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Commentaries, speeches, statements and references to global public goods from policymakers, scholars, business and civil society leaders (listed by year).
 
 

"Responsible Sovereignty" - as you term it in your project - refers to the most important part of this new approach: shared responsibility among the members of the international community, maximizing the opportunities and minimizing the risks brought about by the changed international situation.

Indeed, we are singing from the same sheet. I have called in my recents speeches for a Global Responsibility Partnership in the world's search for a new global order.

A Global Responsibility Partnership aimed at equitable and fair access to global public goods.
A Global Responsibility Partnership that contributes to crisis prevention, conflict manangement and post-conflict reconstruction.
And a Global Responsibility Partnership that is more inclusive and fills regulatory and institutional gaps in the international system.

FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER
Foreign Minister of Germany
Speech at the Conference "Managing Global Insecurity" organized by the Bertelsmann
Foundation
Berlin, Germany
July 15, 2008

Available at:
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/Infoservice/Presse/Rede/2008/080715-Rede-BM-Global-Insecurity.html

I would also like to draw your attention to another issue. In the discussion of trade policy, most of the time our focus remains limited to trade restrictions on imports. This year, the world has seen a new form of protectionism in response to the global food crisis. In order to protect their own consumers, food surplus countries have introduced a variety of export restrictions. This has a very serious implication. About 147 countries of the world, including Bangladesh, are net food importers and three-fourth of these countries are low income countries. Restrictions on grain exports have severely aggravated the impact of the global food crisis on the poor in countries that are net grain importers. There is a global public good problem here that we all must find a way to resolve.

ZHU XIAN
Country Director, World Bank
Opening Remarks at the Launching Ceremony of the World Trade Index Report 2008
World Bank Dhaka Office, Dhaka, Bangladesh
July 14, 2008

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21841072~menuPK:51062077~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

I also believe that technology is a critical transformation agent for both mitigation and adaptation.

Collaborative R&D between developing and developed country institutions for affordable advanced clean technologies as well as their transfer, deployment and diffusion in developing countries needs to be expedited.

There is also a need for a fairer IPR regime for advanced clean technologies so that rewards for innovators are sufficiently remunerative and at the same time they are made available to developing countries at affordable cost. Indeed there is a strong case that critical technologies be treated as global public goods.

MANMOHAN SINGH
Prime Minister of India
Intervention at Major Economies Meeting on Climate Change
Hokkaido, Japan
July 9, 2008

Available at:
http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content4print.asp?id=694

At the same time, the UN must work overall to address the global threats which spare no one in today's world. They require us to advance the global common good by securing global public goods -- in the areas of climate change, global health, counter-terrorism and disarmament. The United Nations is uniquely placed to lead this effort -- this is my central message to you today.

BAN KI-MOON
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Address on "Securing the Common Good: The United Nations and the Expanding Global
Agenda" to the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom (UNA-UK)
London, United Kingdom
June 13, 2008

Available at:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sgsm11639.doc.htm

There have been significant research initiatives such as the Commission on Global Public Goods (GPG) and the Commission for Growth and Development (CGD). In respect of the latter, a thorough analysis was undertaken of the growth incidences between 1950 and 2005, attempting to understand the features of such growth, the measure of interaction between countries and the impact on the living standards of people in high growth countries.

TREVOR A. MANUEL
Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa
Opening Remarks to the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics
(ABCDE)
Cape Town, South Africa
June 9, 2008

Available at:
http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2008/08060915151001.htm

Tigers are an umbrella species -- their health reflects the health of plants and animals that share their range. Since tigers are at the top of the food chain, conservation of wild tigers also means the preservation of the habitats in which they live and the prey populations that support them. In this sense, the health of tigers is an indicator of biodiversity and a barometer for sustainability. And preserving biodiversity is a global public good.

The decline in the numbers of tigers is shocking: from over 100,000 a century ago to less than 4,000 animals today. Tigers are disappearing from Central Asia, and from East and South Asia.

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
World Bank Group President
Speech at the Tiger Initiative Launch Event at Smithsonian's National Zoo
Washington, D.C., USA
June 9, 2008

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21797419~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

"I am particularly honored to be the first person to receive the prestigious Penn Vet World Award, and I am thankful to the Vernon and Shirley Hill Foundation for its tremendous contribution to helping us face the exciting challenges of the veterinary profession," Vallat said. "The work of the veterinary profession and veterinary services are now recognized as a global public good. Support for them in developing and transitional countries is a priority, not only to promote development around the world but also to protect the world against the spread and the re-emergence of animal diseases and zoonoses."

BERNARD VALLAT
Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health
"Bernard Vallat of World Organization for Animal Health Is Named First Penn Vet World Award Recipient"
Article published by Office of University Communications, University of Pennsylvania
April 14, 2008

Available at:
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1371

But the idea was to, as opposed to some meetings where you go around and you just talk about a range of topics, I gave a presentation about adaptation and tried to outline how one might think about this and the critical need to address it from the perspective of developing countries in some sense of how one might address it, some of the trade-offs, some of the implications for Finance and Development Ministers, some post-2012 considerations, and some of the questions.

And just to give you one small example of this, the work on mitigation and climate change recognized that climate change is the classic global public good issue. It's a question of global greenhouse gases and how you deal with global emissions. Adaptation is a highly local issue, so I put in a chart about the effects of rising sea levels on Bangladesh, just to drive home the point on the territory, on the population. And, frankly, the information that we have about the local effects is quite modest around the world, compared to that that you have in--for the mitigation, for the global emissions issues.

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
World Bank Group President
Statement at the Development Committee Press Briefing, Spring Meetings 2008,
Washington, D.C.
April 12, 2008

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21728519~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

The second part is that, as you know, the bread and butter of the institution is bilateral surveillance, and the so-called Article IV through which the IMF exerts its surveillance. Its bilateral surveillance with the different countries is at the basis of the information we have on the countries, but we need more and more multilateral surveillance, and the crisis, the subprime crisis and its consequences are obviously a global crisis. So if there is a global crisis, we need a global solution, which means that we need to have a global appraisal of the crisis. That is multilateral surveillance. So we have to come back to what is at the root of our mandate, financial stability, providing this global public good which is financial stability, but having a better look at multilateral surveillance, which includes to give advice and to try to help solve the global imbalances, including -- and here we are back to the tradition--including the currency imbalances and the way during this crisis. Already before the crisis we could recognize a lot of imbalances, but especially during the crisis those imbalances had moved. As I already said a few days ago, some currencies obviously are undervalued, some are close to the medium-term equilibrium, some others are on the strong side, and those imbalances are part of the crisis we are living in, and are also fed by the crisis. So we need to go back on this question which is renewed, which is not a traditional currency question, which is a renewed currency question, but which is part of the global imbalances.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN
IMF Managing Director
Transcript of a Press Briefing by IMF's Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky, and Director of External Relations Masood
Ahmed, Washington, D.C.
April 10, 2008

Available at:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2008/tr080410.htm

In the IFIs, India, like many emerging market countries, goes through the motions of active participation, but its real attitude is changing to one of growing disinterest. In part, this reflects frustration at the unwillingness of the major players to change the governance structure and the process of appointing the heads of the IFIs, which are now antiquated and fail to give the new powers, such a China and India, their rightful due. In greater part, though, it simply reflects India's reduced need for official borrowing.

But disinterest can become a short-sighted long-term strategy. The need for international monetary and exchange rate cooperation will not disappear because India is no longer a net borrower from the IFIs. Moreover, as India, like China, starts to become a provider of aid and to increase its dealings with poorer countries, it too will need mechanisms for channelling and coordinating this aid and these relationships. Even more importantly, India will have to think hard about whether and how to change the World Bank from an aid agency to an international cooperative engaged in the financing and provision of global public goods, some of which could prove vital for India.

ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN
Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and Center for Global
Development, and Senior Research Professor Johns Hopkins University
"Arvind Subramanian: India and Its Economic Entanglements"
Op-ed in the Business Standard
March 28, 2008

Available at:
http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?autono=318202&leftnm=4&subLeft=0&chkFlg=

People expect us to speak up for a more just world. 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A year-long awareness campaign is already underway. We must help spread its message, and rededicate ourselves to the cause of truly universal human rights.

And people expect us to advance the global common good by securing global public goods -- in the areas of climate change, global health, counter-terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation. The Unitedt Nations is uniquely placed to lead these efforts.

Theses issues are daunting. But the United Nations has proven, at various stages of its history, that it is capable of rising to new challenges. Your support is crucial. Your voice and your organization, activity and energy can help highlight the UN's successes, and explain the Organization's constraints. You can be catalysts for change by creating social networks in support of our work. And as leaders of the future, you can come up with innovative approaches to help confront the challenges facing the global community.

BAN KI-MOON
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Welcoming Remarks at the National Model United Nations Conference
New York, USA
March 18, 2008

Available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=3052

Fourth, we are trying to help address the global public goods agenda, such as global climate change and the environment, health issues that cross borders, Aid-for-Trade so that countries can take better advantage of open markets, and financial systems for development and stability.

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
World Bank Group President
Speech at the International Labour Organization
Geneva, Switzerland
March 17, 2008

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21690802~menuPK:51062077~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

When we recognize the growing importance of the regional dimension of development, we recognize the accelerating pace of regional integration and inter-dependence. We know that trans-boundary issues affect us all.

I believe that we can build further on this understanding. We can draw on the strenghts of diverse Member States to support the collective advancement of the region as a whole. We can make more use of South-South cooperation as a tool in supporting this agenda. We can use regional approaches to advance the global common good by securing global public goods -- to address challenges such as climate change, air and water pollution, health, migration, organized crime and disarmament.

ASHA-ROSE MIGIRO
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
Remarks to the meeting of UN Asia-Pacific Regional Coordination Mechanism,
Bangkok, Thailand
February 19, 2008

Available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/dsg/dsgstats.asp

But the Bank Group is much more than a financial intermediary. It has important strategic assets in terms of convening power, and development databases and expertise, and draws upon them to deliver strategic advice, transfer knowledge, induce learning, and build capacity.

Building on these assets, the Group is addressing the challenges I have discussed. Increasingly, it is focusing its efforts around six strategic areas where inclusion, equity and climate change are prominent. These are the needs of fragile and conflict affected states, the poorest countries, middle income countries, and countries from the Arab world. Cross cutting themes will expand the Group's engagement on regional and global public goods and in knowledge, learning, and capacity building.

GRAEME WHEELER
Managing Director, Operations, of the World Bank
"Globalization and the Challenges of Inclusion and Climate Change"
Speech at the 9th Annual Global Development Network Conference, Brisbane, Australia
January 29, 2008

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21634827~menuPK:51062077~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

A few weeks ago, Bali hosted a major conference on another public good -- climate change. Good Governance is also a global public good. Poor governance in one country inevitably spills over to others, and like a disease, infects it.

The landmark UN Convention agains Corruption is the single most important international agreement reflecting this idea. The Convention provides an unprecedented step forward in recognizing the global responsibility in fighting corruption. For example, it includes provisions:

To help prevent corruption at home, by strengthening transparency in public financial management, including in procurement; meritocratic hiring of civil servants; open and participatory rule-making; right to information; and other measures.
To tackle transnational aspects of corruption, most notably by making it easier for countries to freeze and recover the proceeds of corruption located in foreign jurisdictions.

NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA
Managing Director of the World Bank Group
"A Global Parnership in the Fight against Corruption"
Opening Plenary of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, Bali, Indonesia
January 28, 2008

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21628209~menuPK:51062077~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

Foot to long, business has been seen as a culprit. The smokestacks of industry contaminate our atmosphere, the effluents from power plants spoil our rivers. But this is a misleading picture. More often than not, today, business is becoming part of the solution, not the problem.

All of you in this hall are well aware of the dawning era of green economics. Many of you are part of this great evolutionary wave. Innovative and global approaches can make a great difference.

Here on this panel, Neville Isdell, at Coca Cola, has been sponsoring local water projects in developing countries. Andrew Leveris at Dow Chemical has been working on innovative ways of getting water to the poor. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has made water sustainability one of Nestle's core business principles.

Last July, a small group of top international executives came together to launch the UN Global Compact's CEO Water Mandate. Their first working session, coming up in March, will focus on waste-water treatment and helping people in rural areas gain better access to clean water. And they will have to report back on progress, so that NGOs, citizenz groups and others can learn from their experience and perhaps join the effort.

I understand the World Economic Forum has about 1000 members. Only about 20 companies have joined the CEO Water Mandate. A drop in the bucket, perhaps, but I like to think it is a small wave that will gather force and spread across the globe.

That's why it feels good to be here with like-minded people working for the global public good. Thank you and, in spirit of Davos, let us work creatively together.

BAN KI-MOON
Secretary-General of the United Nations

Address at the World Economic Forum on "Time Is Running Out on Water", Davos, Switzerland
January 24, 2008

Available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=2967#

The two Sides agreed that an urgent global effort is required to meet the MDGs. India and the UK agreed to enhance efforts to achieve the MDGs and reduce global poverty. The two parties launched a new Partnership to Achieve the MDGs Globally. The two countries committed to harness their combined knowledge, experience and resources towards this goal including through third country cooperation. India and the UK will start by scoping opportunities to collaborate in third countries where both parties have a development interest. India and the UK would jointly consider ways and means to reform the international institutions. While nothing the establishment of the mechanism for this purpose under the Commonwealth at the Kampala CHOGM 2007, the two Prime Ministers agreed that India and the UK should exchange views bilaterally on this important agenda. They agreed the importance of continued exchange of experiences and future cooperation on international policies on major global public goods that impact on the global achievement of the MDGs.

GORDON BROWN
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

MANMOHAN SINGH
Prime Minister of India

Joint Statement issued after INDIA-UK Summit, New Delhi, India
January 21, 2008

Available at:
http://mea.gov.in/pressrelease/2008/01/21js01.htm

In conclusion, achieving climate stability and sustainable development in an equitable way requires individual nations to rise above short term self-interest for the benefit of the long term global public good. We must all act with a greater sense of urgency. Though we have different responsibilities for the past and we should all take common responsibility for the future. South Africa stands ready to take ambitious mitigation action. We will contribute our fair share towards our common responsibility for the future.

MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism of the Republic of South Africa
Speech during a Climate Change Round Table Discussion at Kirstenbosch National
Botanical Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa
January 18, 2008

Available at:
http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2008/08012110451001.htm

Thus, the challenges is to find ways to align the circles of those to be involved in decision-making with the spillover range of the good under negotiation, i.e. to address the issue of accountability gaps; to create new organisational mechanisms for policy innovation across borders; and to find new ways of financing urgent global public goods. Legitimate political authority at the global level cannot be entrenched adequately without addressing the representative, organisational and financial gaps in governance arrangements.

DAVID HELD
Professor at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics
"Global Challenges: Accountability and Effectiveness"
Article published on openDemocracy
January 17, 2008

Available at:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/globalisation/global_challenges_accountability_effectiveness?1

In the year ahead, I propose to proceed on three fronts simultaneously. I will work to deliver results; to create a stronger UN through full accountability of all parties; and to advance the global common good by securing global public goods. [...]

Finally, Secretariat and Member States need to be accountable to the global public through greater transparency, openness in decision-making and inclusiveness towards civil society.

Global threats in the twenty-first century spare no one. They require us to advance the global common good by securing global public goods. The United Nations is uniquely placed to lead this effort. [...]

The challenges ahead are daunting. But the United Nations has proven, at various stages of its history, that it is capable of remaking itself to rise to new challenges. 2008 should be a watershed year for putting the UN on a new track. I will do my utmost to ensure that this happens -- by delivering results, strengthening the Organization through full accountability, and advancing the global common good by securing global public goods.

BAN KI-MOON
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Statement to Regional Groups of Member States
New York, USA
January 10, 2008

Available at:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sgsm11363.doc.htm

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has led the way in fostering partnerships between nations in response to many of these global public goods issues. These partnerships must be applauded but they must be extended to poorer countries who are often the victims of organised efforts to undermine their tax bases. It is a contradiction to support increased development assistance, yet turn a blind eye to actions by multinationals and others that undermine the tax base of a developing country.

TREVOR A. MANUEL
Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa
Address at the 4th Meeting of the Forum on Tax Administration
Cape Town, South Africa
January 10, 2008

Available at:
http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2008/08011013151001.htm

You know that I am not to speak easily of successes. The past year was one of immense challenges. But I think we have made certain progress. We opened a new chapter on climate change. We took on new and daunting challenges in peacekeeping, most specifically in Darfur.

We must build on this foundation. Protecting our planet and its people -- our global commons -- requires all our best efforts. So does the task of securing economic well-being, social justice, security and other global public goods. This requires sustained and coherent international action beyond what nations or markets can provide by themselves.

That is why I believe so strongly in the United Nations. Only the United Nations can take on the issues that affect us all, that shape the fate of the Earth and its peoples.

These are powerful concepts: the "global commons" and "global public goods". They are the basic building blocks of modern globalized society. It they are to have meaning, we must be mindful of the responsibilities they impose upon us.

BAN KI-MOON
Secretary General of the United Nations
Transcript of Press Conference at United Nations Headquarters
New York, USA
January 7, 2008

Available at:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sgsm11360.doc.htm

Many of the responses to challenges like these involve common actions. While the international community has to make good on the commitments to increase overseas development assistance, we must also contribute the finance and incentives for global public goods -- like climate stability or financial stability. In this overall context, South-South cooperation also plays a critical role. It calls upon the creativity, energy, and knowledge of developing countries to be an innovative force in ensuring all countries are part of global integration and reap the benefits from it. This fosters convergence in economic and human development terms, improves governance, and helps with conflict resolution.

KEMAL DERVIS
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
Statement on the Occasion of the 4th United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation
New York, USA
December 19, 2007

Available at:
http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/2007/december/dervis-united-nations-day-south-south-20071219.en;jsessionid=a1Wihnp4EaTa

Much of the response to climate change must come from the private sector, including seizing opportunities for technological advances. However, it is essential that these responses are nurtured by a policy framework that ensures proper carbon pricing and adequate provision of national, regional, and global public goods in support of both adaptation and mitigation.

TAKATOSHI KATO
Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
Statement at the High-Level Segment of the Thirteenth Conference of the Parties to the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Bali, Indonesia
December 14, 2007

Available at:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2007/121407.htm/

President, in conclusion, achieving climate stability and sustainable development in an equitable way requires individual nations to rise above short term self-interest for the benefit of the long term global public good. We must all act with a greater sense of urgency. We have different responsibilities for the past; and we should all take common responsibility for the future. South Africa stands ready.

MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, South Africa
National Statement Delivered at the UN Climate Change Conference
Bali, Indonesia
December 12, 2007

Available at:
http://www.environment.gov.za/

We are acutely aware that resources are scarce and there are competing claims for these from other health issues. By pooling our resources, we could perhaps ward of the threat of a pandemic and at the same time tackle many other infectious diseases that are linked to poor higiene. The World Bank has projected that for a reasonable level of preparedness for avian and human influenza, developing countries would need to spend at least US$2.2 billion over a two to three-year period, while international organizations would require at least $325 million annually to support these activities. The current gap for mobilizing resources for country programmes is $960 million, or more than 40% of the identified needs. From the Beijing and Bamako pledges, $649 million is still available to help fill this gap, but these resources are in the form of loans, while grants would be a more appropiate form of financing for this global public good. While this gap must be minimized, I would urge that we need to look at low cost options also. As explained earlier, empowerment of the community is emerging as the most powerful tool in preparing for the pandemic and all countries and organizations need to focus on this aspect.

ANBUMANI RAMADOSS
Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, India
Keynote Address at the New Delhi International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza
New Delhi, India
December 4, 2007

Available at:
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33676&kwd=

Securing a just and equitable post-2012 Treaty depends on governments progressing beyond notions of justice that reflect their own national interests to one that provides for the global common good. Sucha an appreciation of justice can transform our relationship both with each other and with the natural world so that all my flourish. We welcome, therefore, the creative efforts of several trans-national bodies, which have sought to shape recent climate discussions based on an understanding of the climate as a Global Public Good. Every person on earth, both now and in the future, has the same right to use its natural resources in a sustainable manner.

WOLFGANG HUBER
Chairman, EKD Council

ROWAN WILLIAMS
Archbishop of Canterbury

ANDERS WEJRYD
Letter to the President of the European Commission and the President of the Council of the European Union
November 30, 2007

Available at:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92224_ENG_HTM.htm

It is clear that international trade can provide a great channel of progress for developing countries in this process of making globalization fair. We need to look at trade not just as a set arrangements where each country pursues mercantilist interests, but to look at the international system of trade as a global public good. A system of international trade that is based on rules that are fair, that give opportunities to the poorest, and that is based on the rule of law within the framework of the WTO. I think it is important to consider this as a global public good. In terms of moving ahead and in achieving the objectives of the Doha round, I think it will only be possible if all the member states approach it also from that point of view. Of course national interests are crucial, and of course each country will look at its own interests and evaluate the steps it has to take in those terms, but I think there is something bigger and more important in this whole thing that one has to remember: that a system of trade that is fair and equitable and that gives these opportunities to all, will profit, as a system, to all.

KEMAL DERVIS
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
Remarks at the Aid for Trade Global Review, World Trade Organization
Geneva, Switzerland
November 21, 2007

Available at:
http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/2007/november/statement-dervis-aidtrade-review-20071121.en;jsessionid=a1Wihnp4EaTa

Well some parts of the rich world historically have made unrealistic demands on the developing countries. You can't go to a country like India from the European Union--in India where we have 400 million people without access to electricity, where we have a per capita carbon footprint which is one-twelfth of that in the European Union. The European Union cannot demand from India that it deprives people of access to energy amidst such high levels of poverty. And I think basic equity demands that the entry of any country like India has to be contingent on northern government financing for the global public good that India has been asked to provide, the global public good mitigation commitment that will help the world achieve climate security overt time.

KEVIN WATKINS
Director of the United Nations' Human Development Report Office
Q&A: "Decisive Action Must Emerge From Bali Climate Change Conference"
Inter Press Service News Agency
November 20, 2007

Available at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40132

A perfect world is a world in which no individual country needs the Fund. Probably the world as a whole needs the Fund to provide this global public good which is financial stability. But if we succeed, then we must have a world without any individual country having a crisis, and so no individual country will need the Fund. Reality can be not that nice, and so sometimes from time to time, and it did not happen for the last five years, which is rather goods news--even if it is a problem for the Fund itself, and the financing and income of the Fund, but there is another question for the last five years we did not experience any kind of a strong external crisis.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN
IMF Managing Director
Transcript of Managing Director Press Breakfast, International Monetary Fund,
Washington, D.C.
November 2, 2007

Available at:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2007/tr071102.htm

On two issues, however, I am disappointed -- though I hope only temporarily. The first is on climate change and other global public "bads" and goods. In a new essay Arvind Subramanian and I outline the crying need for the bank to engage China, India and other emerging market economies in a global strategy to address new global challenges.

That builds on the argument in the 2005 CGD working group report The Hardest Job in the World that the World Bank may be the only global institution with the technical and financial heft for strategic leadership in addressing climate change.

The problem is that right now the bank lacks a clear mandate from its shareholders to get on with the job. It's a relief that Mr. Zoellick mentioned climate change in his speech, marking a turnaround from Mr. Wolfowitz'timidity -- but so far the approach he outlined is far short of what the world needs the World Bank to do.

I hope Mr. Zoellick considers calling for creation at the bank of a large new Global Public Goods Trust Fund (in 2005 we suggested starting at $3 billion), to subsidise outright energy conservation and forest preservation in the developing world. The second issue is the bank's own governance.

NANCY BIRDSALL
Founding President, Centre for Global Development
Article in Business Daily Africa
"Will Bob Zoellick be a Great World Bank President?"
October 29, 2007

Available at:
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3931&Itemid=5821

My message to you as business leaders of tomorrow is that you can also affect and influence this process. And, that there are huge opportunities to use capital to realize profit and promote global public goods, job creation and sustainable development. Together, we can work towards a new framework that sees economic growth, social justice and environmental care advance hand in hand. Individuals will need to accept greater responsibility for their actions and their global implications. Only then will we be able to pass our world on safely and securely to the generations that will come after us. Globalization may be perceived by some to erode national sovereignty -- in reality it has empowered the individual to exercise his or her sovereign free will, creating new global networks beyond national politics. Within this context the debate about national sovereignty should not focus on 'decline' but evolution. Globalization makes this inevitable.

SRGJAN KERIM
President of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly
Harvard Business School Lecture
"Does Globalization Meant that National Sovereignty is on the Decline?"
October 25, 2007

Available at:
http://www.un.org/ga/president/62/statements/hbs251007.shtml

Third, to make headway on the global public goods and particularly climate change with a number of developing countries, we need to integrate adaptation and mitigation strategies with development strategies, and again, IDA funding will be very important to that.

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
World Bank Group President
Opening Press Briefing at the WB-IMF Annual Meetings 2007, Washington, D.C.
October 18, 2007

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21517046~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

For commentaries related to "global public goods" at the 2007 Annual Meetings World Bank Group International Monetary Fund October 20-22, Washington, D.C., USA, go to:
http://www.imf.org/external/am/2007/index

Fourth, the World Bank Group will need to play a more active role in fostering regional and global public goods that transcend national boundaries and benefit multiple countries and citizens. It is our calling to ensure that this agenda is linked to the aims of development.[...]

Our work on regional and global public goods will require close cooperation with other agencies that have specialized expertise, such as WHO, UNEP, UNODC, and the WTO. We also must determine the Bank Group's comparative advantage to best focus our resources through selective, differentiated approaches. Given our specialization in working on development at the national level, our most important operating challenge will be to support countries as they determine how best to integrate public goods policies--and regional and global opportunities--into national programs. These opportunities should draw on private sector entrepreneurs and agencies, too.

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
World Bank Group President
Speech as Prepared for Delivery at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
October 10, 2007

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21504730~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

This evening marks the half-way point of two important days. President Bush has convened senior officials from the world's major economies to launch the necessary next phase towards achieving our common objective of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The nations that produce more than 80 percent of the world's emissions are here. This broad participation is evidence that collectively we take our stewardship responsibilities seriously and recognize that addressing climate challenge is a global public good. Our work is intended to support and contribute to a global agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. If the major economies can agree on a way forward, that could accelerate the prospects of a broader agreement on a way forward in the UN.

HENRY M. PAULSON, Jr.
Secretary of the Treasury, United States
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery at the Major Economies Meeting
September 27, 2007

Available at:
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp579.htm

Following the decision of the Board to allow a long period of candidacy with a view to having an open and transparent process of selection based on merits and regardless of nationality, I decided to visit as many members as possible. I tried to focus on emerging, developing and less developed countries in order to collect information, complaints and wishes about the future of the IMF. After a 60,000-mile long journey, I was struck by the realization of the extend to which the institution is at a crossroads. Indeed, what might be at stake today is the very existence of the IMF as the major institution providing financial stability to the world, a global public good. In sum, the two main issues are relevance and legitimacy.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN
IMF Managing Director (While Candidate for the Position of the IMF Mananging Director)
Statement to IMF Executive Board
September 20, 2007

Available at:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2007/pr07197.htm

I will make this added point though. The climate change issue, just like another one that's been important in the region dealing with global health, in this case coming out of some of the avian influenza issues -- what people refer to is the public goods agenda; issues that cut across national borders, that everyone has an interest in trying to deal with, but how does a global community address them. I think it's very important that while the Bank and other development institutions can help play a role in that, that we do so in a way that supports the fundamental development work particularly in the poorest countries.

When I was in Africa there was a very strong sensitivity. I was there the week of the G8 Summit in Germany. There was some anxiety that the focus on some of the global public goods issues might divert attention of developed countries towards the basic developing needs in Africa and other poor countries, for example, the Millenium Development Goals, dealing with poverty and infant mortality and basic education issues. So, that's another issue that I want to try to discuss when I am in the region.

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
World Bank Group President
"World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick: On his Planned trip to Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan"
World Bank News and Broadcast
July 25, 2007

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21423140~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

In conclusion, today's increasingly integrated and complex global economy needs an effective Fund. To be more effective, the Fund needs to be reformed, starting with its governance. It continues to have an important role to play in short-term lending. However, more important is its role in providing other international public goods. I have highlighted four such areas. In all of them, the Fund should do more. In several, in my view, the Fund is falling down on the job. That strengthens the case for an IMF reform that goes beyond the modest agend in Managing Director de Rato's medium-term strategy.

EDWIN M. TRUMAN
Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics
Remarks to the Bretton Woods Committee Annual Meeting
June 12, 2007

Available at:
http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/papers/paper.cfm?ResearchID=766

However, the NEPAD founding document went on to explain what the assertion means that Africa is an indispensable resource base that has served all humanity for many centuries. It identified and disaggregated this resource base, which constitutes the objective material base for the fundamental transformation of our Continent for the benefit of the millions of our working people, as being composed of:

.
Component I: the rich complex of mineral, oil and gas deposits, the flora and fauna, and the wide unspoiled natural habitat, which provide the basis for mining, agriculture, tourism and industrial development in Africa;
.
Component II: the ecological lung provided by the continent's rainforests, and the minimal presence of emissions and effluents that are harmful to the environment, a global public good that benefits all humankind;
.
Component III: the palaeontological and archaeological sites containing evidence of the origins of the earth, life and the human race, and the natural habitats containing a wide variety of flora and fauna, unique animal species and the open uninhabited spaces that are a feature of the continent; and,
.
Component IV: the richness of Africa's culture and its contribution to the variety of the cultures of the global community.

THABO MBEKI
President of the Republic of South Africa
Letter in ANC Today, Volume 7, No. 22
June 8-14, 2007

Available at:
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2007/at22.htm

As some of the world's leaders gather in Heiligendamm to tackle issues ranging from global climate change to development in Africa, from world trade security; we must constantly raise the voices of the people not there, not represented at that table. The major problems of the world affect all its citizens and we can only begin to develop solutions to these problems when we change towards a more inclusive system of global governance. There is a need to revive the discourse on global public goods, to recapture the global commons...to recognise the interdependence and interconnectedness of our changing world, more importantly, to design a set of institutions and governance arrangements to meet the needs of everyone.

TREVOR A. MANUEL
Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa
Address to the 60th World Association of Newspaper Conference and the 14th World Editors Forum, Cape Town
June 6, 2007

Available at:
http://www.treasury.gov.za

South Africa has already launched a vigorous and detailed work programme for our year as chair. It focuses on three major policy objectives: firstly, to make progress in reforming the IMF and World Bank, so that we are able to enhance the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries in these institutions; secondly, to develop a framework for analysing the impact of global commodity price booms on financial stability; and thirdly, to develop a better understanding of how advanced and emerging market economies in the G20 can create the fiscal space needed for greater social and economic investment, cooperation in addressing global public goods and more effective public service delivery.

TREVOR A. MANUEL
Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa
Address to Parliament on the Budget Votes of the Ministry of Finance
May 24, 2007

Available at:
http://www.treasury.gov.za

No securities market is an island. Thanks to global flows of capital, the working of the capital market in a country -- especially any precipitous rise or fall -- has an effect upon other capital markets in the region as well as elsewhere in the world. Good regulation, therefore, is no longer a mere national 'public good'; it has a global dimension and it must be regarded as a global 'public good'.

SHRI P. CHIMDAMBARAM
Finance Minister, India
At the 32nd Annual Conference of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Mumbai
April 12, 2007

Available at:
http://hcilondon.net/hciserv/PressReleaseIndex?source=pressdetails&PRCode=82

Such challenges cannot be met by a few countries meeting and deciding together in isolation from the rest. If we are to secure the global public goods on which we depend - energy, a stable climate, and sustainable natural resources, as well as public health and the fight against terrorism - we require the engagement of all countries, rich and poor, developed and developing, in a global alliance for progress."

GORDON BROWN
Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom Speech to the Green Alliance, London
March 12, 2007

Available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2007/press_28_07.cfm

John F. Kennedy once summoned the American People to recognise a new age of interdependence.

The old declaration of independence had to be superseded, he said, by a declaration of interdependence.

And it is because global public goods on which we depend, such as health -- as we see with threat of avian flu -- energy, natural resources, environment and the fight against terrorism, can only be secured through partnerships and alliances across borders, that we need to act upon our interdependence.

GORDON BROWN
Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom
Chancellor's Remarks to the Government Leaders Forum Europe, at the Scottish Parliament
January 31, 2007

Available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2007/press_14_07.cfm

And because global public goods on which we depend such as energy, natural resources, environment and the fight against terrorism can only be secured through cooperation across borders, we need reformed international institutions and more effective multilateral networks.

The post 1945 system of international institutions - built for a world of sheltered economies and just 50 states - is not yet broken, but for a world of 200 states and an open globalisation, is urgently in need of modernisation and reform.

GORDON BROWN
Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom
Chancellor's speech to the Confederation of Indian Industry
January 22, 2007

Available at:
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/9131/print

Because globalisation is about the global sourcing of information, ideas, capital, goods and often even people - a world in which products designed in one country, manufactured in another by companies owned in another, with R & D in yet another - there is a premium on both openness - openness between all countries, large and small, and on making global connections work.

An because global public goods on which we depend such an energy, natural resources, environment and the fight against terrorism can only be secured through cooperation across borders, we need reformed international institutions and more effective multilateral networks.

GORDON BROWN
Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom
Speech at the Confederation of Indian Industry, Bangalore
January 17, 2007

Available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2007/press_06_07.cfm

UNESCO's IOC is committed to helping all countries in the world's danger zones to building their national warning systems as part of the global tsunami and other ocean-related hazards warning system, right down to the last mile. I am pleased to report that real progress has been achieved in the Indian Ocean and work is well underway on warning systems for the North Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Region and the Caribbean, and the upgrading of the system in the Pacific. It must continue.

I am convinced that the date concerned must be considered as a Global Public Good. I therefore believe that its free and open exchange needs be upgraded to the level of a universal binding intergovernmental agreement, in order to commit nations to sustaining an integrated ocean observing system. Only when such an instrument exists will there be any guarantee that the extraordinary technology being deployed and the vast human and financial resources being mobilized will fulfill the promise that we, the international community, have made to better protect peoples' lives and well being from such catastrophes as the tsunami that shook the world two years ago.

KOICHIRO MATSUURA
Director-General of UNESCO
Statement by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura on the Second
Anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26 December 2004
December 26, 2006

Available at:
http://www.portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=36361&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

"In the past decade, we have seen the development of a literature around global public goods. Clear air, water, thriving oceans, pristine environments like the Antarctic are all assets that belong to us all, and to future generations. If we plunder these resources today, then there will be nothing for our children tomorrow."

TREVOR A. MANUEL
Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa
Speech at Dell Computers Directors' Dinner, Johannesburg
November 29, 2006

Available at:
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/business_today/487627.htm

"Neglected tropical diseases are global public goods. The intensification of their control is consistent with the Millenium Development Goals adopted by the international community to alleviate poverty and reduce human suffering. The costs entailed are expected to be limited because of large scale drug donations and cost-effective implementation measures. The development impact will be important through improved quality of life and increased worker productivity and contribute to economic growth. The new manual on preventive chemotherapy in human helminthiasis is timely. It will help greatly heatlh professionals, programme managers, donors and governments of endemic countries in their approach of the diseases targeted and integration."

OUSMANE BANGOURA
Coordinator, Onchocerciasis (River blindness) Coordination Unit, World Bank
"World Health Organization and Partners Unveil New Coordinated Approach to Treat Millions Suffering From Neglected Tropical Diseases"
WHO Media Centre
October 26, 2006

Available at:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr60/en/index2.html

Moreover, authentic democracy and its structures include efforts to develop and support a revenue base to support global public goods, including the environment, treaties to uphold human rights, the enhancement of participation and representation in policies by means of citizens' organization and other local, regional, and multilateral networks -- all of which serve to implement the common good.

MONSIGNOR ANTHONY FRONTIERO
Official of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Annual meeting of the 56 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held in Warsaw, Poland
October 9, 2006

A more efficient global economy is lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, but at the price of significant climate change. The world is responding to these increased risks in different dimensions, and some responses are more effective than others. International co-operation among law enforcement and intelligence agencies has intensified. Heightened security lowers risk in some areas, albeit with the probable effect of increasing it in others.

The financial stability of both individual institutions and whole industries is under scrutiny as never before. Climate change has the potential to disrupt global prosperity; we still need an effective international mechanism to tackle its causes. Global public goods require global solutions.

SIR JOHN VEREKER
Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda
XL Congress Boston 2006: One World without Borders
October 5, 2006

Available at:
http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061006/MIDOCEAN/110060170

".....People in poor countries live shorter lives than people in rich countries. So that, if we take income and health together, there is more inequality in the world than if we consider income alone. Yet international inequalities in life expectancy decreased for many years after 1945, and the strong correlation between income and life-expectancy might lead us to hope that economic growth will improve people's health as well as their material living conditions.

The lecture argues that the apparent convergence in life expectancies is not as beneficial as might appear, and that, while economic growth is the key to poverty reduction, there is no evidence that it will deliver automatic health improvement in the absence of appropriate policy.

People in poor countries are sick, not primarily because they are poor, but because of other social organizational failures, including health delivery, which are not automatically ameliorated by higher incomes.

Countries that have policies that lead to growth also appear to be able to deliver good health
This is not much more than a hypothesis at this point, and needs serious work Provision of mortality data is an essential global public good that is currently missing...."

ANGUS DEATON
Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University
2006 WIDER Annual Lecture, Helsinky Finland
Conference on Advancing Health Equity
September 29, 2006

Live webcast - Poster - PowerPoint Presentation available online at:
http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/wider-annual-lecture-2006-announcement.htm

Third, an idea which received some attention in March 2002 during the gathering on 'Finance for Development' in Monterrey, Mexico, is that instead of holding the reserves in the US dollars, a new form of global money, akin to IMF's Special Drawing Rights, namely, 'global greenbacks' could be issued, which countries could hold in their reserves. The corpus would be created by countries setting aside a part of reserves every year as an insurance against contingencies. The amount of money held by these countries in 'global greenbacks' could be given to developing countries for financing their development programmes as well as global public goods like environmental projects, health initiatives, humanitarian assistance, and so on.

For countries that receive less than the amount that they need to put into reserves, the new 'global money' would go into reserves freeing dollars that these countries would otherwise set aside. Countries that receive more than they must put into reserves, could exchange the new money for conventional currencies. Eventually, all the new money will find its way into reserves, which in effect represent a commitment by the countries to help each other in times of trouble.

It has been argued that the global greenbacks proposal envisages flow of funds to poor countries according to their need while contributing to global economic growth, stability and equity. Opponents of this move have argued that some countries will become "greenback addicts", and when the handouts end, the economic withdrawal symptoms will be severe.

DR. Y.V. REDDY
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
2006 Program of Seminars in Singapore
Theme 'The World in Asia, Asia in the World'
September 18, 2006

Available at:
http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=15582&1mn=1

Finally, the issue of Global Public Goods (GPGs) has been given much prominence in an MIC Action Plan for the first time. Since the coverage of GPGs extends far beyond MICs, we cannot see value addition in including it in the MIC Action Plan. The issue of GPGs is important, but needs to be dealt with independently and comprehensively taking into account their global implications and the comparative advantage of the various international agencies. In so far as the Bank is engaged with the Partner countries, the relevance or otherwise of a GPG can be adequately assessed through the Country Partnership Strategy process.

SHRI P. CHIDAMBARAM
Finance Minister, India
Statement at the Development Committee, World Bank
September 18, 2006

Available at:
http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=20781

"Perhaps it is time for the IMF and World Bank to think about how they can contribute to deploying the funds of major emerging markets rather than lending to major emerging markets...More ambitious than simply providing surveillance and monitoring ... would be the creation of an international facility in which countries could invest their excess reserves without taking domestic political responsibility for the process of investment decision and ultimate result... Globalizing $500 billion at a fee of 100 basis points would produce $5 billion a year that could go toward global public goods, multilateral grant assistance or debt relief."

LAWRENCE SUMMERS
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary
"Reserve Hoarding begs for Multilateral Solution"
Reuters
Mike Dolan
March 31, 2006

Available at:
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nN31383755

I am fundamentally convinced that the international trading system and its benefits, belong to all of us - it is an international public good. And this has implications. Everyone should benefit from the ultimate increase in wealth efficiency that results from the removal of global distortions in prices and which encourages countries to produce according to their comparative advantage. To quote Ernesto Zedillo, the WTO is the only instrument that can be used to deliver the global public good of non-discriminatory multilateral trade. I agree with him, as the WTO is essentially public in consumption, its benefits should accrue to all people.

PASCAL LAMY
Director-General of the World Trade Organization
"Humanising Globalization"
Santiago de Chile, Chile
January 30, 2006

Available at:
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl16_e.htm

Our mission at the World Bank Group is to support economic development and policies that help the poor. In a middle-income country like Brazil, the Bank is providing this support in a number of ways.

First, Brazil has an enormous amount of knowledge and technology related to energy and the environment that Brazil can share with the rest of the world. One of the important roles that the World Bank plays in the developing world is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge for development. From my week here, it is obvious to me that the potential for partnerships between the World Bank and Brazil in exporting Brazilian know-how is large and only beginning to be tapped...

Second area where can work is in partnering with developing countries to improve the supply of what we call "global public goods". Trade liberalization is one example. It is an issue of vital importance to the world's poorest people, and one on which Brazil has played a leading role. It is one in which Brazil and the World Bank will continue to work closely together.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ
President of the World Bank Group
Special Session of the São Paulo State Forum on Global Climate Change and Biodiversity, São Paulo
December 20, 2005

Available at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20766242~page
PK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html

What we bring are global public goods, basically knowledge, information on new varieties, advice in terms of policies that are of interest to the country. For example, I do know that there was a specific indirection between one of the CGIAR's centres, and INRA and the government of Morocco on trade issues. So, the policy advice that we offered, I believe, was valuable. There is a very strong and ongoing programme linking wheat to breeding and other cultivars and crops.

There is a lot, I think, that we offer in terms of public goods which are then used by INRA and other partners in the universities etc. to be transformed into private goods, basically those that are used by small, medium and large farmers.

FRANCISCO REIFSCHNEIDER
Director of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
"Morocco has Wonderful Examples and Experiences in Agricultural Research"
Morocco TIMES
December 12, 2005

Available at:
http://www.moroccotimes.com/paper/article.asp?idr=2&id=11492

Yet India possesses in ample quantities all the resources needed to achieve universal access to HIV prevention and treatment. And, as I could see once more at the Conclave of the Elected Representatives of the North East in Guwahati, the necessary commitment and leadership is growing. But defeating AIDS will require a significant intensification of our efforts, in India, just as in the rest of the world. Let's also not forget that AIDS knows no borders, and that success against AIDS in India will not only benefit the nation, but all countries. So, fighting AIDS is really a global public good and it is therefore appropriate that it is one of the priorities for the United Nations.

PETER PIOT
UNAIDS Executive Director
Launch of the 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update
New Delhi, India
November, 21 2005

Available at:
http://www.unaids.org/html/pub/media/speeches02/sp_piot_epi05_21nov05_en_pdf.pdf

In the past few months we have read scores of reports on the re-emergence and spread of Avian or bird flu. Despite intense media focus, a lot is still shrouded in mystery on this re-emerging disease. However, the speed at which it is spreading from Asia, to the Middle East and Europe demonstrates that no country is exempt from the spread of such infectious diseases. As also witnessed in case of HIV/AIDS and SARS. There are fears that it may also spread to Africa, where experts believe health and economic consequences would be dramatic. Clearly, the emerging pattern suggests the existence of a potential global threat...

Clearly, Avian Flu and other new and emerging diseases is going to be a recurring theme for some time to come, particularly in a globalized world where new and re-emerging diseases can spread rapidly across continents with ease and speed. The situation calls for collective action - for more support for global public goods like investment and research in vaccines and for actions that would ensure that the entire world shares in the burden and costs of prevention. Donors and the international financial institutions should consider setting up a Fund to help countries put in place preparedness and response plans and to compensate farmers and producers for losses incurred in culling their poultry. This is critical both from development and security perspective.

MUNIR AKRAM
Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations
President of the Economic and Social Council
ECOSOC Special Event on Avian Flu, United Nations, New York
November 3, 2005

Available at:
http://www.un.int/pakistan/00home26905.htm

The central premise of social capital is the value of social networks. Social capital refers to the collective value of all social networks in a society or community and the readiness of the members of these networks to do things for each other. Social capital refers to a wide variety of benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation that accompany social networks.

"Today I see more clearly how these ideas are directly relevant to our approach to global security issues. We need to apply the lessons learned from the way we democratically safeguard our societies at home to the way we structure our response in the global arena. Our societies thrive on the presence of national public goods. The international community needs more global public goods. This is especially urgent as we deal with the new security challenges arising from failing states, increasing migration, arms proliferation and the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria."

JONAS GAHR STØRE
Foreign Minister of Norway
"Norwegian Foreign Policy Priorities"
London School of Economics
October 26, 2005

Available at:
http://www.odin.dep.no/ud/norsk/aktuelt/taler/minister_a/032171-090437/dok-bn.html

The multilateral trading system (and thus the WTO) is an international public good.

Why is the multilateral trading system an international public good? Non-discriminatory trade liberalization by WTO Members has the characteristics of a global public good: everyone benefits in the medium term from the increase in efficiency that results from the removal of global distortions in prices, which encourages countries to produce according to their comparative advantage. According to Ernesto Zedillo the WTO is the only instrument that can be used to deliver the global public good of non-discriminatory multilateral trade. As it is essentially public in consumption, its benefits should accrue to all people.

But we know that rich industrialized countries have drawn more benefits from the multilateral trade system than developing countries. This is why I always insist that the opening up of markets must produce real benefits in the everyday lives of the countries concerned - which is only possible if we have rules that provide for a level playing field, that ensure technical capacity building, and that enable Members to improve their domestic governance so that this opening up of markets can be truly beneficial to most people. So the opening up of markets stimulated by the WTO produces benefits to many, but also has its costs, whose distribution is largely beyond the WTO's control. Hence the need to cooperate more coherently towards more effective global governance.

PASCAL LAMY
Director-General of the World Trade Organization
"Towards Global Governance?"
Master of Public Affairs inaugural lecture, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris.
October 21, 2005

Available at:
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl12_e.htm

Ibero-American cooperation, with the participation of business and civil society, is essential if we are to tackle global problems and create global public goods such as security, financial stability, environmental stewardship and a truly fair international trading system. It is my hope that this meeting will explore what more business can do to meet these challenges, and how the actions many of you are already taking can be scaled up. I also hope you will explore ways in which business can work more effectively with non-governmental organizations, labour groups and other essential partners.

KOFI ANNAN
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Joint Session of the first Iberoamerican Business and Civic Meetings
Salamanca, Spain
October 14, 2005

Available at:
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=1736

I would like to end by focusing upon four major problems faced by the global community: delays in completing the Doha round, terrorism, international financial architecture and global warming. In my view, the three large countries  the U.S., China and India  would do well to collaborate in solving these problems.

I believe the persistence of these problems points to failures of global public goods and to the deficiencies of international institutional arrangements created in 1945 including the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank and, more recently, the WTO. The world has changed enormously since 1945. There is a need to commence a far-reaching examination of the mandate, governance, management and behaviour of these organizations, in order to make them relevant in 2005.

The mandate of these organizations is outdated in the context of the present problems. As an example, the United Nations was conceived at a time when no State actively pursued a policy of support to cross-border terrorism. The governance of these organizations is not aligned with present realities. The five biggest economies of the world are US, China, Japan, India and Germany. However, the present organization of the UN, the IMF and the World Bank disempowers China, Japan, India and Germany in various ways. The management of these organizations is dominated by the US and, to a lesser extent, by Europe. This contaminates the behaviour of the organizations, and the extent to which other countries see the UN, the IMF and the World Bank as neutral bodies which seek to solve the problems of global public goods.

All of us need to apply our minds to reinventing the UN, the IMF and the World Bank, and endowing them with a new mandate, new governance, new management and thus new kinds of behaviour, which will help solve the problems that challenge, and that will continue to challenge, the global economy during 2005 to 2050.

SHRI P. CHIDAMBARAM
Finance Minister of India
Yale University
September 24, 2005

Available at:
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=12224

A soon-to-be-released opinion poll carried out by AccountAbility and Edelman about what people think about the state of accountability confirms that people are very unsure about who should be held to account (let alone how) for the things that matter most to them. This is true for local issues like crime and unemployment, but even more so for so-called "global public goods" issues like climate change, disease, and poverty.

It¡s all very confusing. We sense the need for justice, whether through a taught morality or triggered, as some suggest, within an ancient, genetic recess that leans us towards «right¡ relationships. Using this compass, often intuitively, we rightly demand accountability from those who impact on the lives of others without voice or power.

But even as we as individuals demand, we are collectively silenced by our own accountability lapses. Our apparent proximity to each other in the global village is illusory and disorienting. Three billion people consume far beyond their needs, and yet behave charitably towards those they are complicit in excluding. Our institutional expression of to whom and for what we and others are or should be accountable, has yet to catch up with our lived experience. The more entangled the world becomes, and the more we see just how interrelated things are, the clearer it is that something has gone badly wrong on the accountability front.

There is, to say the least, a need to reinvent our practice of accountability

SIMON ZADEK
Chief Executive of AccountAbility
"Reinventing Accountability for the 21st Century"
openDemocracy
September 9, 2005

Available at:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-accountability/peer_to_peer_2823.jsp

Poverty [is] a dangerous weapon of mass destruction, which all nations must fight. It was obscene that global spending on armaments had reached a far larger sum than total investments in development assistance. Countries must shift their priorities towards development and poverty reduction, which would go a long way towards reducing violence and establishing peace as the law of human life...The international community should also to seek innovative financing instruments, such as international taxes or charges on aviation fuel. Adding that global public goods were being exploited, with some countries taking no responsibility for their use, ... all must shoulder their shared responsibilities.

HEIDEMARIE WIECZOREK-ZEUL
Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany
High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, United Nations, New York
June 27-28, 2005

Available at:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/ga10364.doc.htm

During the course of the [United Nations Forum on Forests]..., the World Bank - in collaboration with many stakeholders, as well as the Forum and non-governmental organizations - had changed its forest policy. It was important to integrate, rather than exclude, forests in efforts and, in the process, protect both local and global public goods that served for sustainable forest development. The World Bank currently allocated $500 million a year in support of those objectives, and intended to enhance the quality of analysis and bringing forests to the table of the development agenda locally. That, however, required creative financing, which necessitated a continuation of partnerships such as those with World Bank and others on the ground to make developmental assistance as effective as it could be.

KEN NEWCOMBE
Senior Manager of the World Bank
United Nations Forum on Forests, New York
May 26, 2005

Available at:
http://i-newswire.com/pr22099.html

This is the heart of the security problem, the collective security problem. In fact, we discussed this today at the Center for Globalization at Yale. I think the Security Council is the only institution really in the international system that does have power. Potential power, if you like. But too many times, that power is deadlocked by the veto power of individual countries. And I think that one important thesis in the book [A Better Globalization: Legitimacy, Governance, and Reform. Washington, D.C.: The Center for Global Development], which has a lot of support in the world, is that one has to move to a more representative Security Council, but at the same time a Security Council that works.

Global democracy cannot be just one country, one vote. You cannot have China and Malta have the same weight in the international system. So one has to weight them both, a weight that reflects the size of the country and the population and the resources the country contributes to the international system. So one proposal is to move to a Security Council that is more universal, with weighted voting. It's tough, because the existing veto holders, of course, they have it. They don't want to give it up. So it's not an easy proposition at all...

The proposal I have Œ and of course other ways are possible Œ but the four weights that I propose are, population - very important in today's world, where we want democracy to triumph and we say that democracy needs to be supported, it can't stop at the borders of the nation-state. So population is important, you have to give countries weight according to their population. But other things also should count: GDP (the resources a country has), the part of the resources it contributes to global public goods, and also the capacity for peacekeeping in the security area (its military capacity to enforce security) should also be one of the weights. That's what I'm proposing. And of course whether one wants to weight this equally or give more weight to one of these factors is open to debate.

KEMAL DERVIS
Former Turkish Minister, Former Vice President of the World Bank, and next
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
"Developing Countries Should Have a Bigger Say in the World Bank and IMF"
YaleGlobal Online
May 20, 2005

Available at:
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5742

People often talk of trade as a global public good because all of us can gain when trade flows successfully. In the modern world the same can now be said of structural economic reform. As we consider the global economic imbalances and differential growth rates between continents the importance of structural economic reform can no longer be discounted. Balanced growth will arise when continents like Europe enhance their structural economic reform with greater labour, capital and product market flexibilities and when continents like Asia engaged in wider and deeper structural economic reform to substantially raise their productivity levels.

Indeed today, more so than even trade, innovation is the driver of change, forcing structural reform on to the agenda. It took nearly forty years for the first 50 million people to own a radio, just 16 years for the first 50 million people to own a PC, but just 5 years for the first 50 million to be on the internet.

GORDON BROWN
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Academy of Social Science, Beijing, China
February 21, 2005

Available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2005/press_20_05.cfm

The commitment to promote a concept of social development that was 'political, economic, ethical and spiritual...has lost that quality of being a concept that encompasses everything... Leaders of nations, as well as specialists, have chosen a focus to eradicate poverty which is based, above all, on achieving measurable economic results... If it is true... that the eradication of poverty has become a moral imperative, it would be beneficial for its realization to consider it, effectively, a priority global public good. To address this challenge, a moral condition is necessary: the creation, in the international ambit, of a sense of social justice which at present is lacking.

BISHOP GIAMPAOLO CREPALDI
Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
43rd session of the Commission for Social Development, United Nations, New York
February 11, 2005

Available at:
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66414

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly outline why I believe the work of the TaskForce [on Global Public Goods] is of great relevance to Africa...

First and foremost, we in Africa, obviously seek to benefit from a global system that robustly works to maintain and enforce peace and security.

Next, given our daily fight against the numerous devastating diseases that are burdening our families and governments as well as circumscribing our economic growth prospects, we seek to gain greatly from any upscaling in international efforts to control the spread of communicable diseases.

Additionally, with such a rich natural heritage, it is to our advantage to support international collective action to protect, preserve and exploit our commons - our biodiversity, forests, and natural resources. Without this, the chances of sustainable development in the region are slim.

Given the region's burden of debt and exposure to financial shocks, we have an interest in any reform of the IMF that will improve global financial stability and make it more, aligned with, and responsive to our needs.

Africa also stands to gain much from an open and fair international trading regime. In that regard, we are stridently pushing in the WTO's Doha Round for rich countries to break down their barriers and end their subsidies, particularly in agriculture.

Finally, with the knowledge gap between Africa and the rest of the world increasingly becoming an important factor in Africa's marginalization, we need to support Taskforce's call for the creation of a workable forum for international policy coordination and consensus on issues of private intellectual property and knowledge in the public domain.

K.Y. AMOAKO
UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa
African Consultation on the Work of the Secretariat of the International Task Force on Global Public Goods, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
January, 28 2005

Available at:
http://www.uneca.org/eca_resources/Speeches/amoako/2005/012804speech_kyamoako.htm

The good of peace should be seen today as closely related to the new goods derived from progress in science and technology. These too, in application of the principle of the universal destination of the earth's goods, need to be put at the service of humanity's basic needs. Appropriate initiatives on the international level can give full practical implementation to the principle of the universal destination of goods by guaranteeing to all - individuals and nations - the basic conditions for sharing in development. This becomes possible once the barriers and monopolies that marginalize many peoples are removed.

The good of peace will be better ensured if the international community takes on greater responsibility for what are commonly called public goods. These are goods which all citizens automatically enjoy, without having consciously chosen them or contributed to them in any way. Such is the case, for example, at the national level, with such goods as the judiciary system, the defense system and the network of highways and railways. In our world the phenomenon of increased globalization means that more and more public goods are taking on a global character, and as a result common interests are daily increasing. We need but think of the fight against poverty, the promotion of peace and security, concern for climate change and disease control. The international community needs to respond to these interests with a broader network of juridical accords aimed at regulating the use of public goods and inspired by universal principles of fairness and solidarity.

JOHN PAUL II
Pope
"Do Not Be Overcome by Evil but Overcome Evil With Good"
Message for the World Day of Peace
January 1, 2005

Available at:
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=63676

 

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