UN General Assembly
1997

indebted poor countries initiative of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. However, the criteria for eligibility should be more flexible to enable more countries to benefit from these arrangements. As it is now, it is almost a nightmare for a country to qualify in terms of conditionalities involved and the time it takes before reaping the first benefits after qualifying. It is like being so near yet so far. The debate on development is closely interlinked with that on the environment. In June this year, a special session of the Assembly was held to review and appraise the implementation of Agenda 21 five years on. It is regrettable that the special session came out with no concrete agreement or commitments on the cross-cutting issues of financial resources and technology transfer. For while it was possible to agree on follow-up action on some of the sectoral issues such as forests, energy, climate change, desertification, fresh water and others, lack of concrete agreement on issues related to financial resources and technology transfer militates against