UN General Assembly
2000

will be crucial to the outcome of efforts by the international community. One of the key challenges facing the international community as it enters the twenty-first century is poverty reduction, especially in the least developed countries. Success in this field requires wide application of the principle of solidarity in international economic relations. If globalization is to be harnessed to development and poverty reduction, more is needed than just better coordination among the organizations active in the socio-economic sphere. It is also necessary to stop perceiving development and poverty reduction solely as technical problems. To attack them effectively, there has to be a coherent policy that comprises not only financial and technical assistance but also substantive measures in the sphere of education, culture, good governance, rule of law, democratic institutions, etc. International solidarity will not deliver results in the shape of building up the production capacities of the poorest countries and enabling them to reap benefits from globalization processes without serious efforts on the part of these countries themselves, in 33 particular rational economic policies and the ability to