United Nations Economic and Social Council

The Copenhagen Declaration: Issues from the Subregional Follow-up Conferences

  1. Background
  1. Most parts of the world have experienced, over the past two decades or so, a serious deterioration in the social and economic conditions, characterized by the rise in unemployment, poverty, crime, violence and civil strife. They are manifesting themselves in social tensions and disintegration, which threaten global security and development. Allied to this, the social and economic crises are eroding and reversing the substantial material progress achieved globally during the second half of this century. It is against the backdrop of the concern about the worsening social and economic conditions and their destabilizing effects on many societies; and acknowledgement of the significance of the social dimension in sustainable development that the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 47/92 of 16 December 1992, which called for convening a World Summit for Social Development at the level of Heads of State or Government to tackle the critical problems of poverty, unemployment and social disintegration. The major objectives of the Summit were identified, among others, as putting the needs of the people at the centre of development; placing special priority on the social needs of the least developed countries; mobilizing resources for social development; enabling the active involvement of all citizens in the development process; and recommending effective actions and policies for the UN system in the sphere of social development.
  2. African countries seized the opportunity and momentum set by the UN General Assembly’s acknowledgement of the significance of social dimension in sustainable development by ensuring that Africa’s perspectives on the issues are defined and agreed upon. To this effect, the joint secretariat of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) embarked on a series of actions aimed at ensuring that Africa would be well prepared for the Summit and that an African common position on the issues to be discussed at the Summit would be collectively adopted at the highest political level in Africa. At the level of ECA, the ECA’s Conference of Ministers Responsible for Economic Development and Planning decided by resolution 749 (XXVIII) that an African common position on the issues before the Summit should be prepared by the First meeting of the Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Human Development. The meeting of this Conference took place on 20 and 21 January 1994, during which it adopted the document entitled: African Common Position on Human and Social Development in Africa. The conference transmitted the document to the first session of the Preparatory Committee (PREPCOM I) for the World Summit for Social Development which met in New York during 31 January to 11 February 1994.

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    The African Common Position was distributed as an official document of PREPCOM I and was well received by it. In this regard, the African Common Position was Africa's substantive contribution to the Summit. Some of the human and social issues and concerns of the African region were reflected in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action of the Summit.

  3. The elaboration of the African Common Position and the Declaration on Human and Social Development and their transmission by the African Heads of State and Government as official documents of the World Summit for Social Development afforded Africa a unique opportunity not only to put the social and human concerns of Africa at the top of the global agenda but also to underscore the determination of African countries and peoples to tackle the grave human and social situation in the region and to mobilize the support of the world community in these actions.
  4. The convening of the Summit was a step forward towards implementation of the commitment made in the Charter of the United Nations "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedoms..." with a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being. Although social issues have been placed at the top of the international agenda by a series of major UN conferences, the World Summit for Social Development was a first meeting of its kind to take on the profound challenge of tackling the critical issue of global poverty, which is, in the final analysis, the root cause of a myriad of social and economic problems. The Summit addressed the following core issues:
  1. The World Summit for Social Development through the adoption of the Copenhagen Declaration and the Programme of Action for Social Development mapped out new directions and approaches for social polices in order to tackle these core social issues. The Copenhagen Declaration is, in a way, a blueprint on how to create more socially equitable and just societies, free of inequities in the distribution of national wealth and discrimination against the fellow human being. The Declaration is a reaffirmation by heads of state or government to end global poverty; achieve the goal of full employment and foster stable and just societies. It includes an analysis of the current world social situation; reasons for convening the Summit; and an outline of the main principles and goals of social development. These are followed by ten commitments or agreements made by the world's leaders in the global drive for social progress and development, and they focused mainly on creating an enabling environment for the achievement of social development; eradication of poverty through decisive national actions and international co-operation; promoting full employment as a basic priority; promoting social integration; promoting and attaining the goals of universal and equitable access to quality education and health; accelerating the economic, social and human resource development of African and the least developed countries; ensuring that structural adjustment programmes include social development goals; increasing significantly the resources allocated for social development; and improving and strengthening for international, regional and sub-regional co-operation for social development.
  2. Africa received recognition in several parts of the final documents of the Summit. For example, in accordance with Commitment 7 of the Copenhagen Declaration, the world leaders committed themselves to accelerating the economic, social and human-centred development of Africa and the least developed countries, through various actions as contained in paragraphs (a) through (g)
  3. The Summit came out very strongly on the issue of promoting social development goals, in particular eradicating poverty, promoting full and productive employment and reducing unemployment, and enhancing social integration, when implementing structural adjustment programmes. In this regard, at the national level, the world leaders committed themselves to promoting basic social programmes and expenditures and protecting the vulnerable sections of society from budget cuts; reviewing the impact of structural adjustment and developing appropriate policies to reduce their negative effects; designing policies to reinforce the social development components of all adjustment programmes; and ensuring that women do not bear a disproportionate burden resulting from adjustment programmes. At the international level, the world leaders agreed that international lending for adjustment is targeted at social development; that structural adjustment programmes respond to the specific concerns and needs of each country; and solicit the support and co-operation of regional and international organizations, and the United Nations system, to incorporate integrated social development goals into their respective activities.
  4. Commitment 9 has special relevance to Africa in that it underscores the importance of mobilizing and allocating increased resources at the national and international levels for social development to achieve the goals of the Summit. At the national level, the Summit leaders committed themselves to: develop policies to promote and mobilize domestic savings for social programmes; implement economic policies for sustained economic growth to support social development; enhance access to productive resources for small and micro-enterprises including the informal sector; develop fair, progressive and efficient taxation systems; ensure transparency and accountability in the use of public resources, giving priority to improving basic social services; explore innovative ways of generating new public and private financial resources through the reduction of excessive military expenditure and the possible reallocation of such savings for social and economic development; and utilizing and developing fully the potentials and contribution of co-operatives for achieving social development goals, in particular, eradicating poverty, generating productive employment and fostering social integration.
  5. At the international level, the commitments include facilitating the flow to developing countries of international finance, technology, skills for providing new and additional resources on a predictable basis; fulfilling the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for overall ODA as soon as possible and increasing the flow of external resources for the countries experiencing problems relating to refugees and displaced persons; ensuring the urgent implementation of existing debt-relief agreements and negotiating further initiatives in this regard for those low-income countries, which are heavily indebted, at an early date; inviting the international financial institutions to explore innovative approaches for alleviating multilateral debt of low-income countries; developing techniques of debt swaps for social development programmes. In the context of the effects of the implementation of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, the Summit affirmed "...the need to assist Africa and the least developed countries in evaluating the impact of the implementation of the Final Act so that they can benefit fully." Similarly, paragraph 10 (d) of the Programme of Action of the Summit reiterates the need to assist developing countries; particularly African countries to take advantage of expanded international trading opportunities. The importance of international co-operation particularly supporting South-South co-operation is also underscored in Commitment 9 (n).
  6. Within the framework of international support to developing countries, paragraph 11 of the Programme of Action calls for giving priority to the needs and concerns of Africa and the least developed countries. In this regard, a number of necessary actions at the national and international levels have been proposed in the Programme of Action. Some of these actions relate to: implementing policies and strategies conducive for social development, trade, investments, human resource development and encouraging the development of democratic institutions; supporting the efforts of African countries to create an enabling environment for attracting foreign direct and domestic investment, encouraging savings, promoting the full participation of the private sector, including non-governmental organizations in the growth and development process; supporting economic reforms to improve the functioning of commodity markets and commodity diversification through international co-operation and partnership; finding effective, development-oriented and durable solutions to tackling the external debt problem through implementation of existing agreements as well as negotiating further initiatives in this regard; increasing ODA assistance both in total and for social development programmes; "...and striving to attain the agreed upon target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product for official development assistance and 0.15 per cent to the least developed countries as soon as possible."
  7. It is most satisfying to note that there was convergence in a number of priority areas between the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action and the African Common Position and Declaration on Social Development. Among the common concerns of the Copenhagen and African Common Position are: (I) alleviating/eradicating poverty; (ii) promoting the creation of productive and full employment; (iii) promoting and enhancing social integration including access to basic need –educational, health, etc; and (iv) promoting respect for human rights. In addition to these, the African Common Position also placed emphasis on peace and political stability, promotion of democratization including good governance, investment in human resources and the fostering of popular participation as equally important concerns to be addressed.
  8. Against this background, it appears that the concerns of the African region received proportionately greater attention in the outcomes of the Summit than those of the other regions of the world. The burning issues affecting adversely the African region, such as debt reduction/relief, structural adjustment programmes, trade, ODA, favourable external economic environment, etc., have been reflected in the Summit document.
  1. Subregional Follow-up Conferences to the World Summit for Social Development
  1. Four years after the summit was held, the ECA in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in response to the United Nations General Assembly mandate (Res. 50/161 of 22 December 1995), convened two subregional conferences as follow-up to the World Summit for social Development (WSSD). These meetings were held during 15-17 and 23-25 March 1999. The Conferences took place in Nairobi, Kenya and Marrakech, Morocco, respectively, to monitor progress in the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the Summit in 1995. Since only a short time has elapsed from March 1995, the conferences were intended to take stock and monitor rather than undertake comprehensive evaluation of the policy measures undertaken by the various member States. The purpose of these exercises was to highlight advances in the implementation of the Copenhagen commitments, and to provide the necessary information for decision-makers and development actors to design intervention strategies to speed up progress towards desired targets. Specifically, the conferences focussed on monitoring progress in poverty reduction, employment creation, achieving social sector objectives, pertaining to education, health, and in establishing enabling socio-political environments; and good governance. Special events were held for the civil society forum (in Nairobi) and on youth (in Marrakech).

Major conclusions emanating from the Conferences

  1. Progress since Copenhagen
  1. Poverty appears pervasive particularly in the Eastern and Southern African subregions except in Botswana, Mauritius and Seychelles. Those living below the poverty line have been estimated at over 50 per cent in these subregions. Poverty incidence is estimated to have been lower in North Africa, affecting about 22 per cent of the population. Participants recognized that unless serious efforts were made to alleviate poverty, poverty levels would continue to rise well into the next millennium.
  2. All the countries have reported progress in implementing poverty reduction strategies encapsulated in the establishment of National Poverty Eradication Programmes and the provision of Social Safety Nets. For instance, Algeria’s Social Safety Net, with emphasis on employment benefits, aims at poverty reduction of 20 per cent per annum, up to the year 2005, while Mauritania has sectoral strategies for the poor, which aim at 18 per cent poverty reduction during 1998-2000. The Libyan programme also targets the poorest families in the country. Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Mauritius and the United Republic of Tanzania had initiated special poverty eradication programmes before the Summit as had Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Similarly, the Sudan has incorporated a poverty eradication programme into its development strategy.
  3. Regarding health and education issues, various countries have reported tangible progress. For instance, absolute enrolment rates at the primary level have increased while gender gaps have somewhat narrowed. A number of countries reported increased budgetary allocations to the education and health sectors. The orientation of health programmes remains curative services and health policy frameworks with emphasis on primary health-care. A number of countries focussed on HIV/AIDS pandemic, mitigation of high maternal mortality rates and addressing major childhood diseases responsible for high infant and under-five mortality rates (U5MR). Significant progress was reported regarding the reduction of U5MR. Some countries have almost achieved the desired levels in the provision of basic health services.
  4. All countries in the related subregions have reported actions geared towards expanding employment opportunities, protecting and creating jobs, especially for the vulnerable groups, and improving the overall environment for employment creation. Legal frameworks were being reviewed, with the aim of providing an enabling environment for the promotion of the private sector and self-employment in the informal sector. Many countries were in the process of formulating or putting in place national employment policies with the assistance of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNDP. Programmes aimed at increasing the productivity of small-holders in the agricultural sector have also been implemented in a number of countries. It was however pointed out that unemployment rates have surpassed those of population growth.

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  5. Good governance was recognized as one of the fundamentals of socio-political and economic development. Almost all participating countries at the Conferences reported significant progress in improving governance structures and modalities, linking it with the imperative of working towards peace, stability and security. To that effect, several initiatives aimed at fostering legitimacy, transparency, participation and accountability were reported as being undertaken by the countries. Democracy, human rights and the necessity of establishing adequate institutions have been recognized as essential elements of good governance.
  1. Constraints and Challenges
  1. Poverty remains a daunting challenge, with incidence observed at more intensity in sub-Saharan than in the North African countries. The implementation of the Commitment on Poverty Eradication was reported to be constrained by several factors common among most of the countries, notably: inadequacy of public funds allocated for poverty eradication programmes; external debt burden; over-dependence on rain-fed agriculture; inadequate economic and social infrastructure; insufficient human capacity for policy formulation, implementation and evaluation; lack or inadequacy of economic and social infrastructure in the rural areas; impact of HIV/AIDS; and incessant and protracted social instability and civil strife in several countries of the subregions.
  2. There are also a number of constraints to employment creation. In this regard, a major challenge is the designing of comprehensive, integrated and coherent employment policies to facilitate the attainment of employment generation objectives. An integrated employment programme should comprise four essential components: (a) a policy component; (b) a mechanism for operationalising, monitoring, and co-ordinating the programme; (c) an integrated and interconnected set of employment promoting project proposals; and (d) proposals for target groups expected to be the principal beneficiaries of the programme. A necessary condition for arresting the deterioration in employment creation is to achieve a high rate of sustained economic growth and make it more employment-intensive. There should be a link between employment policies, development needs, education and human development and women in development. Particular activities are needed for productive employment for women. The employment of women will have wider positive implications not only for the families but also for the community at large. More progress is also needed in the development of comprehensive and reliable data base on the labour market. Youth employment and participation should also be integrated in comprehensive national development programmes.
  3. A number of constraints have been identified regarding social sector activities. In the area of health, the most challenging constraints relate to: the mobilization of financial resources; strengthening institutional and human capacity; rehabilitating the health infrastructure; poor health management information systems; reducing the burden of HIV/AIDS on families and households; inadequate coverage of and access to health services, such as immunization; drugs and health-care facilities; clean water and sanitation; reducing infant and under-5 mortality rates; and maternal mortality rates.
  4. Improving the quality, internal efficiency and relevance of education as well as enhancing enrolment ratios especially at the first and second levels, are major challenges for most countries. Infrastructural limitations, including over-crowded classrooms, inadequate human and financial resources and lack of teaching materials are major problems in most countries. Gender imbalances at all levels of the educational ladder are widespread, although the incidence of this problem varies across regions. Provision of free and compulsory primary education remained a major challenge for the majority of the member States of the two regions. Cost-sharing and cost-recovery arrangements are often impeding access to social services.
  5. Conflicts and instability from which a number of countries suffered have impeded efforts towards good governance. In some cases, the civil service has been criticized as having been politicized and resistant to change. Among the areas where action is called for, are the following: capacity building for good governance; improving people’s participation in decision-making, especially at local levels; improving governance and establishing co-operative partnership between various structures of government; enhancing accountability in the management of public affairs; and respect for human rights.
  1. Strategies for translating Commitments into actions
  1. Countries have renewed their commitments to achieving the goals of eradicating poverty, creating employment, social integration in particular as it pertains to education, health, establishing enabling socio-political environments to enhance popular participation and promoting good governance. In the light of the above, the last section of the paper focuses on some of the possible strategies which might help countries of the region overcome constraints and improve implementation of their commitments in the identified priority areas. The secretariat submits for the consideration of participants issues and strategies that might prove relevant to the fulfillment of the priority concerns.
  2. The following strategies are recommended for increasing the effective implementation of the priority areas, namely:
 

Strategic response for improving implementation of commitments

 

 

African countries have committed themselves to addressing poverty

The continuing existence of poverty characterized by hunger, disease and illiteracy in many African countries is attributable in part to inadequate policies and to unfavourable income distribution. Policies should take account of this reality and ensure proper planning and adequate resources for basic services such as education and health. In our view, poverty eradication should be based on a development policy, which is human centred and the basic objective of such a development should be to expand the range of people’s choices. These choices should include access to productive resources to generate income, employment opportunities, education, health, clean and safe physical environment and people should in particular be able to participate in the decision-making process. The immediate strategic response should be the development of poverty reduction programmes targeted to identified poor groups/segments and should, among others, focus on the following:

    • Promotion of the informal sector - The informal sector provides opportunities to respond to some of the negative effects of poor economic performance such as creation of jobs in an environment where unemployment is more a permanent feature thus increasing the number of the poor. This is even more appropriate for most African countries, where the social factors force people to go informal. Their existence could be enhanced through deliberate policies aimed at creating enabling environment for informal sector development. This should aim at three levels, the macro, micro and regulatory and legislative levels. Macro-economic policy environment should take into account the informal sector and its concerns. Changing the policy environment calls for the strengthening of government’s capacity to undertake policy analysis. The second level is micro, at which policies should aim at addressing the specific needs of the informal sector, which should be defined in consultation with concerned partners, including the informal sector. This would imply strengthening the capacity of the informal sector organizations and involving them in the policy dialogue. These micro-economic policies should target, among others, the following issues: (a) access to productive resources including financial services, (b) tax and other incentives to make them favourable to the informal sector, (c) elimination of unnecessary harassment by the enforcement machinery, and (d) provision of cheaper but safer and more durable facilities.
 

 

Concerning the regulatory and legislative environment, the strategy should be to design regulatory and legislative frameworks that promote the welfare of society at large including the informal sector. Society should see compliance as a benefit rather than as another burden. The enforcement should be client- sensitive and customer-friendlier and there should be uniform and transparent application and avoidance of threat.
  • Improvement/expansion of infrastructural support - Infrastructural support tends to concentrate in the urban areas with virtually no infrastructure in the rural areas. The extention of the infrastructure to the rural area would create an environment for expanding economic activities and increase benefits to the community. Thereby addressing some aspects of poverty. Current land ownership and allocation should be reviewed with the objective of providing access to many landless rural peasants. There should be consultation between local bodies and national governments.

 

 

 

Expanding employment opportunities and productivity

Addressing the problems of unemployment and underemployment as well as productivity in the African economy has been very difficult and slow to achieve. Yet the challenge is a daunting one requiring simultaneous actions on several fronts. The structural adjustment programmes implemented by many African countries, to some extent contributed to the employment situation. This suggests the need for approaches to generating employment and productivity. In this respect, countries should consider the development of a strategy to include all stakeholders – governments, employers and employees associations, the private sector, civil society organizations and the international community, who could be encouraged to play different roles in an intensified effort to address the employment and productivity problems. Strategies to expand employment opportunities and productivity should include:

  • Increasing the role of government in the generation of employment opportunities. Government’s involvement could be through its policies which should be labour- intensive based on an educational system that provides technical skills to supply prospective semi-skilled workers for the industrial sector. Africa’s manufacturing sector is constrained by the shortage of skilled labour. Labour-intensive growth should be targeted to the rural

 

 

 

 

areas and tied to the agricultural sector. This could be enhanced by adopting land laws that encourage cultivation of new lands. This should be combined with the provision of basic infrastructure (credit and agricultural extension services and support which, in themselves, can expand self and wage employment). Greater support should be given to smallholder agriculture, which is the largest employing sector in many African countries and this should include encouraging young graduates to see agriculture as productive employment. Some attention should be targeted at increasing production support through well-designed technical assistance programmes. In addition to this, rural non-farm activities should be explored to provide employment. Government policies should also aim at tapping the huge potentials of the private sector for job creation – hereby reducing the high rates of unemployment. Government policies should be reviewed to reduce the red tapes and cumbersome licensing procedures and taxes.
  • Greater private sector participation in the economy, in particular, the industrial sector should be explored, especially for job creation. Given the strong emphasis placed on privatization and shift to market economy, actions should aim at attracting local private investment and take-over of privatized companies. Actions should cover entrepreneurship development including provision of micro-credit. There is need to shift focus from large- to small- and medium-scale enterprises with adequate financial support from the financial sector. Furthermore, actions should be directed at strengthening micro/small/medium enterprises by establishing viable credit systems to enable them survive and expand.
  • The catalytic role of the international community in the economy, employment promotion and productivity enhancement should also be explored. This is in line with the promises and commitments made by the international community when adopting the Copenhagen Declaration. External policies do affect Africa’s economic performance. Several external shocks contributing to poor performance could be cited. These include deteriorating terms of trade, heavy burden of external debt and liberalization policies. Therefore, more favourble international environment, in the areas of debt relief and aid should be encouraged. The international community must demonstrate their commitment and one way is the show of good will in adopting more favourable terms of trade, financial terms and debt relief for African countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Making training and human development programmes relevant to labour market needs and competitiveness through a combination of programmes including the rationalization of educational system and content to reflect present day needs, especially in the context of globalization and improved competitiveness.
  • Reversing brain-drain to explore the enormous productive capacities countries are loosing due to immigration of a large segment of educated African educated people in search of economic prosperity.
  • Addressing the problem of HIV/AIDs within a socio-economic context to include the issue of productivity in terms of loss of skilled and able manpower.

 

 

 

Achieving social integration especially as it pertains to education and health.

Notwithstanding progress made in various countries, for most African, countries, progress has been slow in the areas of education and health. In many of them, the number of persons with no access to education and health services appears to have increased. The opportunities or incentives for education are very limited, and there is a significant increase in inequitable distribution of education, and health services as swell as facilities. The removal of gross disparities in education, health, water supply, sanitation and discrimination among vulnerable groups including women must be fundamental to any strategy of social integration. The strategy must aim at attaining both equitable and sustainable pattern of development. This pattern of development must promote self-confidence, self-reliance and autonomy. Social integration is easily achievable within a democratic and participatory environment. The challenge is to make basic needs especially education and health available to large segment of society. Improving educational and health services, especially primary education and primary health with emphasis on providing access to health education and information as well as expanding education and health care facilities and making them affordable, should be the focus of the strategy. The strategic response should consist of the following:

  • Develop policy, relevant education statistics and indicators in order to come up with a reliable situational analysis covering concerns such as demand for and supply of educational and health facilities, how people gain access to and participate in education and health programmes, etc.
  • Improve education and health care financing arrangements resource mobilization and allocation. The starting point should be the formulation of domestic resource mobilization strategy targeting
 

the private sector and civil society community through appropriate fiscal and other incentives. Increase the participation of the private sector in the delivery of education and health including infrastructure financing . Secure external resource flows to support investment in education and health.

  • Increase access to primary and basic education by resetting educational priorities to make it more significantly important in the educational structure. Provide more resources to the rural school systems to allow a proportionate distribution of resources and increased access of the rural population to educational services.
  • Make greater use of non-formal and distance education as a supplement to formal education so as to increase literacy and basic education.

 

 

 

 

Good governance in particular popular participation

For good governance to take strong root in Africa, countries must create appropriate political frameworks to encourage peaceful participation, develop effective and functioning democratic institutions and guarantee efficiency within the public sector. Institution-building and the strengthening of civil society to facilitate their participation are essential to the consolidation of good governance. In these respects, actions should focus inter-alia, on :

  • Creating sound institutional capacities to help guarantee effectiveness, efficiency and accountability in the political, economic and administration spheres.
  • Promote the development of civic organizations/ associations and the spread of civic education.
  • Enhance dialogue, interface and interaction between public sector, private sector and civil society.
  • Establish co-operative partnership among various structures of government (central and local), the CSOs and private sector especially to encourage broad-based participation in the economic development process.

 
  1. Conclusions
  1. In conclusion, the fact that many African countries have not established monitoring mechanisms, hampers the process of assessing progress. It is therefore recommended that countries develop monitoring instruments for measuring progress made in the critical areas of poverty reduction, access to primary health, enrollment in education, educational facilities (classrooms, etc), civil society participation in decision-making and development in general. The establishment of an integrated information systems and network for developing reliable statistics and data should also form part of the overall strategy. The development of national capacities to respond to the critical areas should also be stepped up.
  2. Achieving significant impact would require huge financial resources and enormous technical capacity, and therefore the need to forge strategic partnership among government structures, private sector and civil society community. Cooperation with the international community, in particular, those at national level such as WHO, UNESCO, UNDP, ILO , UNICEF, UNFPA etc. should be developed for long-term technical and programmatic partnership. This partnership arrangement could be used to enhance collective resource mobilization and to build capacities that should be directed in meeting the priority areas of the Programme of Action for Social Development as underlined in the Copenhagen Declaration.