Chapter IV

FUTURE WORK OF UNCTAD IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS MANDATE;
INSTITUTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Some personal reflections

333. The backdrop to the effort to define the work of UNCTAD on the threshold of the next millennium is nothing less than the profound historic movement that is at last giving substance to a vision which began with the European age of maritime exploration five centuries ago, but which the Phoenicians, Vikings, Chinese and other great trading peoples also dreamed of: the unification of markets and of economic space on a planetary dimension. This is an extremely complex phenomenon, fraught with contrasts and contradictions.

334. With the fall of ideological walls, convergence has taken the place of confrontation. Institutions such as IMF, the World Bank, GATT/WTO - long seen as relevant to only one of the blocs of a divided world - are becoming the backbone of a single, generally accepted world economic system. On the other hand, competition and trade frictions, once moderated by national barriers and regulations, have been exacerbated to a point never seen before. Eventually, that might jeopardize or reverse the progress achieved so far.

335. Globalization is, paradoxically, a powerful force for both integration and marginalization. It promises, for the first time in history, to bring fully into active participation in the world economy two billion women and men in the fast-growing developing countries. But in contrast, hundreds of millions of other individuals fear that the same forces threaten to shut them out - perhaps forever -from the promise of prosperity. They are the unemployed or low-wage earners in sectors of industrial economies that have been lagging behind in the process of change. They are, too, the poor and jobless in many developing countries that depend on a few commodities barely touched, if at all, by globalization and liberalization.

336. In this intervening period between the old and the new, it is no wonder, as Gramsci would say, that all kinds of morbid symptoms come to the surface, that fear and insecurity thrive alongside hope and bright expectations. This is the very essence of the crisis that currently overshadows international relations and fuels a permanent urge for reform, overall and everywhere: throughout the United Nations system, in the Bretton Woods institutions and, last but not least, in UNCTAD.

337. We in UNCTAD are of course part of the more general crisis of the United Nations in the sense that we are affected by a widespread fatigue with the conference system. But there is also a distinct specificity in what could be described as UNCTAD's identity crisis. UNCTAD was created in the mid-1960s in order to change the status quo - a status quo that was then synonymous with the economic institutions of Bretton Woods and GATT. UNCTAD was expected to develop a better and alternative system of economic relations - the New International Economic Order. Its inspiration was rooted in ethics and justice: the conviction that only a radically changed system could open the way to the development of all mankind. Development was the indispensable precondition for closing the ever-widening gap between the happy and affluent few and the miserable and destitute many.

338. And change did indeed come about, but not at all in the manner envisaged a generation ago. Rather than being the result of a formalized process of multilateral negotiations among States, it has been the product of profound globalizing forces. Largely beyond the control of Governments, production and distribution would come to be organized not in a centralized and interventionist way by the State but in accordance with decentralized and private-sector patterns coordinated by the market.

339. UNCTAD has not been alien to these transformations. Indeed, it has given a significant impulse to them, through its efforts to help developing countries both adopt more efficient development policies and see the need to use international trade as a tool for integration, growth and development. The organization was itself one of the early examples of aggiornamento when, at UNCTAD VIII four years ago, it redesigned its role and machinery in order to better respond to the requirements of the age. Setting aside what had come to be regarded as a too rigid and at times confrontational group system of negotiation, UNCTAD shifted the accent to the new notion of partnership and cooperation for development. Partnership was made possible not so much on the basis of a conceptual platform - some blueprint or programme of action adopted by Governments to restructure economic relations - but rather in response to the exigencies imposed by a complex and emerging reality. The persistence of extreme poverty and growing inequality, together with the proliferating risks of marginalization and environmental destruction, rendered cooperation a sine qua non for meeting the challenge of globalization.

340. From Cartagena onwards, a shared perception of the nature of prevailing economic conditions has begun to assert itself. Several features of this perception are discernible:

It dismisses one-sided explanations and divisive recipes;

It attempts to grasp all the elements and complexities of development and to interweave them in a balanced and comprehensive tapestry;

It recognizes the market and private initiative as the dynamic agents of an expanding economy, without losing sight of the determining influence of good governance and an efficient but reduced State;

It rightly lays stress on the ultimate responsibility of each society, and of each Government, to create the political and macroeconomic conditions for stability and progress.

341. At the same time, the new outlook has continued to insist that the success or failure of domestic efforts often depends on the external economic environment. The better to succeed, those efforts need an international system capable of accelerating growth in a stable and sustainable way worldwide. The external environment must also provide countries with open and competitive access to the basic elements of sustainable development, i.e. markets, financing, investment, technology and financial and technical assistance. These elements constitute, as always, the fundamental priorities of UNCTAD's work.

342. To understand and explain how these elements will interact in an increasingly globalized economy will remain the central aim of a research and analytical effort which is, generally speaking, directed more at the forest than at the trees. Analysis and conceptual explanation are not, however, ends in themselves. They should always be viewed from the perspective of their usefulness in helping to promote development in a fair, sustainable and harmonious way.

343. To that end, we need to concentrate on what is realistic and practical: not on over-ambitious and remote grand designs, but on precise and limited objectives within our reach. As Alexander Herzen said (apud Sir Isaiah Berlin):

... a goal which is infinitely remote is no goal, only ... a deception; a goal must be closer - at the very least the labourer's wage, or pleasure in work performed.

344. This is why analysis has to be action-oriented in two complementary directions. The first is the preparation of the multilateral agenda for future negotiations on trade, investment, competition, environment and technology. Here, the specific contribution of UNCTAD will be to provide a development perspective, one which will balance the overall picture by taking into account the needs and interests of countries at different stages of integration into the world economy. This work will be pursued in a cooperative and complementary manner with that of other international institutions, among them the World Trade Organization vis-à-vis which steps have already been taken to demonstrate our willingness to work in tandem on issues of mutual interest. The first opportunity to put this goal into practice will be the contribution UNCTAD IX has been asked to make to the Singapore WTO Ministerial Conference, in accordance with the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 8 December 1995.

345. In order to complement the agenda of negotiations, the second line of UNCTAD's activities should be directed at helping countries to implement the results thereof. The goals here would be to make the best possible use of opportunities created in trade (working through the programmes of trade efficiency, TRAINFORTRADE and ASYCUDA, among others); to promote investment (through a possible multilateral framework, individual country profiles, etc.); to provide technical assistance to Governments interested in designing competition laws; to advance positive incentives for environmentally friendly development; to conduct reviews of national policies on science and technology; and so on.

346. This pragmatic approach will find one of its most telling expressions in the programme for technical cooperation on promoting trade for African countries after the Uruguay Round, put together and to be jointly implemented by UNCTAD, WTO and ITC.

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347. The future work of UNCTAD will be a topic of intense intergovernmental discussion during the preparations for UNCTAD IX and at the Conference itself. The provisional agenda for UNCTAD IX offers important indications for the direction of UNCTAD's future work. In pursuing such discussions, attention should be given to the following considerations:

(a) There is need for fundamental change in the manner in which UNCTAD goes about fulfilling its mandate in trade and development.

(b) UNCTAD's activities need to be more sharply focused on a relatively small number of issues of central importance to development on which it can make a substantial impact.

(c) While recognizing fully the common elements of the development experience, the work of UNCTAD needs increasingly to take account of the present diversity of development situations and problems. In considering such diversity, the distinction between those developing countries requiring assistance primarily in securing access to globalizing markets and those countries requiring assistance primarily in creating and expanding capacities to supply goods to those markets is of particular importance.

(d) UNCTAD will need to keep under review the evolving phenomena of globalization and interdependence, and to assess broad development issues against this background. It will also need to assess the implications for development of the evolution of the systems governing international transactions and seek to promote an evolution of those systems that is "development friendly". Consensus-building is a concept of particular importance to such activities.

(e) UNCTAD should intensify its concrete activities having a direct impact on national economies, particularly in the areas of trade, investment and enterprise development. These activities include, but are not restricted to, technical cooperation.

(f) The intergovernmental machinery of UNCTAD needs to be tightly structured, yet sufficiently flexible to accommodate a wider range of intergovernmental interaction than in the past. It is important that each type of intergovernmental forum engage only in those activities for which it has been designed. The initial stages of intergovernmental deliberations will need to be expertized.

348. The Secretary-General is of course keenly aware that UNCTAD's resources are limited, and that it will only be able to make a modest contribution to the achievement of the goals outlined above. It is in fact doubtful whether any organization or country acting alone would be able to attain those objectives because the problem goes well beyond the question of resources. For one of the major new developments in international relations in these closing years of the twentieth century has been the emergence of a range of non-governmental actors that exert a growing influence on world affairs. Transnational companies, both large and small, private investors, non-governmental organizations, universities and research centres - sometimes working alongside Governments, sometimes working independently and at times more effectively than Governments - are leaving their mark on the shape of things to come.

349. By and large, multilateral institutions have so far failed to give these new actors adequate room to express themselves and to make their weight felt. This oversight is all the more surprising when we remember that, as early as 1919, in the aftermath of the First World War, the statesmen and diplomats gathered in Versailles showed a remarkable openness in accepting a revolutionary innovation: the tripartite structure of the International Labour Organization, with the right to deliberate and to vote accorded to the representatives of the workers and the employers, alongside those of Governments. Obviously the rationale in this case was that one could not, and ought not, to decide on labour matters without the direct participation of those concerned. If this is so, a case could likewise be made in favour of providing, in economic discussions, a space for the participation of those individuals - producers and consumers alike - who will put into practice the decisions on production and consumption formally arrived at by Governments.

350. This is admittedly an extremely complex and difficult subject, on which simplistic solutions will not do. Its far-reaching implications will develop only with time. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that in the near future we shall be far-sighted enough to begin the integration of the private sector and of other new actors into our daily operations. By acting along these lines, we could help to convert a conference into a real partnership for development, making UNCTAD a model of what a truly international agency of the twenty-first century should be.

351. Is this all too much of a challenge for UNCTAD IX in just a few months from now? We do not believe so. After all, South Africa, where we shall have the privilege to meet, has in recent times performed an infinitely more daunting task. If we have nothing to teach our hosts, we certainly have much to learn from them. We can draw inspiration, in particular, from the exemplary way in which South Africans have been able to overcome an almost bottomless abyss of hatred and prejudice, and are now engaged in attempting to bridge the socio-economic gap that still separates the different sectors of their community. Compared with what was long considered one of the most intractable problems of this century, the tasks ahead of us do not appear to be beyond our reach.

352. We have already started the process of redefining UNCTAD's objective in terms of a few clear and central priorities. Our recent intergovernmental consultations showed a significant degree of consensus on the need to reduce and simplify the number of intergovernmental bodies and the frequency of meetings, so as to increase the efficiency of our method for interaction and work. Improvements in the cost-efficiency and performance of the secretariat will both prepare for and facilitate the implementation of these two aspects, serving as the instrument for the reform process of UNCTAD.

353. We should never lose sight of the fact, however, that the only justification for UNCTAD's regeneration and its sole claim for continued existence is its ability to make a relevant contribution to the tasks of fostering growth, reducing inequality, and building its capacity to make a difference to people's lives. This has to be especially true in the case of those who need UNCTAD most, the least developed countries - so many of which are in Africa - where our Conference has a duty to offer them concrete and effective solutions to their problems.

354. If it is true that each society will be measured by the way it treats its more vulnerable members, then the international community in general, and UNCTAD in particular, will ultimately be judged according to the attention that they pay to Africa and to the least developed countries as a whole. This is the central problem, the major challenge of the fin de siècle. It will no doubt be with us still at the beginning of the next century and on into the third millennium, as a doleful legacy. It is an old, indeed a very old problem, for nothing in mankind's history is older than poverty and deprivation. But the circumstances of the problem are new. For while globalization renders deprivation intolerable, it may for the first time show that the problem is mature for a lasting solution. Moreover, globalization makes the problem inescapably that of all of us. We cannot shirk our responsibility. We must hope therefore that the benefits from a global economy will more than match its costs and that the net balance will be enough to eradicate poverty and human underdevelopment.

355. We shall have at hand in South Africa and beyond the possibility of starting to redirect these powerful forces to that end provided that we are able to build confidence and consensus in the renewed spirit, approach and language required by the new times. For, as T.S. Eliot wrote, "Last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice."

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