1
in cooperation with
„World Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED)“
Reforming Global Governance Structures
A policy forum in the context of the
"UN Conference on Financing for Development"
February 8, 2002
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Hiroshimastrasse 17
Berlin
Global Governance and Financing for Development
The growing interdependence of the global economy has eroded the traditional divide between internal and external policies. A central characteristic of the world in the twenty-first century is the growing free movement of goods and services across countries with the consequence that boundaries between issues of trade, environment, macroeconomic policy, and social policy are increasingly blurred. A major shortcoming of the present system is the absence of a fully representative global political forum, including governments, business entities and civil society to encourage more systemic consultation and cooperation on policy issues. Furthermore, the existing international organizations and decision-making institutions lack in particular an equitable North South representation with respect to development policies.
In the run-up to the UN Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung aims with this event to address imbalances in the setting of international economic and social policies and to explore ways towards a more cooperative, participatory approach on global governance. This includes the potential for new working relationships among the existing international organizations to secure consistency and coherence in their policy goals in support of development. The policy forum will bring together policy makers who are directly involved in the FfD process with representatives from civil society, government and academia in Germany. The results of the forum will be presented as an input to the upcoming UN FfD Conference in Monterrey, Mexico to be held in March 2002.
Agenda[1]
Draft January 15, 2002
Friday, February 8th 2002
1st Session09h30 – 10h45
Global Governance and Financing for Development
The opening session will address the relevance of global governance reform in the context of the run-up to the upcoming UN Conference on Financing for Development. It will stress the contents of the so-called systemic issues on the FfD agenda and include a brief overview of the different political positions in the FfD process. Relevant issues are the reform of the international financial architecture, constraints in the international economic system to allow for developing countries' own paths of development, and a more participatory approach in the setting of global policies by strengthening the role of the UN. The session will also give further insight into the positions of the German government and the EU and explain to what extent they are supportive to the reform proposals in the FfD process.
WelcomeChristiane Kesper
Head of Development Policy Department
Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Berlin
DiscussionHeidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and
Development
Ruth Jacoby
Co-Chair Financing for Development
Ambassador Permanent Mission of Sweden to the
United Nations
2nd Session11h00–13h00
Imbalances in the present International Regimes and Institutions
The second session will address the lack of fully representative fora on global governance as one of the most important handicaps for international cooperation. Much governance today takes place informally through groups of countries such as the G7 and its affiliated institutions, representing only a small share of the world's population and consequently with a low priority on development issues. The Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) and WTO are other major players with indisputable substantial economic expertise at their disposal. But they are only operationally important on particular aspects of economic governance since they are mainly country focused, and at the same time they often lack transparent and democratic procedures in developing policy actions. Finally, the panel will explain why other specialized development agencies and institutions with a more equitable North South representation are so limited in addressing the imbalances on global economic and social issues.
SpeakersRoy Culpeper, President, North South Institute, Ottawa
Peter Wahl, Member of the Executive Board, WEED, Bonn
Rick Rowden, Researcher, Educational Fund, Washington D.C.
TBA (on the UN system)
3rd Session14h00-16h00
Towards a Reform of Global Governance
The third session will examine in detail proposals for reforming the global governance structure under particular consideration of the upcoming UN Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico. Three different proposals will be at the heart of the discussion: The creation of a Global Council on Economic Governance under aegis of the UN, the reform of existing international institutions including ECOSOC, BWIs and WTO, and the establishment of greater coherence and cooperation among the existing international organizations under consideration of the concept of global public goods. In addition to a detailed description of the different proposals the session will discuss what are their conceptual strength in achieving a more cooperative, participatory approach on global governance. Finally, it will be evaluated how likely one of the proposals may succeed in gathering broad-based political support with respect to the upcoming FfD conference in March 2002.
Speakers: Karsten Hinrichs, Deputy Director General, Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development, Bonn
Inge Kaul, Director, Office for Development Studies, UNDP
James Howard, Director, International Congress of Free Trade
Unions, Brussels
Hazem Fahmy, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Egypth to the United Nations, New York
Wolfgang Stöckl, Head of Division, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin
Conclusion16h00-16h30
[1]NB Working languages at the forum are English and German. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.