‘Inward-looking world leaders choose war’

South Africa’s Finance Minister has bemoaned world leaders for risking global peace and security.

Trevor Manuel delivered the message in his capacity as special envoy of United Nation's secretary-general at the financing development summit in New York in the United States. The summit was designed to review progress made on promises world leaders made in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico.

But Manuel’s direct message stressed that if world leaders continued their inward-looking views on how to deal with peace and security, they were inviting war.

“Cold facts suggest that since Monterrey we have done the opposite of what we said we would do, that we have chosen war instead of peace,” said South Africa’s longest serving minister.

Manuel said that global food, fuel and financial crises were a consequence of collective failure by world leaders to balance the world economy.

The minister added that this would not have been the case if the Monterrey commitments were met, which would have seen richer nations living up to their promises of being more generous with resources, and more open in their trade agreements.

Manuel said that world military expenditure was estimated by the Stockholm Institute at $1.3-trillion for 2007, which was a 3 percent increase on 2006.

“Compare this to the $104 billion that was spent on [official development assistance],” said Manuel.

Manuel added that military expenditure amounted to 2.5 percent of world GDP, while, according to the Secretary-General’s MDG Gap Task Team, official development assistance from DAC members represented only 0.28 percent of their aggregated national income.

Manuel added that aid flows post-Monterrey were moving in the opposite direction of what was promised. Aid flows dropped by 4.7 percent in 2006 and a further 8.4 percent in 2007.

The Monterrey Consensus was adopted by over 50 heads of state, 200 ministers of finance, foreign affairs, development and trade, and was further represented by the UN, IMF and WTP. It focussed on financing development and ensuring international trade with developing countries became more transparent.