Ana Palacio
The Wall Street Journal Europe
October 27, 2003

Twenty-five years ago Iraq´s per capita income was $3,600, similar to that of Spain at the time. Today it barely reaches $600. Between 1980 and 2001 Iraq tumbled 50 places in the U.N. Human Development Index.

A country boasting a wealth of natural and human resources fell into ruin because of decades of pillaging and misgovernment. During all this time, the people of Iraq have had to endure not one war but three, caused by a regime that will go down in history for its cruelty and corruption.

This is why many have suggested that what Iraq needs is a Marshall Plan. That is, an international effort, that – just as the Marshall Plan did for many European countries after World War II – restores Iraq to the position it enjoyed before Saddam Hussein decided to wage war on Iran.

Toward this end, the International Donor Conference for the Reconstuction of Iraq that has just concluded in Madrid is an unprecedented success and marks the first step towards securing this goal.

The conference has been described as a truly world referendum for the reconstruction of Iraq. Seventy-three countries (half of whom sent delegations headed by ministers), 20 international organizations and 13 non-governmental organizations, many of them representing a considerably higher number of affiliated bodies, responded to the call by the conference conveners and committed financial resources totalling $33 billion for the period 2004-2007. That figure is twice Iraq´s GDP.

The conference is a referendum above all because the participants expressed not just their support for rebuilding Iraq, but have also endorsed the change entailed in liberating Iraq from dictatorship and opression. The Conference took place against the backdrop of

U.N. Resolution 1511, unanimously adopted by the 15 members of the Security Council. The Madrid meeting thus ratified the renewed consensus within an international community that has taken notice of the current challenges and has set aside the confrontation of previous months.

In Madrid we did not just focus on figures. As Prime Minister José María Aznar said in his opening address, “the economic reconstruction of Iraq is evidently the reason why we have called the Conference. However, we should also stress the underlying motive: we want Iraq to return to the fold, of the international community and return to normality as a state.”

Madrid also evidenced that Iraq´s reconstruction is a matter not only for the governments and international organizations represented there. A successful reconstruction hinges on mobilizing civil society, particularly in Iraq. It is not simply a case of providing public resources and official development aid. Civil society – NGOs and private corporations – has a fundamental role in the process.

NGOs are crucial actors in the areas of humanitarian aid, human rights and development aid. Their role has been vital in an Iraq plagued by hardship and continues to be crucial in today´s Iraq, which confronts great difficulties but also holds out great hope. Their role will continue to be vital in the future. For its part, the private sector, so crucial in a country´s economic fabric, is also an indispensable interlocutor in the collective effort to raise and channel private funds speedily and effectively and encourage investment in a country of such vast econornic potential.

However, if reconstruction is to succeed, it is paramount that Iraqis have confidence in their country´s future.

In this regard it is important to ensure in the short term a critical mass of resources to enable economic, social and institutional refom to take place quickly. Like Germany in its day, Iraq has tremendous potential. It will right itself again soon and begin to nurture the reconstruction process with its own efforts in the medium and longer term.

It is vital that the decisions taken now be the correct ones. The Iraqi Governing Council – in whom the international community has expressed its confidence by making it the repository of Iraq´s sovereignty – must demonstrate its capacity and assume its responsibilities fully with a sustained, day-to-day effort.

The conditions today are ripe to move forward in the reconstruction process. Admittedly, the current lack of security is a concern shared by all, as Ambassador L. Paul Bremer said in his address to the Conference “security is not a condition for Iraq´s reconstruction, it is part of reconstruction”.

Iraqis have to be the architects of their own future and in this respect Madrid has helped end the vicious circle imposed by Saddam for decades. Required now is a Marshall Plan, similar to that outlined by the U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall in his now famous speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, when he stressed that “the remedy is to restore the confidence of the people of Europe in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.”

Madrid is thus a milestone on the road to helping Iraq regain the position it deserves in view of its millenary history and its potential both for the region and the international community in general. The people of Iraq now know they are not alone in this task.

Ms. Palacio is foreign minister of Spain.