Democracy & Development at the European Development Days: the Report
Democracy
& Development
Report
on the plenary session, held Friday 24 October
As part of the
2009 European Development Days theme of democracy and development, a plenary debate
involving nine top-level panellists was held in the Victoria Hall of Stockholm's
exhibition centre.
The panel
consisted of Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament,
Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Karel de Gucht, European Commissioner
for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New
Zealand and now Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Amr Moussa,
Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Peter Ackermann, Chair of the
International Centre on Non-Violent Conflict, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Director of
the UN Population Fund, Kumi Nadoo, President of CIVICUS and Gunilla Carlsson,
Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation.
Under the moderation
of Victor Helgesen of International IDEA, the panellists agreed not to make pre-prepared
speeches but to launch directly into open debate. There followed one-and-a-half
hours of open and often frank exchanges of opinion on how best to support
democracy as a catalyst for a country's development.
Underpinning
much of the discussion was the question of whether infrastructure or democracy
was more important for a country's development. The example of the Chinese
approach, which at present favours the former, was given by way of a contrast
to the European approach, which has tended to favour the latter. President
Johnson-Sirleaf made it clear that, from an African perspective, both were
necessary, and many of the panellists agreed
that this juxtaposition presented
a false choice - without one there could not be the other. Gunilla Carlsson
made the point that democracy was necessary in order to ensure the
infrastructure was built according to the needs of the recipient country's people,
rather than to benefit the donor nation. Commissioner Karol de Gucht stated the
necessity to work with partners, such as the Chinese, to ensure certain rules
and principles were followed in international development aid.
Attention during
the debate also focussed on the state of Europe's own democracy. Jerzy Buzek
stressed that falling participation in European elections should be of major
concern to all, since it undermined the core principle of democracy, that is ‘the
participation of people'. He called for a stronger role for parliaments in all democracies.
Amr Moussa stressed that democracy, for all its apparent weaknesses, was by far
the best system of governance, and Peter Ackermann presented statistical
evidence that suggested a much higher rate of success for transitions to
democracy when these occur in a non-violent manner.
Kumi Naidoo was
particularly concerned with making sure the voice of people from the developing
world was heard and called for better representation of developing countries on
international trade and banking organisations and for the western media to
focus more on developing countries' stories. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid meanwhile
highlighted the need for greater support to be given to community-based civil
society organisations, since mobilising these was ‘the key to good democracy'. Ms
Ahmed Obaid called on everyone to re-examine not the principles but the
practices of democracy. There was widespread agreement that elections alone
were not a guarantor of democracy in a country.
The question of
whether the need for security might sometimes justifiably outweigh the right to
democracy was also raised in the light of the Iraq war and the present conflict
in Afghanistan. The panellists made it clear that they understood the term ‘security'
to refer to ‘human security', of which an essential constituent part was the
right to self-determination and freedom founded on a democratic basis. Amr Moussa highlighted what he saw as the ‘double
standards' being imposed by western powers in this respect, and Kumi Nadoo
highlighted examples in certain EU member states, where he felt
civil liberties
have been eroded as a result of security priorities.
The debate
concluded with a frank exchange of views on the relevance of the current
economic crisis to development aid. Kumi Nadoo called on western countries to
meet their commitment to spending 0.7% of GDP on development assistance and
pointed to the large sums of money used to bail out banks threatened with
collapse as proof that these countries could mobilise money when it was
necessary to do so. Helen Clark and Karel de Gucht both pointed out that such
sums had been necessary to support institutions upon which developing countries
also relied.
* * *
East Meets South
A fringe meeting chaired by Simon
Panek, Executive Director of People in Need, Czech Republic, and EPD Board member
Friday morning
also provided the occasion for an eagerly awaited fringe seminar in which
panellists from Eastern European countries could share their experience of
democratic transition with representatives from the African and South American
continents. Under the moderation of People in Need Director and EPD Board
member Simon Panek, the panel, consisting of Jerzy Buzek, President of the
European Parliament, Olga Algayerová, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in
Slovakia, Joze Mencinger, former finance Economy Minister of Slovakia, Brigita
Schmögnerová, Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, Roberto Bissio, Executive Director of Third World Insitute and
Coordinator of Social Watch in Uruguay and Gasana Ndoba, former President of the
National Human Rights Commission in Rwanda, was able to share a number of
experiences on both the social, societal and economic consequences of such
transitions.
The session was organised by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenian Global Action and the
European Commission (DG Development & Relations with African, Caribbean and
Pacific States).





