Strengthening the Role of United Nations in Global Economic Governance : Some Reflections in the Wake of the Recent Global Economic Crisis

The global financial and economic crisis of 2008, which clearly exposed the failures and gaps in the global economic and financial architecture, has made us realize that global economic governance still falls short of meeting the scale of today's challenges. It has also pointed out that due to the increasing interdependence of national economies in a globalizing world, no country (be it developing or developed) is immune to the crisis. Though developing countries are no strangers to financial crises, this was the first time that a great majority of them have been the collateral victims of a crisis that originated in the financial markets of the North. The systemic causes of the present crisis could ultimately be located within the fundamental weaknesses obtaining in the current global economic governance landscape that was established at the end of the Second World War. That the United Nations has a social and economic mandate and (in pursuance of that) it also has a legitimate and leading role to play in relation to global economic affairs as envisaged by its Charter has not been fulfilled. The Organs that would enable the UN to play such a role (most prominently the UN Economic and Social Council and other Specialized Agencies of it), have been downgraded to such an extent that they remain powerless to undertake this task. Instead, the institutions that frame the rules of the global economy and are controlled by the major advanced economies, namely the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the GATT/WTO have come to be the rule-setters in a number of areas of critical concern to the global economy including trade, finance and development. These institutions have long marketed the ideology of neoliberalism that not only is at odds with the values that UN stands for (equity, social justice, etc.,) it also has wreaked social havoc in developing countries.Against this background, this article argues that there is an urgent need for the UN to assume a central and pro-active role in global economic governance (as envisaged by its Charter) and that global economic institutions must be comprehensively reformed so that they can more adequately reflect changing economic weights in the world economy and be more responsive to current and future challenges and to strengthen the legitimacy and effectiveness of these institutions