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UN SUMMER ACADEMY
UN Ideas That Changed the World
Sir Richard Jolly
UN Ideas -
four main points
1. Ideas are possibly the UN’s most important contributions
2. The nine UN ideas that changed the World
3 Successes and Failures in putting them into action
4. Future challenges and conclusions for UN Staff
Lourdes Arizpe
“Someone once said that the United Nations is adream managed by bureaucrats. I would correct that by saying that it has become a bureaucracy managed by dreamers.
Certainly you have to be a dreamer to work in the United Nations with conviction. It is only if you have this sense of mission that you can withstand the constant battering by governments who are afraid that the United Nations will become a world government…
So in the end, someone who works in the United Nations has to be a magician of ideas, because working for the United Nations is like working for a government in which all the political parties are in power at the same time.”
The Power of Ideas
Bernard Chidzero
Mrs. Ogata
Sir Hans Singer
Elise Boulding
Samir Amin
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Javier Perez de Cuellar
Leticia Shahani
Just Faaland
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Juan Somavía
Celso Furtado
Dharam Ghai
The Power of People
www.UNHistory.org
The 9 UN Ideas That Changed the
WorldHuman Rights
1: Human Rights for All
2: Gender Equality and Women’s Rights
Economic Development
3: Development Goals
4: Fairer International Economic Relations
5: Strategies for Accelerating Development in Poorer
Countries
6: Priorities for Social Development
Holistic Development
7: Environmental Sustainability
8: Peace and Human Security
9: Human Development
Human Rights for All
The boldest step of all
UDHR was agreed as no more than a declaration,
but increasingly has been turned into law and is being implemented
A core of seven major human rights conventions have now been ratified by
120-190 countries
Many other conventions and instruments adopted and ratified
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was created in 1993
Rights-based approaches to development increasingly applied
Gender Equality and Women’s
Empowerment
1946 – Gender at top of UN’s statistical agenda
1960s – UN women’s studies started in sub-Saharan Africa
1970 – Women in Development, Ester Boserup’s classic
1975-95 – Four world women’s conferences mobilized women on a global scale –from Mexico to Beijing
1976 – UNIFEM established
1979 – CEDAW adopted
2010 – UNWomen established and USG appointed
Peace and Security
Evolving Ideas and Approaches
1945 – Replacing conflict with the rule of law
1950s – Preventive diplomacy
1950s-1990s – Disarmament and development
1948-2010 Peacekeeping = 124,000 deployed today, 2,100 from China
1994 – Human security
2001 – The Responsibility to Protect
Human Development
A paradigm, not just a slogan, nor just for human development indicators
The creation of the distinguished Pakistan economist Mahbub ul Haq and the Indian Nobel laureate economist and philosopher Professor Amartya Sen
HDRs produced annually and some 750 National Human Development Reports
Human Development brings together UN values and most UN activities
The UN’s Economic Ideas –
pioneering and brilliiant but often neglected:
Nine Nobel Prize Winners in Economics
1969: Jan Tinbergen
1973: Wassily Leontief
1974: Gunnar Myrdal
1977: James Meade
1979: W. Arthur Lewis and Theodore W. Schultz
1980: Lawrence R. Klein
1984: Richard Stone
1998: Amartya SenAmartya Sen
Lawrence R. Klein
The UN economic ideas have often differed from those of
the World Bank and the IMF – but the Bretton Woods
Institutions have received most donor support
Fairer International Economic Relations –
priorities for trade, aid and TNCs
National Development strategies –directed to accelerated national development
Development Goals –mostly focused on human advance, recently towards the MDGs
Social Development priorities–a key component of development from the UN’s earliest years
UN goals “a mixed record but more achievement than generally realized”
1950s Eradicating Malaria
1960-1980 UPE (Universal Primary Education)
1961-1970 (First) Development Decade
–accelerating economic growth
1966-1979 Smallpox Eradication –achieved in 11 years
1981-1990 Water and Sanitation Decade
1984-1990 “Child Survival & Development Revolution”
2000-2015 The Millennium Development Goals (the MDGs)
The Millennium Summit Agreed the MDGsSeptember 2000
Structural Adjustment and the Washington
Consensus missed their goals-
with disastrous effects
20-year changes in per capita income
1960-1980 1980-2000
Latin America + 80% + 9%
Sub-Saharan Africa + 36% - 15%
Source: Mark Weisbrot et al, The Emperor Has No Growth :Declining Growth in the Era of
Globalization (Washington DC, Centre for Economic and Policy Research) 2001
A Balance Sheet of the UN’s
Contributions
The UN has led the way with many fundamental ideas,
more than is often realized – notably in statistics, setting
global goals, development thinking, environment,
supporting equitable economic relations, peace and
security, human rights and human development
The UN has often been ahead of the World Bank and the
IMF – though these have received most donor support
and most finance
Over the long run, the UN shows considerable impact
Ideas are among the UN’s most important contributions
Negatives on the UN Balance Sheet Late reaction to the Washington Consensus
Weak response to the special needs of the least developed countries
Too little done to introduce cultural aspects into
the development equation
Tardy and weak reaction to HIV/AIDS
Inadequate attention to inequalities of income
and wealth, nationally & internationally
UN Ideas gain global
influence in four ways
Changing the way issues are perceived
Redefining state and non-state interests and
goals, thereby setting agendas for action
Mobilizing coalitions to press for action
Becoming embedded in institutions, which
have responsibilities for oversight,
implementation and monitoring
The Three UNs: 1st UN
Governments
Source: UN Photo Archives
The Three UNs: 2nd UN
Staff members
Source: UN Photo Archives
The Three UNs: 3rd UN
Experts, members of commissions, and NGOs closely associated with the UN
Source: UN Photo Archives
Global challenges for the UN’s
future
1 Strengthen global governance in a multi-polar world with strengthened regionalism
2 Tackle climate change and sustainability
3 Diminish national and global inequalities
4 Pursue sustainable holistic development
5 Build international values of humanity and solidarity and bridge divides of culture and identities
Priorities for recovering from the crisis
(drawn from the Stiglitz Report to the UN GA, 2009)
Immediate
1 National and regional actions to tackle the three scourges = Unemployment, inequalities & environmental sustainability
2 Global and regional coordination of actions
3 Make finance and the banks the servant not the master
Over the medium and longer run1 Reform governance in the IMF and World Bank, with double majority voting
2 Restore and strengthen the position of the UN in economic governance
Embark on more fundamental changes3 A global reserve system
4 Mechanisms to diminish causes of global instability
5 Legal and economic modalities for Sovereign Debt default and restructuring
6 An international Court for Debt Restructuring
Conclusions for UN Staff
Never underestimate the power of UN ideas
Apply and support UN ideas at country level• National Human Development Reports
• Reports on Human Security
• Catalytic support for implementation
• Monitoring nationally and regionally
• Support analysis of national interests in global actions
Collaborate around common goals and ideas Goals and ideas are a constructive alternative to bureaucracy
Partner with the Bank and the Fund but recognize the power of UN ideas
Sergio Vieira de Mello
“Unless we aim for the seemingly unattainable, we risk settling for mediocrity.”
Kofi Annan
“Applaud us when we prevail. Correct us when we fail. But above all, do not let this indispensable, irreplaceable institution wither, languish or perish…”
Sources on UN history
UN Websites – many
UNIHP = www.unhistory.org
Oral histories =CD ROM of UNIHP interviews
UK careers records and related records = Bodleian Library, Oxford
UNIHP Book Series
Ahead of the Curve? UN Ideas and Global Challenges(2001; 2nd edition 2003; French, German, Arabic editions published 2003)
Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas: Perspectives from the UN Regional Commissions (2004)
Quantifying the World: UN Contributions to Statistics (2004)
UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice (2004)
The UN and Global Political Economy: Trade, Finance, and Development (2004)
UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice(2005)
Women, Development, and the UN: A Sixty-Year Quest for Equality and Justice (2005)
The Power of UN Ideas: Lessons from the First 60 Years(2005)
Human Security and the UN: A Critical History (2006)
The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (2007)
Human Rights at the UN: The Political History of Universal Justice (2008)
Preventive Diplomacy at the UN (2008)
The UN and Transnational Corporations: from Code of Conduct to Global Compact (2008)
The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation (2009)
UN Ideas That Changed the World (2009)
The UN and Global Governance: An Unfinished Journey (forthcoming 2010)
Development Without Destruction: The UN and the Global Resource Management (forthcoming 2010)
UNIHP Book Series
Fifteen UN Organizations and
Individuals Have Received the
Nobel Peace Prize 1949: John Boyd Orr 1950: Ralph Bunche 1954 and 1981: Office of The UN High
Commissioner for Refugees 1957: Lester Pearson 1961: Dag Hammarskjöld 1965: UNICEF –The UN Children’s Fund 1968: René Cassin 1969: The International Labour Organization 1982: Alva Myrdal and Alfonzo Garcia Robles 1988: UN Peacekeeping Forces 2001: Kofi Annan and the UN 2005: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei 2007: The UN Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (jointly with Al Gore) 2008: Martti Ahtisaari
Kofi Annan
Martti Ahtisaari