ABSTRACT
The UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) had been a real wakeup call for developed countries’ heads of state. Many had been stunned by the unrelenting criticism by developing countries of the sincerity of their promises on overseas development aid (ODA), and by the threats of those countries to block all negotiations on the environmental issues. UNGASS had marked the low point in development aid. And it wasn’t until the next year that ODA started going back up – to US$52 billion, which would be its general level until after the Millennium Development Summit in 2000.
