestic savings and fair taxation systems, so that additional resources can become available. At the international level, countries would seek, among other things, to facilitate and increase the flows of resources to developing countries.

Co-operation for social development: The implementation of the Copenhagen commitments on the international level implied an active search for forward-looking policies by Governments, international agencies and other actors, as well as better collaboration between them and a reformed and reinforced United Nations. This collaboration would be particularly relevant in the face of the growing social and economic impact of the ongoing integration of the world economy, especially given the asymmetric distribution of benefits and risks arising from the globalisation process. In this context, in September 1998 the General Assembly convened a high-level meeting on renewal of the dialogue on strengthening international economic co-operation for development through partnership, on the overall theme of "The social and economic impact of globalisation and interdependence and their policy implications". This represented a positive step towards finding common solutions for a more equitable sharing of the benefits of the globalisation process while minimising its overall costs.

The main objective of this follow-up conference is to monitor rather than evaluate the progress in the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. This is because too short a time has elapsed since March 1995 for a full-fledged evaluation of policy measures put in place by member States. The idea of taking stock through monitoring is to highlight major advances made, and to provide the necessary information for decision-makers and development actors to design interventions and strategies to speed progress towards the targets. Specifically, the monitoring will apply to Progress in Poverty Reduction; Progress in Employment Creation; Progress in Public Spending on social sectors, especially Education and Health; Progress in Establishing Socio-Political environments (particularly in Governance).

There are at least 127 indicators that the United Nations uses to measure socio-economic progress. For these subregional conferences, however, the idea is to use quantitative and time-bound targets as established by the UN Conferences of the 1990s. All the objectives have dates starting with the year 2000. The key goals and monitoring indicators for the year 2000 are as follows:

• By the year 2000 life expectancy at birth should be no less than 60 years, in all countries. By 2005 it should rise above 70, and by 2015 above 75.
• By the year 2000, mortality in under-fives should be reduced by one-third from the 1990 level, or to 70 per 1,000 live births, whichever is less. By 2015, this should be reduced by another half.
• By the year 2000, maternal mortality should be reduced by half from the 1990 level, and by another half by 2015.
• Severe and moderate malnutrition among under-fives should be reduced by half from the 1990 level, addressing the gender gap in nutrition in particular.
• Universal access to high-quality and affordable primary health-care should be achieved by 2000. All programme-related barriers to the use of family planning should be removed. Polio, guinea worm, iodine deficiency disorders and vitamin A deficiency should be eliminated.
• By the year 2000, universal access to basic education and the completion of primary education by at least 80 % of primary and secondary school-age children should be achieved. By 2015, universal primary education for all should be achieved.
• By the year 2000, adult illiteracy should be cut by at least half from the 1990 level. The gender gap in primary and secondary school education should be closed by 2005, and female illiteracy should be reduced by at least half from its 1990 level by 2020.

In reporting on the Conferences and in applying analysis to the subject matter, journalists should use the indicators to assess the status of their respective countries in reducing and eradicating poverty – which is the overarching challenge to emanate from Copenhagen.

Subregional Perspective:

Eastern Africa: Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda

Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, Congo D. R., Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe

• In those countries facing socio-political instability and/or involved in conflicts such as Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda and Uganda, structural constraints to social advancement were compounded by related constraints such as the destruction of social infrastructures and increased military expenditures that constrained resource allocation to social sectors.
• Poverty levels in Southern Africa are among the highest in the world. The average Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.470 for all SADC countries ranks among the lowest in the world. Generally speaking, the subregion has made some progress in poverty reduction. With the backing of the donor community, nearly all SADC countries are implementing one form of poverty alleviation programme or other. Most have taken the form of direct food and material transfers to affected population segments.
• With the exception of the Seychelles, the debt burden also remained a major constraint to social advancement in all countries of the subregion.
• Except for Ethiopia and Eritrea where underweight prevalence were respectively 41 and 48 per cent, more than two thirds of children of all other countries in Eastern Africa are well-fed.
• The highest proportion of population having access to health services (80%) were Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania. These countries were followed by Kenya (77%) and Madagascar (65%).
• Of all countries in the world levels of maternal mortality have persistently been highest in Africa. The estimates of maternal mortality ratios for 1990 indicate that levels were greater than one thousand in six of the countries in Eastern Africa.
• The levels of infant mortality for the period 1990–1995 indicate that infant mortality was greater than 100 per 1,000 live births in seven countries and more than 50 per 1,000 live births in all countries in the subregion.
• Countries in the subregion may be able to achieve their set targets to lower their under fives mortality ratios by one third, but are unlikely to reduce it by 70 per 1,000 live births or less.
• Kenya (71/73) had the highest enrolment ratios for girls and boys while Somalia has had its lowest ratios implying that there must have been a breakdown in the educational system in that country.
• Levels of illiteracy for both females and males were highest in Burundi (78/51) and Ethiopia (75/55). Kenya (30/14) and DR Congo (32/13) were the lowest.
• The majority of people have no access to safe drinking water in almost all countries that have reliable data. Djibouti (90%) alone has majority of its population with access to safe water and sanitation.