UNDP calls on L. America to improve alliances between state and market

Latin American governments should seek a more effective alliance between the state and the market to deal with the global crisis, Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), suggested Friday.

"The working of the market alone will not end poverty, or deliver either equity or justice," Clark said during a conference hosted at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, the capital of Chile.

In her lecture "Challenges of the development in the 21st century," Clark said that to face the various crises in the developing nations -- from the financial crisis over climate change to food and energy shortages -- Latin American countries should make public policies that could offset the mistakes of the market.

The high-ranking United Nations official also stressed the need to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to reduce poverty in the world.

"During the recession, the main concern of the UNDP and other organizations in the United Nations system has been how to maintain traction towards the MDG and on longer-term human development," Clark said.

She added that many Latin American countries had achieved important advances, especially in education and gender equality. However, they could make more progress in many areas, such as poverty and hunger reduction, maternal health and women's empowerment.

"Peaceful, stable, and well governed societies are the most likely to make progress in development," she said.

Alicia Barcena, ECLAC executive secretary, said in the meeting that "the citizens are seeking refuge in their governments, states and in a fairer international order in which their voice can be heard. Our current thinking is better state, better markets, and most of all, a more active citizenship."

"A new paradigm needs to be widely articulated, combining the development goals with the environmental objectives, in a way that we could truly achieve long-term sustainable development," Barcena continued.

Clark became UNDP administrator on April 20, 2009, and is the first woman to head the organization. Previously, she was prime minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008.

Source: Xinhua