Desie Heita
7 August 2008
Windhoek — "Stop throwing money at us carte-blanche, rather first engage us to determine our needs."
That seems to be the message from ministers of middle-income countries to the developed world.
Middle-income countries are also demanding greater market access, and praised the aid for trade approach within the Doha Development Agenda, saying together with the transfer of technology, it would address the constraints of supply.
Ministers from 22 middle-income countries are meeting in Windhoek for a three-day conference on ways to accelerate the achievements of internationally agreed development goals.
Put bluntly, middle-income countries are tired of the labelling on their back.
They do not want to be viewed as countries in constant need of donor money.
Of course, they do recognise the need for financial assistance. However, middle-income countries are asking that when wealthier nations, and their institutions, do decide to step in, they be engaged as individual countries, and not as a group, and be allowed to take ownership of the development process. After all, who else knows the need better than the recipient, they ask.
"The actual needs of middle-income countries should be paramount in defining individual aid allocation," the 22 ministers at the conference concurred. Ministers said the per capita definition used by wealthy nations, the United Nations, and associated development funds, does not portray the complete picture of social conditions in their respective countries.
Delegates do also admit that poor countries themselves need to put in equal work to attain the developmental goals aspired for.
As the Foreign Minister of El Salvador, Marisol Arqueta de Barillas said, countries "have to be self critical and do [their] jobs at national level. That is fundamental in bringing about social development."
The Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Libertina Amathila, who opened the conference on behalf of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, said at present raw materials accounted for a high percentage of much of Namibia's exports, while consumer goods accounted for a larger share of its imports.
This results in trade accounts of many countries going into deficits. Amathila further said the countries' efforts to change trade structures by increasing the share of domestic value addition, through product diversification, are often thwarted by issues of intellectual property rights and rules of origin when trying to export such manufactured products.
"As a result, both technical and financial support from the international community is required to enable our countries to fully exploit the international markets," said Amathila.
In this regard, ministers of middle-income countries reached consensus that middle-income countries need enhanced market access, and want to have an increased influence on World Trade Organisation deliberations, especially those that affect the development, trade and financial needs of middle-income countries.
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