Ms. Hilde F. Johnson
Minister of International Development
Washington D.C., 29 th April 2003

Statement in connection with the Commitment to Development Award to the Utstein Group

As delivered

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I am very grateful to the Center for Global Development and to Foreign Policy magazine for the opportunity to speak from this prestigious podium tonight.

By awarding the Commitment to Development Award to the Utstein Group you have given me, and my Utstein colleagues, an excellent opportunity to broadcast our message, which is: Let’s get on with the fight against poverty - and let’s do it more smartly, more efficiently and more coherently. This is what Commitment to Development is all about. It is definitely not about being a beauty contest for the world’s donor countries. It is about delivering concrete results to real people living in abject poverty. We must all demonstrate our commitment, and this award is a powerful source of inspiration for me personally, and - I hope - to all development actors, in our joint efforts to eradicate poverty.

To put commitment to development in perspective, I would like to quote what President Jimmy Carter said when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo last year:

"At the beginning of this new millennium I was asked to discuss, here in Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. Among all the possible choices, I decided that the most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth."

These are wise words from a wise man, and they also underscore what has been the driving force behind the Utstein group. As the initiator let me say a few words about its origins. Where does the Utstein concept come from?

Utstein is the name of a medieval abbey in my former constituency in southwestern Norway. In 1999 I invited a number of colleagues who I knew were either my soul-mates in development or had the potential to be so, to the abbey to explore the possibilities for setting up a network. Two of the participants represented G8 countries, the other two did not. We all had seats on the Development Committee of the World Bank.

The first Utstein meeting was a great success. We called ourselves "the conspiracy of implementation" and started systematically to work for breakthroughs in areas that mattered, not only to the developing countries themselves, but to their poor as well. Our focus from the start was to get rid of the national flags and self-interest and to obtain concrete results in the fight against poverty.

I feel it is very appropriate that we are receiving this award on the same occasion as the first edition of the Commitment to Development Index is being presented. The index is a very good illustration of a point that we as Utstein partners are eager to emphasise: resources are crucial but policies matter even more.

A coherent strategy in the fight against poverty must deliver on trade, debt and investments, it must strengthen governance in developing countries and it must involve more and better aid. All these are crucial factors for development and policy areas that are reflected in the Commitment to Development Index. The fight against poverty must be fought on all these fronts simultaneously. This message has been one of the trademarks of the Utstein Group’s advocacy efforts from the very start.

Fighting on all these fronts is necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. I am an optimist. And my optimism is based on positive breakthroughs in many areas.

Let me mention some recent political breakthroughs:

• Firstly: The universal adoption of the Millennium Goals commits world leaders to a strategy against poverty. A breakthrough in itself.
• Secondly: The interests of the poor and underprivileged are now being put at the top of the international political agenda, even by the G8. This is a major breakthrough in international affairs.
• Thirdly: We have achieved a breakthrough on debt with the initiative for Highly Indebted Poor Countries. That said, battles remain to be fought on financing, debt sustainability and speed of implementation.
• Fourthly: After the Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, more countries have accepted the 0.7 per cent target and the OECD now expects that aid figures will rise by some 30 per cent by 2006. The US government and the EU are contributing to this increase. This is a significant breakthrough.
• Fifthly: Country ownership, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and increased local ownership are changing development partner relations in a very promising way. This is a vital change. And it is an important precondition for these countries’ share of the Monterrey compact. They have to deliver.
• And the sixth and final breakthrough is that awareness of the importance of policy coherence between industrial countries is growing. This awareness will be boosted by the Commitment to Development Index and the Commitment to Development Award.

Altogether these breakthroughs represent a major shift in the focus on poverty eradication. One is still missing, and that is the breakthrough on trade. Doha has to be made a development round. Although one could say that a new development paradigm is under way. Paradigms do not deliver, however; we need action in order to do that. And this is our greatest challenge now: we have to translate these breakthroughs into results for the poor – concrete and tangible results. We have to make them feel the difference.

We must intensify our efforts in order to lift 1.2 billion people out of abject poverty by 2015. There is no justification for failing to act swiftly, efficiently and coherently.

Ladies and gentlemen, I promise you that I, together with my Utstein colleagues, will do my utmost to live up to the expectations that are part and parcel of the Commitment to Development Award. To help deliver concrete results for people living in abject and unjust poverty.

I would like to end by quoting the words of a Ghanaian who has personally experienced great poverty:

"Poverty is like heat.
You cannot see it,
so to know poverty
you have to go through it."

Few, if any, people born in the rich part of the world could possibly understand the reality behind these words. What we do understand, however, is that the ultimate test of our efforts is whether we have made a real difference in the lives of real people. They shouldn’t have to go through it anymore. We are committed to passing this test.

Thank you.