Director-General/Executive Director
New York, 22 September 2010
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say a few words about the role of partnerships in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
MDG 8 commits us to developing a global partnership for development. Today, as we know, official development assistance stands at 0.31 per cent of the combined national incomes of developed countries, which is still far below the 0.7 United Nations target.
Of course we all want to see greater progress toward this target so that development initiatives receive the support they need. But there is something else we must take into consideration when we think about partnerships for development and how to enhance their impact. The environment in which development aid operates matters as much as the aid itself.
Development is undermined in conditions of instability. This is especially true in fragile states, and states engaged in or emerging from conflict.
These are states where the rule of law is absent, where corruption is rampant, where illicit drugs and HIV threaten public health, where crime and violence are rife and people live in fear.
In such conditions, institutions lack sufficient capacity to handle development aid effectively.
Development needs security to succeed. It needs solid, functioning institutions, grounded in the rule of law and untainted by corruption.
What do I mean by the rule of law? I see it as a social contract between a state and its citizens. One in which no one is above the law, and everyone is entitled to access to justice and basic human rights. The rule of law is what holds states together. It helps ensure security and stability. It lays the groundwork for accountable institutions throughout society.
To make aid more effective-to transform dollars into development-security and the rule of law are fundamental.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime recently launched a number of Regional Programmes to promote security and the rule of law in various parts of the world. Our Regional Programmes are aligned with regional and national policies and priorities, and they promote ownership by partner countries. They are coordinated with other multilateral development agencies, and support mutual accountability for results.
Our work is firmly grounded in research and evidence. For example, a 2010 UNODC report, The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Threat Assessment, shows how organized crime has gone global and become one of the world's foremost economic and armed powers. Such findings underscore the need to ensure that development and security-sector reforms go hand in hand.
UNODC works to promote security and development by focusing on five thematic areas:
1. putting a stop to organized crime and trafficking in illicit drugs, weapons and human beings;
2. building up criminal justice systems and preventing crime;
3. tackling corruption;
4. preventing drug use and the spread of HIV among drug users, prisoners and other vulnerable groups; and
5. preventing terrorism.
All of these issues are interrelated, so we cannot address them in isolation. They are also transnational. And they are too big for countries to confront on their own.
This is why partnerships matter.
Thank you.