Weathering the storm

Developing countries, which make up the vast majority of the 192-member assembly, argue that they are bearing the heaviest burden from the global monetary meltdown.

Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, the event's organizer, said the conference aimed to identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations.

Brockmann also said the conference aims to start a dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all member states.

Some fear concrete outcomes unlikely

Numerous development agencies have expressed doubt that the UN conference will achieve anything concrete. The Catholic aid organization Caritas International has joined the calls for what Brockmann has called "a new international financial architecture."

Caritas Germany head Oliver Mueller told Deutsche Welle that the problem of capital flight - that is, investors moving their securities out of a country because of a fear of country-specific risks or political instability, or because of the lure of higher returns elsewhere - has been exacerbated through the worldwide finance and business crisis.

"Societies in developing countries lose $500 to 800 billion (356 to 570 billion euros) annually,” he said. “Something needs to be done urgently. This is where the conference in New York can play an important role."

Caritas International and other aid organizations are appealing to the international community to set aside one percent of their national budgets to assist developing countries.

The amount needed to assist developing countries pales into insignificance when put up next to the sum of money that's been injected to prop up the global banking sector: close to $7,600 billion. With those sorts of figures in the background, though, even the ever-optimistic German development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, is skeptical.

She said she would be happy if those at the UN conference in New York managed to send a message to the developing world, "that in these difficult times they are in the focus of the international community, and that they are being supported."

"We're trying to prevent them from sliding into a further debt-spiral. That's the immediate action that needs to be taken," she said.

Marcel Fürstenau (ch)

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar