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Italian Presidency Document (Beyond Debt Relief)

Main Proposals

• Industrial countries should liberalize the access to their markets for all products originating from LDCs and possibly other vulnerable countries (HIPCs/IDA-eligible)
• Opening markets would boost LDCs exports and welfare. The cost of the initiative for industrial economies and other developing countries alike would be minimal
• Non-tariff barriers should be minimized, whenever objective constraints do not allow for immediate wider action. Trade related technical assistance to LDCs needs to be strengthened to improve their ability to participate in the multilateral trade system.

B. INVESTMENT

• Internationally recognized standards, codes, principles and best practices should be developed by the competent international bodies in a number of fields relevant for private investment for voluntary adoption by the less developed countries with assistance from multilateral institutions.
• Multilateral development institutions should focus their action on providing LDCs with: i) technical assistance for capacity building; ii) financial leverage to catalyse public and private funds on investment-enhancing development programmes and projects; iii) increased information sharing on investment opportunities in the poorest countries.
• The World Bank and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) should assist the poorest countries in implementing legislation for protection of intellectual property.
• Industrial countries should facilitate FDI flows towards the poorest countries through import promotion programmes for LDCs products and technology licensing agreements with partners in more advanced countries based on subsidisation of royalty payments.
• WIPO and the World Bank should study the feasibility of a "Global Research and Development" Fund to finance applied research on medical and agricultural technologies to be funded in part through patent-based income.
• Industrial countries should extend preferential access for technology transfers to LDCs in accordance with the TRIPS agreement.

1.Health

• The commitment to strengthen global and local partnerships for development requires a higher degree of coordination amongst institutional partners.
• Local access to key medicines and supplies should be increased. To this aim incentives should be provided to the pharmaceutical industry for lowering their costs for the poor countries and develop local productive capacity.
• Action by the governments, the UN, MDBs and other donors and the civil society should be co-ordinated through a country led framework such as the PRSPs.
• HIPC countries should be subject to monitoring to ensure that funds released are effectively developed into social investment to prevent them from facing again an excessive debt burden.
• Health indicators are a useful means for measuring progress and for keeping the focus on the results. Their use should be reaffirmed.
• The promotion of a sustainable and common framework around which partners can organise their assistance and investments will be valuable.
• It is crucial to avoid the re-exportation by debtor countries of medicines imported at reduced prices.
• MDBs should strengthen their support to the poor countries in the fight against infectious diseases possibly through increased recourse to grants and to partnerships with private sector. Donors should support the elimination of user fees and cost-recovery mechanisms in poor countries.
• A New Trust Fund should be established with a $ 500 million donation by the G8 to be matched by private contributions to introduce widespread preventive and curative health treatments in the poorest countries.

2.Education

• The G8 should confirm its strong commitment to the goals of universal primary education by 2015 and gender equality in schooling by 2005.
• All stakeholders should support plans for free and compulsory basic education, thereby eliminating school fees and reducing other user costs.
• National governments should receive support in order to involve all local stakeholders for the creation of an environment that is welcoming and encourages learning. The National Action Plan should clearly commit to free compulsory education.
• International assistance for capacity building should be targeted at the following: institutions, training, infrastructure, education programmes.
• Countries should implement strict legislation and monitoring systems in order to reduce the number of children not attending schools, and child labour policies should be pursued.
• Educational institutions must be supported in order to secure well-motivated and professionally competent teachers. International organisations should help the poorest countries to exploit the potential of distance learning for more diffused education and more efficient teacher training.
• Education should support national policies for the protection of the environment and for the prevention of serious diseases (e.g. AIDS).
• UNESCO, OECD, the UN and the World Bank should identify effective indicators to monitor country progress towards education goals, thereby attracting international resources and investment to committed countries.
• Poor countries should be assisted in establishing a system of demand-driven vocational training to improve employability in formal sectors and to reduce adult illiteracy, particularly for women.
• G8 countries should support bilateral agreements between universities. This would promote exchanges of teaching methods and technological equipment and thus improve tertiary education in poor countries.
• A dedicated Trust Fund on education, respecting clear criteria for impact and effectiveness and cataloguing public and private contributions, should be established to finance education projects in the poorest countries.

Source: Italy, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (all accessible at http://www.esteri.it/g8/docum.htm)

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