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ECONOMY: U.N. Summit Seeks Collective Response to Crisis
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 13, 2009 (IPS) - The president of the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann,
dismisses the G20 bloc of economically advanced countries as unrepresentative of the
international community.
"Despite their good intentions," he scoffs, "the Group is still a minority on an international
level" because it shuts out more than two-thirds of the membership of the world body.
"The most democratic way to discuss issues that affect all of us is by doing so at the
United Nations," he argues.
And so, with the unanimous support of the General Assembly, he is planning to hold a
high-level meeting of all 192 U.N. member states to discuss the global financial crisis.
The meeting, scheduled to take place Jun. 24-26, is expected to be attended by most
world leaders, including heads of state and heads of government.
D'Escoto said: "There is widespread consensus among world leaders that the current crisis
has its roots in ethical failure."
The meeting, which will cost over 860,000 dollars - equitably shared by member states
depending on their financial status - will adopt a final declaration on how to cope with the
crisis.
"We now have the opportunity and the responsibility to search for solutions that take into
account the interests of all nations, the rich and the poor, the large and the small," he
declared.
Whether the three-day summit will be another talk-fest or a landmark conference will
depend on the final outcome document which will be drafted over the next seven weeks
by member states.
Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, former permanent representative of Bangladesh to the
United Nations and a former U.N. under-secretary-general, told IPS it is heartening that
the General Assembly, the world's most universal intergovernmental body, would be
discussing the ongoing global economic meltdown.
"To be meaningful and worthwhile, it is essential that the Assembly is seized on a regular
basis with the issues which are of primary and ongoing concern to the citizens of the
world," he said.
But it is unfortunate, he pointed out, that the Assembly is loaded with agenda items that
point to its irrelevance.
"Its present engagement in deliberating on the global economic crisis is, therefore, very
welcome," he added.
At one time the global economy was shaped and dictated to by the G6: the world's six
major industrialised nations, namely the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and
Japan. With the exception of Japan, the rest were from the Western world.
Canada joined later to transform the group into the G7. But there were still no developing
nations, although the decisions of the G7 also impacted heavily on the developing world.
When Russia was admitted, the group became the G8, as it existed last year.
The G20 that met in London recently also included some of the world's major developing
nations, such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Argentina, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa, Turkey, along with Australia, South Korea and the 27-member European Union
(which also includes the former East European states).
The General Assembly meeting in June also follows a call for the creation of a Global
Economic Coordination Council by a U.N. Commission of Experts chaired by Nobel
Laureate Joseph Stiglitz last month.
Roberto Bissio, executive director of the Third World Institute, told IPS the upcoming
meeting is obviously an opportunity both for G20 countries and for the other 172
countries, not represented by the G20, to have their say.
But the G20 members will also have a major opportunity to legitimise their role through
the proposed Economic Coordination Council to be created within the United Nations, if
the suggestion of the Stiglitz Commission is endorsed, said Bissio, who is also the
Coordinator of Social Watch, a network of civil society organisations in over 50 countries.
In fact, he said, the proposed Council could have "permanent members" (without veto
powers) selected from among the present G20 members and other members elected.
"Yet, the Council as a whole would be transparent and accountable to all countries, thus
overcoming the accusations of illegitimacy and unrepresentativeness presently made, with
justification, with regard to the G20," he added.
On the upcoming meeting, Chowdhury said the main concern, however, is what would be
the outcome and whether it would have any impact on the countries from whom the
action would be asked for.
"Most significantly, one wonders whether the Assembly would be able to go beyond the
London G20 Summit outcome," he said.
He said universalising the G20 outcome without the benefit of participation and giving it a
seal of endorsement would be meaningless on the part of the Assembly's 192 members
and its leadership.
"As I have often reiterated, the credibility of the U.N. would be enhanced if it could focus
on some concrete action for the benefit of 800 million of the Least Developed Countries
(LDCs) - the poorest and weakest segment of the international community - which are the
innocent, and the worst, victims of the ongoing global crisis," said Chowdhury, a former
U.N. high representative of LDCs.
However, he added, given its inherent inadequacy in dealing with global financial issues, "I
believe the Assembly should at least ask for a specific share of resources to be set aside
for the LDCs in the context of the G20 Summit decided on the role of Multilateral
Development Banks (MDB) in the global recovery from the current crisis."
The LDCs, which number 49, are described as the poorest of the world's poor, most of
them in sub-Saharan Africa.
Also, Chowdhury noted, the G20 Summit's call on the U.N., working with other global
institutions, to establish an effective mechanism to monitor the impact of the crisis on the
poorest and most vulnerable should be reflected in the Assembly outcome mentioning
specifically the needs of the LDCs as well as the Landlocked Developing Countries and the
Small Island Developing States.
Bissio said other suggestions included in the Stiglitz Commission report deserve careful
consideration. And while it might be unrealistic to have them all approved in June, the U.N.
summit is the opportunity to place them on the agenda.
In particular, and contrary to the G20 communique, the Stiglitz Commission clearly
identifies the origins of the crisis and pinpoints structural solutions, not just emergency
measures, he noted.
The emergency measures suggested by the Commission, he said, do not imply
strengthening the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, but reforming
them.
And the long term solutions, he said, include the creation of a world reserve currency, not
based on the U.S. dollar, and the adoption of carbon tax and a financial transaction tax.
These, he pointed out, would not only generate genuine resources for development but
also help control unwanted global warming and financial speculation and volatility.
(END)
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