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DE RUCNDT #1173/01 3482104
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R 142104Z DEC 07
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RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0891
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0895
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RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
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RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2975
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 USUN NEW YORK 001173 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USTR FOR EBRYAN 
NSC FOR DPRICE/ADEMOPULOS 
DEPT FOR IO/EDA, EB/ODF AND EB/OMA 
USAID FOR EGAT/EG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN ETRD ECIN SENV UN
SUBJECT: UN SETS PREPARATORY PROCESS FOR MONTERREY 
CONSENSUS REVIEW 
 
REF: A. (A)USUN 774 
     ¶B. (B)USUN 939 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  The United Nation General Assembly's Second 
Committee passed by consensus a resolution on December 7 
setting out the modalities for a review in 2008 of the 2002 Monterrey 
Consensus on Financing for Development (FfD).  The review process will 
conclude with a November 29 - December 2, 2008 high-level 
conference in Doha, Qatar.  The resolution splits the preparatory 
process into two segments, a substantive review of the six main chapter 
of the Consensus, to take place via a series of expert roundtables 
in New York in the first half of the year, and a three month 
negotiating period on an outcome document from September to November 
¶2008.  The substantive roundtables offer the United States and 
like-minded countries and institutions an important opportunity to 
balance the UN Secretariat's   traditional south-centric bias on 
development issues.  We offer initial suggestions on how the USG can 
take advantage of this process in paragraph five.  The UN Plenary 
will pass the resolution the week of December 17.  End Summary. 
 
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE RESOLUTION 
 
¶2. (SBU) After lengthy negotiations, the UNGA's Second 
Committee passed by consensus a resolution on December 7 setting out th 
modalities for a review of the 2002 Monterrey Consensus on 
Financing for Development, as called for in paragraph 73 of the 
Consensus document.  The key elements of the resolution include the 
following: 
 
-- Conference Date:  The review process will conclude with a 
November 29-December 2, 2008 high-level conference in Doha, Qatar. The 
Qatari authorities have indicated they consider November 29 to be an 
arrival day. 
 
--Level of Participation:  This was the most contentious issue, 
with the G77 insisting on a summit level event, but the United 
States and like-minded countries, including EU states, Canada, Japan, 
Korea, and Russia, supporting either a ministerial-level conference 
or a more generic high-level event.  In the end, paragraph 1(b) of 
the resolution sets out an ambiguous formula, indicating the 
conference "will be held at the highest possible political level, 
including participation of Heads of State or Government, ministers, 
special representatives and other representatives, as appropriate." 
 
-- Substantive Review:  At the request of the United States and 
other developed countries, prior to launching negotiations on an 
outcome document, the President of the General Assembly (PGA) will 
organize "six substantive informal review sessions of the whole on the 
six thematic areas of the Monterrey Consensus" during 
January-June 2008. We expect roughly one review session per month 
lasting 1-2 days each, beginning in late January or early February 2008 
 The sessions are to be held, to the degree possible, in 
conjunction with other pre-existing meetings, such as the Spring Meetin 
between ECOSOC and the Bretton Woods Institutions.  These sessions 
will present important opportunities for member states, 
international financial institutions, UN and other bodies to provide 
written inputs as part of the preparation for the conference. 
 
-- Conference Outcome: The outcome of the review conference will 
include both an intergovernmentally agreed outcome document 
 
USUN NEW Y 00001173  002 OF 003 
 
 
and summaries of the plenary meeting and roundtable discussions. 
According to paragraph nine of the resolution, the PGA is to 
present a first draft of the outcome document by the end of July 
2008, with negotiations on the document commencing in September.  The 
United States, EU, Russia, Korea, and Japan each stated repeatedly 
during the negotiations of the resolution their expectation that the 
outcome document would be a short, political declaration that 
would not re-open the substance of the 2002 Consensus document. 
 
-- Role of the PGA:  Unlike the 2002 Financing for Development 
Conference in Monterrey, the review process will not require 
the creation of a formal preparatory committee, with its attendant 
budget costs.  Rather, paragraph eight of the resolution 
requests the PGA to continue the "direct intergovernmental 
consultations of the whole with the participation of all states and the 
major institutional stakeholders involved in the financing for 
development process."  The Egyptian and Norwegian Permanent 
Representatives to the UN have served as co-facilitators on the FfD 
issue to date and will continue in this role through the Doha 
conference. 
 
SHAPING THE PROCESS 
 
¶3. (SBU) The substantive roundtables outlined in paragraph 
nine of the resolution offer the United States and like-minded 
countries and institutions a key opportunity to balance the UN 
Secretariat's traditional south-centric bias on development issues.  Th 
 
SIPDIS 
G77 and UN Secretariat have consistently fixated on official 
development assistance (ODA) as the primary means of financing 
development while downplaying the importance of private capital flows, 
despite the latter's much larger size.  They have also been reluctant t 
recognize positive developments in the FfD arena since 
Monterrey, including, for example, the substantial increase in foreign 
direct investment and the large amounts of official debt relief 
granted through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral 
Debt Relief Initiatives processes. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Most UN development resolutions begin with a G77 
draft text based largely on a one-sided report by the UN Secretariat, 
putting the United States and like-minded countries at a negotiating 
disadvantage.  If properly managed, the substantive 
roundtables and opportunity to submit written inputs should give the US 
and like-minded stakeholders an opportunity to level the 
negotiating field, particularly since the first draft will originate 
from the co-facilitators. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Given the above, we recommend Washington agencies 
consider the following steps, as appropriate, to maximize U.S. 
influence on the preparatory process. 
 
-- We recommend strongly that Washington agencies consider 
participating actively in the substantive roundtables, 
including by submitting written inputs.  Submitting inputs in writing 
will increase the chance that U.S. views will find their way into 
the written summaries of the roundtables, which will in turn 
inform the first draft of the conference outcome document. 
 
-- Equally importantly, we recommend Washington agencies 
encourage participation in the roundtables by capital-based officials 
from developing countries with a positive story to tell in the six 
 
USUN NEW Y 00001173  003 OF 003 
 
 
areas of the consensus (mobilizing domestic financial resources, 
foreign direct investment and other private capital flows, 
international trade, international financial and technical cooperation 
for development, external debt, and "enhancing the coherence and 
consistency of the international monetary, financial, and 
trading systems").  Encouraging the participation of capital-based 
officials from G77 countries, particularly from finance and development 
ministries, could help balance the more ideological views of 
their New York-based diplomats. 
 
-- Paragraph 11 invites governments and other stakeholders to 
submit written inputs into the preparatory process.  In addition to 
contributing submissions on behalf of the USG, we also 
recommend the USG encourage key development finance institutions, such 
as the World Bank, IMF, Paris Club OECD Development Assistance 
Committee, and regional development banks, to voluntarily submit report 
on their activities since Monterrey to the PGA.  Such reports 
could do much to increase the knowledge level of participants in the 
review process about the significant advances in development finance 
since Monterrey. 
 
-- The upcoming roundtables on trade, investment, and debt would 
benefit from substantive inputs from U.S. business 
groups/NGOs, banks, or companies active internationally.  We have asked 
the UN Secretariat for a list of U.S. companies and organizations 
that were accredited to the Monterrey conference and that, according to 
the terms of the resolution, would only need to go through a 
simple registration procedure to participate in the roundtables. As 
appropriate, we recommend Washington agencies encourage them 
to participate. 
 
RESOLUTION TEXT 
 
¶6. (U) The full text of the resolution can be found at: 
HTTP://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N07/63 0/06/PDF/N0763006.PDF?oPEN 
ELEMENT 
 
Khalilzad