June 24, 2009, United Nations, NY-- The Outcome Document submitted today to the United Nations General Assembly for final approval on Friday is an uneasy compromise between the participating 192 countries but one which affirms the centrality of the UN, including its key role in coordination and coherence among international financial institutions.
Whilst nowhere near commensurate in its ambitions to the scale of the crisis, civil society hopes the document will be a starting point for the many discussions that will need to take place if developing countries are to have a fighting chance of getting out of the crisis.
Most importantly, the document rightfully places the responsibility for the crisis on the systemic failure of the current global economic governance arrangements, all of which are controlled by developed countries. It however commits no new money for developing countries to fill the $1 trillion hole punched in their revenues by a crisis they didn't cause.
On several key issues civil society is extremely concerned by the weakness of language in the document, betraying a lack of political will by rich countries to not just talk the language of solidarity but to put it in action.
"As more and more countries are forced to get into debt in order to just feed themselves, it is disappointing that rich governments refuse to consider measures which would alleviate the burden and stop the vicious cycle of unsustainable debt. Yet, they are content to spend trillions on bailing out the banks, " commented Vitalice Meja from AFRODAD.
"In failing to reform the conditionalities of institutions such as the IMF, which force governments to cut social spending and consequently place an even greater burden on women by forcing them to pick up the slack caused by the withdrawal of these services, rich countries betray their lack of willingness to address the gender dimension of this crisis," commented Diana Aguiar, from the International Gender and Trade Network.
On several other issues - including the upgrading of the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, further reform of the governance of the World Bank and IMF, a comprehensive study of innovative financial instruments, etc., the Conference endorsed positions already approved at the UN Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development in December, 2008.
Two bodies are tasked with taking these and other issues forward - the General Assembly, with an open-ended working group and the Economic and Social Council.