Financing for Development in International Economic Law: The Monterrey Consensus and its Implementation

Financing for development had been high on the UN agenda in the 1950s and 1960s. It acquired a new currency in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist events of 9/11. This is because those who saw a clear linkage between poverty and terrorism wished to wage a war on poverty as part of the war on terrorism. The process of addressing global poverty went a step further when the first UN conference on financing for development was held in Monterrey, Mexico in 2002. It was designed to adopt a new global approach to financing development in the 21st century. However, apart from repeating the empty rhetoric and including all sorts of lofty ideals, this document contains no concrete plan of action to achieve the development goals of the international community. Many richer countries failed even to guarantee that they will meet the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance (ODA) to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of GNP of developed countries to least developed countries, let alone increase this target. In spite of the commitments made for increasing the level of international development assistance in various international instruments, the provision of aid by rich nations has slipped in the recent past. Therefore, the time has perhaps come to concretize the soft commitments made by richer countries to this effect into hard commitments through a global treaty on financing development so that one of the economic and social objectives outlined in the Charter of the UN could be materialized.