ECOSOC PANEL DEBATES "PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS IN MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPMENT"

ECOSOC
4 July 2001




The Economic and Social Council carried on with the "coordination segment" of its annual substantive session this morning by holding a panel discussion on the topic of "United Nations-private sector partnerships in meeting the challenges of development".

The panel consisted of Jacques-Francois Martin, President of the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines; Manuel Acevedo, Coordinator of the E-Volunteering Unit of United Nations Volunteers (UNV); and Jean-Marie Blanchard, Business-Development Manager for Market Development in the Middle East, Africa and India, of Alcatel.

In his opening statement, Mr. Martin said, among other things, that the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines had been set up in response to stagnating immunization rates and widening disparities in vaccine coverage -- that 30 million children born every year were not fully immunized and more than 3 million children a year died from easily preventable diseases, although a child could be fully immunized for $ 30.

Mr. Acevedo told the meeting that a United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) programme was under way to facilitate efforts to bridge the digital divide; under the programme, volunteers were building human and institutional capacity in the application of information and communications technology (ICT) to all areas of human development through a network of partners involving civil society, the private sector, Governments, universities, volunteer agencies, and the UN system.

And Mr. Blanchard said Alcatel had carried out studies in 100 poor countries that contained half of the world's inhabitants and found that those countries lacked the infrastructure that would enable them to establish mainstream communication services such as telephone services; that in developing countries less than 5 per cent of the population had access to telephone services; and that in order to reduce such barriers, Alcatel was engaged in vast regional and transcontinental projects aimed at closing the telecommunications gap between developed and developing countries.

Among the themes mentioned by those contributing to the discussion from the floor were that local content and participation were vital for ICT progress and use in developing countries; that ICT systems were better for such local input than other media such as television, which often carried content that had nothing to do with local interests and local problems; and that websites, to be useful, needed to be localized.

After it concluded the panel discussion, ECOSOCO resumed its general discussion on the role of the United Nations in promoting development, particularly with respect to access and transfer of knowledge and technology, especially information and communication technologies.


Statements of panellists

JACQUES-FRANCOIS MARTIN, President of the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines, said that there were gaps in use of vaccines and immunization. There was stagnation in immunization coverage in some countries, a decline in others, and regional disparities. There was also a lack of introduction in poorer countries of newer life-saving vaccines; and there was limited investment into vaccine research for diseases which put a high burden on developing countries. Thirty million children born every year were not fully immunized; and more than three million children a year died from easily preventable diseases. A child could be fully immunized for $ 30.

The Vaccine Fund was set up in response to stagnating immunization rates and widening disparities in vaccines coverage; its mission was to save children's lives and protect peoples' health through the widespread use of vaccines with a particular emphasis on developing countries. The financial resources to meet the needs of the Fund had been launched in 1999 by a $ 750 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the mission to harness resources and ensure that all the world's children had equal access to life-saving vaccines. At present, a five-year commitment to the first 36 countries had been approved with immunization services and new and under-used vaccines for a total amount of $ 600 million. It was estimated that $ 1.8 billion was needed over five years to meet basic immunization needs, and approximately $ 1 billion was needed to supplement existing financial commitments.

MANUEL ACEVEDO, Coordinator of the E-Volunteering Unit of United Nations Volunteers (UNV), said volunteers were especially useful for problems related to the "digital divide" because so much of bridging this gap depended on human resources and training of the sort that volunteers -- people already well versed in the Internet and information and communications technology (ICT) -- were able to provide. ICT volunteering had broad appeal, and the training these volunteers could give to developing countries could lead to long-term capacity building and wide outreach. Many people were willing to cooperate in this field.

UNV was the volunteer arm of the United Nations. It promoted volunteering globally, Mr. Acevedo said; currently volunteers from 157 nationalities were serving in 140 countries. A United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) programme was under way as a global initiative to facilitate efforts to bridge the digital divide; it was building human and institutional capacity in the application of ICT to all areas of human development through a network of partners involving civil society, the private sector, Governments, universities, volunteer agencies, and the UN system. Among the aims of UNITeS was to provide administrative support, training, a "help" desk, and financial management in relation to projects to improve the ICT status of developing countries. Countries currently involved in the project included Bosnia, Benin, Burundi, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, South Africa, Bhutan, India and Mongolia.

Corporate-sector and private-sector contributions to UNITeS included corporate volunteers and the provision of financial support, Mr. Acevedo said; indirect contributions were made as well through equipment and services provided. The private sector was becoming one of the pillars of UNITeS' institutional network.

JEAN-MARIE BLANCHARD, Business Development Director for Market Development in the Middle-East, Africa and India of Alcatel, said that while economic globalization was in process, the international community was concerned about the development of the different economic, political, social and cultural dimensions. Special attention was also paid to the situation of the poor countries, as witnessed by the ambitious programme to combat poverty which was launched by the international political institutions to eradicate poverty by 2015. Access to information and knowledge was very irregular around the world and developing countries particularly were penalized in that regard; they were victims of the digital divide and risked seeing the gap between them and the industrialized countries widen. If that situation was not improved rapidly, the developing countries would be isolated from the economic circuit and would be further marginalized.

Within the context of the deployment of information and communication technologies, Alcatel had made studies in 100 poor countries that represented half of the world's inhabitants. These countries lacked the infrastructure which would enable them to establish communication services such as telephone services. In the developing countries, less than 5 per cent of the population had access to telephone services and even if the service existed, the quality was not excellent. The telephone costs and the cost of telephone terminal installation were expensive to the populations who had low incomes. In order to reduce the barriers related to the lack of infrastructure in telecommunications, Alcatel was engaged in vast regional and transcontinental projects which contributed to fill in the actual gap between the developing and developed countries. The Rascom project which would allow communication services to Africa from 2003 on wards was an example of Alcatel's efforts.


Discussion

Among the remarks from the floor were that local content and participation were vital for information and communication technology (ICT) progress in developing countries, and that ICT systems were better for such local input than other media such as television, which often carried content that had nothing to do with local interests and local problems; that websites, to be useful, needed to be localized, and hence those setting up websites had to operate with local partners; that the Internet at the moment was glutted with websites catering to the interests of citizens of developed countries; that United Nations and private-sector partnerships in the ICT field had to focus on projects that were viable; that in the short term it was likely that efforts to eliminate the digital divide would be philanthropic in nature, but that profit-making enterprises could be expected to have greater and greater involvement over time as business opportunities presented themselves; and that developing countries were eager for additional funding for vaccine programmes.

Mr. Blanchard, responding to the debate, said among other things that it was true that television was not necessarily a lever for development and often had little local application; that Alcatel, at least in West Africa, had agents on site who developed localized websites; and that efforts to spread ICT knowledge would, it was hoped, enable local grassroots development of relevant websites, although it was true that setting up such sites could be complex and difficult.

Mr. Acevedo, responding to the debate, said among other things that an organization for disabled people in Uganda had succeeded in setting up a website and worksite with extensive staff that offered valuable information to disabled persons around the country and that even offered information in different languages.

And Mr. Martin said among other things that vaccination programmes from the very beginning had had both economic and philanthropic motivations; that the intent in seeking more effective public-private partnerships was to speed up progress; and that "scientific time", it had to remembered, often was slow -- it could take a long time to develop an effective vaccine, which then had to be funded, produced, and distributed.




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