A Civil Society Response to the Report of the UN High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence
Source: Centre of Concern
The report argues that the UN has been weakened by the actions by donor countries, who feel that their interests are safer with the Bretton Woods Institutions - where they exercise greater control. This has led to a gap between the decisions taken in the main UN summits and their implementation due in part to the change in thinking -policy orientation-, and the resultant ¨cuts¨ in funds for progressive global programmes.
In the development, social and economic fields, donor countries have sought to weaken the UN by turning it into an implementing agency. The BWIs and the WTO operate as the providers of the policies and thinking, while marginalizing the UN’s role and function to speak or to provide alternative development thinking and technical assistance to developing countries in fields touching upon trade, finance or monetary policy.
The civil society response goes on to say that the panel’s analysis excludes the acute responsibility of BWI and WTO when looking in the past and current lack of system-wide coherence, while ascribing all past, current and future responsibility solely to the UN as it is currently constituted.
Also, by demanding that agencies act “coherently†may simply represent the endorsement of one view at the expense of others, with that view being oftentimes that of the strongest or more resourced agency. At the same time, a look at the track record of the provision of development by the Bretton Woods Institutions leaves no reason to be complacent. A certain amount of choice among providers of what we would call “development services†should not only be preserved, but fostered, in the interest of the health of the whole system.
A better balance between a certain diversity needed on the one hand, and the importance of the global coherence of the UN system on the other hand, must be found. “Coherence†is not only achievable in centralized systems, but can also be present in a well-coordinated, decentralized one.
The report essentially argues that the balance being struck by the Panel will lead to a smaller, less effective UN, less able to offer a meaningful and effective alternative voice to other organizations - in particular the Bretton Woods Institutions — in areas of development policy.
Click on the attachment below to read the full report
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| CoC_CivilSocResponsetoCoherencePanel_16Apr071.pdf | 116.49 KB |