UNITED NATION AND GLOBALIZATION

We are meeting at the beginning of the new century, facing the serious crises handed over from the last century. A few years ago someone predicted the "end of history", the end of conflicts of ideas or physical conflicts as all countries and people embrace the single goal of free markets and liberal democracy.
But the end of the Cold War did not usher in universal prosperity or brotherhood. The scandal of poverty remains more entrenched, and there are rising inequalities between countries, social classes, men and women, indigenous people and those who want to colonies their resources. Instead of peace and security, there are conflicts and insecurities, some of them resulting from global pressures and from inequities and poverty. There is the environmental crisis, raising questions about survival of Earth and humanity. There are the threats of technology gone wrong, such as nuclear power, toxic chemicals and genetic engineering. In the area of health, scientists are predicting the end of the antibiotics era as disease-bearing bacteria and viruses overcome overused antibiotics and pose the threat of new epidemics.
Our age is also defined by the process of globalization. There are different approaches to this phenomenon. Some say it is inevitable and basically good; you just have to adjust to it and learn to reap the benefits. Others worry about the costs and advocate some safety nets to catch the losers as they fall. In truth, the essence of globalization is the push by big companies and financial institutions to have more power, to grow bigger through taking over others, and make more profits. They have lobbied their governments, of the rich countries, to break down the national barriers that prevent them from totally free access to markets across the world, especially in the developing countries.
These countries' economies had suffered during colonialism, so in the first phase of independence, governments of many of these countries instituted measures to boost their weak domestic economy, domestic firms, banks and farms. They had affirmative action policies in favor of the local economy and firms, and defended them from predatory big foreign firms. These big firms now want to break down the barriers so that they can take over the local firms and farms of the developing world and increase their monopoly. Thus we now see the liberalization of trade, finance and investment. But in areas where the big companies and their governments would lose from liberalization, they practice protectionism, for example the imposition of high intellectual property standards throughout the world which is protectionist, in creating monopoly of technology by the big companies and hindering technology transfer.
Globalization as practiced today is a kind of apartheid, a term mentioned by Juan Somavia, director-general of the ILO in his speech just now. It is misleading and it skirts the issue to talk only in terms of "sharing better the benefits of globalization" and helping the "marginalized." This presumes that globalization only produces benefits, but some gain more than others. In reality, globalization creates benefits for some, losses for others, and worse, the same process that generates benefits also generates losses. So, part of the benefits of the gainers is at the expense of the losses of the losers.
Globalization is a process that can be called re-colonization, a new form of colonialism is operating. When the people fought against slavery, or apartheid, or colonialism, they did not speak in terms of sharing better the benefits of slavery or apartheid or colonialism. They fought the systems of slavery, apartheid and colonialism themselves. So too we cannot just talk of sharing better the benefits of globalization. We have to fight the system of the globalization we have today.
The crux of the problem is the unequal distribution of power and wealth in the world. We must recognize this and not skirt the issue. Those that hold power and wealth want to keep it and protect it. Thus we see the double standards that exist between what is preached towards others and what is protected for themselves to maintain the monopoly of power and wealth. There has been the successful campaign to ban land mines, a victory of the people's movements. But the nuclear powers still refuse to ban nuclear weapons. There is much talk and conditionality to get transparency and democracy going at the national level, and we NGOs have been part of this campaign in our countries. But the major countries refuse to democratize at the international level, where the global decisions are taken mainly by the G8 or the OECD or the Breton Woods institutions and WTO, without the adequate participation of smaller nations, let alone the civil society. There has been the great pressure of the rich countries to get the poorer countries to liberalize their economies, but the North practices protectionism when they insist on patenting their technologies, when they practice bio-piracy, when they do not open their doors to labor coming from the South.
Vital Statistics
Of the world's six billion people, 1.2 billion live in extreme poverty, or on an income of roughly US $1 a day or less. Just fewer than 3 billion people live on $2 a day or less.
Industrialized countries, with 19 per cent of the world's population, account for 71% of global trade in goods and services, 58 per cent of foreign direct investment, and 91% of all Internet users.
More than US$1.5 billion is now exchanged on the world's currency markets each day.
Foreign investment topped US$400 billion in 1997, seven times the level, in real terms, of the 1970s.
Between 1983 and 1993, cross-border sales of US Treasury bonds increased from $30 billion to $500 billion per year.
International bank lending grew from $265 billion in 1975 to $4.2 trillion in 1994.
The world's 200 richest people more than doubled their net worth in the four years before 1998, to more than $1 trillion. The assets of the top three billionaires total more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries with their 600 million people.

The United Nations has struggled with the challenges of globalization for several years, especially since the Asian financial crisis. It has paid particular attention to the needs of developing countries, deemed least well equipped to cope. All relevant parts of the UN system have been engaged, as well as the Breton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization. In the process, the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) has gained new life--and, as of 2000, a new name: the Chief Executives Board (CEB). Since 1998, it has become the venue for a series of discussions, including at informal retreats initiated by Secretary-General Annan, in which the executive heads have explored the different dimensions of globalization and debated appropriate policy approaches by which the UN system as a whole can help better manage its risks and secure its benefits.
One paramount concern has emerged from these reflections: the need to achieve a greater degree of policy coherence at national and international levels alike in response to the integrated challenges that globalization poses) Globalization does not come in tidy sectoral or geographically demarcated packages. It is all about interconnections--among people; across states; in production networks and financial markets; between greed and grievance; among failing states, terrorism, and criminal networks; between nature and society. The complex interrelatedness of issues and their cumulative, often unforeseen, consequences demand far greater policy coherence than the existing system of national and international institutions has been able to muster.
This article provides a brief analytical overview of innovative efforts by the UN to achieve greater coherence in the face of globalization. It is intended to be illustrative, not exhaustive. It examines five instances of this quest and draws some lessons from them: the greater convergence of views about globalization among the main UN actors and other multilateral institutions; the formulation of clear system wide priorities for poverty eradication and related development targets; the endeavor to better coordinate the development assistance that international agencies provide at the country level; some of the UN's work in information and communication technology intended to help bridge the digital divide; and the Global Compact, engaging global business to advance UN social and environmental principles. But first, some prefatory remarks about the UN system's architecture are in order.