Disappointment as rich block progress at UN
The summit gave all 192 countries of the world – rather than a self-selecting small group of them – the opportunity to discuss the crisis and decide on measures to tackle it. As the summit acknowledged, the world is confronted with the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression, and developing countries, though they did not cause the crisis, are being severely affected by it.
Yet the measures proposed by the UN summit do not go much further than what has already been agreed by the G20. Civil society groups are blaming rich countries for blocking progress towards more fundamental change. While the poorest 130 countries called together for systemic reform, the UK and others refused to give the UN the mandate it needed to lead such a process.
The expert commission that fed its findings in to the summit, chaired by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, had called for measures including a new bankruptcy court to deal with sovereign debt, a new global reserve currency, and new institutions like a Global Economic Council. But none of these were agreed to by the rich countries.
The wording on debt is particularly weak, despite the glaring need for more debt cancellation to prevent a new debt crisis. All the summit outcome document could agree to was allowing for temporary debt standstills to be negotiated, and encouraging a renewed commitment to existing debt relief.
The document also expresses concern about debt sustainability and called for an increase in grants and concessional loans – but without specific proposals. It speak out against “unwarranted conditionalities.” At the same time, the vast majority of the new money promised at the G20 in London is being delivered as loans through the International Monetary Fund, with harsh strings attached.
Much of the disagreement in the negotiations running up to this summit was around whether lasting follow-up mechanisms would be established. The document calls for a working group of the General Assembly to be set up to follow up on the issues, and an expert panel which could provide technical expertise and analysis.
So in a small sign of hope, these mechanisms could provide an opportunity to turn a set of largely unambitious, vague commitments into more fundamental reforms of the global economy in the months ahead.
