Press Release: Future of Global Governance: Perspectives from Global South

On the eve of the Summit of the Future to be held on September 22-23 at United Nations headquarters in New York, Global Policy Watch has launched today the Report “Future of Global Governance: Perspectives from Global South” on views from developing countries on the key issue of the Summit, the reform of global governance, its rules and institutions.

PRESS RELEASE

Monday, September 16, 2024

Southern perspectives on global governance

“As with any child who grows and matures, the clothes we wore in 1945 no longer fit us. (…) This debate (on global governance reform) needs to be fought at the UN, the most inclusive forum of all.”
Brazilian president Lula da Silva, September 10, 2024

On the eve of the Summit of the Future to be held on September 22-23 at United Nations headquarters in New York, Global Policy Watch has launched today a report on views from developing countries on the key issue of the Summit, the reform of global governance, its rules and institutions.

Titled “Future of Global Governance: Perspectives from Global South”, the report highlights the views of diplomats, governments and civil society leaders in their own words, quoting from their interventions in a variety of recent forums.

“Multilateralism ‘a la carte' and ‘forum shopping’ are the modus operandi of powerful actors to shape global outcomes in their national interests, undermining their own commitments and obligations as UN members and signatories of human rights and environmental treaties,” commented Barbara Adams, co-editor of the report, and chair of the board of Global Policy Forum. “Any reform of multilateral governance can only be legitimate and effective if the Global South is an active part of its formulation” explains Roberto Bissio, coordinator of Social Watch.

Global Policy Watch is a joint project of Global Policy Forum and Social Watch. The report is available at https://www.globalpolicywatch.org/futureofglobalgovernance/

Drawing extensively on the work and publications by Global Policy Forum, particularly its briefings, and monitoring fact sheets on multilateral negotiations, the report observes through Southern lenses key issues in the global agenda, such as the reform of the UN Security Council and of the International Financial Architecture. It includes a chapter on the Right to Development, which spells out the duty of countries to cooperate and explores the need to measure progress with indicators that go “beyond GDP”.

Anita Gurumurthy, Nandini Chami and Amay Korjan from IT for Change, an NGO based in Bengaluru, India, elaborate on what a Southern agenda on global digital governance should look like and why it is badly needed.

The report also addresses aspects largely ignored by the public, such as the funding patterns of the UN and how they undermine the interests of developing countries. It also challenges the usual view that the United Nations is an institution “out there”, far from the daily lives of people, by showing in a section on “The UN in your country, your country in the UN” how concretely it is active in each developing country, offering to the public accountability opportunities, both of the UN activities as well as of the representation reporting and initiatives of the country at the multilateral institution.

Download the Press Release (pdf version).

Download the Report “Future of Global Governance: Perspectives from Global South”  (pdf version).