Mr. Chairman,
It is a great pleasure for me to address the Commission for Social Development, of which Sweden as of this year once again is a member. Let me also express our thanks for the highly interesting and valuable reports of the Secretary-General prepared for this session. Sweden has a history of strong commitments to the Commission and has always tried to participate actively in its work. Its major role in the follow-up activities and implementation of the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen 1995 has given the Commission a still more imperative responsibility in the work for social development and human well-being for all.
The World Summit constituted a landmark on placing human centered development as a matter of highest priority both on the national and international agenda. It also pointed out that there can be no sustainable economic development without social development. Social development is a base for a stable economic and political society. Poverty eradication, globalisation, social and economic development, equality between women and men, and the recognition of the right of the child cannot be treated as separate issues. They require a concerted response. Sweden strongly supports the major steps that have been taken in this direction.
The materialization of gender equality in society is of vital importance when working with social and economic development. Men and women should be given equal opportunities regarding education, working life and in caring for children and family.
Sustainable poverty reduction can only be achieved with the assistance of a strong civil society. It is of great importance to promote good governance, democracy, human rights and empowerment in the process to strengthen civil society. A key element in the fulfillment of the Copenhagen Program of Action is the level of ODA with a primary focus on the least developed countries. Sweden is concerned about the declining trend of ODA. As you know, Sweden has fulfilled the agreed ODA target of 0,7%, and we urge other donor countries to implement the target we all agreed upon.
The follow-up of the Social Summit should be seen in the context of other UN conferences in the nineties. The impact - and where the implementation of it has fallen short of expectations - has consequences for all. The follow-up meetings of UN conferences should note where plans of action coincide, complement and reinforce each other.
As pointed out in Copenhagen, the Social Summit gave an opportunity for reflecting on how well our social policy model meets the objectives and on whether the means to these ends are being efficiently used. We also asked ourselves whether the demands being made on the welfare State were different from those which applied when it was constructed. Were other types of system better suited than today's for achieving the same type of objective?
At the time of the summit our country was facing serious problems. We experienced an economic recession and a drastic increase of open unemployment. The economic crisis that Sweden had to endure during the first half of the 1990´s raised many doubts inside and outside our country concerning the future economic viability of our welfare State.
The social effects of the crisis are obvious. Unemployment is still unacceptably high, higher for women than for men. Like many other states Sweden accordingly faces an important challenge: to increase employment and overcome the problem of excessively high unemployment.
Thanks to the efficient reconstruction of public finances we are now in a stable upward phase. There are clear signs of improved labor market conditions. With an improved economy it has been possible to increase the social security benefits. In order to ensure equality between women and men it is important that we maintain a social insurance system and a tax system that is based on the individuals and not on the family.
We can now see that the welfare system managed not only to survive but also to fulfill its basic role of protecting people from bearing the full burden of adverse economic conditions. In spite of the weak economic development the income gap has not dramatically increased. However, new crises may occur and therefore its important to ensure that the welfare state is equipped to deal with future courses of events.
Having described the social situation in more general terms I now wish to draw your attention to the situation of the elderly and persons with disabilities. This is of course due to the fact that 1999 is the International Year of Older Persons and to the fact that issues of disabled are given high priority by Sweden. We are sharing these views with you with the intention for us to learn more from your experiences.
The aim of Swedish disability policies is full participation and equality. It is important that all the environments and activities of the community should be made available to all persons with disabilities.
This approach is of vital importance. Society must serve all residents properly, including persons with disabilities. The overall strategy is to provide for the disabled within the frame of the general welfare model and to avoid special systems. Caring and other services for the persons with disabilities, in various ways become part of the general welfare model. Sometimes, though, the practical solutions for the disabled have to be different, and in certain cases the general system has to be supplemented.
Disabled persons own organizations have an important part to play in the Swedish disability policy and they receive financial support from government, county councils and local authorities. As we politicians constantly have to compromise between different interests and, occasionally, conflicting needs and wishes, it is tremendously important that the voices of the disabled persons themselves are included in the continuous discussions.
The UN Standard Rules on Disability have been extensively used by my country. A number of county councils and local authorities have prepared or are for the time being drafting policy plans based on these rules. Also at the national level we are working on new policies, particularly regarding accessibility in the full sense of the word, such as measures to improve the way persons with disabilities are received and treated in their daily life.
Policy for the elderly in Sweden is facing several challenges. In the short term, there are deficiencies in caring services for the elderly which have to be rectified. In the longer term we will have to adjust our whole society to a new population structure. The elderly are becoming more numerous, and in a couple of decades from now, one out of every four inhabitants will be over the age of 65.
Thus there is a need for a broad based policy for the elderly. Many changes will take a long time to accomplish, therefore it is important that work should begin here and now. One fundamental concern of policy for the elderly is to transform attitudes and to enhance respect for older persons. In this regard we have a lot to learn from other cultures.
A society of solidarity takes good care of its older members. Good policy for the elderly is characterized by security, quality, equality and participation. This calls, among other things, for a stable pension system and efficient caring services for the elderly. Quality is concerned with opportunities for active, independent living, but also with the people employed in caring services having good skills and being sufficiently numerous.
My Government is now taking a number of measures to achieve better care and an active policy for old people. In this work the ongoing International Year of Older Persons, is providing us with an excellent opportunity to take concrete actions for the elderly.
Thank you Mr. Chairman