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UNITED NATIONS SHOULD WORK DIRECTLY WITH ELECTED GOVERNMENTS WITH A PEOPLE’S MANDATE AND NOT NGO’S SAYS MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA AT THE LONDON MINI SUMMIT

By Walter Jayawardhana

President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka said that United nations should work directly with governments that have been elected rather than with NGO’s and INGO’s that tend to pursue their own agendas that may be opposed to an agenda endorsed by the people.

The Sri Lanka President has reportedly made this remark during the executive sessions of the Commonwealth Mini Summit held in Malborough House in London.

The sessions were not open to the press, but according to some work related papers, the statements came to be known after the sessions.

“An elected government pursue an agenda that has been endorsed by the people at an election and therefore has the mandate to implement certain programmes.” Presient Rajapaksa has stated during an intervention during the executive sessions.

President Rajapaksa said that a further advantage is that working through elected governments leaves behind an institutional memory . But in contrast Rajapaksa said most NGO’s wither away sometimes and leaves no trace behind putting governments, donors and the recipients into greater inconvenience. However Rajapaksa said NGO’s maybe used as implementing organs but funding must be channelled through government. These remarks have been made when the executive sessions discussed United Nations Development Architecture Reforms.

At the end of the session in the final declaration the ten Commonwealth leaders said , “We are committed to reform that creates an effective multilateral system. And that supports a more democratic global society with greater equity and fairness. The new generation of international organizations should reflect a new cooperative spirit.

The final declaration said: We intend to accelerate UN reforms and their effective implementation, as a matter of urgency, through lobbying and advocacy in the UN itself as well as other international institutions. The Commonwealth Heads of Government, representing one third of humanity and more than one quarter of the worlds sovereign governments collectively expressed the concern of 53 member states at Kampala in November 2007 that the current architecture of the international institutions no longer responds adequately to the challenges of the 21st century. The London Mini Summit is a direct result of the Kampala sessions.

One of the most important issues taken by the mini summit became the effective management of the global environment. The Collective declaration of the summit said, “The impacts of environmental degradation are mostly starkly felt in the smallest , poorest and most environmentally vulnerable countries . The final declaration further said, “A financing mechanism needs to be developed that underpins the linkage between development and the environment and notably supports investment in long term sources of energy and environmental efficiency.”

During the executive sessions President Rajapaksa said, There is little doubt that climate change has resulted due to excessive carbon emissions. Most developed countries that have highly developed industrial sectors are responsible for most of these emissions. Nearly 70% of the world’s natural disasters are due to climate change and when a developing country is affected by natural disaster, it is extremely difficult for such a country to bounce back to normalcy. History shows that natural disasters have affected developing countries much more than they have affected developed countries. Sadly, said the Sri Lankan President the ability of the developing countries to mitigate these disasters and to recover after such disasters occur, is very poor given the paucity of disasters, expertise and access to assistance. The President said, “A good case in point is Myanmar’s inability to cope with the recent disaster.”

In the process of discussions he further pointed out that all developed countries as envisaged in the Bali conference, to set apart .1%GDP to contribute to a global fund to compensate developing countries that have suffered excessive carbon emissions.”

The executive sessions of the Mini Summit ended with a press conference in which all ten nations of commonwealth participated , represented by their heads of state. President Bharrat Jagdeo of GuyanaPresident Maumoon Gayoom of Maldives, Prime Minister Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam of Mauritus , President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, President Jakaya Kikwete of United Republic of Tanzania, Prime Minister Dr. Feleti Sevele of Tonga, Prime minister Patrick manning of Trinidad and Tobago President YoweriMuseveni of Uganda, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom Deputy Prime Ministr of Najib Tun Razakof Malaysia and Vice President Alhaji Aliu mahama of Ghana took part in the press conference.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown making the opening statements of the world leaders said that the leaders have agreed that without the reforms we cannot face the challenges of the present world. “Prosperity like peace is indivisible ,”Gordon Brown said.

 

 

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