MADRID DECLARATION ON THE CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL PANEL
FOR POVERTY AND INEQUALITY ERADICATION
Madrid, 16 October 2014

The organizations that are part of the Spanish Alliance Against Poverty as well as their allies, signatory parties of this declaration, state:

• Poverty, in all its forms and dimensions, is a big problem of humanity. But it’s also a problem caused by human action and which solutions lie in human beings’ capacity to organize themselves collectively.

• We share the Declaration of Human Rights and its inseparable and indivisible nature as a fundamental basis for adequately understanding this issue and as a horizon in which to develop all collective solutions.

• We welcome the shared political will of the state and government representatives of the world to put an end to the issue of global development in all its dimensions.

• An expression of this will can be seen in the Millennium Development Goals established in the year 2000 and in the realization of an implementation deadline for them. This has allowed a greater knowledge about the global challenges and involvement of the international community, associations and people of this planet, contributing, at the same time, to raise the commitment to achieve these goals.

• In this same way, we acknowledge that this period has given us the opportunity to incorporate lessons learnt from some evidences that show serious limitations and weaknesses that must be overcome without ambiguities and in an outright way. On one hand, the inability to attract sufficient funding, nationally and globally, to invest intensively in development policies that are coherent with the shared goals. On the other hand, an insufficient institutional development of the global governance systems that enables governments to articulate development policies towards a common goal, in a coordinate and responsible way. In the words of the UN Secretary General: “the MDG’s deficits weren’t due to them being unattainable nor due to the deadline being too short, but because there has been a lack of focus of the actions and a lack of accountability mechanisms”

• We note the absence of coordination mechanisms erode the ability of governments to respond to the demands of citizens and make it difficult for the global development agenda and the provision of global goods to have a pre-eminent role over other political or economic priorities.

• We can see how the different efforts show limitations due to their sectoral nature, appearing unable to transform politically and structurally the main causes of poverty, exclusion and inequality. Therefore, it is essential to collectively address the design and orientation of socio-economic policies (trade, financial, tax, energy, and security policies, among others) to integrate within them the rights, gender, decent work, development, sustainability and social protection perspectives.

• Despite this, we recognize that there is already a wide shared doctrine and enough scientific and technical knowledge amongst the academic and scientific community to address realistic and reasonable solutions for the most dramatic and obvious expressions of global poverty and inequality.

• We understand that the complexity of development issues is enormous due to its multidimensional nature. We also understand that it’s necessary to address the varied and complex interweaving of interests that are at stake. This multidimensional reality needs to incorporate the knowledge that is available from different approaches and disciplines, in order to articulate coherent and shared policy agendas where development is treated as a matter of general interest for our and future generations.

• We consider that in the specific sphere of climate change –that is also multidimensional and complex-, the existence and the work of the Intergovernmental panel about Climate Change has been useful to focus the agenda and propose shared solutions and increase the ability of the citizenry to monitor the commitments made by the governments.

• As with the issue of climate change, the issue of global inequality and poverty requires a scientific and technical approach, that combines in an adequate way different types of knowledge, incorporating evidence and arguments from the natural and social sciences and that guide, with constancy in time, the conformation of the governments’ global political agenda on development issues.

• In this way, we celebrate the appeal launched by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 67/290, in which it states the need to create an interface between science and politics “that is reinforced through the review of documentation, the compilation of different reports and evaluations, including them in a Global sustainable Development Report, built on the existing evaluations, bettering the decision making processes at all levels, based on evidence and contributing to the strengthening of capacities in data compilation and analysis in the developing countries”

• We consider that it’s necessary to create a multidisciplinary entity formed by people from the worlds of science and thought, from the academic, institutional and social sphere that, in dialogue with governments and with the highest degree of legitimacy, representation, can provide frequent synthesis in the form of guidelines for the development policies of the governments, international institutions and the international community.

• We consider that this entity should count on experts from the North and the South, the East and the West, who work all year round on poverty and inequality issues within each country. Experts who provide solutions for each country and that bring together science and policy, so that the decisions, that would have a scientific authority and rigor, are applicable by the political will based on a generational and trans-generational interest.

Due to all this, we support the proposal from the Spanish Alliance Against Poverty to create a permanent Panel that enables us to continue the fight against poverty and inequality, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the post 2015 agenda and provides political guidelines for the actions of governments and the United Nations.
For a decent life for everyone in this unique planet.