Globalization and Social Development after Copenhagen By Thandika Mkandawire and Virginia Rodriguez UNRISD Occasional Paper No.10 June, 2000

The director of UNRISD together with a research assistant have prepared this very useful and compressed examination of the social, economic and ideological conditions which have prevented the achievement of an “enabling environment” as envisioned by the Copenhagen Summit. Readers would seldom find a more succinct and telling summary. The authors note that the ideological environment is much more contested on the eve of Geneva 2000 than it was at Copenhagen. Poverty alleviation occupies a central place on the development agenda, the Bretton Woods institutions now concede a more important role of the state. There have been a number of attempts to rethink global governance and economic management. But, efforts to date are patchwork and add-on. Questions of distributive justice and social policy, the authors state, must become central if real progress is to be made.

Global Economic Trends and Social Development
By Ajit Singh
UNRISD Occasional paper No.9
June, 2000

A professor of economics at Cambridge University, Ajit Singh examines the objectives set by Copenhagen and the capacity of poorer countries to implement them. The paper examines the structural and ideological impediments to achieving high growth with equity, and takes particular account of the reasons for the Asian crisis of 1997-99. The particular impacts of crisis and failure on women are highlighted. Prof. Singh argues for a regime of global Keynesianism, with much more attention to growth in real world demand. Managed world trade and control of global capital movements are essential components, as is the development of new institutions to provide a higher level of co-ordination on a sustained, long-term basis.

     Each of these papers includes a resume in English, Spanish and French, a very useful bibliography and detailed charts.

     Both are available from UNRISD, Palais des Nations,
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. Email: info@unrisd.org

Budgets As If People Mattered: Democratizing Macroeconomic Policies By Nilüfer Ça×gatay, Mümtaz Keklik, Radhika Lal and James Lang Published by UNDP, May, 2000

This 58 page booklet documents experiments in national-level transparency and accountability. As the authors state “budgets matter precisely because they are powerful policy tools with profound implications for social equity outcomes.”

     Examples examined include: social auditing in India; participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil and Bangladesh; the alternative budget process in Canada and gender-sensitive budget initiatives in Australia, the Philippines and South Africa.

     The study examines the macro-economic policy context, ways in which national government “frameworks” can be and are being challenged, as well as practical methods and tools for people-centred and pro-poor budgeting.
This is a vital window on how citizen’s groups are empowering themselves, changing governmental priorities and even effecting the efficiency of taxation and other sources of public revenue. Get it. Use it.

     Available from UNDP (Social Development & Poverty Elimination Division)
One UN Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10017, USA. http://www.undp.poverty

Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements By Robert O’Obrien, Anne Marie Goetz, Jan Aart Scholte & Marc Williams Published by Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0 521 77440 3 paperback 260 pp.

This long-awaited study is essential reading for anyone evaluating the nature and impact of the changing relationship between civil society organizations and the major multilateral economic institutions (MEIs) that mediate neoliberal economic policies today. The effect of these relations is an important component in what the authors term “complex multilateralism”.

     The research team, based at Sussex University and composed of academics now at Sussex, Warwick University, the University of New South Wales in Australia and McMaster University in Canada, examined the response of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO to pressures from labour, environmental and women’s organizations and networks. They also evaluate comparatively the effectiveness of those efforts, the institutional response and the implications for our understanding of governance and the operation of multilateral institutions.

     Motivated by gender perspectives, environmental urgencies and labour interests civil society organizations are changing the nature of the established state-centric multilateral system. Some are identified with reform, while others seek a radical shift in what these institutions do, if not their replacement or elimination.

     The authors point out that while the interaction is getting ever more intense – they completed their study months before the Seattle WTO – the obstacles to mutual accommodation are significant. Over against the myth-makers of “global civil society” they argue that the civil actors are not only diverse but pursue sometimes conflicting and disparate goals. Further they argue that rather than weakening state power, these interactions tend to strengthen the role of states already powerful in the mix and further marginalize the role of the weaker players. The influence of national and international civil organizations on the congress and government of the United States can have enormous influence in the operations of MEIs.

     In opening up the interaction between civil organizations and the MEIs the authors contribute enormously to the growing debate over the future of global governance. As they point out the terrain of CSO/MEI interaction “high-lights the issue of the political sustainability of global governance.” It directs attention not only to the economic policies administered by these institutions but on the political foundations on which they rest. The attention is well-directed. Let the debate ensue.

Poverty in Plenty: a Human Development Report for the UK Published by UNED and Earthscan. Foreword by Derek Osborn

UNED developed this study following a sustainable development roundtable which advised taking a closer look at poverty in the UK, going more deeply than the UN Human Development Report. The resulting study includes more detailed information on the topography of poverty in the UK, constituency by constituency. It examines how sustainable development is happening at every level. The study focuses on just how anti-poverty initiatives are working at the moment, and looks at policy proposals which combine environmental initiatives with poverty eradications.

     Poverty in Plenty examines who dies young and why, reinforcing the finding of Britain’s Chief Medical Officer, that there is a “link between deprivation and ill health”. The short-comings of Labour policies to date are criticized, and the report suggest a national response, including accessible and sustainable public transport. Given the context of globalization and trade liberalization, a “level playing field” just won’t do. “The equal treatment of unequals will merely exacerbate injustice.” It ends by reminding the government of its previous commitments, to end child poverty in 20 years, to reduce fossil fuel dependence, to relieve third world debt.

      Available from Earthscan. Freepost 1, 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9BR, England. Or: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk. £13.95 plus £3.60.