Meeting Global

Challenges
International Cooperation
in the National Interest

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Ta s k F o r c e o n G l o b a l P u b l i c G o o d s
Meeting Global Challenges:
International Cooperation
in the National Interest

Report of the
International Task Force on Global Public Goods

Co-Chairs

Ernesto Zedillo and Tidjane Thiam

Members

K.Y. Amoako
Gun-Britt Andersson
C. Fred Bergsten
Kemal Dervis
Mohamed T. El-Ashry
Gareth Evans
Enrique Iglesias
Inge Kaul
Lydia Makhubu
Trevor Manuel
Hisashi Owada
Nafis Sadik
Brigita Schmögnerová
Yves-Thibault de Silguy
M.S. Swaminathan
 Copyright © 2006
by the International Task Force on Global Public Goods.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 0-9788790-0-7

For electronic copies of this report, please visit www.gpgtaskforce.org.

For hard copies of this report, please contact the Secretariat of the
International Task Force on Global Public Goods, PO Box 16369, SE-
103 27 Stockholm, Sweden. After 31 December 2006, please contact
the Department for Development Policy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
SE-103 39 Stockholm, Sweden.

Printing: Erlanders Infologistics Väst AB, Stockholm, Sweden

Design: Grundy & Northedge, London, United Kingdom

Editing and layout: Communications Development Incorporated,

Washington, D.C., United States

This publication may be reproduced in full or in part if accompanied

with the following citation: International Task Force on Global Public
Goods. 2006. Meeting Global Challenges: International Cooperation in the
National Interest. Final Report. Stockholm, Sweden.

The Task Force is fully independent. Members serve in their personal

capacity and not under instructions from any government or organiza-
tion. The report reflects strictly personal views of the members of the
Task Force and is in no way an expression of their views in their official
capacity nor the views of any government or organization with which
they are affiliated.

All but one of the members of the Task Force fully endorsed and signed
off on this report. Inge Kaul did not.

ii
Contents

Acknowledgements  v

Acronyms and Initials  vii

Summary  ix

Part I. Why Global Public Goods Matter  1

Chapter 1 – Missed Opportunities and Mounting Risks  3
Chapter 2 – Global Public Goods: What they are
and why many are in short supply  13
Conclusion  27

Part II. Priority Global Public Goods  29

Introduction – Illustrating Optimal and Achievable Strategies  31
Chapter 3 – Protecting the Health of People: Preventing the
emergence and spread of infectious disease  33
Chapter 4 – Preserving the Health of the Environment:
Tackling climate change  39
Chapter 5 – Promoting Global Prosperity: Financial
stability and international trade  45
Chapter 6 – Achieving Peace and Security: International
terrorism, nuclear weapons and the use of force  55
Chapter 7 – A Cross-Cutting Issue: Knowledge   65

Part III. Improving the Provision of Global Public Goods  71

Introduction – Improving the Provision of Global Public Goods  73
Chapter 8 – Catalytic Leadership and Action:
The case for a Global 25 forum  77
Chapter 9 – Effective Institutions:
Governance and accountability  85
Chapter 10 – Adequate and Appropriate Financing:
Why? Who? How?  99
Conclusion  117

iii
 Notes and References  119
Notes  121
References  131

Annexes  139
Annex 1 – Terms of Reference  141
Annex 2 – Biographies of the Task Force Members  145
Annex 3 – Principal Meetings and Seminars  151
Annex 4 – Participants in Meetings of the Group
of Friends of the Task Force and Regional Consultations  153
Annex 5 – Papers Commissioned and Published by the Secretariat of
the International Task Force on Global Public Goods  159

Index  163

iv
Acknowledgements

The Task Force and the Secretariat have received advice and support
from many individuals, institutions and organizations the world over.
Without their generous cooperation, intellectual input and professional
advice, this report would not have been possible. The Task Force’s sin-
cere appreciation is extended to all of them.
The Task Force and the Secretariat would like to acknowledge their
special gratitude to Bruce Jones, co-director of the Center on Interna-
tional Cooperation, New York University, who has skilfully and patiently
worked with the Task Force to draft the report. Our special thanks are
also extended to Catherine Bellamy of the Center on International Co-
operation, New York University, and Haynie Wheeler of the Center for
the Study of Globalization,Yale University.
We are indebted to Scott Barrett of the School of Advanced Interna-
tional Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Paul Collier, Oxford Univer-
sity; James Fearon, Stanford University; and Joanne Salop, independent
consultant, for their inputs and guidance throughout the process.
Furthermore, we would like to express our appreciation for the
insight and knowledge of all those individuals who have authored the
expert papers that are published in seven separate volumes accompany-
ing this report.
Other important contributors to whom we are grateful include:
Thomas Bernes, Keith Bezanson, David de Ferranti, Birger Forsberg,
Kim Forss, Johan Giesecke, Richard Gowan, Peter Heller, Pravin
Krishna, Johannes Linn, Måns Lönnroth, Jaime de Melo, Luana
Reale, Jerome Reichman, Markus Reiterer, Andrew Rogerson, Karin
Rudebeck, Francisco Sagasti, Jeff Schott, David Stanton, Joseph Sti-
glitz, Patrik Stålgren, Alan Tait, Margret Thalwitz, Laurence Tubiana,
Simon Upton, Thierry Verdier, Raimo Väyrynen and Hans Wigzell.
Our sincere thanks are also extended to individuals at the many
organizations and institutions that have supported our work, including:
staff at the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Minis-
try for Foreign Affairs; the organizers and participants at the meetings of


 the Group of Friends, regional consultations and other events organized
or attended by Task Force members and the Secretariat.

Financial and organizational support

France and Sweden initiated the International Task Force on Global

Public Goods and have been the main financiers of the project. Ger-
many, the United Kingdom and Norway have provided generous finan-
cial support to the Task Force since its inception. In addition France,
Sweden, Germany (InWEnt) and the United Kingdom each hosted a
meeting of the Group of Friends of the Task Force. Austria provided
a legal expert for several months. The Yale Center for the Study of
Globalization, the Koç University of Istanbul and the Inter-American
Development Bank have hosted and contributed to the organization of
the first, second and third meetings of the Task Force, respectively. The
following institutions have hosted and contributed to the organization
of regional consultations in their respective regions: The United Na-
tions Economic Commission for Africa together with the African De-
velopment Bank; the European Commission; the Asian Development
Bank; and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Carib-
bean together with the Inter-American Development Bank.The Global
Water Partnership Organization provided organizational and adminis-
trative support. Communications Development Incorporated provided
valuable editorial advice and assistance.

Secretariat

Sven Sandström, Director

Katell Le Goulven, Deputy Director
Pernilla Johansson, Deputy Director (through May 2004)
Björn Gillsäter, Senior Expert
Elodie Montétagaud, Expert
Sofia Östmark, Operations Officer
Gunilla Smith-Ericson, Administrative Officer

The organizations and individuals listed here are in no way accountable for
any mistakes, errors or other inadequacies in the report. The Task Force ac-
cepts full responsibility for the contents and recommendations of the report.

vi
Acronyms and Initials

ABST access to basic science and technology

ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations
AU African Union
CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research
CFC chlorofluorocarbon
CGIAR Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research
EITI Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
EU European Union
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GAVI Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
GDP gross domestic product
GEF Global Environment Facility
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
IFF International Finance Facility
IFFim International Finance Facility for Immunization
IMF International Monetary Fund
InWEnt Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung
(Capacity Building International, Germany)
ITF International Task Force
MDG Millennium Development Goal
MFA Multifibre Agreement
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

vii
 NEPAD New Economic Partnership for African Development
NGO non-governmental organization
NPT Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
NSG Nuclear Supplies Group
ODA official development assistance
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe
PSI Proliferation Security Initiative
R&D research and development
SARS severe acute respiratory syndrome
TRIPS Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights
UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change
WHO World Health Organization
WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization
WTO World Trade Organization

viii
Summary

Most peoples’ lives are grounded in local and national contexts and conditions.
Yet, more and more, those lives are shaped by events, decisions and politics beyond
national borders. People pay taxes for local and national healthcare, but some of
the gravest threats to health arise from infectious diseases that respect no borders.
Among other reasons, people vote for governments on the basis of their economic
and fiscal policy, but those policies are heavily constrained by international fi-
nancial, trade and investment circumstances. And both people and governments
recognize that their “national” security is determined in large part by the actions
and attitudes of groups and governments far afield.
Indeed, the world’s promise can be realized and its perils restrained only
through extensive and ambitious cooperation across borders. Ours is a world of
shared risks and common opportunities, grounded in the realities of mutual de-
pendence and growing interconnection. All peoples’ health, security and prosper-
ity depend in part on the quality of their international cooperation, as does the
health of the environment.
Because this is so, international cooperation has evolved from being a sphere
of interstate negotiations on foreign policy matters to a central part of how gov-
ernments and people manage their day-to-day lives. And it has been a powerful
and tangible force for progress. Past successes provide solid evidence for what can
be achieved in the future.With shared vision and collective action, major accom-
plishments can be realized. The spread of infectious diseases can be halted, their
effects cured. Climate change can be slowed, its effects mitigated. International
terrorism can be deterred, and the use of weapons of mass destruction prevented.
These goals are difficult, but achievable. So too is the goal of expanding the
prosperity that arises from a combination of peace and security, financial stability
and international trade.
These global issues pose special challenges. In broad terms the goals are
widely shared, and all states have national interests in achieving them; but in
most instances no state and no private actor, however rich and powerful, can
achieve them alone. Only by acting together, by cooperating across borders, can
problems like these be effectively and efficiently addressed. International coopera-
tion is in the national interest of all states.

ix
 Global public goods: What they are and why many are in
short supply

International cooperation has many uses. It is a tool for altruistic purposes,

importantly so; and it serves geopolitical interests, certainly. But it is also
a tool for states to align their long-term, enlightened national interests to
achieve common goals. Some of these goals are “global public goods”.
Technically, public goods are those that share two rare quali-
ties—non-excludability and non-rivalry, in economists’ jargon. This
means, respectively, that when provided to one party, the public good
is available to all, and consumption of the public good by one party
does not reduce the amount available to the others to consume. Tra-
ditional examples of national public goods include traffic control
systems and national security—goods that benefit all citizens and na-
tional private actors but that none could manage or supply on their
own initiative.
Public goods can be regional or global in character, as well as na-
tional. There are many cross-border challenges that are more effectively
dealt with at the regional or global rather than the national level. Clear
examples of regional public goods are the provision of tsunami early-
warning systems, the management of river basins and measures to deal
with region-specific vulnerabilities created by regional openness—for
example, cross-border transmission of human and animal diseases.
The sphere of global public goods we are concerned with is delineated
by issues that are broadly conceived as important to the international com-
munity, that for the most part cannot or will not be adequately addressed
by individual countries acting alone and that are defined through a broad
international consensus or a legitimate process of decision-making.
Global public goods are those whose benefits could in principle be
consumed by the governments and peoples of all states. Examples include
mechanisms for ensuring financial stability, the scientific knowledge in-
volved in the discovery of a vaccine and international regulations for civil
aviation and telecommunications. Once such global standards and systems
are established, they are available to all states, and consumption of the good
by one state or its people in no way reduces its availability to others.
If all states and people can benefit from the provision of global pub-
lic goods, it seems logical that they should be easy to supply and should
be available in abundance. But the opposite is true. In fact the very na-
ture of global public goods means that demand will tend to outweigh
supply. There are a number of reasons for this.


 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

Sovereignty. Governments (or their citizens) are often unwilling to

limit or constrain sovereign decision-making, for example by accept-
ing binding rules or international monitoring of their own compliance
with agreements. This weakens the prospects for cooperation by add-
ing a high degree of uncertainty to most international agreements.This
basic problem underlies all the others.
Differing preferences and priorities. Governments often have di-
vergent short-term interests in specific solutions even where they
share common long-term goals; moreover, even the long-term goals
themselves may resonate differently for different governments. Climate
change, for example, impacts differently on different countries, and in
the short-term some may even profit from changes to the local climate.
Thus the “good” in global public goods is often contested. What might
be a highly desirable public good for one country or group of people
might not be so for another.
The “free rider” problem. Once a public good is produced and
made available to one, in principle it becomes available to all and it is
hard to exclude others from its consumption. Consequently there is
an incentive for every party to wait until another provides that public
good, then enjoy its consumption.
The “weakest link” problem. Some global public goods can only be
produced when every government fully complies with a common ap-
proach—such as in efforts to eradicate an infectious disease. Success can
be eroded by a single act of non-compliance. This makes for arduous
long-term problems of cooperation. And the risk of failure is such that
it is hard to convince governments to make the necessary investments.
The “summation” problem. This occurs where the successful pro-
duction of a particular global public good is literally the result or sum of
the individual efforts of all the separate participants—such as mitigating
global climate change. There are hard challenges in ensuring compli-
ance and sustaining momentum with long-term global initiatives.

Purpose of the Task Force

Global public goods are not abstract concepts; they are instruments to
address real-world problems. When they are not provided in adequate
measure, global ills spread. It is as much avoiding these ills as providing
the good itself that generates states’ interest. For example, no state has a
desire to see its population subject to the spread of an infectious disease.

xi
 And though some countries will benefit in the short term from the local
effects of climate change, in the long term the net global cost of dramatic
climate change will outweigh most countries’ specific benefits. Although
states and their private sectors have different interests and stakes in the
international financial system, only the most obstinate of governments
fail to recognize that financial shocks are deleterious to all. In the absence
of the international trade regime the global economy would sharply
contract, and most economies and most people’s livelihoods would suffer
as a result. Perhaps most importantly, all states and populations will lose if
there is a further erosion of international peace and security.
More positively, investment in global public goods can propel efforts
to achieve key development goals. As an example, financial stability is
critical to achieving broader economic development. Similarly, improv-
ing the international trading system to bring it closer to an actual most-
favoured-nation mechanism, eliminating harmful tariffs and subsidies
including on agricultural products, will bring substantial development
benefits. Of course the achievement of peace and security underlies de-
velopment just as development underlies international security.
It was for the purpose of elucidating the concept of global public
goods, and proposing ways to improve their provision, that this Task
Force was created. Our report explains the concept of global public
goods using historical evidence; illustrates their importance by high-
lighting six priority global issues where their provision is critical; sug-
gests broad strategies in those areas for more effectively providing the
good in question; and makes more specific recommendations for the
kind of structural changes needed at national and international levels.
Our report concentrates on the specific challenges posed by the
need for international cooperation. This does not negate a recognition
that the national level is critical in the provision of global public goods.
Indeed we stress the principle of subsidiarity—solving problems closest
to where they occur. But the most enduring difficulties in providing
global public goods are found at the international level, and it is at this
level that we have been mandated to focus our analysis.
At the local and national level the provision of public goods is typi-
cally organized by the state, with authority to tax, regulate and even coerce
to ensure such provision. At the global level there is no institution with
equivalent powers. For good reasons, there is no world government with
the authority to tax, to conscript, to regulate or to quarantine. Therefore,
at the international level, action to initiate the provision of a public good
has to be voluntary. But, given the natural reluctance of national states to

xii
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

constrain their sovereignty, as well as the free-rider problem, voluntarism

to trigger the provision of a global public good does not occur easily.
Historically it has proven necessary for one or several countries
with an enlightened vision and clear sense of responsibility to ignite
the processes conducive to the solution of problems that may affect
all of humanity.
The question is: it is up to whom to play this role in our time? We
submit that it is up to the countries that are relatively more prosperous,
with larger populations, bigger defence and security capabilities, that
have been historically influential and that, typically, have benefited the
most from the rule-based multilateral system. These countries have a
special responsibility to catalyse action for improving the provision of
global public goods. These countries have the responsibility to move
first towards goals for the good of everyone, putting forward initiatives
for enhancing cooperation and committing resources for their effective
realization. And when this happens, international leadership emerges, not
as an imposition, but as a natural result of the assumption of responsibil-
ity. With this type of leadership countries can stimulate change and use
their position to persuade others to participate in common endeavours
to advance global goods or tackle global ills.
The difficulties involved in cooperating to provide global public
goods can be overcome when three critical factors are present: first, the
catalytic leadership and action described above; second, effective institu-
tions for the delivery; and third, adequate and appropriate financing.

Priority global public goods

To illustrate the importance of generating greater provision of global pub-

lic goods, we have focused on six whose provision is critical: preventing
the emergence and spread of infectious disease; tackling climate change;
enhancing international financial stability; strengthening the international
trading system; achieving peace and security, which underlies and is es-
sential to all the others; and the cross-cutting issue of knowledge.
Preventing the emergence and spread of infectious disease. Infectious
diseases have the potential to threaten the health of every person and
the prosperity of every nation. National health defences are inadequate
and will not work in isolation. The actions of other countries matter to
any nation seeking to defend its population. Ideally the risk of emer-
gence and spread of infectious disease would be met by a fully func-

xiii
 tioning surveillance system and a fluid supply of vaccines for the most
deadly diseases. An immediate strategy to control infectious diseases
would entail the following three elements:
• Improving the global preparedness-to-response chain through
five steps: preparedness—creating mechanisms for effec-
tive production and distribution of vaccines and early and
strategic use of antiviral medicines; prevention and treat-
ment—giving equal weight to both; surveillance—building
surveillance capability through the creation of a network of
regional health centres overseen by the World Health Orga-
nization; reporting—establishing compliance mechanisms for
full transparency of member states to complement the re-
vised surveillance protocols; and response—providing the ad-
ditional human resources and financing required to increase
the capacity to develop, manufacture and distribute new treat-
ments and vaccines.
• Strengthening the capacity of public health systems of develop-
ing countries to prevent and treat infectious diseases through
injections of financing and human resources.
• Increasing knowledge for vaccines and treatment. The dearth
of research for preventing infectious disease and containing
epidemics in tropical countries can be redressed by establishing
a network of research facilities specializing in tropical diseases,
guided and financed by an international consultative group,
and endorsing and adopting the proposal to use advance mar-
ket commitments to create incentives for innovation.
Tackling climate change. A growing body of evidence demonstrates
that global warming is occurring and the pace of change is increasing.
Its long-term consequences will likely be severe. The most efficient
response is to broaden the use of carbon taxes, which would both re-
duce emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas,
and generate revenues to pay for global public goods. There currently
is a reluctance to consider the international adoption of carbon taxes.
Hopefully this reluctance will be overcome in the future. In the mean-
time the international community should not settle for less than the
following four priority strategies:
• Emissions caps and trade—Governments should agree on
technology-forcing targets and timetables as well as a cap-
and-trade scheme to control emissions. Developed countries
would adopt a specific target, and developing countries would

xiv
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

adopt differentiated targets—first increasing emissions to meet

immediate economic development needs, but then stabilizing
emissions and eventually reducing emissions by a set date, all
while increasing their energy efficiency.
• Clean energy technologies—Substantial emissions reductions
will require a technological revolution. Coordinated responses
could include establishing an international consultative group
on clean energy research; encouraging diffusion of new green-
house gas–efficient technologies; adopting incentives to assist
developed countries to increase the efficiency and reduce the
cost of clean energy technologies through research and de-
velopment (R&D), as well as adopting specific targets; and
creating incentives to encourage further action by private
companies, who will be critical to any prospects for large-
scale technological innovation.
• Adaptation—Developing countries will need assistance in re-
ducing their vulnerability and enhancing their preparedness to
respond to climate change. Potential strategies include increas-
ing and sustaining financing to strengthen adaptation capacities;
supporting the Consultative Group on International Agri-
cultural Research in its work on tropical agricultural R&D
programmes; and ultimately delivering new seeds and breeds
tolerant to climate variations.
• Capacity building—A comprehensive approach to capac-
ity building in developing countries is key for creating and
disseminating clean energy technologies, establishing carbon
markets and implementing international protocols.
Enhancing international financial stability. Policies and actions that
promote financial stability and prevent instability are clearly in the in-
ternational public interest, for financial turbulence tends to spill across
borders and has substantial economic and social costs. With a greater
sense of urgency than has been demonstrated over the last few years, the
international community should focus on four priority actions:
• Crisis prevention—Stronger macroeconomic, financial and
exchange-rate policies are critical for both developing and
developed countries. It is essential that the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) ensures even­-handed treatment on
exchange-rate monitoring and other surveillance issues of all
member countries—including through a new procedure for
multilateral surveillance.

xv
 • Crisis management—For crisis management further progress
is needed on three mechanisms: sovereign debt rescheduling
and restructuring among bondholders, including collective
action clauses in new bond issues; further application of the
Principles for Stable Capital Flows and Fair Debt Restructur-
ing in Emerging Markets; and development of an insurance-
type instrument. Alongside these measures, the IMF must pay
more attention to the impacts of policy options on the most
vulnerable sections of society, both in its surveillance work and
in crisis management.
• Combating money laundering—The inadvertent assistance
provided to criminal elements for the cross-border financ-
ing of illegal and terrorist activities is an important, negative
side-effect of the global financial system. An effective response
would involve the adoption of global standards on asset freezes
and forfeitures and further efforts within the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to in-
clude tax evasion at home or abroad among the offences sub-
ject to prosecution. The IMF should also produce a periodic
global report on money laundering.
• Strengthening the IMF—Any strategy for financial stability
must ensure a strong and effective IMF. There are risks to the
financial system, including the current account imbalances that
loom over the international economy, the risks associated with
undersupervision of derivatives and the intervention of large-
scale hedge funds into the international capital market. We see
the current moment of relative calm as a time for preparedness
not complacency—an important opportunity to take the nec-
essary policy, governance and financial steps to ensure the IMF
is well prepared to take on future crises.
Strengthening the international trading system. Since the incep-
tion of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947, a
process to build a rule-based multilateral trading system has been tak-
ing place. This system has supported the progressive liberalization of
international trade, which, in turn, has been a chief engine of global
economic growth for well over half a century.
Despite its remarkable evolution, the multilateral trading system is
not quite as global, as public or as good as potentially it can be. Not-
withstanding the ideal of universality and the principles of reciprocity
and non-discrimination that have been present since its origins, as the

xvi
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

system has grown, over time it has accommodated rules that, in contra-
diction to those principles, allow for discriminatory treatment of prod-
ucts and trading partners.
The system has permitted greater protectionism in products of sig-
nificant export interest for developing countries. The provisions allow-
ing for special and differential treatment for these countries, and the
trade preferences granted by developed countries do not compensate
in any meaningful way for the trading opportunities missed as a conse-
quence of the remaining protectionism. Objectively, the system is un-
balanced against the interests of developing countries.
Balancing the system to make it more supportive of developing
countries’ development was a core objective of the Doha Round—
dubbed for this reason the development agenda—launched in Novem-
ber of 2001. But this sense of purpose was short-lived. In fact, a total
suspension of the negotiations for lack of agreement on any of the im-
portant issues occurred in July 2006.
The main reason for the Doha breakdown is to be found in the
agriculture negotiations. The majority of developed countries have re-
sisted effective liberalization in farm trade all along. Years of negotia-
tions could not make these countries agree on formulas that would
effectively open their farm markets to imports and significantly reduce
their most distorting farm subsidies. In fact what was brought to the
table even up to the very collapse of the talks would have accomplished
little to open up agricultural markets and to temper the huge distor-
tions caused in those markets by the high subsidies granted by OECD
countries to their farmers.
The cost of failure in the Doha Round is not only the income op-
portunities forgone for both developed and developing countries that its
successful conclusion would provide, but more importantly the losses that
all will incur if the system is allowed to deteriorate and eventually proves
incapable of preventing countries from back-pedaling into protection-
ism, as has happened before in history. Despite its achievements, the
multilateral trading system is not yet a consolidated global public good.
It remains vulnerable to serious erosion by episodes of protectionism.
It also has limited capacity to support the integration into the world
economy of many countries which have been left on the sidelines of
globalization despite formally belonging to the World Trade Organiza-
tion (WTO).
This Task Force endorses the full resumption of the Doha Round
as soon as possible. But we believe that simply going back to the status

xvii
 quo which existed before the suspension of the talks would be a futile
and frustrating exercise. A more reasonable chance of success entails a
two-part strategy:
• Commitment to agricultural reform—This involves a trans-
parent agreement among the biggest beneficiaries of the mul-
tilateral trading system (Canada, the European Union, Japan
and the United States—the so-called Quad) to commit at
last to real agricultural reform, including ambitious reduction
in trade barriers and abatement of trade-distorting subsidies,
without the loopholes that they have systematically pursued.
We suggest this should be a pre-requisite to restart the talks
with a reasonable chance of success.
• An “aid for trade” fund—The Quad members, given their
pre-eminence as providers of official development assistance,
could also take the first clear steps to constitute an “aid for
trade” fund to compensate the poorest countries for their loss
of trade preferences and support them to improve their infra-
structure and develop their export capacity.
The Quad would not need to grant unilaterally an offer of agricul-
tural reform and aid for trade; the Quad could make it conditional upon
satisfactory completion of the other key issues included in the Doha
Development Agenda. An agreement of this kind among the Quad
members most likely would have a powerful catalytic effect on the rest
of the WTO membership. Other developed countries resistant until
now to remove agricultural barriers would have to reconsider their po-
sitions. Large developing countries, that have had in rich countries’ farm
protectionism a good reason (or the perfect excuse) for not moving in
the negotiations, would also find compromise towards a good agree-
ment to be inescapable. Finally, a solvent aid for trade fund would help
in bringing other developing countries on board.
But the WTO trade negotiators’ capacities can never exceed the
mandate received from the governments they represent. It will be up to
the highest levels of political leadership to do what it takes to complete
the Doha agenda.
Achieving peace and security. In the absence of an effective collec-
tive security system, not only will the levels of war, terrorism and other
forms of strife increase, but international prosperity will be at risk or
even reversed. There are many urgent and important policy challenges
ahead in this area, but for present illustrative purposes we emphasize
three fronts in need of urgent action: combating international terrorism;

xviii
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament; and agreement on when

the use of military force is legitimate. All of these rely significantly, in
turn, on reforms to ensure that the United Nations (UN) Security
Council has the authority to act and the means to succeed.
Deterring international terrorism. Terrorism is truly a global phenom-
enon; nevertheless, there is no clear consensus on what are the nec-
essary elements of a strategy to combat it. We concur with the UN
Secretary-General that in fighting this scourge, five distinct goals have
to be pursued simultaneously: dissuade disaffected groups from choos-
ing terrorism as a tactic; deny terrorists the means to carry out attacks;
deter states from supporting terrorists; develop state capacity to prevent
terrorism; and defend human rights in the struggle against terrorism.
The pursuit of these goals requires the following operational ele-
ments: a protection strategy focused on preventive national security;
safeguarding trade and transport routes and ensuring that potential ter-
rorists have no access to fissile nuclear material; a strategy for enhancing
cooperation among police, intelligence services and, in very extreme
cases, military forces; a political strategy to tackle grievances that mani-
festly increase domestic support for terrorist actions; a capacity-building
strategy to help states develop their own ability to combat terrorism;
and a psychological strategy, including the universal adoption, by a vote
at the General Assembly, of the definition of terrorism proposed by
the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Among
other elements, that definition describes terrorism as any action that
is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-
combatants when the purpose of such an act, by its nature or context,
is to intimidate a population or to compel a government or an interna-
tional organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.
Preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons. The establishment of
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its related agencies,
protocols and control mechanisms constitutes one of the most important
accomplishments of the multilateral system.Yet, appallingly, several events
have eroded the viability of the NPT, and successive opportunities to
reverse that trend have been lost. Political attention to the disarmament
agenda has receded, but the threat these weapons pose is growing.These
developments are a recipe for mounting risk, possibly disaster.
To address this crucial issue we fully endorse the four sets of recom-
mendations on nuclear weapons of the Weapons of Mass Destruction
Commission (otherwise known as the Blix Commission): agreeing on
the general principles of action—that is to say that disarmament and

xix
 non-proliferation are best pursued through a cooperative, rule-based in-
ternational order, negotiations on which need urgently to be revived;
reducing the dangers of present arsenals by securing nuclear material,
taking nuclear weapons off high-alert status, prohibiting the production
of fissile materials and adopting no-first-use pledges and other security
assurances; preventing proliferation, including by bringing the Compre-
hensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty into force, reviving the fundamental
commitments of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weap-
ons, continuing negotiations with Iran and North Korea towards their
effective and verified rejection of the nuclear option and exploring in-
ternational arrangements for an assurance of supply of enriched uranium
fuel; and working towards outlawing nuclear weapons, including by im-
plementing regional nuclear-free weapons zones and by prohibiting any
stationing or use of nuclear weapons in outer space.
Criteria for the use of force. No issue has been more controversial in
recent years than the use of military force. We insist on the urgency of
the adoption by the Security Council and endorsement by the General
Assembly of five key principles of legitimacy for the use of force ap-
plied in conformity with the charter of the United Nations: seriousness
of threat; proper purpose; last resort; proportional means; and balance of
consequences.
Generating knowledge. Knowledge is perhaps the clearest example
of a public good. Once knowledge is generated it can be shared, in
principle, by many people at the same time and it is hard for creators of
knowledge to maintain exclusive property of it. Hence, if left to market
forces alone, there would always be a tendency to underinvest in the
generation of knowledge. Knowledge is not only a national public good
but a global public good as well, because its diffusion is not stopped by
borders. People in any nation could in principle benefit from scientific
or technological knowledge produced in other nations.
Knowledge is by itself critical for development, at the same time as
it serves as an input to the provision of other global public goods. The
spontaneous globalization of knowledge does not occur, however, largely
because many countries, due to deficiencies in their educational systems,
have limited capacity to assimilate existing and new knowledge. Another
important barrier to spontaneous globalization is that knowledge has
been made to some degree excludable by the adoption of intellectual
property rights.The most important step taken recently to protect intel-
lectual property rights has occurred on the multilateral front with the

xx
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

adoption of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Re-

lated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
This and other changes in the intellectual property system have
resulted in a relative contraction of the common knowledge platform.
The knowledge gap between the rich countries and the majority of
poor countries is widening and with it the possibilities of closing the
development gap between them. Furthermore, the role of knowledge
as an input for the production of other global public goods is also being
limited by the protection of intellectual property as clearly exemplified
by the cases of R&D for disease control and climate change.
The Task Force strongly endorses two types of initiatives. First, those
aimed to enhance the common knowledge platform through interna-
tional partnerships. Specifically, donor countries should expand their
financial commitments to enhance the global research and information
capabilities necessary to overcome some crucial problems in the areas of
rural development, environment and health in the poorest developing
countries. It is essential to ensure additional funding for the institutions
already conducting research in these areas, particularly the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research and the various partner-
ships in the medical sectors. On health, serious consideration should
be given to the creation of new partnerships, preferably a network of
research facilities specializing in tropical diseases.
Second, the Task Force endorses initiatives aimed to balance the
effects of TRIPS on developing countries. Specifically we call for the
establishment of a multilateral agreement for access to basic science and
technology (ABST) to facilitate the transfer of scientific knowledge
and technological information to developing countries.Through ABST,
developed countries would be committed to support poor countries in
enhancing their capacity to assimilate, diffuse and generate knowledge.
With the necessary safeguards, ABST would adopt regimes to allow re-
searchers from all countries to compete for local research grants and for
increasing global access to research outcomes. These regimes should be
built on the most-favoured-nation and national treatment principles.

Improving the provision of global public goods

We conclude, as others have before us, that the best hope for generating
the kind of catalytic leadership necessary for the provision of global public
goods lies with the establishment of a new, informal forum. We propose,

xxi
 accordingly, a Global 25 forum that brings together the heads of state and
government from the developed and developing countries that are the
most responsible, capable and representative, as well as relevant representa-
tives of other groups and regions.With appropriate links to existing formal
institutions, such a forum could do much to spur action towards shared
goals. And without such a forum—that marries inclusion and agility—it
will be extremely hard to achieve the reforms to international policies,
institutions and financing necessary to achieve common goals.
But we cannot stress enough that such a catalytic forum must be
matched to—indeed it must strengthen and make more effective—formal
institutions and the wider process of negotiation and decision-making.
This process is necessary to ensure that all states have a chance to ex-
press their preferences and participate in the authorization, or rejection,
of action, even if the direction is initially set by the Global 25. That the
legitimacy of the decision-making mechanisms of the major international
institutions is in doubt poses a major obstacle to this process, one requiring
structural reform.We thus add our voices to those who have called for re-
forming the mechanisms and representation of the UN Security Council
and the governing bodies of the IMF and the World Bank, as well as the
broader UN system—reflecting its dual roles in promoting development
and managing global issues.
The effectiveness of international mechanisms needs also to be
enhanced through improved accountability, starting with greater
transparency. Such reforms will also aid national mobilization and
resource commitments.

Effective institutions: governance and accountability

In most cases, producing a global public good will require action by

international institutions, including building on, reinforcing and often
coordinating national action; channelling funds to national programs;
monitoring and reporting on progress; and, in a growing number of
issue areas, considering and implementing decisions taken at a global
level. Thus the quality and the management of international institu-
tional capacity are vital for the provision of global public goods. The
greater concern is with the question of whether or not, systemically,
international institutions have been suitably adapted to play an appro-
priate role in the provision of global public goods.
Of major concern is the need to improve the governance and en-
hance the legitimacy of the key international institutions, with par-

xxii
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

ticular focus on the representation and voice of nations. With regard

to the IMF, and in line with the IMF Managing Director’s strategy,
more weight should be given to the most underrepresented countries
in the governance of the IMF to better reflect the changing struc-
ture of the world economy. In the World Bank, developing countries
should be more fully represented on its board. The almost identical
composition of the IMF and World Bank boards is outdated and
should be replaced by boards whose composition better represents
the interests of the key stakeholders and the mandates of the respec-
tive organizations.
The UN Security Council’s ability to maintain international peace
and security would be strengthened by reforms to its membership and
abolition of the veto. If this ideal reform cannot be attained, an interim
strategy is to add elected, but renewable, seats to the Security Council,
open primarily to the states within regional groupings that make the
largest financial, military and political commitments to the UN—the
“Option B” proposed by the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Chal-
lenges and Change.
We also call for three additional reforms to increase the accountabil-
ity and effectiveness of international institutions: improved data on the
costs and benefits of global public goods, better monitoring of compli-
ance with international obligations and independent evaluation of the
performance of international institutions.
Enhanced support to and use of evidence-based research is an essen-
tial step for more effective management of global issues. One important
source is the research departments of specialized agencies. The value of
their work would be stronger were such agencies to develop a well co-
ordinated research programme focused on the costs and benefits—and
distributional impacts—of global public goods. OECD can play an im-
portant role in this regard. Institutional research should be supplemented
by independent scholarly research and assessment. Governments and the
private sector should sponsor independent research capacity and the de-
velopment of research networks on global public goods.
More consistent monitoring of state compliance with international
obligations is a second necessary reform. In international negotiations gov-
ernments should encourage the adoption of formal—or, if necessary, infor-
mal—monitoring mechanisms to accompany international agreements.
Better, more consistent and more independent evaluation of insti-
tutional performance would also enhance the accountability of institu-
tions and help national governments make the case for investment. As

xxiii
 part of their reform programmes, international institutions need to set
up or upgrade their monitoring and evaluation capacities, including
those for independent evaluation of their own performance.
Together these reforms would enhance the governance, account-
ability and effectiveness of international institutions. Their ability
to play their global role and aid national mobilization and resource
commitments would be strengthened. The Global 25 would help
initiate and monitor such reforms. They need to be complemented
by a drive for greater accountability at the national level for states’
international actions—a role perfectly suited to civil society actors
and national electorates.

Adequate and appropriate financing

As emphasized already, stronger national engagement and leader-

ship on global issues are critical for determining the appropriate
policy and institutional frameworks and setting priorities for the
provision of global public goods, thereby also determining financ-
ing needs. Similarly, national governments bear the primary respon-
sibility for ensuring that financing needs for global public goods are
met through direct public funding and appropriate incentives and
regulatory frameworks that stimulate private funding and the use of
market mechanisms.
Nations will gain major benefits by increasing their expenditure on
global public goods. Initial cost-benefit analyses of various global public
goods confirm that money spent on providing them can produce sig-
nificant savings compared to the cost of dealing with the ills that arise
when such goods are not provided, including financial shocks, spread of
new diseases, nuclear proliferation crises and so on. Indeed past experi-
ence demonstrates very high benefit-cost ratios for global public goods.
This suggests that significant additional expenditures on global public
goods are well justified.
We are, however, concerned that increased financing for global
public goods could crowd out traditional development assistance. Most
donor countries have few funding sources to pay for global public goods
activities in developing countries, except for those that can be consid-
ered to fall within official development assistance (ODA). For instance,
money spent on building public health capacity in developing coun-
tries will have development results and will also contribute to global
efforts to combat infectious disease. Going forward, the international

xxiv
 Meeting Global Challenges

Summary

community will have to ensure that funding of global public goods is

made on its own merit and that the development purposes of ODA are
not eroded. Indeed governments will have to ensure that global public
goods spending is additional to ODA.
Turning now to how additional financing for global public goods
can be provided, we recommend a five-part strategy:
Make better use of existing resources. For governments to convince
sceptical publics of the value of investing in global public goods they
will have to demonstrate better use of resources. Improved governance
and increased accountability of international institutions are critical as
discussed above; so are increased international efforts to combat cor-
ruption and money laundering. Such improvements would enhance the
credibility of multilateral cooperation and, hence, improve the prospects
for additional funding for global public goods.
Improve resource mobilization by applying emerging best prac-
tices for fund raising. The best results have been achieved from
the use of regular multiyear funding cycles, or replenishments, of
global programs and institutions with particular attention given to
effectiveness and results and to fair sharing of the financial burden.
The governing boards of those organizations—mostly UN funds and
programmes—that currently have ad hoc or annual funding cycles
should explore such new funding models that would allow them
to demonstrate results and to be held accountable for their actions,
drawing on best practices.
Improve national financing systems for global public goods by:
• Revising national budget mechanisms to allow for greater
flexibility in spending abroad, including creating new mecha-
nisms for more flexible use of domestic sectoral budgets to
pay for international activities and capacity building within
those sectors.
• Adopting dual-track national budgeting systems to ensure that
global sectoral spending is properly allocated in national budgets
and not incorrectly allocated against development budgets.
• Tracking expenditure on global public goods by introducing
a line item for them in the OECD statistics. Once new sta-
tistics are established, a “league table” of global public goods
spending could be published to encourage governments. It is
important that the OECD elaborates its mechanisms for coop-
eration within the context of its growing cooperation with the

xxv
 major developing economies who are important contributors
to global public goods expenditure.
• Fulfilling pledges for increased allocations for development as-
sistance and ensuring that sufficient resources are provided for
development activities that are also critical for the provision of
global public goods (such as health sector capacity building).
Work with the private sector and markets. Governments should also
do more to tap the energy and initiative of the private sector (including civil
society) and markets and to take advantage of the specialized knowledge
they can bring to bear. Examples include recent developments in emission
permit trading and advance market commitments. We envisage market-
based approaches being expanded to address other global issues, in particu-
lar in the areas of health, environment and knowledge. Governments should
provide the necessary regulatory frameworks and incentives.
Adopt innovative arrangements for financing. In addition to broader
partnership with the private sector, governments should make greater
use of innovative sources of financing. Among the various proposals
for innovative financing arrangements at the international level, we see
most merit in, and endorse, the airline ticket solidarity contribution and
the International Finance Facility. We also urge governments to con-
sider adoption of carbon taxes.
Taken together these reforms would help ensure adequate and ap-
propriate financing of critically important global public goods. And
again, the Global 25 would help initiate and monitor these reforms.

Conclusion

Transcending current international political divisions, the litany of failed re-

forms or missed opportunities and mounting dissatisfaction with the gover-
nance of the major international institutions will not be an easy task, or one
that can be accomplished quickly. It will take sustained efforts over time.
Moving forward in this direction requires action from all sectors—
government, private and civic; and national, regional and international.
The net result would be an international system more able to supply
global public goods—in other words, a system less divided and more
concerted in its action, more capable of joint, global action and less vul-
nerable to global ills. It would be a good, surely, to be desired by all.

xxvi
Part I

Why Global Public

Goods Matter


 1
Missed Opportunities

Chapter
and Mounting Risks

Most peoples’ lives are grounded in local and national contexts and conditions.
Yet, more and more, those lives are shaped by events, decisions and politics beyond
national borders. People pay taxes for local and national healthcare, but some of
the gravest threats to health arise from infectious diseases that respect no borders.
Among other reasons, people vote for governments on the basis of their economic
and fiscal policy, but those policies are heavily constrained by international fi-
nancial, trade and investment circumstances. And both people and governments
recognize that their “national” security is determined in large part by the actions
and attitudes of groups and governments far afield.
Indeed, the world’s promise can be realized and its perils restrained only
through extensive and ambitious cooperation across borders. Ours is a world of
shared risks and common opportunities, grounded in the realities of mutual de-
pendence and growing interconnection. All peoples’ health, security and prosper-
ity depend in part on the quality of their international cooperation, as does the
health of the environment.
Because this is so, international cooperation has evolved from being a sphere
of interstate negotiations on foreign policy matters to a central part of how gov-
ernments and people manage their day-to-day lives. And it has been a powerful
and tangible force for progress. Past successes provide solid evidence for what can
be achieved in the future.With shared vision and collective action, major accom-
plishments can be realized. The spread of infectious diseases can be halted, their
effects cured. Climate change can be slowed, its effects mitigated. International
terrorism can be deterred, and the use of weapons of mass destruction prevented.
These goals are difficult, but achievable. So too is the goal of expanding the
prosperity that arises from a combination of peace and security, financial stability
and international trade.
These global issues pose special challenges. In broad terms the goals are
widely shared, and all states have national interests in achieving them; but in
most instances no state and no private actor, however rich and powerful, can
achieve them alone. Only by acting together, by cooperating across borders, can
problems like these be effectively and efficiently addressed. International coopera-
tion is in the national interest of all states.


 Yet opportunities to achieve common goals have been missed re-
peatedly, and the risks are mounting. New infectious diseases, further
changes to the climate, financial instability and a negative spiral of
mounting tensions and rising protectionism together threaten to erode
international peace and prosperity.
Opportunities for collective achievement are lost primarily for two
reasons. First, in a world of sovereign, independent states, significant
barriers to cooperation remain (from the basic realities of sovereign
independence, to the calculations that states make to avoid shouldering
their fair share of costs), even when the goals are in the national interests
of all. Second, the mechanisms for international cooperation in their
current form are weak, or their legitimacy is eroded.
The Task Force’s work was conceived at a time when several initia-
tives were under way to bolster international cooperation—a time of
opportunity. It was inspired by the knowledge that past cooperation
had achieved impressive results in combating poverty and disease, in
promoting security and in protecting the environment.
Unfortunately we complete our work at a time when several initia-
tives have disappointed—at a time of rising risk. We conclude our work
against the backdrop of growing disquiet among people from all regions
about the state of international politics and governance. At a time of
concern about the international trading system, occasioned by protec-
tionist actions by governments, rising anti-trade sentiment among popu-
lations and the failure to complete the Doha trade round.At a time when
weekly headlines about avian flu remind us of our vulnerability and sci-
entific warnings prompt deep concern about our environment. And at
a time of mounting, interlocking crises in the Middle East—crises that
threaten not only that region but also the broader international order.
In recent years, successive opportunities to revitalize—and where
necessary, sharply reform—the structures of international cooperation
have been squandered or at best have delivered only partial results. The
litany of missed opportunities is impressive only in its length. Since the
start of the decade, governments have: failed to bring into force the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty; failed to move forward the
Biological Weapons Convention; failed to agree on the necessary actions
to give force and meaning to the Kyoto Protocol; failed to avoid war in
Iraq; failed to take more than half measures to reform the International
Monetary Fund; failed to design a European constitution that could
convince voters; failed to break the stalemate in the Doha Round of the
World Trade Organization;1 and allowed modest ­substantive progress at


 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 1

the United Nations (UN) to be shrouded by a squandered opportunity

for structural reform and political renewal.
The full effect of these missed opportunities may not be felt immedi-
ately. Modern history tells us that states allow their systems for cooperation
to erode gradually, missing positive opportunities and slowly increasing
the odds of a negative spiral of economic reversal and conflict.
Nor can we ignore the possibility of worse scenarios. There are
alarming warnings about the pace of climate change. The lurch from
crisis to crisis in nuclear proliferation brings with it a growing risk of
the spread and use of nuclear weapons, especially by terrorist organi-
zations. In some regions states appear to be teetering on the edge of
internal collapse under the combined weight of poor governance, weak
institutions, the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and
the regional spillovers from conflict. Health officials warn of the lack of
adequate preparation for pandemic disease. And growing imbalances in
the international financial system loom over the global economy.
The risks of the moment are amplified by the pace of contemporary
technological change. Not since the early 1900s has the international
system experienced such a rapid rise in the rate of change in commer-
cial and communication technology. Then as now, the bedrock system
of economic interdependence seems invulnerable. The British thinker
Normal Angell observed that “it is an economic impossibility for one
nation to seize or destroy the wealth of another, or for one nation to
enrich itself by subjugating another.”2 But Angell was writing in 1910.
The First World War demonstrated that interconnectedness can increase
the risks of global violence. And at the end of that war, the weary armies
were key vectors in the spread of an influenza epidemic that claimed
more deaths than the fighting.3
Then as now interdependence increases both opportunities and
risks. There are unparalleled opportunities to apply modern scientific
knowledge and resources to fight disease and protect the environment.
Modern technology, much of it developed by the private sector, creates
unprecedented access to information by entrepreneurs, civil society and
populations as a whole. But the risks are more dire for the sheer de-
structive capacity of modern weapons technology, and for the increasing
access to that technology. Scientific advance and the ability to rapidly
share knowledge have created enormous promise in the ability to solve
global problems, but also enormous peril in that these same advances
have democratized the power to destroy.


 These developments do not erode the importance of revitalizing
the prospects for international cooperation; rather, they make it more
urgent.We are convinced that only through the application of effective,
ambitious international cooperation is it possible to reduce the risks in
the global world and to realize its potential. Such solutions must also
create the right incentives for private sector engagement. Civil society
can sometimes lead the way, through innovation and through advo-
cacy. But the primary responsibility remains with governments, both
to take the necessary steps to ensure effective international coopera-
tion, and to recognize the national interest—indeed, the vital national
interest—to do so.

The benefits of international cooperation

All is not unmitigated gloom—far from it. Even in this troubled period,
important achievements have been attained. In the sphere of development,
there has been some good news, including the unprecedented outpour-
ing of contributions to the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Also,
in 2005 European Union (EU) member states made real moves to imple-
ment the Monterrey consensus and reach the 0.7% target for development
assistance.4 This was done in recognition of the fact that many govern-
ments have taken the hard decisions and critical policy steps to enable the
productive use of aid.5
At the international level there are important areas of positive perfor-
mance. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) impressive response
to the outbreak of SARS in 2002–03 proved its capability and high-
lighted the benefits of cooperation. Since the early 1990s, bilateral, re-
gional and international actions have contributed to an 80% decline
in major internal wars.6 When the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on
25/26 December 2004, the response from governments and private
citizens was overwhelming in speed and generosity. And when UN
reform seemed most strained, the General Assembly came together to
adopt a treaty against nuclear terrorism and to agree on establishing a
Peacebuilding Commission.
These recent positive accomplishments stand on the backs of the
significant achievements of international cooperation in the postwar era.
The impressive economic expansion by the industrial countries since the
Second World War would not have been possible without the multilat-
eral economic system.The great strides in technology, healthcare and the


 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 1

many other innovations that enhance livelihoods emerge directly from

this prosperity. In the developing world, opening to international trade
and investment has helped lift millions of people out of poverty, though
much more remains to be done. Put simply, the multilateral order since
1945 has supported mankind’s greatest period of wealth creation.
While that same period was far from free of war and conflict, the vi-
olence could have been far worse in the absence of multilateral security
institutions. The non-proliferation regime did much to slow the spread
of nuclear weapons in that dangerous age and to deter their use. And
notwithstanding the shackles of the cold war, the UN acted at critical
moments to end conflicts in ways that forestalled superpower confron-
tation (for example, by forging cease fires and deploying peacekeepers
to help end the 1967 and 1973 Middle East wars).7
More recently, following an initiative by the United States, govern-
ments forged an ambitious agreement to combat the environmental
damage caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Through the Montreal
Protocol, governments set limits on CFC use and established mecha-
nisms to enforce them. The important result is that the ozone layer is
expected to recover and will not be depleted to the extent once feared
(see figure 1.1).
There has also been a surge in engagement by private sector actors,
including civil society, measured in the thousands of new civil society

Figure 1.1 Fall in production of ozone depleting substances 1989–2003

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Source: UNEP Global Environment Outlook 2004/2005. Available at www.unep.org/geo/yearbook/yb2004/111.htm. Ê


 organizations and in their innovative partnerships with governments
and the private sector. The rapid growth of the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the conclusion of a land mine ban
are examples of the accomplishments of these partnerships. And while
there are some grounds for concern that private and civic action allows
governments to evade their basic responsibilities, the fact is that these
new actors and initiatives bring energy, private capital and specialized
and highly localized knowledge to the challenge of tackling complex
local and global problems. 8
Regions have also cooperated to tackle common problems, with
important results. In 1974, 11 West African countries came together
with international agencies to combat river blindness. The Oncho-
cerciasis Control Program (to give the disease its proper name) suc-
ceeded over 25 years in halting transmission of the disease in all 11
countries, sparing an estimated 600,000 people from its effects—at
an annual cost of less than $1 per protected person. And European
countries acted together to combat acid rain emanating from Eu-
rope, forging the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary
Air Pollution.
And far away from the spotlight of global attention, international
technical agencies have set global standards for telecommunication, in-
ternational banking, trade and financial transactions, civil aviation and
much else besides.9 These mechanisms for technical cooperation and
standard setting have enabled phenomenal growth in technology, trade
and communications. Several of these initiatives have been led, encour-
aged or financed by the private sector, recognizing their own interest
in effective cooperation.
These impressive accomplishments, past and present, inspire our
confidence in the future of cooperation. But the current crisis of mul-
tilateralism exists not just because of the missed opportunities. Rather
there are two sources of the current malaise. First, the institutions set up
in 1945 to manage interstate affairs are straining to adapt to the evolu-
tion of a global market, to the demands posed by technological change,
to the substantial interconnections between their separate spheres of
responsibility or to public and political skepticism about their ability to
perform. Second, efforts to adapt those institutions have been stymied
because governments have failed to address the underlying issue—the
changing distribution of power and the widening sphere of responsi-
bility at the international level—and because the major powers have at
times acted irresponsibly toward international institutions.


 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 1

The limits of institutions

Examples of institutional strain abound. In the area of financial stabil-

ity, for example, the consequences of the globalizing market are seen in
strains at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF’s manage-
ment of the financial crisis in East Asia in 1997–98 is illustrative. It has
been recognized by many, including the Fund’s Independent Evalua-
tion Office, that the Fund did not adequately recognize or analyse the
risks associated with its own policies of capital account liberalization.
The financial crisis that erupted at the end of the 1990s eroded the fi-
nancial health of the rising East Asian economies, and in some instances
challenged internal political stability. Similar problems were apparent in
Argentina’s financial crisis.
The postwar institutions are also struggling to adapt to technologi-
cal change. Perhaps the most acute example is the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), whose mechanisms are too weak to stem the
proliferation of nuclear weapons. As access to nuclear technology ad-
vances, countries’ ability to move from civilian nuclear energy to a
nuclear weapons programme becomes far easier. The result is that it is
more difficult for the IAEA to gather reliable information about the
nuclear capacities and intentions of its member countries.
Nor are strains limited to security. Similar stresses confront responses
to the growing threat of infectious diseases. Infectious disease control
is an area that has attracted investment and leadership, sometimes by
private actors, sometimes by governments. And the WHO is perhaps
the one international institution whose reputation has improved in the
post 9/11 era. Yet senior WHO officials have warned that their ability
to cope with large-scale outbreaks of new infectious diseases may be
severely limited.
Moreover, growing awareness of the interconnections between these
issue areas has not been met by adequate cooperation among respon-
sible institutions. Although it is more widely understood that there are
important security dimensions to international health, and vice versa,
security and health matters are treated as separate and distinct institu-
tional spheres. International terrorism has caused new concerns about
the security of trade and transport systems, but no international body
has the breadth of mandate to ensure that new security approaches do
not interfere with international trade rules and commitments. Research
highlights the correlation between poverty and conflict,10 but the inter-
national actors engaged in treating these two ills rarely communicate let


 alone collaborate, though the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission
linking the UN and the international financial institutions may create
a starting point for more comprehensive approaches. Similarly, appar-
ent links between environmental degradation and conflict are not met
with joined responses.
Confidence in international cooperation has also been shaken by
research that suggests that aid sometimes has been ineffective in com-
bating poverty and by revelations of isolated cases of financial impropri-
ety by international officials. More generally, insufficient accountability
for money and activities within international mechanisms is eroding
both public and political support for international aid and international
institutions, precisely when they are needed most. And overlaying all of
this, the international arena is still struggling to overcome the loss of
trust that arose from radically different interpretations of the course of
events that led to the war in Iraq.

The responsibility of states

In assessing the prospects for international cooperation, it is indispens-

able to be aware of three phenomena that have occurred since the end
of the cold war. First, there has been a change in the nature and distribu-
tion of economic power and influence at the international level. Mili-
tary and political power have become more heavily concentrated. At
the same time, more than a dozen developing countries, with combined
populations of half of humanity, have gained considerable influence in
the global market. Second, the spread of democracy and information
technology have brought hundreds of millions of voices into debates
about international policy, many of them the voices of people who do
not profit from the global economy, residing in countries that do not
participate meaningfully in international decision-making. And third, a
growing portion of economic activity is being conducted by companies
with global reach and massive resources creating circumstances that can
limit states’ abilities to shape action beyond their borders.
Yet the governance mechanisms of international institutions have
not been adapted to these developments. Instead some developed and
developing powers have neglected and at times abused international
institutions as a vehicle for cooperation, failing to lead efforts at reform,
and choosing to work through ad hoc, bilateral and regional mecha-

10
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 1

nisms even when those were at odds with the principles of a multilateral
order they professed to support.11
Power and capacity in global affairs have thus been transformed but
not consolidated. The basic result is a negative cycle of underinvest-
ment in, and underperformance by, international mechanisms. Efforts
to tackle the institutional symptoms of these changes without address-
ing the underlying causes have unsurprisingly met with underwhelm-
ing results.

Summing up

The hard reality is that the current political climate is inauspicious for
improving the quality and quantity of international cooperation.
However no one can afford to sit idly by and wait for change. Fail-
ure to revitalize international cooperation, particularly during troubled
periods, will at the very least cause the loss of important opportuni-
ties to galvanize efforts towards tackling climate change, to deepen the
battle against disease, to advance knowledge in ways that can reap as yet
unforeseen benefits and to prevent old and new manifestations of vio-
lent conflict. Every year that passes with reforms unattained increases
their difficulty and their cost.
Left unattended, the current erosion in support for international
cooperation risks generating a negative spiral of protectionism, iso-
lationism and deepening international divisions, eroding both global
prosperity and stability.

11
Global Public Goods:

2
What they are and why

Chapter
many are in short supply

What are global public goods?

International cooperation has many uses. It is a tool for altruistic pur-

poses, importantly so, and it serves a host of geo-political interests, cer-
tainly. But it is also a tool for states to align their long-term, enlightened
national interests to achieve common goals. Some of these goals are
“global public goods”.
Technically, in their pure form public goods are those that share
two qualities—non-excludability and non-rivalry, in economists’ jar-
gon.This means, respectively, that when provided to one party, the pub-
lic good is available to all, and consumption of the public good by one
party does not reduce the amount available to the others to consume.12
Traditional examples of national public goods include traffic control
systems and national security—goods that benefit all citizens and na-
tional private actors but that none could afford to supply on their own
initiative.13
The sphere of global public goods we are concerned with is de-
lineated by issues that are broadly conceived as important to the in-
ternational community, that for the most part cannot or will not be
adequately addressed by individual countries acting alone and that are
defined through a broad international consensus or a legitimate process
of decision-making.
The concept of public goods contains within it powerful tools for
the analysis of the relationship between national and international pub-
lic policy. Public goods can be regional or global in character, as well
as national (see box 2.1). There are many challenges, cross-border in
character, that are more effectively dealt with at the regional than either
the national or global level. This is clearest for issues relating to shared
physical systems, such as the provision of tsunami early warning systems
and the management of river basins. Regional public goods are par-
ticularly useful for dealing with region-specific vulnerabilities created
by regional openness, including for example cross-border transmission

13
 Box 2.1 Definitions

A local public good benefits all the members of a local community, possibly to include the citizens of more than
one country.
A national public good benefits all the citizens of a state.
A domestic public good benefits all the members of a community situated within a single state. National public
goods are domestic public goods, but domestic public goods need not be national public goods.
A regional public good benefits countries belonging to a geographic territory.
A global public good benefits all countries and, therefore, all persons.
An international public good benefits more than one country. Global and regional public goods are both interna-
tional public goods. However, some international public goods may be neither regional nor global. The public good
of collective defence under NATO, for example, applies to North America and Europe.
Source: Barrett (2007).

of human and animal diseases. In addition, regional public goods are

increasingly perceived as part of the solution to long-standing develop-
ment problems across a wide spectrum of sectors.14
Applied to the global sphere the term defines a set of international
goods whose benefits could in principle be enjoyed by the governments
and people of all states.15 Examples include international mechanisms
for ensuring financial stability, the scientific knowledge involved in the
discovery of a vaccine and international regulations for civil aviation
and telecommunications. Once such global standards and systems are
established, they are available to all states, and consumption of the good
by one state or its people in no way reduces its availability to others.16 It
is important to note that in some contexts public goods are contested,
as further elaborated below.
The features that characterize global public goods make them valu-
able, but—as further discussed below—they are difficult to provide.
Precisely because they are available to all once produced, states rou-
tinely avoid their own responsibilities, believing others will act and
they will benefit (the “free rider” problem); but the result is often that
too few states act for the good to be produced. And states also resist
accepting the restraints on their sovereignty that are often necessary to
produce these goods.
Indeed much of the difficulty in ensuring the provision of global
public goods comes from the international level. It is at this level that
our Task Force has chosen to focus its analysis. This does not negate
a recognition that the national level is critical for the provision of
global public goods. As with development and every other sphere of
international cooperation, much of the work is accomplished by na-

14
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

tional authorities in a national context—for example, when countries

introduce national carbon taxes. This report, however, is focused on
the problems and prospects of international cooperation and our rec-
ommendations for its adaptation to better and more reliably deliver
global public goods.

Global public goods and development goals

Because many of the institutions involved in producing global public

goods have both developmental and global mandates, the relationship
between development and public goods has often been confused. In fact
three dimensions of that relationship can be characterized.
First, whereas cooperation for development relies on the traditional
divisions between donor states with advanced financial capacities and
recipient states with limited resources, the provision of global public
goods transcends such divisions; global public goods affect almost all
states, and many or all states must be involved in their provision.
Second, global public goods can propel development (see box 2.2).
For example, financial stability (which results in part from the global
public good of the international financial regulation system) is critical
to achieving broader economic development. There is also evidence
that development assistance is more effective in countries where gov-
ernments have sound fiscal and economic policy. A country’s policy
environment, however, depends on more than the policies it adopts
unilaterally. It depends also on the international policy environment,
including such areas as international trade. Improve these systems, and
the returns on development should increase.
Third, because limited state capacity serves as a barrier to the provision
of many important global public goods, development is fundamental to
their supply, including goods for health, security and the environment.17
With good reason, some are concerned that financing for global
public goods may crowd out traditional development assistance.
There is of course a relationship between the two. For example,
money spent on building national public health capacity in devel-
oping countries will have important development results, but also
contribute to global efforts to combat infectious disease. But given
the different character of global public goods, including the fact that
those who finance their supply also profit from their consumption,
financing for development and for global public goods should be dis-
tinguished from one another. A wider set of states should be involved

15
 How will enhanced provision of global public goods help meet the Millennium
Box 2.2 Development Goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are time-bound targets for addressing the many dimensions of ex-
treme poverty and inequality.a An enhanced provision of global public goods can help achieve these goals.
• Preventing the emergence and spread of infectious disease. Preventing the spread of infectious dis-
ease is not only a Goal in itself, but would also have indirect impact in meeting the other Goals. In the most
affected regions HIV/AIDS is threatening both social and economic stability. In the case of malaria it is esti-
mated that the annual net benefits of reducing malaria burden by 50% between 2002 and 2015 would be
between $3 and 10 billion.b
• Tackling climate change. Although developed countries emit about 10 times more carbon dioxide per
capita than developing ones, poor countries and people are the most vulnerable.c Unless mitigated, climate
change will have huge negative impact on malaria rates, agricultural productivity and water scarcity and can
have negative impact on the achievement of several Goals and directly affect MDG 7—to ensure environ-
mental sustainability.
• Promoting financial stability and international trade. Financial crises can have serious impacts on poverty
levels, and thereby negatively affect MDG 1—to eradicate extreme poverty. Estimates show that the East Asian
crisis, in the late 1990s, increased the poverty rate by between 2.3 and 11.6% in some Asian countries.d Further-
more, trade increases productivity through more efficient resource allocation, greater competition and technology
transfer. Estimates show that abolishing all barriers to trade in goods and services could increase global income
by $2.8 trillion and lift 320 million people out of poverty.e
• Achieving peace and security is a precondition for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
Twenty-two out of the 34 countries farthest from reaching the Goals, are in or emerging from a conflict.f Con-
flicts cost millions of lives and impose corollary health, environmental and economic costs to neighbouring
states and the global community.
• Generating knowledge. Any strategy to meet the Goals requires a special global effort to build scientific
and technological capacities in the poorest countries to help drive economic development. The Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) can be seen as a successful illustration; for every dol-
lar invested in the CGIAR, $9 worth of additional food has been produced in the developing countries. It is
estimated that without this research, some 13–15 million more children would have suffered from malnourish-
ment.g

a.  The Millennium Development Goals are: Goal 1: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Goal 2: achieve universal primary education; Goal 3: promote gender
equality and empower women; Goal 4: reduce child mortality; Goal 5: improve maternal health; Goal 6: combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; Goal 7: ensure
environment sustainability; and Goal 8: develop a global partnership for development.
b.  UN Millennium Project. 2005. “Report of the Task Force on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines.”
c.  UN Millennium Project. 2004. “Report of the Task Force on Environmental Sustainability.”
d.  Griffith-Jones, Stephany, and Ricardo Gottschalk. 2004; “Costs of Currency Crises and Benefits of International Financial Reform,” Institute of Development Stud-
ies; Mendoza, Ronaldo. 2002; IMF. World Economic Outlook, various issues.
e.  UN Millennium Project. 2005. “Report of the Task Force on Trade.”
f.  UN Millennium Project. “Investing in Development. A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals.” Millennium Project’s Report to the UN
Secretary-General.
g.  See www.cgiar.org.

in financing global public goods than those paying for development

assistance, and the traditional donor nations will have to ensure that
any funds for global public goods are additional to what is already
being spent on development assistance. (The financing of global pub-
lic goods is addressed in chapter 10.)

16
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

Why public goods matter

At a time when international cooperation and the institutions that shape

it labour under the weight of public skepticism and political cynicism,
there is a need for new ideas and new approaches to overcome obstacles
to cooperation.The concept of global public goods provides a powerful
framework to rediscover both classical and contemporary arguments
for international cooperation, to generate innovation and to identify
pathways to overcoming some of the obstacles governments confront
in tackling global ills.18
In the sphere of global public goods, international cooperation is in
the national interests of all, as well as in the common interest.19 Of course
the national interest is not achieved without negotiation and compro-
mise. Just as in the national sphere each citizen must make sacrifices—in
the form of taxes, regulations and some restrictions on individual lib-
erty—to realize the benefits of security and freedom, so at the inter-
national level all states have national interests in making the necessary
short-term sacrifices, and exercising the necessary restraint, to enable the
long-term rewards and benefits that only international cooperation can
provide.The concept helps us recognize that, with a long-term view and
with concerted action, the global interest and the national interest can
not only be reconciled but are mutually reinforcing.
This provides a compelling framework to use in national settings to
persuade domestic audiences and authorities of the value of commit-
ting national resources, and restraining national autonomy, in the pur-
suit of common international goals. Whereas funding for development
is framed either in terms of altruism or geo-politics, it is important to
remind national audiences of three simple realities:
• All peoples will be affected by changes in the environment.
• All peoples are vulnerable to risks from infectious disease.
• All can benefit from international systems designed to sup-
ply peace and security, trade and financial stability—and the
prosperity that these allow.
Moreover the features of global public goods transcend tradi-
tional divisions between states. Supplying global public goods re-
quires efforts by many or all states, and all states can share in their
benefits. This broadens our conception of states’ responsibilities to
one another, of the mutual responsibilities all states bear to ensure
that their national actions contribute to and reinforce both the na-
tional and the global interest. And it allows for the construction of

17
 win-win approaches to common challenges, rather than the zero-
sum (“if I win, you lose”) approach that characterizes much current
international negotiation.
In short, in this period of intensifying political divisions between
countries, regions and groupings, understanding the character of global
public goods compels the recognition that all states have a vested inter-
est in each other’s mutual benefit and helps to transcend the divisions
that weaken the prospects for tackling common global ills.
Work on global public goods also takes us beyond the state, helpfully
pointing to the private sector, including civil society, who are increas-
ingly involved in shaping transborder interactions and to the positive
benefits these actors can provide.

Why are many global public goods in short supply?

If all states and peoples can benefit from the provision of global public
goods, it seems logical that they should be easy to supply and should be
available in abundance. But the opposite is true. In fact the very nature
of global public goods means that demand will tend to outweigh supply.
There are a number of reasons for this:
• Sovereignty. Governments (or their citizens) are often unwilling
to limit or constrain sovereign decision-making, for example
by accepting binding rules or international monitoring of their
own compliance with agreements. This weakens the prospects
for cooperation by adding a high degree of uncertainty to most
international agreements, where reliability would be more pro-
ductive. This basic problem underlies all the others.
• Differing preferences and priorities. Governments often have di-
vergent short-term interests in specific solutions even where
they share common long-term goals; and since more and more
governments are elected for time-bound periods, short-term
politics tend to outweigh long-term perspectives. Moreover
even the long-term goals themselves may resonate differently
for different governments. Climate change impacts differently
on different countries, and in the short term some may even
profit from changes to local climate. Similarly, to describe the
trade regime as a global public good is correct in economic
terms, but countries have different economic stakes in the sys-
tem and disagree on its social and political value; free trade, for

18
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

example, remains highly controversial in many countries and

regions. Thus the “good” in global public good is often con-
tested. What might be a highly desirable public good for one
country or group of people might not be so for another.
• The “free rider” problem. Once a public good is produced and
made available to one, in principle it becomes available to all,
and it is hard to exclude others from its consumption. Conse-
quently there is an incentive for every party to wait until an-
other provides that public good, then enjoy its consumption.
• The “weakest link” problem. Some global public goods can only
be produced when every government fully complies with a
common approach, such as in efforts to eradicate an infectious
disease. Success can be eroded by a single act of non-compli-
ance.This makes for arduous and long-term problems of coop-
eration. And the risk of failure is such that it is hard to convince
governments to make the necessary investments.
• The “summation” problem. Where the successful production of
a particular global public good is literally the result or sum of
the individual efforts of all the separate participants, such as
mitigating global climate change, there are hard challenges in
ensuring compliance and sustaining momentum with long-
term global initiatives.
The major barriers to solving global problems, then, do not lie with
institutional strain—a symptom of a problem, not its cause. Instead, the
major obstacles emerge from the fact that the international sphere is
characterized principally by voluntary interaction between sovereign
states—all with ideas and values and interests of their own.
While social, political and economic interactions draw peoples
together, as does an increasingly globalized private sector, separate na-
tional governments remain responsible for balancing and legitimizing
the policies to structure their interactions. While organizations such
as the European Union are altering our conceptions of sovereignty,
democratically elected governments remain the most consistently
legitimate form of authority yet devised, and electorates are often less
keen than politicians to accept multilateral restrictions on domestic
sovereignty. Sovereignty, often declared to be in rapid retreat, perse-
veres nonetheless.
Thus voluntary cooperation between independent, sovereign
states remains the hallmark of the international system and its essen-
tial requirement.

19
 Some global public goods can be supplied without widespread co-
operation in their supply, even though there would by definition be
global access to them once supplied. Historically the easiest global pub-
lic goods to produce are “best-shot” public goods—goods that simply
have to be supplied once for them to be available to all. The discovery
of a vaccine is such a good; once discovered it potentially can be avail-
able to all in perpetuity.
Similarly, it has been argued that the United States, acting in its
own right and in its own interest, created important best-shot global
public goods by securing international air and sea lanes, maintaining a
strong currency used widely as a standard, acting as the basic financial
regulator and serving as the lender of last resort.20 It is worth stressing,
however, that the United States played this role in the context of a broad
international consensus that it helped to forge, a consensus embedded
in the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank—institutions within which the United States also agreed
to constrain its own power. Consensus and constraint were important
conditions for leadership.
In most cases action by a single government will not suffice for the
provision of global public goods, and broad regional or international
cooperation is the only recourse. In these cases overcoming political
and value differences forms a second kind of obstacle. Achieving some
form of international agreement or consensus is an important part of
providing global public goods.
Thus we can by and large describe global public goods both in their
economic sense and with the understanding that, for the most part, the
large majority of states—as well as national private and civic actors—will
see positive value in their production and consumption. But it is im-
portant not to neglect the reality that some of these are contested. The
question of how states and populations participate in decision-making or
consensus building around the provision of global public goods is critical.
The perceived value of a good will depend substantially on the quality
and character of states’ participation in the decision to supply it.

Overcoming obstacles to cooperation

The difficulties in providing global public goods point to one of the

major obstacles to their provision: cooperation at the international level
and political contest between states. History shows that these obstacles

20
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

can be overcome when three ingredients are present: catalytic leader-

ship and action, effective institutions and adequate and appropriate fi-
nancing. These issues are central to our report.

Catalytic leadership and action

Our report concentrates on the specific challenges posed by the need

for international cooperation. This does not negate recognition that
the national level is critical in the provision of global public goods. In-
deed we stress the principle of subsidiarity—solving problems closest
to where they occur. But the most enduring difficulties in providing
global public goods are found at the international level, and it is at this
level that we have been mandated to focus our analysis.
That analysis shows there are fundamental differences between
leadership at the national level and the kind of leadership required for
international cooperation. At the national level governments act with
authority or mandate.
At the local and national level the provision of public goods is typi-
cally organized by the state, with authority to tax, regulate and even coerce
to ensure such provision. At the global level there is no institution with
equivalent powers. For good reasons, there is no world government with
the authority to tax, to conscript, to regulate or to quarantine. Therefore,
at the international level, action to initiate the provision of a public good
must be voluntary. But, given the natural reluctance of nation states to
constrain their sovereignty, as well as the free-rider problem, voluntarism
to trigger the provision of a global public good does not occur easily.
Historically it has proven necessary for one or several countries
with an enlightened vision and clear sense of responsibility to ignite
the processes conducive to the solution of problems that may affect all
of humanity.
The question is: it is up to whom to play this role in our time? We
submit that it is up to the countries that are relatively richer, with larger
populations, bigger defence and security capabilities that have been his-
torically influential and that, typically, have benefited the most from the
rule-based multilateral system. These countries have a special respon-
sibility to catalyse action for improving the provision of global public
goods. These countries have the responsibility to move first towards
goals for the good of everyone, putting forward initiatives for enhanc-
ing cooperation and committing resources for their effective realiza-
tion. And when this happens, international leadership emerges, not as

21
 an imposition, but as a natural result of the assumption of responsibility.
With this type of leadership countries can stimulate change and use
their position to persuade others to participate in common endeavours
to advance global goods or tackle global ills.
Many countries have undertaken a catalytic role in producing the
kinds of international agreements and institutions that can provide
global public goods. This was true of the United States and its post-
war allies’ role in forging the basic institutional framework for the
supply of global public goods in the areas of peace and security, fi-
nancial stability and trade—the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and
the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade (GATT). In addition, as
noted above, the United States maintained a stable currency, secured
sea and air lanes for trade and transport, acted as a lender of last resort
in financial crises and served as the basic regulator of international
financial markets, providing the essential underpinnings to the global
economy. It was true of the Soviet Union, which in 1959 initiated
action at the World Health Organization (WHO) that would lead to
the eradication of smallpox—one of the great achievements of the
multilateral system. Other powers, such as France, have acted to create
international bodies that regulate critical spheres of international co-
operation, including civil aviation. The European Union has become
an important source of stability and growth that often lent its support
to international cooperative initiatives.
It is a role also at times played by smaller states, as it was by Nor-
way, which in the 1960s used its political standing to lead the charge
towards what would eventually become the Nuclear Non-Prolifera-
tion Treaty. Or, when East Timor fell into turmoil and crisis in 1999,
and Australia led a multinational force that restored order and cre-
ated the necessary space for the eventual establishment of the Timor
Leste state, shouldering the military and the financial burden of the
peacekeeping operation.21 Historically, the development of peace-
keeping as a tool—critical to the restoration of collapsed states after
war—owes much to the leadership of Canada, which proposed the
tool and for 40 years participated in every UN peacekeeping opera-
tion, often in a leading role.22
Such roles can also be played by private actors, as illustrated by
the March of Dimes Foundation and Rotary International in devel-
oping and supplying polio vaccines and by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation in financing efforts to combat malaria, tuberculosis and
HIV/AIDS.

22
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

In each case a government or private actor recognized that greater

power or financial resources engendered responsibility, provided ad-
vance commitments and resources and used the resultant position of
leadership to catalyse other states’ action and persuade them to partici-
pate in a common solution.
Catalytic leadership is not enough, however. The catalytic action
of responsible leadership is always required, but so too is a process that
generates broad support for action, either through formal, institutional
decision-making or through participatory negotiations to build consen-
sus. For this reason, and because supplying global public goods almost
always requires long-term, reliable commitments, catalytic leadership
must normally be matched to effective institutions for delivery.

Effective institutions

With some exceptions, global public goods are produced over sus-
tained periods of engagement by all or many states. Whereas respon-
sible leadership and catalytic action can be critical in overcoming
obstacles, it is rarely the case that global public goods can be achieved
without sustained and reliable engagement within institutions, often
over decades. For example, once the Soviet Union had initiated ac-
tion against smallpox in 1959, it took over 20 years of sustained
engagement by almost all states, coordinated and supported by the
WHO, to eradicate it.23
There are two facets to the role of institutions in providing global
public goods: they are the main venue for states to negotiate and agree
on preferences and priorities for global issues; and they are tools for
implementation.
Most important, regional and international institutions are the pri-
mary place for states to come together to shape common preferences
or agree on priorities. It is here that the “good” in global public good is
contested and agreed (or not). And it is in the governance mechanisms
of regional and international institutions that state preferences are most
actively debated and the direction and strategies for supplying global
public goods ultimately decided.
Some of these mechanisms entail negotiations by all states, such as
in the World Health Assembly. And while negotiations of the whole
are cumbersome, in the case of infectious disease they are appropriate
because all states must implement the solutions. More commonly, how-
ever, a smaller set of states can band together to provide a global public

23
 good. For example, 90% of the world economy is held by 20 states,
whose common action is necessary for financial stability.
When the governing mechanisms of institutions engage the states
necessary for solutions, institutional decision-making can be efficient,
but in the absence of governance reforms to match evolving realities,
this is now seldom the case.
Moreover, there is a broader issue in that however few states are in-
volved in producing a global public good, by definition all will consume
it, often in ways that are at odds with national economic and political
interests. This creates a need for all (or most) states to have some voice
in the articulation and decision-making around global public goods.
Most global public goods fall between two extremes: one requiring
all states’ involvement, and the other requiring action only by a few. In
such circumstances decision-making through the governing mechanisms
of international institutions should be an efficient way to reach decisions.
However the perceived legitimacy of the governing mechanisms of insti-
tutions is crucial.Where legitimacy is present, many states will accept the
good; where not, it will generate resistance and non-compliance. Gov-
erning mechanisms that engage responsible states and are broadly seen as
legitimate are thus crucial in the provision of global public goods.
A second feature of institutions is that they can serve as repositories
of analytical and operational capacity. This is particularly so for the IMF
and the World Bank and the UN specialized agencies, such as the WHO,
the IAEA and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza-
tion (UNESCO), all of which have substantial repositories of specialized
capacity.The quality of that capacity is highly variable, of course, partially
because of a lack of clear accountability for many of these institutions.
It is important to improve this specialized capacity. Measured against
the option of each state involved maintaining its own separate capacity
to tackle problems with transnational reach, regional and international
institutions can have significant efficiencies. Imagine the inefficiencies if
every state sought to maintain a global natural disaster response capacity
or a global infectious disease surveillance system. Moreover, interna-
tional institutions, because of their global reach, end up engaged in far
more cases than their national counterparts, enabling deeper learning
and the development of core skills.
But there are significant weaknesses to these institutions as well.
Centralization of activity among international organizations will work
well only if they are made more accountable to their members and for
the effectiveness of their delivery.

24
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

Even this is not enough; institutions must also be properly designed

in relation to the capacity and interests of states and the obstacles out-
lined above. The most effective institutions create incentives for states
to participate and sanctions for non-participation. For example, when
states negotiated the Montreal Protocol governing the reduction of
substances that deplete the ozone layer, its framers were aware that they
would face tough challenges in generating state compliance with vol-
untary controls. Recognizing the likelihood of significant free-rider
problems down the road, the group of states that led negotiations agreed
a package of incentives for compliance and disincentives against free
riding (trade sanctions). This was accompanied by monitoring compli-
ance, essential for supplying incentives and for applying sanctions.
Similarly the binding dispute resolution system of the World Trade
Organization is critical to the effectiveness of the international trade
regime. One can only imagine the chaos in international trade if states
could cheat on the rules without consequence.
As a general rule, the harder a global public good is to produce, the
more contested are the preferences that surround it and the stronger will
need to be the international mechanisms involved in its production. In a
world of 200 states with sharply divergent preferences, global problems
will likely be solved only by effective international mechanisms—ones
with teeth, the legitimacy to act and the necessary governance and ac-
countability reforms to make their action credible.
International mechanisms currently operate under a growing cloud
of public and political skepticism based on a combination of uncertainty
about effectiveness and results and concerns about corruption. This is
eroding the willingness of national constituencies to free up the resources
to pay for international activities or goods. Even the most prosperous and
traditionally most generous countries face strains on their finances and
important domestic constraints in devoting adequate resources to in-
ternational programmes and institutions widely seen as unreliable and
unaccountable. The demand for accountability is further fuelled by the
growing engagement of private sector actors, including civil society.
In most instances global public goods will not be agreed and will
not be provided in the absence of decision-making within and imple-
mentation by international institutions. And in most instances, currently,
the decision-making mechanisms of those institutions are widely per-
ceived as illegitimate. There is thus an acute need for reform to the
governing mechanisms of the major international institutions, as well as
for reforms that enhance their accountability.

25
 Adequate and appropriate financing

Global public goods must also be financed—an additional challenge. Fi-

nancing of global public goods has two main dimensions. First, the good
has to be paid for. Whether in the form of reserves for financial crises,
the costs of nuclear inspections or the recurrent costs of the institutions
that maintain standards and rules for communications and trade, global
public goods have costs. Second, it is sometimes necessary to create fi-
nancial incentives to persuade a broad band of states and private actors
to participate in the necessary action or to take the necessary steps to
supply a global public good.
Financing solutions were critical in overcoming obstacles to the
eradication of smallpox which, accomplished in 1980, serves as one of
the great achievements of international cooperation (see figure 2.1).
It was crucial that every country be involved in the effort; however,
once the WHO action was under way, weakest link problems began
to emerge, as countries with limited resources did not always allocate
them to smallpox eradication programmes. Despite the good economic
return on the investment in eradication, the international response was
scant. This challenge was overcome first through mandatory financial
contributions at the WHO and then by extensive voluntary contribu-
tions, which created incentives for states with the most limited capacity
to participate in the eradication effort.

Figure 2.1 Number of countries with endemic smallpox, 1967–1977

ՓLiÀʜvÊVœÕ˜ÌÀˆiÃÊ܈̅Êi˜`i“ˆVÊÓ>«œÝ
Îx

Îä

Óx

Óä

£x

£ä

ä
£™ÈÇ £™Èn £™È™ £™Çä £™Ç£ £™ÇÓ £™ÇÎ £™Ç{ £™Çx £™ÇÈ £™ÇÇ

Source: Fenner, F., D.A. Henderson, I. Arita, Z. Jezek and I.D. Ladnyi. 1988. Smallpox and Its Eradication. Geneva: World Health Organization.

26
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 2

Financial incentives for participation are also part of the Montreal

Protocol, which provides developing countries with financial incentives
to comply. Similarly, in UN peacekeeping, states that contribute troops
are provided with a financial incentive tied to the scale of participation.
This is inadequate to fully compensate for the costs of troops from the
wealthiest states, but adequate to compensate and create incentives for
less developed countries. Without such incentives, successes in combat-
ing erosion of the ozone layer or in reducing the level of civil war could
not have been accomplished.
But just as international institutions currently operate under a
shroud of scepticism, so national governments increasingly have dif-
ficulty in persuading domestic constituencies of the value of spend-
ing national resources on international action. If adequate financing
for global public goods is to be realized, governments will have to
convince sceptical publics that they have made reforms to ensure bet-
ter use of existing resources; will have to innovate; and will have to
create the right set of incentives to mobilize and harness the private
sector, which has much to gain from and much to contribute to well-
organized international cooperation.

Conclusion

We define global public goods as ones available for all to consume and
ones whose benefits in principle can be enjoyed by the governments
and people of each state without impinging on the enjoyment of oth-
ers. The sphere of global public goods with which we are concerned
is delineated by issues that are broadly conceived as important to the
international community; that, for the most part, cannot or will not be
adequately addressed by individual countries acting alone; and that are
defined through a broad international consensus or a legitimate process
of decision-making.
We recognize that much of the action required to provide global
public goods takes place at the national level. But the most intransigent
obstacles arise at the international level, in the very structure of inter-
national cooperation between independent, sovereign states.
Historically the supply of global public goods has required three
critical factors. It requires the catalytic action that responsible leadership
can provide, as the outcome of advance commitments by influential
states exercising their responsibilities; it requires effective institutions

27
to organize either participatory negotiations by states or a decision by
a governing mechanism to create legitimacy; and it requires adequate
financing. Looking forward we posit that these critical factors will be
enhanced by an additional focus on accountability.24
By contrast international systems of late have been characterized by
irresponsible action by some developed and developing powers; weak-
ened institutions whose legitimacy is in question; a lack of accountability;
and growing strains on financing. Global public goods are thus under-
provided. Missed opportunities abound, and the risks of crisis grow.
Part II

Priority Global
Public Goods

29
Illustrating Optimal and
Achievable Strategies

The under-provision of global public goods is not an abstract problem.The

security of states, the prosperity of economies and the health of people and
the planet all depend on the effective supply of global public goods.
To illustrate, we focus on six global public goods whose provision is
critical to the health, prosperity and security of all people:
• Preventing the emergence and spread of infectious disease.
• Tackling climate change.
• Enhancing international financial stability.
• Strengthening the international trading system.
• Achieving peace and security, which underlies and is essential
to all the others.
• In illustrating the kinds of strategies needed to pursue these
goals, we also identify a cross-cutting issue—generation of
knowledge.
These are priorities because the threats posed by global ills are rap-
idly mounting. Because the issues are interlocking, each adding to the
other, none are able to be adequately addressed in isolation (as in the vital
relationship between trade and security or infectious disease and trade).25
Because the benefits of supplying them are substantial. Because failing to
supply them would have significant and in some cases irreversible conse-
quences. And because they are important to a range of public and private
constituencies whose engagement is necessary for progress.
These goals, by their nature, require collective action. Achieving
them means ensuring that strong, legitimate international mechanisms
are in place for cooperation. States will have to recognize their en-
lightened long-term national interest in accepting some restrictions on
their sovereignty and in making sustained commitments in advance to
finance common goods and tackle common ills.

31
Protecting the Health of People:

3
Preventing the emergence and

Chapter
spread of infectious disease

Infectious diseases threaten the health of every person and the prosper-
ity of every nation. National health defences are inadequate and will not
work in isolation. Closing airports and borders and stockpiling drugs
cannot stem their spread. The actions of other countries matter to any
nation seeking to defend its population.
Efforts to combat infectious diseases face the whole range of policy
challenges associated with global public goods. Outbreak prevention
will only be as good as the weakest country’s efforts. Disease surveil-
lance will improve as more countries join in the undertaking. And a
massive one-time effort is required to extinguish the epidemic.
Most outbreaks occur precisely in countries that suffer from these
policy failures.The recent outbreaks of avian flu, and before that SARS,
highlight the stretched capacity and lack of resources in parts of the
developing world to manage the spread of infectious disease. Poor sur-
veillance systems have failed to detect the flu virus immediately. And
response mechanisms are badly underresourced, with health systems
already struggling to provide basic services without the added pressure
of managing a new and rapidly spreading disease.
The benefits of reducing the probability of a pandemic’s occurring
or spreading are substantial. By some estimates, albeit sketchy, the cost
of a pandemic to high-income countries alone would amount to some
$550 billion.26 The World Bank has estimated that $1 billion would be
needed to combat avian flu in poorer countries, while the World Health
Organization (WHO) said that at least $500 million would be needed to
develop drugs and vaccines to help suppress an outbreak.27 Such a $1.5-
billion investment would be a small investment to make considering the
huge costs a pandemic would bring about.The old adage appears to hold:
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Combating infectious diseases, in addition to being a global public
good, is also one of the most serious development issues. Many parts
of the developing world continue to experience the devastating costs
of infectious disease for human life and social development. This can

33
 be measured in the appalling death toll of malaria and of HIV/AIDS.28
UNAIDS estimates that 20–23 billion US dollars for each year will be
needed by 2010 to scale up AIDS responses (in terms of prevention,
treatment and care) in low- and middle-income countries sufficiently to
reach the relevant Millennium Development Goal (MDG).29 The op-
tions for HIV/AIDS treatment in poor countries are few, complicated
by costs and by distribution problems. Effective vaccines against and
treatments for diseases affecting people living in developing countries are
chronically stalled because pharmaceutical companies lack incentives.
Ideally the international community should have a fully function-
ing surveillance system, effective treatment and a fluid supply of vac-
cines (including development, production and distribution) to prevent
the emergence and spread of the most deadly diseases. This would
require sharply improved surveillance, prevention and treatment in all
countries. Such efforts should also address the conditions that give rise
to new diseases, including poor sanitation, hygiene, public health sys-
tems, farming practices and communication networks. International
standards would be introduced to facilitate coordination and establish
benchmarks for investment.
Research and development for vaccines would have to be ramped
up, both regionally and globally, and then complemented by greater ca-
pacity to develop, manufacture and distribute new treatments and vac-
cines for emerging diseases. For this purpose, there would be a global
preparedness plan that establishes rules for preparedness and provides
incentives for distribution of treatment and vaccines to the places where
they are needed the most.

An immediate strategy for controlling infectious diseases

The current situation is far from optimal, but we can begin to move to-
ward this goal. Indeed much is under way already. An immediate strategy
to control infectious diseases would entail the following three elements:
improving the global preparedness-to-response chain, strengthening the
capacity of public health systems to prevent and treat infectious diseases
and increasing knowledge for vaccines and treatment.30
From preparedness to response. To control the emergence and spread of
a disease requires preparedness, prevention and treatment, surveillance,
reporting and response.
• Preparedness. A first step would be to create mechanisms for ef-
fective production and distribution of vaccines and early and

34
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 3

strategic use of antiviral medicines to pre-empt the pandemic

at the source and to limit its adverse impact.31 Working through
the WHO, governments would establish global stockpiles of
drugs with procurement capacities in preparation for the out-
break of emerging diseases.32
• Prevention and treatment. The tendency of disease programmes
to focus on either prevention or treatment is not sustainable;
both must be addressed.33 For HIV/AIDS a combined pre-
vention and care strategy entails substantial synergies, which
can reverse the spread of the disease. Simulations show that
in Sub-Saharan Africa over the long term, integrated provi-
sion of prevention and treatment steadily reduces the number
of people with HIV/AIDS, increasing the likelihood that the
AIDS response becomes financially sustainable.34
• Surveillance. An efficient approach is to build surveillance ca-
pability through the creation of a network of regional health
centres overseen by the WHO. Centres would be located near
major cities in developing countries, especially in the tropics,
and consist of a clinical service for patients with infectious
diseases, supporting diagnostic laboratories and an epidemi-
ology unit capable of conducting research and analysis and
organizing a control response in the event of an outbreak.35
Adequate attention should be given to efforts to strengthen
surveillance in countries not already experiencing major out-
breaks, for this is where early warning may be most effective.36
This network would also need to be linked to existing units
in other countries.37
• Reporting. With the onset of SARS in 2003, the WHO illus-
trated its effectiveness in coordinating an international response
to the rapidly spreading disease. But the initial reluctance of
the Chinese government to report the outbreak underlines the
need for mechanisms to ensure transparency and incentives
for compliance.38 The World Health Assembly would agree
on compliance mechanisms for full transparency of member
states to complement the revised surveillance protocols of the
International Health Regulations in 2005.39 Furthermore, the
WHO regional centres would build capacity for compliance.
• Response. Additional human resources and financing are re-
quired to increase the capacity to develop, manufacture and
distribute new treatments and vaccines. One specific proposal

35
 is for members of the World Health Assembly to increase the
capacity of the World Health Organization Global Outbreak
Alert and Response Network to cope with possible disease
outbreaks.40
Strengthening national and local capacity. The second element of a suc-
cessful strategy would emphasize state capacity to prevent and respond
to emerging diseases. National health systems of many developing coun-
tries need injections not only of financing, but also of human resources
for medical practitioners, administrators and outreach.
If the national health systems of poor or fragile countries are not
strengthened, all efforts to combat infectious disease will be in vain.
The WHO reported recently that, despite the growth of the global
population, numbers of health workers are falling or static in the
most critical countries. It estimates that more than four million addi-
tional doctors, nurses, midwives, managers and public health workers
are needed to provide essential services and fill the knowledge gap.41
A recent study also estimated that Sub-Saharan Africa, to reach the
MDG target of 2.5 health workers per 1,000 population, would need
to add one million health workers by 2015.42
In recent years, international programmes have been established to
raise funds to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, includ-
ing the International Finance Facility for Immunization, Global Alli-
ance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
But these disease-specific vertical programmes can drain public
health systems of needed human resources in basic services. And the
coordination among them and with such international organizations
as the WHO and the World Bank remains weak. This strains develop-
ing countries’ already limited capabilities.43 The shift to such vertical
programmes has also meant that attention and resources have been di-
verted away from horizontal (or sector-wide) capacity building. More
support for horizontal capacity building, or greater attention to na-
tional capacity building within vertical programmes, is needed. This
should be pursued under the joint leadership of the WHO and the
World Bank.44
Increasing knowledge. The dearth of research for preventing infectious
disease and containing epidemics in tropical countries is astounding.
The Global Forum for Health Research refers to the “10/90 gap”—
about 10% of the global health research resources are spent on diseases
that affect 90% of the world.45

36
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 3

Two approaches can help to address these shortcomings:

• Establish a network of research facilities specializing in tropical
diseases to be guided and financed through an International
Consultative Group established along the lines of CGIAR.
The facilities proposed for surveillance and R&D could be
integrated to enlist funding by industrialized countries. This
should be coupled with a commitment to purchase new prod-
ucts such as vaccines.
• Endorse and adopt the proposal to use “advance market com-
mitments” to supply the “pull” incentive for innovation.46 The
World Bank should lead in making credible the promise to pay
and raising the needed finance. An advance market commit-
ment offers an incentive to stimulate the commercial develop-
ment and rapid introduction of new vaccines. As new medical
products are developed, qualifying global funds would help de-
veloping countries purchase and distribute them.

Summing up

A multi-pronged strategy of this type would reduce over time the

number of infectious diseases confronting global health systems and the
deaths they would cause. All states and populations would benefit.
Indeed, given the additional benefits from investing in national
and global health systems—direct health benefits and significant de-
velopmental benefits—battling infectious disease perfectly highlights
both the necessity of global action to combat common ills and the
common global benefit from cooperation to do so. Cooperation to
build public health capacity in the developing world is a clear win-
win strategy, while failing to cooperate exposes both rich and poor to
a growing threat of pandemic disease.
Governments, the private sector and civic actors will all have to
contribute to expanding the financing available for action in this
realm. In the private/civic sector the compelling example provided
by Bill & Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet warrants emulation. Gov-
ernments, too, will have to address the long-term financial challenges
here (issues we address in more depth in chapter 10), highlighting
both the achievability and the benefits to be realized from spending
the necessary resources.

37
Preserving the Health

4
of the Environment:

Chapter
Tackling climate change

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that global warming is oc-

curring and that the pace of change is increasing. The evidence comes
from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and sub-
surface ocean temperatures and from rising sea levels, retreating glaciers
and changing physical and biological systems. As reported by the US
National Academy of Sciences in June of 2006, the recent warmth is
unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last
several millennia.47
Nearly all climate scientists today believe that climate change has
human-induced causes, mainly the accumulation of greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere.48 Industrialization has increased the concentration
of these gases in the atmosphere; indeed, since the industrial revolution,
concentrations have increased by about 30% (see figure 4.1). Concen-
trations will increase even more in the future, though by how much
depends on several factors.49
The long-term consequence of climate change will likely be severe.
Although the impact of climate change on different countries is varied
and the priorities of governments to address such phenomena must dif-
fer from one another, the unpredictability of the change and the gravity
of the consequences call for an agreed global framework. Mitigating cli-
mate change and adapting to its impacts are global public goods whose
provision is greatly undersupplied.

International response

Current strategies for combating climate change are embedded mainly

in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
and the Kyoto Protocol.The UNFCCC was adopted at the 1992 Earth
Summit, where parties agreed to stabilize the “greenhouse gas con-
centrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent danger-
ous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.50 The 1997

39
Figure 4.1 Global Climate Trends 1880–2005

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I«>ÀÌÃÊ«iÀʓˆˆœ˜ÊLÞÊۜÕ“i

Source: Earthtrends (2005).

Kyoto Protocol established an initial target and timetable for reducing

greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCCC: roughly a 5% reduction
in the emissions of the industrial countries during the period 2008–12
(working from a 1990 baseline). In the most recent meeting of Minis-
ters on Climate Action (June 2006, South Africa), consensus on how to
build a post-2012 climate regime included merging existing strategies,
such as packages for national sustainable development, implementation
of the Convention and mechanisms for burden-sharing.
Kyoto only limits the emissions of certain countries for a short pe-
riod of time. It was intended to be a first step of a long process. Kyoto
entered into force in February 2005. The United States and Austra-
lia have declined to participate in the Protocol, lessening its potential
impact on the reduction of emissions. The latest climate change ne-
gotiations in Montreal in November 2005 failed to make major break-
throughs. There was one positive development, however: the United
States and China agreed to be part of informal discussions on a post-
2012 regime.
This development creates an opening for addressing one of three
crucial aspects of global climate change, which have thus far been in-
adequately addressed. No effective action on climate change can be
achieved without the engagement in a serious catalytic role by the
United States—the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Nor can it be

40
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 4

achieved without the participation of major emerging economies, such

as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, whose emissions are
rapidly increasing.
Two further aspects of the impact of global climate change have
been inadequately addressed so far.51 One is the possibility of abrupt cli-
mate change. It is not known whether climate change will be abrupt, or
how abrupt climate change, should it occur, would materialize (weak-
ening in the thermohaline circulation and disintegration of the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet are two possibilities).
The second is that current strategies do too little to respond to the
needs of communities most vulnerable to climate change—most of
them in developing countries. Evidence suggests that agriculture in the
tropical zones of Africa will be particularly hard hit. Countries there are
already among the poorest in the world, and small changes in climate
could impose substantial changes in human well-being, undermining
efforts to promote development.
The most efficient way to address climate change would be to
broaden the use of carbon taxes. Effective use of such a tax would
generate a double dividend.52 First, the tax would help reduce emis-
sions of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas. Several
countries have adopted national carbon taxes,53 while others have re-
sisted—notwithstanding rising oil and fuel prices. Second, if the rate
were set at a level that would lead to what some call “an optimal
reduction in carbon emissions”,54 it could provide substantial tax rev-
enue to national governments—money that could be used to finance,
among other things, important global public goods, including climate
change mitigation, and also could support poor countries’ adaptation
to the phenomenon.
The carbon tax has been promoted by several, including the High-
Level Panel on Financing for Development. The Panel concluded that
to impose a minimum level of taxation on consumption of fossil fuels
was better than other policy options to combat global warming.

A multi-track approach

There currently is a reluctance to consider the international adop-

tion of carbon taxes, despite the economic and environmental benefits.
Hopefully this reluctance will be overcome in the future, and for that
purpose it will be important to develop the concept and further exam-

41
 ine the pros and cons. In the meantime the international community
should not settle for less than the following four priority strategies:
emissions caps and trade, clean energy technologies, adaptation and ca-
pacity building.55
Emissions caps and trade. Governments could agree on technology-
forcing targets and timetables as well as a cap-and-trade scheme to con-
trol emissions. Developed countries would commit to reducing their
emissions by adopting a specific target. Developing countries would
adopt differentiated targets; they can first increase emissions to meet
their immediate economic development needs, but then agree to sta-
bilize emissions and eventually begin to reduce emissions by a set date.
They would also commit to increase their energy efficiency as they
pursue economic development.
This scheme would build on the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol,
such as allowing countries to trade their obligations to limit emissions.
Carbon trading mobilizes financial resources, contributes to systematic
emissions reduction and provides a long-term incentive to invest in
climate friendly technologies. The most ambitious pilot project thus
far is the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, which could
help European countries reduce their compliance costs by half com-
pared with meeting their Kyoto commitments through domestic means
only.56 Though the scheme has not yet been an unqualified success, it is
still in its infancy and holds the prospect to achieve more as states more
fully comply with its provisions.
Clean energy technologies. Substantial emissions reductions will re-
quire a technological revolution through a combination of private sec-
tor innovation and multilateral research and development. It needs to
be directed not only at reducing atmospheric concentrations, but also
at technologies that will eventually find markets.Technologies that cap-
ture and store CO2, for example, may be especially important, as they
would allow fossil fuels to be burned without adding to atmospheric
concentrations. Such innovations would reduce domestic opposition to
emission reductions and enhance the incentives for both participation
and compliance.57 Coordinated responses could include:
• Establish an International Consultative Group on Clean En-
ergy Research, which includes both developed and develop-
ing countries, to collaborate and exchange information on
research and development of more efficient and cleaner en-
ergy technologies.

42
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 4

• Encourage diffusion of new greenhouse-gas-efficient tech-

nologies. Donors should increase and sustain support to ex-
isting institutions facilitating technology transfer, such as the
Global Environment Facility (GEF).58 New financing mecha-
nisms such as the Clean Energy Financing Facility proposed
by the World Bank should also be pursued.59 The capacity of
developing countries should be built to assess their technology
needs and manage new technologies.
• Adopt incentives to assist developed countries to increase the
efficiency and reduce the cost of clean energy technologies
through research and development and adoption of specific
targets. Countries that meet such targets ahead of time could
receive credit towards their emission reduction. Moreover, de-
veloped countries’ provision of financial incentives and tech-
nical assistance will encourage developing countries to adopt
affordable, clean energy technologies to stabilize and then re-
duce their emissions.
• Recognize contributions from the private sector, and create
incentives (moral and financial) to encourage further action
by private companies, who will be critical to any prospects for
large-scale technological innovation.
Adaptation. For all countries, adaptation must be addressed in con-
cert with mitigation in order to combat climate change. Developing
countries will need assistance in adapting to climate change to reduce
their vulnerability and enhance their preparedness to respond. Options
for assistance could include:
• Increase and sustain financing to strengthen adaptation capaci-
ties of developing countries most vulnerable to climate change
(using existing channels such as the GEF, United Nations De-
velopment Programme and the World Bank).
• Support the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) in its work to develop tropical agricul-
tural R&D programmes, focusing primarily on Sub-Saharan
Africa’s needs, and ultimately delivering new seeds and breeds
tolerant to climate variations.
Capacity building. A comprehensive approach to capacity building in
developing countries is key for creating and disseminating clean energy
technologies, establishing carbon markets and implementing interna-
tional protocols.60

43
Promoting Global Prosperity:

5
Financial stability and

Chapter
international trade

Greater prosperity will aid, and be aided by, efforts to combat infectious
disease and climate change. It will contribute to international peace and
security, on which it also depends. Global public goods are particularly
relevant for financial stability, a condition for development and eco-
nomic growth, and international trade, a major driver of that growth.

Financial stability

To identify the policies and actions that promote financial stability or,
perhaps more important, engender instability is clearly in the inter-
national public interest since financial turbulence tends to spill across
borders.61 It is in the world’s common interest that countries pursue
policies that do not provoke financial instability.
This requires international cooperation by governments and mul-
tilateral organizations to organize and coordinate efforts to prevent and
resolve financial crises. The risk of free riding by individual countries is
evident; some measures are costly or involve giving up sovereignty to
a multilateral body, and thus run the risk of under-provision. Indeed,
many would argue that the emerging market financial crises of the
1990s resulted from such under-provision and from capital-account lib-
eralization policy stipulated by major shareholders of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
The costs of financial crises in Mexico (1994), in Indonesia, Korea,
Malaysia and Thailand during the East Asia crisis (1996–98), in Russia
(1998) and in Argentina (2000–01) are staggering.62 Looking farther into
the past, the shutdown of the global financial markets in the 1930s led to
the Great Depression, with enormous ramifications in money and lives.
While the risk of crisis may have declined since the 1990s, it is hard
to imagine that the current exceptionally calm financial markets and
considerable liquidity will last. We should use this time to strengthen

45
 the international financial system so that it can better withstand the
next crisis.
There is broad agreement among policy-makers on the causes of
financial instability: unsustainable macroeconomic policies, fragile fi-
nancial systems, institutional weaknesses and structural flaws in inter-
national financial markets.63 And much has been done to address these
causes. There have been significant improvements in conceptualizing
and implementing macroeconomic policies. Financial markets and in-
stitutions are better regulated. And the multilateral framework is better
prepared, starting with the IMF, to facilitate cooperation in regulating
financial markets and conducting macroeconomic policies.64 The prob-
lem is that few of the institutions created for these purposes have the po-
litical independence or power to sanction a country that breaches agreed
policies. For example, the IMF conducts surveillance, including for global
financial issues, and twice yearly it publishes simulations and makes policy
recommendations on such matters.65 The problem, however, is that IMF
management cannot issue blunt warnings of global risks, either publicly
or privately,66 due to the fear of being punished by its shareholders, espe-
cially major ones.
In an optimal world, organizations such as the IMF should be given
the independence, perhaps by changing their governance structures, to
speak out clearly and bluntly on issues that threaten financial stability.67
And the policy recommendations should be equally strong whether they
concern policy adjustments for small countries or large.The governor of
the Bank of England recently suggested that “serious consideration should
be given to a non-resident board”, arguing that such a structure would
avoid unnecessary political interference on issues of surveillance.68
The IMF Managing Director has recently suggested strengthening
the Fund’s role in global surveillance. If the large shareholders of the
IMF were to recognize that it is in their own interests to strengthen
the multilateralization of surveillance, and as a consequence award IMF
management greater independence to speak out, such an instrument
would be particularly effective.

Incremental improvements to the system

We currently see limited scope for delegating more authority to inter-

national regulatory and supervisory bodies. In the meantime the inter-
national community should focus on incremental steps. With a greater
sense of urgency than has been demonstrated over the last few years,

46
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 5

the international community should focus on four priority actions: cri-

sis prevention, crisis management, combating money laundering and
restoring IMF legitimacy through governance reform along the lines
suggested in chapter 9.
Crisis prevention. The primary responsibility for preventing financial
crises rests with the countries themselves. Stronger macroeconomic, fi-
nancial and exchange rate policies are critical for both developing and
developed countries. For example, the sustainability of the US current
account and fiscal imbalances—and the capital inflows that finance
them—pose major risks of a disorderly adjustment that would rever-
berate throughout global financial markets. It is essential that the IMF
ensures even­-handed treatment on exchange-rate monitoring and other
surveillance issues of all member countries, including very large ones.69
For developed countries the priority is to promote strong and stable
growth through sound, sustainable and appropriately coordinated mon-
etary, fiscal and exchange rate policies. For emerging-market economies
the priorities are to adhere to sustainable debt and fiscal management
and exchange rate policies to reduce the risk of crisis, avoid the buildup
of excessive net foreign liabilities (especially short term, whether in
official or private accounts), ensure transparency and adhere to agreed
standards and codes. These economies must also pursue adequate social
policies to make growth more inclusive. Long-run stability requires so-
cial and political sustainability.
The IMF Managing Director’s proposal to introduce a new pro-
cedure for multilateral surveillance at the IMF and to promote debate
on issues of systemic importance should be supported. He argues that
there is not enough substantive debate to resolve global macroeco-
nomic problems.70 The Fund’s special procedure for bringing pressing
problems to the fore outside the regular Article IV consultations with
member countries is rarely used, partly for the stigma of being singled
out. The new procedure would allow the Fund to take up issues with
important members and even with entities, such as regional group-
ings, that are not members. An enhanced focus on regional surveillance
within the Fund would complement this initiative.
Crisis management. Three mechanisms have dominated the crisis
management debate in recent years; progress is needed on each front.
First is sovereign debt rescheduling and restructuring among bond-
holders.The challenge here is to secure an agreement among independ-
ent creditors who may benefit collectively from an agreement but suffer
individually.71 One approach that has gained ground in recent years is to

47
 include collective action clauses in new bond issues.72 The IMF should
reaffirm the importance of such clauses for promoting orderly sovereign
debt restructurings.
Second, sovereign debtors and their private creditors have agreed on
a set of principles for stable capital flows and fair debt restructuring in
emerging markets.73 This effort should be pursued further by sovereign
debtors and their private creditors.These principles could facilitate dia-
logue between creditors and debtors (critical to the debt restructuring
process), promote corrective policy action to reduce the frequency and
severity of crises and improve the prospects for an orderly and expedi-
tious resolution of crises.
A third mechanism is some insurance-type instrument that would
allow countries with strong policies beset by a financial crisis to draw
from the IMF and line up significant international financial support
very quickly, along the lines of the IMF’s Contingent Credit Line,
which expired in 2004. It has been proposed that the Fund or the
World Bank establish a new medium-term stability and growth facility
for supporting emerging-market economies that would be sufficiently
large, front-loaded and long-lived to facilitate the reduction of large
debt burdens while encouraging social policies designed to reach the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).74 The Fund is currently con-
sidering a new instrument that provides a high-access line of credit to
emerging markets that have strong macroeconomic policies but which
remain vulnerable to shocks.
The IMF should consider to a greater extent the impacts of policy
options on the most vulnerable sections of society, both in its surveil-
lance work (as suggested by the IMF Independent Evaluation Office)75
and in designing capital account crisis programmes.
Combating money laundering. Markedly less visible than financial crises
is the often inadvertent assistance provided to criminal elements for the
cross-border financing of illegal and terrorist activities. For the global
anti–money laundering regime to be effective, a reasonable degree of
participation is required by all countries, because the regime is only as
strong as its weakest link.76 A global strategy to intensify combat against
this global public bad would see the Financial Action Task Force on
Money Laundering launch an international effort to establish global
standards on asset freezes and forfeitures so that such actions are both
internationally coordinated and comprehensive. It would also ensure that
all OECD countries that have not done so include tax evasion, whether
at home or abroad, among the offences subject to prosecution for money

48
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 5

laundering.The IMF should produce a periodic global report on money

laundering, rating nations around the world for the extent and nature of
their money-laundering problems and corrective actions.
Strengthening the IMF. Any strategy for financial stability must ensure
a strong and effective IMF, able to perform its core functions.77 The cur-
rent high liquidity of the international capital markets and the absence
of capital account crises over recent years have led some to argue that
there is no longer a need for the IMF’s crisis response. We disagree.
There are risks other than emerging market uncertainty in the interna-
tional financial system—not least, the current account imbalances that
loom over the international economy, the risks associated with under-
supervision of derivatives and the intervention of large-scale hedge
funds into international capital market. We see the current moment of
calm as a time for preparedness not complacency—an important op-
portunity to take the necessary policy and financial steps to ensure that
the IMF is well prepared to take on future crises, with all the necessary
safeguards against moral hazard.

Strengthening the international trading system

Since the inception of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT) in 1947, a process to build a rule-based multilateral trading
system has been taking place (see figure 5.1). This system, which some-
times has proceeded by big strides and at others with only little steps,
on balance has been an impressive achievement. The overwhelming
trade barriers that existed in the industrialized countries at the end of
the Second World War—and those that were later erected in many de-
veloping countries as a result of their import substitution policies—have
now been greatly diminished, if not totally eliminated. Thanks to its
progressive liberalization, a task undoubtedly facilitated by the multilat-
eral system, trade has been a chief engine of global economic growth
for well over half a century.
Mainly by virtue of the principles of most-favoured-nation treat-
ment and national treatment—enshrined respectively in Articles I and
III of the GATT—the multilateral trading system tends to be a global
public good.78 Formally, the system’s availability to any one member is
not at the expense of that of any other member.The most significant end
result of the system—preventing or reducing protectionism—benefits,
potentially, all of its members.These very same features bring with them

49
Figure 5.1 The Increase in the Number of Countries Participating in Multilateral Trade Negotiations

ՓLiÀʜvÊVœÕ˜ÌÀˆiÃÊ«>À̈Vˆ«>̈˜}ʈ˜Ê“Տ̈>ÌiÀ>ÊÌÀ>`iʘi}œÌ>̈œ˜Ã
£Èä

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nä

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{ä

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ä
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£™{Ç £™{™ £™{Ç £™xÈ ­ˆœ˜Ê ­i˜˜i`ÞÊ ­/œŽÞœ ­1ÀÕ}Õ>ÞÊ Óää£
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Source: www.wto.org

the free-rider problem inherent in the provision of any public good.

In fact, being endowed with an enforcement instrument—the dispute
settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organization (WTO)—the
multilateral trading system may be closer to being a global public good
than other international regimes.

Elements of an effective multilateral trading system

Despite its remarkable evolution, the multilateral trading system is not

quite as global, as public or as good as potentially it can be. Notwith-
standing the ideal of universality and the principles of reciprocity and
non-discrimination that have been present since its origins, as the sys-
tem has grown, over time it has accommodated rules that, in contradic-
tion to those principles, allow for discriminatory treatment of products
and trading partners. The specific countries actively participating in
each round of trade negotiations, their respective power to influence
the outcome and the sectoral interests that their governments decided
to privilege in each round are some of the key factors that have deter-

50
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 5

mined the system’s features; and these, over time, have conflicted with
its fundamental principles.
For one thing, the GATT itself (Article XXIV) allows for preferen-
tial trade agreements, which in recent years have mushroomed to almost
200, and in many instances can impede global trade rather than promote
it. The system also lacks the proper means to discipline instruments
such as standards, anti-dumping and safeguards that are frequently used
for outright, arbitrary and discriminatory protectionism.79 Furthermore
important sectors remain outside the general principles and disciplines
of the system. For more than 50 years under various derogations from
GATT rules—most recently under the Multifibre Agreement (MFA)
phased out only on 1 January 2005—trade in textiles and clothing was
subject to quotas.To this day in many countries, trade in these products
continues to be restricted by high tariffs and even quantitative restric-
tions allowed by some transitory WTO provisions.
Even more anomalous than the textiles and clothing case has been
the treatment of agriculture. This sector was brought into the legal
framework of the multilateral trading system only in 1994 as a result of
the Uruguay Round.This long-overdue step happened, however, with-
out any meaningful liberalization of farm trade, which has continued to
be affected by massive subsidies for farm production in rich countries
and enormous market access barriers (tariffs and others) applied by both
developed and developing countries.
Interestingly in the Uruguay Round, in order to get the agreement
to phase out the MFA and to bring agriculture into the WTO system,
developing countries had to accept bringing intellectual property pro-
tection—clearly a non-trade issue—into the WTO’s jurisdiction.
The system has thus permitted greater protectionism in products
of significant export interest for developing countries. The provisions
allowing for special and differential treatment for these countries, and
the trade preferences granted by developed countries, do not compen-
sate in any meaningful way for the trading opportunities missed as a
consequence of the remaining protectionism. Objectively, the system is
unbalanced against the interests of developing countries.

The breakdown of the Doha Round

Balancing the system to make it more supportive of developing coun-

tries’ development was a core objective of the Doha Round—dubbed
for this reason the development agenda—launched in November of

51
 2001. But this sense of purpose was short-lived. Since its launch, the
round’s story has been one of key deadlines missed, one WTO Min-
isterial Conference (Cancún, September 2003) collapsed, another one
(Hong Kong, December 2005) with meaningless results and, finally, a
total suspension of the negotiations for lack of agreement on any of the
important issues (July 2006). It is unlikely that the talks can be restored
with any chance of success in the near future.
The main reason for the Doha breakdown is to be found in the
agriculture negotiations. The majority of developed countries has re-
sisted effective liberalization in farm trade all along. Years of negotia-
tions could not make these countries agree on formulas that would
effectively open their farm markets to imports and significantly reduce
their most distorting farm subsidies. In fact what was brought to the
table even up to the very collapse of the talks would have accomplished
little to open up agricultural markets and to temper the huge distortions
caused in those markets by the high subsidies granted by OECD coun-
tries to their farmers.80 Of course more than real farm reform in rich
countries was needed to have concluded the Doha Round successfully.
Developing countries would have had to undertake at least a modi-
cum of agricultural liberalization as well as be more forthcoming about
dismantling remaining barriers in industrial goods. More ambition to
open up trade in services, including some modest steps in the temporary
movement of workers, was also indispensable. The question of how to
compensate the poorest countries for their loss of preferences, which a
good agreement would have brought about, also needed to be seriously
considered along with the issue of how to support the same group of
countries to improve their infrastructure and develop their export ca-
pacity. An “aid for trade fund” commensurate with these endeavours is
indispensable for making a large number of developing countries equal
members of the multilateral trading system. As argued above, the system
is also in great need of stronger provisions to prevent backdoor protec-
tionism through regional trade agreements and through the artifices of
standards, anti-dumping and safeguards.
All parties have contributed to the disappointment produced by
the Doha Round. There has been a lack of ambitious trade reformers,
among both the developed and the developing countries, capable of
producing liberalizing initiatives to break the numerous impasses en-
dured throughout the negotiations. Considering their relative wealth
and the benefits that they have already received from the multilateral
trading system, it is clear that the richer and bigger players (the Euro-

52
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 5

pean Union, Japan and the United States) should have a special respon-
sibility towards enhancing and strengthening the system, a responsibility
which they have not fulfilled during the present round.
Needless to say, the Doha Round fiasco does not stem from a fail-
ure of the trade negotiators to do their job. These negotiators’ capaci-
ties can never exceed the mandate received from the governments they
represent. It will be up to the highest levels of political leadership in
those governments to do what it takes to complete adequately the Doha
agenda. It makes little sense to go back to the negotiating table if the ac-
tors with the biggest responsibility do not first address seriously their re-
spective domestic political economy issues which have precluded them
from playing coherently their role at the multilateral talks.
The cost of failure in the Doha Round is not only the income op-
portunities forgone for both developed and developing countries that
its successful conclusion would provide, but more importantly the losses
that all will incur if the system is allowed to deteriorate and eventually
proves incapable of preventing countries from back-pedaling into pro-
tectionism—as has happened before in history. Despite its achievements,
the multilateral trading system is not yet a consolidated global public
good. It remains vulnerable to serious erosion by episodes of protec-
tionism. It also has limited capacity to support the integration into the
world economy of many countries that have been left on the sidelines
of globalization despite formally belonging to the WTO.

A strategy to resume the Doha Round

This Task Force endorses the full resumption of the Doha Round as
soon as possible. But we believe that simply going back to the status
quo that existed before the suspension of the talks would be a futile and
frustrating exercise. A more reasonable chance of success entails a two-
part strategy for catalysing its resumption:
Commitment to agricultural reform. A transparent agreement among
the biggest beneficiaries of the multilateral trading system (Canada, the
European Union, Japan and the United States—the so-called Quad)
to commit at last to real agricultural reform—ambitious reduction in
trade barriers and abatement of trade distorting subsidies, without the
loopholes that they have systematically pursued—we suggest would be
a pre-requisite to restart the talks with a reasonable chance of success.
Aid for trade. The Quad members, given their pre-eminence as pro-
viders of official development assistance, could also take the first clear

53
 steps to constitute the “aid for trade fund” discussed above. This group
would not need to grant unilaterally an offer of agricultural reform
and aid for trade; the Quad could make it conditional upon satisfactory
completion of the other key issues included in the Doha Development
Agenda. Capacity building for trade, and trade-related technical assis-
tance, should also be expanded. It should include training, seminars and
studies, as well as support for the design and implementation of trade
policy.81
An agreement of this kind among the Quad members most likely
would have a powerful catalytic effect on the rest of the WTO member-
ship. Other developed countries resistant until now to remove agricul-
tural barriers would have to reconsider their positions. Large developing
countries, that have had in rich countries’ farm protectionism a “good
reason” (or the perfect excuse) for not moving in the negotiations,
would also find compromise towards a good agreement to be inescap-
able. Finally, a solvent aid for trade fund would help in bringing other
developing countries on board.

54
Achieving Peace and Security:

6
International terrorism, nuclear

Chapter
weapons and the use of force

Underlying all of the strategies and goals outlined above is the urgent
need to preserve international peace and security. In the absence of an
effective collective security system, not only will the levels of war, ter-
rorism and other forms of strife increase, but international prosperity
will be at risk or even reversed. War, conflict and terrorism will erode
international confidence, weakening financial markets. And isolationism
and distrust between peoples will infect trade regimes, bringing protec-
tionism and economic reversal. International public health and efforts to
combat climate change will suffer in an atmosphere of eroding security.
There are many urgent and important policy challenges ahead in
this area, but for present illustrative purposes we emphasize just three
relevant global public goods objectives: the need for a multidimensional
strategy to combat international terrorism, for a serious new effort on
nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and for a serious attempt to
reach agreement on when the use of military force is legitimate. All of
these rely significantly, in turn, on reforms to ensure that the UN Secu-
rity Council has the legitimacy to act and the means to succeed.

Collective security

For most of the period since 1945 security has been conceived of as es-
sentially a national issue—each country’s primary security responsibility
was to its own citizens, with international security being the realm of
interaction between states acting on that basis. But progressively since
the end of the cold war, scholars, governments and international se-
curity institutions including the UN have placed much more empha-
sis—most comprehensively in the report of the UN High-Level Panel
on Threats, Challenges and Change—on the new security realities of
common threats, shared vulnerability and the need for a much more
cooperative global approach, recognizing that state security and broader
human security are inextricably interlinked.82 In its report, the Panel
argued for a new security consensus and concerted national and inter-

55
 national action to tackle six clusters of interconnected security threats:
war between states; internal conflict; terrorism; organized crime; the use
and spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; and poverty,
infectious disease and severe environmental degradation.
The Panel’s call for a new security consensus was widely embraced
by governments and civil society organizations, but unfortunately only
minimally adopted by the UN World Summit in 2005. In acting on the
Panel’s recommendations, governments made some progress on some
clusters of threats, but failed altogether on other issues.
Most progress was made on strengthening the UN’s role for pre-
venting and responding to internal conflict, genocide and large-scale
human rights abuses. Against many expectations, the Summit strongly
endorsed the concept of the responsibility to protect, recognizing
that the international community has the responsibility to take col-
lective action where national authorities are manifestly failing to pro-
tect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing
and crimes against humanity. It also created a new Peacebuilding
Commission to coordinate and sustain post-conflict reconstruction
and endorsed the concept of a new Human Rights Council, which
was brought into being by the General Assembly in April 2006.
Less noticed but still significant were agreements at the Summit to
strengthen the UN’s approach to tackling organized crime and re-
lated transnational threats.
But there were three areas of major disappointment in the World
Summit outcomes on peace and security (quite apart from failing to
even agree to a starting point for action on reform of the UN Security
Council, an issue we address in Part III). First, the Summit failed to
offer even a single sentence on the critical issues of nuclear, biological
and chemical weapons. Second, although the Summit did unequivo-
cally condemn terrorism—without any reservations, for the first time
in the UN’s history—it neither endorsed a widely acclaimed coun-
ter-terrorism strategy proposed by the Secretary-General, nor agreed
to a definition of terrorism. Third, while the Summit reaffirmed the
centrality of the UN Charter on issues relating to the use of force in
the international community, it did not accept the Panel’s recommen-
dations for more detailed criteria for the use of force, which had been
designed to maximize the chances of reaching consensus when po-
tentially highly divisive cases arose in the future as they have in recent
years, nowhere more than in the case of Iraq. Each of these issue areas
requires concerted action.

56
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 6

Deterring international terrorism

Terrorism is truly a global phenomenon. Countries and peoples in every

region have been the subject of terrorist attacks just in the years since
11 September 2001. Moreover terrorism directly attacks the separation
between civilian and combatant, a concept at the core of international
law and norms of war and conflict.
Although data about terrorism is notoriously poor, evidence sug-
gests that there is a steady increase in “significant” terrorist attacks, from
17 in 1987 to more than 170 in 2003.83
Even relatively small-scale terrorist attacks have significant direct
and indirect social and economic costs, not only in the country of at-
tack. Among them is the rising economic cost associated with enhanced
security of trade and transport systems.Trade security systems are rising
in cost and complexity—for example, in ever-more elaborate mecha-
nisms for container security. Were a terrorist organization to smuggle
a nuclear or biological device into a major port using a container, it is
likely that the biggest trading nations would feel compelled to adopt
even more stringent container security measures, affecting trade glob-
ally. And were a terrorist organization to detonate such a device in a
major city, the direct and indirect economic, social and political costs
would be both enormous and global.
The international regime to combat terrorism has, as it has evolved
so far, a number of major elements:
• Binding requirements on all states, articulated through UN
Security Council Resolutions 1373 and 1540, to combat ter-
rorism and proliferation on their own soil.
• An encompassing set of 12 treaties covering specific terrorist
action, such as hijacking aeroplanes.
• A framework for tackling international terrorist financing, ini-
tiated by the G-8 and institutionalized at the OECD (Finan-
cial Action Task Force on Money Laundering).
• Some international police, intelligence and operational co-
ordination, through Interpol and the European Union and
through issue-specific collaboration among Interpol, the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Atomic
Energy Agency.
• Some technical assistance to states to develop counter-terror-
ism legislation, organized through a voluntary fund at the UN
Office for Drugs and Crime.

57
 • Growing bilateral technical cooperation around counter-terrorism,
both in terms of capacity building and intelligence sharing.
Nevertheless, there lacks any clear consensus on all the necessary el-
ements of a strategy to combat international terrorism and their relative
weighting.There has been an over-supply of rhetoric and an under-sup-
ply of thoughtful analysis, with a lot more attention paid to responding
to surface manifestations than to understanding and addressing underly-
ing causes and currents.The UN Secretary-General made an important
attempt to redress that balance in Madrid in March 2005, arguing that
five distinct goals had to be pursued simultaneously: dissuade disaffected
groups from choosing terrorism as a tactic; deny terrorists the means to
carry out attacks; deter states from supporting terrorists; develop state
capacity to prevent terrorism; and defend human rights in the struggle
against terrorism.84 Operationally, these may be seen as translating into
a five-part strategy:
• A protection strategy focused on preventive national security
in all its forms, the guarding of trade and transport routes
and ensuring in particular that potential terrorists have no
access to fissile nuclear material. And while chemical and
biological weapons have been outlawed, access especially to
dual use biological materials remains a grave risk to inter-
national security. The Secretary-General’s recent proposal to
establish a forum for elaboration of safeguards against the
misuse of biological materials is welcome and warrants ur-
gent consideration.
• A policing strategy encompassing police, intelligence services
(enhancing whose capability and operational effectiveness re-
mains a high priority around the world) and, in very extreme
cases, military forces.
• A political strategy to tackle grievances—the occupation of Pal-
estine and Iraq preeminent among them—which increase sup-
port for terrorist actions among domestic constituencies and
manifestly encourage recruitment to organized groups or, in-
creasingly worryingly, self-initiated action by small groups of
disaffected individuals.
• A polity-building strategy to help states develop their own abil-
ity to combat terrorism, recognizing the role of failed, fail-
ing and fragile states in harbouring and nurturing terrorist
groups capable of causing real damage elsewhere. At present,
many donor governments are engaged in debates between

58
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 6

ministries about the prospect of using development assistance

funds to build counter-terrorism capacity in situations that do
not qualify as official development assistance—a debate that
illustrates the problem of tackling global challenges without
adequate financial tools for global public goods.
• A psychological strategy including, at a global level, the develop-
ment of a normative prohibition against terrorism through the
adoption of the definition of terrorism proposed by the High-
Level Panel, and endorsed by the UN Secretary-General. This
should be done by a vote at the General Assembly designed to
make clear once and for all that attacks on civilians, whatever
the context in terms of resistance to foreign occupation or
anything else, are absolutely indefensible and comprehensively
prohibited. In this content, as in others, the consensus rules
of the General Assembly have served not to enhance interna-
tional agreement, but to bury accountability.
Implementation of this strategy would be aided by independent,
evidence-based research into the types, sources and causes of terror-
ism. Continued debates about the causes of terrorism, particularly in
terms of its relationship to poverty and occupation, impede interna-
tional agreement on how to tackle the phenomenon.

Preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons

If the international regime for disarmament and non-proliferation

of nuclear weapons stands as one of the most important accomplish-
ments of the multilateral system in the post-Second World War era,
its ongoing erosion is the most worrying and most dangerous of
contemporary developments (see figure 6.1). The establishment of
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its related agen-
cies, protocols and control mechanisms helped to deter the spread
and thus the risk of use of nuclear weapons for more than 40 years.
Alone among weapons, they have the potential to destroy humanity
in its entirety.While some of the nuclear weapons states have reduced
their stockpiles, others are building them, and remaining stockpiles
are more than adequate for the repeated destruction of mankind. No
state or person is immune from the risk of use of nuclear weapons or
from the potential effects of use.
So long as nuclear stockpiles are retained—both nuclear war-
heads at the ready and stockpiles of nuclear material (much of it badly

59
 Number of states possessing, actively pursuing and less actively exploring nuclear
Figure 6.1
weapons technology

ÕVi>ÀÊÜi>«œ˜ÃÊÃÌ>ÌiÃÊ­ 7-®
7-ʜÀÊ«ÕÀÃՈ˜}ʘՎiÃ
Number of states
7-ʜÀÊ«ÕÀÃՈ˜}ʜÀÊiÝ«œÀˆ˜}Ê
Îä

Óx

Óä

£x

£ä

ä
£™{x £™xx £™Èx £™Çx £™nx £™™x

Ê
Source: Data generously supplied by Christopher Way; see Singh and Way (2004).

guarded and vulnerable to theft)—all states and peoples will be more

vulnerable. As the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (other-
wise known as the Blix Commission) has starkly put it, “So long as
any state has … nuclear arms, others will want them. So long as any
such weapons remain in any state’s arsenal, there is a high risk that
they will one day be used, by design or accident. Any such use would
be catastrophic.”85
Yet, appallingly, several events have eroded the viability of the NPT,
and successive opportunities to reverse that trend have been lost. The
withdrawal of North Korea from the NPT signalled an important blow.
The collapse of the May 2005 NPT Review Conference was a further
reversal. The failure of the UN World Summit to agree a single sen-
tence on the issue signalled the scale of the problem. And the building
crisis in the Middle East outlines the dangers. The ongoing unwill-
ingness of several of the nuclear weapons states to even acknowledge
previous commitments to a 12-step disarmament process is as disheart-
ening as it is irresponsible. And most recently, the US-India deal (still
unratified), while usefully bringing India’s nuclear programme into
some degree of international oversight, did so at the cost of further
erosion of international support for the NPT.

60
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 6

Ad hoc measures that supplement the NPT are of course still in

effect, notably the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG), which limits ex-
ports of nuclear-relevant technology and materials. The revelations of
the A.Q. Khan smuggling network highlighted the limitations of the
NSG’s approach, though the circumstances under which A.Q. Khan
operated were highly specific and difficult to replicate. Nevertheless
the threat of smuggling of materials and weapons is a real one. It has
been met in small part first by the Nunn-Lugar Initiative (the cre-
ation of a private foundation to buy back nuclear materials) and more
recently by the promulgation first by the United States and then the
G-8 of the Proliferation Security Initiative.
In short, political attention to the disarmament agenda has receded,
but the threat these weapons pose is growing—a recipe for mounting
risk, possibly disaster.

Elements of a strategy

As our report was being finalized, the Blix Commission issued its final
report. We endorse the four sets of recommendations on nuclear weap-
ons that it proposes, briefly recapped here:
• Agree on the general principles of action, that is to say that dis-
armament and non-proliferation are best pursued through a
cooperative, rule-based international order with the UN Se-
curity Council as the ultimate global authority, that there is an
urgent need to revive negotiations on key outstanding issues
and that to this end preparations should commence for a new
World Summit.
• Reduce the dangers of present arsenals by securing nuclear material,
taking nuclear weapons off of high-alert status, prohibiting the
production of fissile materials and adopting no-first-use pledges
and other security assurances to diminish the role of nuclear
weapons in security policy.
• Prevent proliferation by bringing the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test Ban Treaty into force, reviving the fundamental com-
mitments of the NPT, continuing negotiations with Iran and
North Korea towards their effective and verified rejection of
the nuclear option and exploring international arrangements
for an assurance of supply of enriched uranium fuel.
• Work towards outlawing nuclear weapons as has already been done
for biological and chemical weapons, including by implement-

61
 ing regional nuclear-free weapons zones and by prohibiting
any stationing or use of nuclear weapons in outer space.

Criteria for the use of force

No issue has been more controversial in recent years than the use of
military force, with and without Security Council approval, in the Bal-
kans, Iraq and elsewhere. As the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Chal-
lenges and Change argued, as these issues arise, case by case, the chances
of the international community reaching consensus as to whether such
force is or is not appropriate would be enhanced if agreement could
be reached by the Security Council (and endorsed by the General
Assembly) on the adoption of a set of criteria to guide its delibera-
tions over the use of force. Clear criteria cannot guarantee agreement,
but their consistent application—in conformity with the charter of the
United Nations—would go a long way to help the Security Council
avoid critical mistakes—of action or inaction—and enhance its per-
ceived legitimacy as the ultimate decision-making authority on inter-
national peace and security.
The five key “principles of legitimacy” recommended by the High-
Level Panel are:
• Seriousness of threat. Is the threatened harm to state or human
security of a kind, and sufficiently clear and serious, to justify
prima facie the use of military force? In the case of internal
threats, does it involve genocide and other large-scale killing,
ethnic cleansing or serious violations of international humani-
tarian law, actual or imminently apprehended?
• Proper purpose. Is it clear that the primary purpose of the pro-
posed military action is to halt or avert the threat in question,
whatever other purposes or motives may be involved?
• Last resort. Has every non-military option for meeting the
threat in question been explored, with there being reasonable
grounds for believing that other measures will not succeed?
• Proportional means. Are the scale, duration and intensity of the
proposed military action the minimum necessary to meet the
threat in question?
• Balance of consequences. Is there a reasonable chance of the mili-
tary action being successful in meeting the threat in question,

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 6

with the consequences of action not likely to be worse than

the consequences of inaction?
Debate in the UN in the follow-up to the Secretary-General’s sub-
mission of these principles to the General Assembly and the Security
Council revealed significant support for their acceptance, but a division
among the permanent members about the desirability of their adop-
tion as formal guidelines. In this, as in other matters, enhancing the
legitimacy of the Security Council can only contribute to the process
of aligning national and global interests. The alternatives are a Security
Council unable to act, or one able to act only against the broad sense of
members’ values and interests—equally unpalatable outcomes.
But enhancing the legitimacy of the Security Council will require
more than just articulating criteria for the use of force. Rather, the
mechanism that has repeatedly blocked action in critical cases—the
veto—requires attention, if only to try to reach consensus about the
limited circumstances in which it should be used. So too does the mem-
bership of the body, now as outdated and unrepresentative as to struc-
turally weaken its legitimacy and perceived authority. Reforms to the
veto and composition of the Security Council would significantly en-
hance its authority to act and the capacity to succeed. We address the
details in chapter 9.

63
 7
A Cross-Cutting Issue:

Chapter
Knowledge

Knowledge is perhaps the clearest example of a public good. Once

knowledge is generated it can be shared, in principle, by many people
at the same time, and it is hard for creators of knowledge to maintain
exclusive property of it. Hence if left to market forces alone, there would
always be a tendency to under-invest in the generation of knowledge.
This explains why governments intervene, on the one hand, by sup-
porting the creation of knowledge through direct subsidies and, on the
other, by according and enforcing intellectual property rights. The latter
process certainly provides incentives for the creation of new knowledge,
but it also impairs the diffusion of existing knowledge. Determining the
extent of government intervention to support the creation and diffusion
of knowledge with either kind of instrument—direct funding or intel-
lectual property rights—is a crucial political choice. It is now well estab-
lished that the capacity to assimilate, diffuse and generate knowledge is a
key factor of economic growth and development at the national level.
Knowledge is not only a national public good, but a global public
good as well, because its diffusion is not stopped by borders.86 People
in any nation could in principle benefit from scientific or technological
knowledge produced in other nations. The spontaneous globalization
of knowledge does not occur, however, largely because many countries,
due to deficiencies in their educational systems, have limited capacity
to assimilate existing and new knowledge. Another barrier to sponta-
neous globalization is that knowledge has been made to some degree
excludable by the adoption of intellectual property rights. Even though
knowledge is by itself critical for development, at the same time it serves
as an input to the provision of other global public goods.Therefore it is
treated as a cross-cutting issue in this Report.
Examples of why knowledge is crucial for the provision of other
global public goods abound in areas such as controlling communicable
diseases, managing global commons, achieving an open trade regime and
pursuing financial stability.87 An important past example is found in the
“green revolution”—a process that combined knowledge generation and

65
 sharing to produce grain that responded more favourably to fertilizer and
is credited with fostering major reductions in levels of poverty and hunger
in the developing world.88
The past 20 years have witnessed four major trends in knowledge.
First, there has been an enormous increase in the creation of knowledge.
Second, there is huge growth in the role of the private sector in gen-
erating knowledge, which has become more important economically.
Third, the greater openness of borders to products and people and the
development of transportation and communications (particularly digital
information technologies) have created new global opportunities for
accessing and disseminating knowledge. Fourth, the use of intellectual
property rights to protect knowledge has restricted access to informa-
tion and technologies. Knowledge is increasingly privatized and com-
mercialized—even knowledge developed with public funding.89

International cooperation for knowledge

Two issues have especially significant cross-border implications: intel-

lectual property and common knowledge.
Intellectual property. At the international level, the long-standing
focus has been on cross-border reciprocity in honouring patents, copy-
rights and trademarks protected under national laws through treaties
administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, and most
significantly by the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of In-
tellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that came into effect as a result of
the Uruguay Round.90
Common knowledge. The common knowledge system includes the
vast stock of knowledge in the public domain reflecting centuries of
human endeavour. It includes knowledge that is “graduating” from intel-
lectual property protection with the expiration of patents and copyrights.
It includes new scientific findings from basic research for which intel-
lectual property protection is not sought (such as the Human Genome
Project). And it includes open source software (such as Linux), research
tools and databases for which protection is also voluntarily not sought.
The issue of intellectual property versus common knowledge is par-
ticularly important given the critical role of the private sector in knowl-
edge generation. For the most part private companies invest in knowledge
generation on the basis of expected returns from intellectual property
rights. The very mechanism of intellectual property rights, however, also

66
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 7

limits the availability of knowledge, turning it from a public into a private

good.
At the international level significant investments have been made in
the free exchange of scientific research findings and results, in some cases
supported by public funding, including such international research part-
nerships as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Re-
search (CGIAR) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Another
example is the European Organization for Nuclear Research (known
as CERN).91
All these initiatives produce scientific breakthroughs and new knowl-
edge available to all. Similarly, we emphasize the importance of further
efforts to ensure that statistics delivered by governments and compiled or
collected by international institutions are openly available.
Both systems—intellectual property and common knowledge—are
needed, but there is no neat formula indicating how much of one rela-
tive to the other is desirable. During the past 20 years, the balance
between the two kinds of systems has been tilting towards private intel-
lectual property. The European Union has adopted a highly restrictive
directive on the protection of databases. The United States has ex-
panded the scope of patentable research findings, including what oth-
erwise would be considered discoveries of nature rather than inventions.
And other developed nations have moved to protect business software,
plant and animal varieties, genetic sequences and biotechnological re-
search tools.92 By far, and somewhat ironically, the most important step
to protect intellectual property rights has taken place on the multilateral
front with the adoption of the TRIPS agreement.
These and other changes in the intellectual property system have
resulted in a relative contraction of the common knowledge platform.
The knowledge gap between the rich countries and the majority of
poor countries is widening and with it the possibilities are reduced
of closing the development gap between them. Furthermore the role
of knowledge as an input for the production of other global public
goods is also being limited by the protection of intellectual property as
clearly exemplified by the cases of R&D for disease control and climate
change.93
The Task Force strongly endorses two types of initiatives. First, those
aimed to enhance the common knowledge platform through interna-
tional partnerships. Specifically donor countries should expand their
financial commitments to enhance the global research and informa-
tion capabilities necessary to overcome crucial problems in the areas of

67
 rural development, environment and health in the poorest developing
countries. It is essential to ensure additional funding for the institutions
already conducting research in these areas, particularly the CGIAR and
the various partnerships in the medical sectors. On health, serious con-
sideration should be given to the creation of new partnerships, pref-
erably a network of research facilities specializing in tropical diseases,
guided and financed through an International Consultative Group, as
suggested in chapter 3.
Second, the Task Force endorses initiatives aimed to balance the ef-
fects of TRIPS on developing countries. As mentioned above, accepting
TRIPS was the cost paid by developing countries to have the Multifibre
Agreement phased out and agriculture brought into the WTO frame-
work. It has been estimated that developing countries eventually will be
paying close to $60 billion per year in royalties because of the enforce-
ment of TRIPS.94 Some of this cost was supposed to be compensated
by the expected benefits stemming from the protection of intellectual
property rights, benefits such as increased trade, additional technology
transfers and bigger foreign investment flows including the flows di-
rected to address specific needs of developing countries—like combat-
ing tropical diseases. The problem is that TRIPS is a bound obligation,
whereas the supposed compensating benefits are not. Thus, as is found
in other parts of the multilateral trading system, TRIPS is unbalanced
against the interests of developing countries.
One measure to balance the consequences of TRIPS, albeit only
partially, would be the establishment of a multilateral agreement on
open access to basic science and technology (ABST).95
The ABST could have at least five globally beneficial impacts. First,
it would help resolve the free-rider problems that reduce investments in
science and technology relative to a global optimum. Second, it could
restrain the tendency of governments to restrict access and to encourage
privatization of basic knowledge.This rebalancing of technology develop-
ment norms in favour of expanding the public domain could help vitalize
scientific research in many countries while promoting applied innovation.
Third, the agreement could provide an important plank for the construc-
tion of modern technological capabilities in poor countries while sustain-
ing access to information for educational purposes. Fourth, it should not
unduly restrict the rights of firms to exploit intellectual property in ap-
plied technologies and products. Finally, it could help restore confidence
on the part of developing countries that TRIPS and the WTO are institu-
tions that facilitate, rather than hinder, technology transfer.

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 7

The idea of establishing an agreement for ABST is endorsed by this

Task Force.The goal of ABST would be to facilitate the transfer of scien-
tific knowledge and technological information to developing countries.
Through ABST developed countries would be committed to support
poor countries in enhancing their capacity to assimilate, diffuse and
generate knowledge. With the necessary safeguards ABST would adopt
regimes to allow researchers from all countries to compete for local
research grants and for increasing global access to research outcomes.
These regimes should be built on the most-favoured-nation and national
treatment principles.

69
Part III

Improving the Provision

of Global Public Goods

71
Improving the Provision
of Global Public Goods

Although in Part II we have divided the analyses of key global public

goods into separate areas for clarity’s sake, we believe policy-makers must
give more attention to their interdependence. It may now be common-
place (as the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
argued) to say that “development is the indispensable foundation for a
collective security system”, and that there is growing recognition (in the
words of the European Security Strategy) that “security is a precondition
of development”. However, in practice, international negotiations all too
often focus on specific problems rather than the links and the priorities
among them.
Even where economic, security and environmental issues are ad-
dressed, they still tend to be treated as separate. There is often a sense
that some issues have been included in international agreements to
placate different audiences. Clauses on terrorism matter to the West,
for example; those on development to the South. They are brought
together not because they are interrelated, but as a trade-off between
irreconcilable parties, highlighting rather than reducing diverging in-
ternational interests.
This can be counter-productive, for today’s challenges cannot be
neatly categorized. Economic and environmental concerns foster a ris-
ing demand for civilian nuclear power, but given the state of interna-
tional controls this brings with it a growing risk of nuclear proliferation.
Freer trade increases global prosperity, but the twentieth century dem-
onstrated that the alternative of protectionism and unregulated com-
petition for resources can undermine security structures. Combating
infectious disease is warranted in its own right, but will also have posi-
tive side-effects for security and trade.
The idea of global public goods reflects such interdependence as a
necessary factor in effectively addressing global challenges. In the do-
mestic sphere, a competent government inevitably responds to differ-
ing interests; farmers and city-dwellers inevitably have separate needs.
But some public goods are common to all, such as basic health care, the

73
 money supply and police. And a government must balance them; an ad-
ministration that concentrated on policing but ignored public finances
and health would create not only a powerful gendarmerie, but also an
anarchic failed state.
At the global level, it is also important to balance policy priori-
ties. To focus solely on economic growth without considering its en-
vironmental impact will create resource shortages and raise the risk of
resource wars. States that combine high security with economic pro-
tectionism increase the threats they aim to defend against. If we do not
see the generation of global public goods as a process of balancing in-
terrelated demands and needs, we may progress in some areas, but the
international system will remain fragile, and the risks of crisis escalate.
In short, the potential gains from a positive interplay between im-
proved peace and security, an expanding sphere of prosperity and the
protection of the health of peoples and the environment are substantial
indeed. And the consequences of a potential negative spiral of protec-
tionism, isolationism, deepening international divisions and an erosion
of both security and stability are severe. Urgent action is needed to
forestall the former and realize the promise of the latter.
The provision of these priorities will require energetic action to
reform both the political decision-making and financing mechanisms
for national and international action.
In Part I we showed that historically catalytic efforts—often by the
most powerful—were required to provide global public goods. Events
of recent years have shown that the prospects for realizing such leader-
ship do not lie primarily in formal international institutions. They are
vital tools, and their health must be assured. But they are also cumber-
some, unable to respond quickly to emerging challenges, unable to act
nimbly across different issue areas and unable to generate critical break-
throughs on policy and institutional reforms to seize the opportunities
available to meet common goals or to avoid shared risks.
We conclude, as others have before us, that the best hope for gen-
erating the kind of catalytic leadership necessary for the provision
of global public goods lies with the establishment of a new, informal
forum.We propose, accordingly, a Global 25 forum that brings together
the heads of state and government from the developed and developing
countries that are the most responsible, capable and representative, as
well as relevant representatives of other groups and regions. With ap-
propriate links to the formal institutions, such a forum could do much
to spur action towards shared goals. And without such a forum—that

74
 Meeting Global Challenges

Part III

marries inclusion and agility—it will be extremely hard to achieve the

reforms to international policies, institutions and financing necessary to
achieve common goals.
But we cannot stress enough that such a catalytic forum must be
matched to—indeed it must strengthen and make more effective—for-
mal institutions and the wider process of negotiation and decision-mak-
ing they allow. This process is necessary to ensure that all states have a
chance to express their preferences and participate in the authoriza-
tion, or rejection, of action, even if the direction is initially set by the
Global 25. That the legitimacy of the decision-making mechanisms of
the major international institutions is in doubt poses a major obstacle to
this process, one requiring structural reform. We thus add our voices to
those who have called for reforming the mechanisms and representation
of the UN Security Council and the governing bodies of the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, as well as the broader
UN system—reflecting its dual roles in promoting development and
managing global issues.
The effectiveness of international mechanisms needs also to be en-
hanced through improved accountability, starting with greater trans-
parency. Such reforms will also aid national mobilization and resource
commitments.
So will the use of both best practice and new, innovative tools for
generating the necessary financing for global public goods. We stress
that national governments retain the primary responsibility, as it is in
their interest, for ensuring that global public goods are paid for. But
there is also a need for reform to improve the use of existing resources
and to tap the energy and initiative of the private sector.

75
76
Catalytic Leadership

8
and Action: The case

Chapter
for a Global 25 forum

The past few years have seen critical opportunities missed, institutional
reforms founder, international divisions deepen and risks mount. The
kind of catalytic, responsible leadership required to overcome these ob-
stacles to cooperation has been frequently lacking.
At the international level, of course, there is no equivalent to a na-
tional government to perform the functions of political mobilization,
making hard political decisions or ensuring coherence across different
sectors. Indeed the international sphere is defined precisely by the ab-
sence of an authority or a mandate that transcends sovereignty.
But there is a connection to national governments, and specifically
to heads of state and government, for only they can articulate the vision
and make the advanced commitments to catalyse the supply of global
public goods.
The question is thus how to mobilize and capture the energy of
national leadership at the international level—how best to ensure that
heads of state and government are appropriately and responsibly engaged
in global policy.

Political engagement of national authorities in global fora

Heads of state and government have primarily been engaged in interna-

tional affairs through two approaches: summitry at international institu-
tions, which bring together national leaders from the full membership
of those institutions, and political summits of small groupings. Both
have strengths and weaknesses.
Institutional summits. These have from time to time set important
goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals.They are rarely tools
for generating mechanisms to deliver commitments. Institutional sum-
mits are limited instruments, and they have significant weaknesses.
They tend to be, for a start, highly cumbersome, often taking years in
the preparation and requiring very broad participation. Partly because of
this, and partly as a function of the mandates of the existing international

77
 instruments, institutional summits tend to work within existing agendas
and existing frameworks.They are tools for consolidation more than for
setting new agendas, and, as a result, often do not enable catalytic action.
International summits also tend to reinforce rather than transcend the
regional and political groupings for business-as-usual in international
institutions. And they operate within the sector-by-sector architecture
of the existing system, ignoring or underplaying the intersections and
interconnections between issues.
Institutional summits will undoubtedly remain a part of the inter-
national landscape and will under some circumstances be able to reach
agreements on well developed topics. But for catalytic action to jump-
start the more effective, more reliable supply of global public goods,
more nimble and more political mechanisms are needed.
Political summits: the G-8 and others. When formal institutions have
been unable to act, international political fora that bring together clusters
of national leaders outside formal frameworks have at times filled gaps on
an interim basis or catalysed action by taking steps critical to attract the
willingness of others to engage and cooperate or to commit resources.
There are a myriad of regional and subregional summit fora, as well
as summits of political or religious groupings.The best known, and prob-
ably the most significant example, is the G-8. Over its history, the G-8
has shown at least an episodic capacity to move issues forward that have
been otherwise immobilized within formal institutions. Recent examples
include the political agreement on Kosovo (1999),96 which had been
blocked in the UN and in the Organization for Security and Co-opera-
tion in Europe (OSCE), and debt relief for Africa (2005), which had been
stuck in the international financial institutions.
The G-8 has also launched initiatives that would have been com-
plicated to negotiate in a wider institutional framework, required more
than a bilateral political framework, and yet benefited far more coun-
tries than participated in the launch of the initiative—such as the G‑8’s
Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of
Mass Destruction in 2002. Through this mechanism the G‑8 countries
used their considerable financial capacity to pay for the clean-up of
the former Soviet Union’s nuclear stockpiles—a global good, surely.
Another example is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria that was initiated by the G‑8 in 2001.
Regional groupings most often affect regional action; while the
regional level is important, it does not suffice for global action. And the
problem with the primary political summit forum, the G‑8, is precisely

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 8

the opposite of the problem of international summits. While the latter

are so large as to be unwieldy, the G‑8 is too small for its decisions to
generate the kind of broad-based support required for acceptance and
implementation through formal institutions. Moreover even when the
G‑8 takes a forward-leaning step on a rapidly evolving issue, as with
the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in the face of evidence of
sea-based movement of nuclear and biological materials and related
weapons systems, it does not engage in a wider process of negotiations,
causing the PSI to be as much resented as embraced.
And even within the G‑8’s original field of focus, international
finance, its limited membership is increasingly seen as anachronistic
in the face of the changing distribution of wealth and financial influ-
ence in the global market. Even measured in traditional gross domestic
product (GDP) terms, China now has a larger GDP than two current
members of the G‑8 (Italy and Canada), and six countries not in-
cluded in the G‑8 have larger GDPs than Russia (Spain, whose GDP
is also larger than Canada’s; India; the Republic of Korea; Mexico;
Australia; and Brazil).97 Moreover, looked at in terms of the World
Bank’s preferred tool for measuring wealth and well-being, purchasing
power parity, the GDP of China and India combined almost equals
the GDP of Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Canada and Germany com-
bined.98 When looked at in terms of international financial activity,
China’s exclusion from the G‑8 is fundamentally at odds with its
major role in international finance and trade.
The non-participation of the major developing economies in G‑8
deliberations and the absence of a broader consultative process (ad-
dressed only in a very partial and often resented way by the recent in-
vitation of some outside states to sit in on part of the summit process)
sharply limit the potential for the G‑8 to perform the catalytic function
needed to enhance the supply of global public goods.
Indeed the G‑8 created a wider forum, the G-20 finance ministers
gathering (see box 8.1), when it saw that its efforts were being largely
ignored by the major emerging economies, states whose participation
in solutions was essential for their success and whose compliance could
no longer be taken for granted.99

Transforming the G-20: A Global 25 forum

With institutional summits generally unwieldy and the G‑8 too exclu-
sionary, we believe that the establishment of a summit forum gathering

79
 Box 8.1 The Finance G‑20

The Finance G‑20 was founded as a forum to promote international financial stability and address issues beyond
the responsibilities of any one organization.
Mandate. Created in 1999 the G‑20 is an informal forum that seeks to promote an open and constructive dia-
logue among industrial nations and emerging market countries on key issues relating to the international mon-
etary and financial system—and in the process to strengthen the international financial architecture.
Chairmanship. The G‑20 meets once a year. It has no permanent staff. The chair country sets up a temporary
secretariat for the one year duration of its chairmanship. It was chaired by China in 2005, is chaired by Australia
in 2006 and will be chaired by South Africa in 2007.
Membership. The members of the G‑20 are the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries:
the G‑7, plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa and Turkey. The European Union is also a member. To ensure that the global economic fora and institu-
tions work together, the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the World Bank—plus the chairper-
sons of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and Development Committee of the IMF and World
Bank—participate in the meetings.

Source: www.g20.org

a wider grouping of heads of states and government, based on an aug-

mented Finance G-20, could play a catalytic role in generating a greater
and more reliable supply of global public goods.We refer to such a forum
as a Global 25.
We are not the first to reach a similar conclusion. The High-Level
Panel on Financing for Development and the UN High-Level Panel
on Threats, Challenges and Change did so before us. That the political
actors who must reach the decision to take this step have not yet done
so, despite repeated calls, is a cause not for rejecting the idea but for
mobilizing towards it.
A broader group of states, involving the main developed and devel-
oping world economies and drawing on all regions and major groupings,
would have the capabilities to take catalytic action and the wide represen-
tation for such actions to generate support and broader participation.
A Global 25 forum could play several critical roles. It could:
• Initiate action on upcoming agendas and rapidly address
emerging issues.
• Forge political agreements and compromises on the toughest
issues.
• Recognize the trade-offs required across different sectors.
• Generate advance commitments, thereby kick-starting supply
of global public goods.

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 8

• Help to secure appropriate and adequate financing for the

supply of global public goods.
• Challenge existing international institutions to take on issues
and to perform reliably and effectively.
• Monitor follow-up.
By playing these roles, the group’s initiatives will have reasonable
credibility. Catalytic action of this type could then be brought to the
formal institutions for broader consultation, wider negotiations and ul-
timately rejection or endorsement by the broader community of states.
This wider process is absolutely necessary. But the composition of a
Global 25 would substantially increase the likelihood that its proposals
would generate support and acceptance, and thus implementation.
With these core functions there could be additional benefits to such
a grouping. It could examine, in ways beyond the capacity of the exist-
ing institutions, the inter-connections between issues normally treated
separately and create a forum for the heads of the major international
institutions to regularly meet and generate more effective collaboration.
It could also demand and generate evidence-based research, monitoring
and evaluation. And it could encourage innovation in public and private
sector financing of global public goods.
At this divided international moment, the mere composition of such
a forum could send a powerful signal about the need for cooperation,
about the importance of bridging regional and political divides and
about common global responsibilities to tackle common global ills.

Conditions for an effective Global 25 forum

A Global 25 forum at the level of heads of state and government could

achieve these benefits under three conditions:
Membership as a reflection of contributions. Membership in such a forum
should not be based solely on financial size, population size or military
power. These will be criteria, of course, but the grouping should have
the flexibility to build in participation by those who contribute most
to the supply of global public goods.
Representation. A Global 25 forum, reflecting commitments as well as
size, should be carefully tailored to include participation by regional organi-
zations and political groupings that are not represented in the deliberations
of the current Finance G-20.The outcomes would be more representative
and more likely to be aligned to national interests of the large number of
smaller states—and on both fronts more likely to be implemented.

81
 Limited mandate. Such a forum can positively influence decisions
and produce proposals for wider endorsement. The mandate of such a
grouping should be limited to political debate and agreement and not
extended to formal decision-making. Any political agreements reached
by the Global 25 that relate to the mandate of a formal multilateral insti-
tution should be taken back to it for formal debate within its governing
mechanisms and for acceptance or rejection by the wider membership.

Options for composition

Since the idea of a heads of state and government meeting of the G-20,
or a variant,100 was first floated, there has been a debate over composi-
tion. Is the Finance G-20 suited to take on a broader role? Might not
alternative models be better? Is it more feasible to start with a narrower
grouping, through expanding the G‑8 to the G‑10 or G-12? Is it more
effective to elect a different 20 based on different criteria or to modify
the existing 20 based on broader criteria?
We see most merit in an approach based on augmenting the exist-
ing G-20—a cross-regional grouping of states that has significant rep-
resentation from emerging powers and all continents and regions and
that collectively represent around 90% of global gross national product,
80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population.101
Even then, two sets of actors would be underrepresented, or not repre-
sented at all. First are African states, represented in the G‑20 only by South
Africa. Second are the poorest countries, which have no representation at
all in the Finance G-20. Finally while in the Finance G‑20 some impor-
tant economic institutions are represented (the IMF, the World Bank and
the European Central Bank), the UN is not represented.
Ideally the composition of a Global 25 would reflect the greatest
contributions to global public goods. Given that measurement of such
contributions is insufficiently developed, proxy measures for contribu-
tion have to be used.
Modifications to correct the imbalances in the existing G-20 would
improve the representativeness, and thus the likelihood of support for its
political agreements. Options for addressing these imbalances include:
• Add representatives from regional groupings, beginning with the
African Union (the European Union is already a member). The
other regions should be also be considered, if and when they
strengthen their regional mechanisms; and/or

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Chapter 8

• Add the one or two most populous or wealthiest countries in

each of the most under-represented regions (especially Africa
and the Middle East).
In total, augmentation of the membership should bring it to a maxi-
mum of 25 actors, hence, a Global 25.
To ensure a proper link to the UN, the UN Secretary-General
could participate.

Political obstacles and further options

In debate and deliberation over the past few years, proponents of similar
fora have encountered two contradictory realities. First, there is a broad
“summit fatigue” in the international system, which adds to resistance
to proposals for a new one. Second, countries are typically reluctant to
give up any existing summit forum in which they participate. Adding
another summit forum would be unpopular for both reasons.
A further political obstacle to a Global 25 forum lies in potential
resistance from those who will not participate.While those who do not
participate stand to gain from agreements and commitments made by a
Global 25, the mere fact of non-inclusion tends to rankle national pride
and create suspicion.
But states that would resist the notion must answer the question,
What is the alternative? Formal international institutions have repeatedly
proven themselves too cumbersome, too narrowly bound to specific sec-
tors, to solve global problems. And while the G‑8 has performed impor-
tant functions, its narrow membership sharply limits its potential.
Without a grouping that marries inclusion with agility, it will be
extremely hard to achieve the necessary reforms to international poli-
cies, institutions and financing to achieve common goals.
The best response to these concerns is to stress that the Global 25
would start as an informal forum. Only once it had proved its value
should the questions be addressed of solidifying its forum (including
such questions as whether it should have a Secretariat and the like) and
resolving its relationship to the G‑8 and G‑20.
A Global 25 forum, if established according to the criteria set here,
could have a catalytic effect in the provision of global public goods.
But a Global 25 forum can only be catalytic; it cannot be decisive.The
broader community of states must have the ability to participate in nego-
tiations about global public goods and to react to ideas and proposals from
the Global 25—accepting or rejecting them after serious consideration.

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 This takes us, then, to the question of institutions—their governance
structures through which such negotiations occur and their ability to
effectively implement agreements to provide global public goods.

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Effective Institutions:

9
Governance and

Chapter
accountability

In most cases producing a global public good will require action by in-
ternational institutions—building on, reinforcing and often coordinat-
ing national action; channelling funds to national programs; monitoring
and reporting on progress; and, in a growing number of issue areas, di-
rectly implementing decisions taken at a global level. Thus the quality
and the management of international institutional capacity are vital for
the provision of global public goods.102
Though issue-specific reforms are required, and some of these have
been addressed in Part II, the greater concern is with the question of
whether or not, systemically, international institutions have been suit-
ably adapted to play an appropriate role in the provision of global public
goods. The systemic issues are two: the legitimacy of their governing
mechanisms, the primary place where states contest their interests in
global issues and solutions; and the accountability of institutions as de-
livery systems for global public goods.

Governance reforms

Governance reforms are important for the provision of global public

goods for two reasons. First, decisions within institutions at the gover-
nance level will normally be required for those institutions to take on
new mandates or programmes, or even to adapt existing ones. Second,
it is through the governance mechanisms of international institutions
that debates about states’ preferences are engaged at the global level, and
either acted on or ignored. Here political contest (discussed in Part I as
a major obstacle to the supply of global public goods) and legitimacy
play out decisively. If a majority of countries do not feel that they have
a voice in global decision-making, the “good” in global public goods
will be hard to define, strategies will be hard to agree on, legitimacy will
suffer, and implementation will lag.

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 Regional participation in global decision-making

A critical reality of global public goods is that they are contested; states
have different interests, values and preferences, even where they share
long-term goals. Aligning preferences and setting priorities in a world
of 200 states is an acute challenge.
In some contexts regional mechanisms are effectively used to agree
on common preferences and priorities for inputs to international de-
cision-making—for example, in some of the regional and sub-regional
groupings that share board seats at the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank. In other contexts regional groupings in
international mechanisms are out of alignment with regional organi-
zations—as, for example, with the African regional grouping at the
UN, which has different presidencies (and often substantially different
priorities) from the African Union (AU).
The value of a regional approach differs from area to area. Asian re-
gionalism is fragmented—hardly surprising given the size of the region
and the vast differences in the types of states that it comprises.The result
is that most Asian regional bodies are issue-specific and in all likelihood
will remain so in the foreseeable future. Greater Asian representation
and voice in international institutions is not likely to occur through a
regional approach, but through the inclusion of major Asian powers in
the governance mechanisms of those institutions. Latin American coun-
tries have long pursued regional integration, but their efforts have only
begun to tackle the most difficult challenges that confront the region,
including social inequality, organized crime and the regional fallout
from internal conflict.103
That said, even within the weaker regional frameworks, there are
important examples worth building on. The Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) has played directly and through its hosting of the
ASEAN Regional Forum useful roles in mediating regional conflict (for
example in Cambodia) and in calming regional tensions (in the South
China Seas).
A stronger role for regional institutions is particularly salient in Af-
rica. Although countries on the African continent vary as widely in
cultural and political terms as do the members of Asian groupings, there
is a narrower band of difference in state capacity. The New Economic
Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and reform of the
AU have already strengthened African voices in international fora. Fur-
ther development of the link between the AU and the African regional

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Chapter 9

groupings in international fora could be an important move towards

more effective developing world participation in global decision-mak-
ing.104 Financial donors to the AU (including OECD countries, Arab
states and others) should deepen their support to developing the rep-
resentational and negotiating capacity of the AU in international fora,
alongside agreed efforts to strengthen AU peacekeeping capacity (agreed
at the 2005 World Summit).
We also highlight the value of tightening the link between the
governance mechanisms of regional bodies and their representation in
international fora.When, as is sometimes the case, the country or coun-
tries that sit in the leadership/chairmanship of regional bodies do not
represent that region in international fora, political dynamics open gaps
between the regional mechanism and its projection internationally.The
EU has begun to bridge this gap through the presidency, but others such
as the AU have not yet done so.
Regionalism is not, however, an alternative to an overarching frame-
work for political and economic cooperation at the international level.

Governance reform

There is no real doubt that restoring public and political confidence in

the major international institutions will require reform of their gover-
nance mechanisms. But there is great debate over the specifics of those
reforms and the principles that should guide them.
In the past few years those debates have been clouded by loose ter-
minology and confused terms. Frequent recourse is made to the con-
cept of “democratizing” governance but without a shared concept of
democracy or its application to international institutions.The term “ef-
ficiency” is also used, but in widely differing ways by states seeking to
further their national claims. So is the concept of “changed distribution
of power”, used to argue both for broadening the participation of ris-
ing powers and for narrowing it to the hyper-powerful. And all of these
terms have been used at times to promote reforms that do little more
than reward stature, rather than encourage commitment.
Still there is no getting around the great deal of disquiet within a wide
range of constituencies about current governance arrangements—dis-
quiet that impedes reform agendas and the core work of the major in-
ternational institutions, whether it is widespread skepticism of Security
Council decision-making surrounding questions of terrorism and nuclear
proliferation or developing country unease about certain conditionalities

87
 attached to IMF and World Bank lending.There is a generalized sense in
political discourse that only the post-war powers meaningfully participate
in governance decisions.Yet Asia has growing financial, political and mili-
tary clout.Africa is creating new opportunities for itself.And several states,
including in East Asia and Latin America, have grown so much in size and
regional reach that weaknesses in their formal decision-making roles im-
pedes the implementation of international programmes and mandates.
We believe that an approach based on the requirements of produc-
ing global public goods can be useful in providing pathways to reform.
What our report shows is that the very nature of global public goods
requires a combination of responsible leadership by those states that
have extensive financial and political capacity to contribute, as well as
a wider process of legitimization, reflecting state preferences and coor-
dinating interests.
Unless those with financial and political power are willing to shoul-
der their responsibilities, no international institution is able to perform
its basic mandate. From the outset of our current system, the notion that
powerful states should have extra responsibilities has been embedded in
institutional governance. But the current architecture lacks mechanisms
to modify the nature of representation in governance mechanisms as
power and capability shift.
Across the board we believe that international institutions would
be strengthened with integrated mechanisms to modify their gover-
nance arrangements as state capabilities shifted, including, for example,
weighted voting (linked to contributions and population) or linking
membership to specific contributions.With respect to the core mandate
of the institution in question, different measurements could be adopted,
encompassing percentage of world GDP, scale of financial transactions,
share of peacekeeping contributions and so on.
Obviously if such measures are adopted, great debate will be ex-
pended over precisely which measures of capacity to contribute to use.
We believe that approaches that involve flexible participation based on
specific capacity are preferable, because they create incentives for ac-
tion and rewards for contributions, encouraging national commitments
rather than simply rewarding status.Weighted voting is one such mecha-
nism. Another, adopted by the World Bank’s International Development
Association and the UN in creating the Peacebuilding Commission, is
having seats at the table that reflect sustained contributions as well as the
more traditional standard of regional representation.

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Chapter 9

Debating state preference is more difficult but equally important.

Global public goods must be perceived to be so, in values or interest
terms, by a large majority of states involved in their production. Oth-
erwise implementation will be near impossible. However, in a world of
200 states, we can not base our approach on the idea that all states will
always meaningfully be able to share their preferences about the value of
a given global public good. Even in the UN General Assembly, which
comes closest to a forum for all states to express their interests and prefer-
ences across a range of global issues, the reality is that regional groupings
(slightly odd ones) and political groupings (out of date ones) actually take
up most of the negotiating oxygen in the General Assembly’s chambers.
Highly selective groupings—such as the G‑8 and the UN Security
Council—are able to reach agreement on priorities, but are less and less
able to persuade non-members of the legitimacy of their decisions.This
has been starkly shown in the Security Council, not only around spe-
cific crises such as Iraq, but also in efforts to set mandatory international
standards for non-proliferation and counter-terrorism. It is also seen in
international political reactions to G‑8 proposals, though the group has
done somewhat more to begin to adapt, including more consultation
with non-members.
Moving forward, we believe that the international capacity to meet
the growing demand and the urgent need for global public goods re-
quires institutional reforms that increase the participation of a wider
band of states willing to demonstrate responsibility and to sustain com-
mitments. They must also reflect the political reality that unless our
institutions are able to persuade and to legitimize, they will not be ef-
fective. Governance reforms must also bring into the decision-making
system states, especially among emerging powers, with a capacity to
help legitimize decisions.
The perceived legitimacy and production of priority global public
goods would be enhanced if the IMF and the World Bank adopted
governance reforms giving greater weight to under-represented na-
tions and if the UN made reforms to the Security Council, ideally
both to its membership and to its veto mechanism, and to the broader
UN system as a whole.

IMF and World Bank governance reform

The provision of global public goods would be improved by changes to

the IMF’s voting structure and the distribution of chairs on its execu-

89
 tive board. While the executive board seeks to operate on a consensus
basis, the fact that many countries, particularly rapidly growing emerg-
ing-market nations, are significantly underrepresented in quota shares
undermines the sense of equity and balance on which true consensus
must rest.105 Biasing the policy debate and the resulting decisions, these
distortions contribute to the perception that the institution unfairly fa-
vours developed country interests—although there are also distortions
within developed country shares. The quota reformulation is exceed-
ingly complex and has thus far not produced a consensus.
At this stage, in line with the Managing Director’s strategy, more
weight should be given to the most underrepresented countries.106 In
the longer run, the distribution of board chairs should also be revised to
better reflect the changing structure of the world economy. The IMF’s
executive board should also encourage a change in the Fund’s operat-
ing culture towards greater collaboration with relevant partners.107 At
the World Bank, the countries most affected by its policies—that is, the
developing countries—should be more fully represented on its board.
The almost identical composition of the IMF and World Bank boards
is outdated and should be replaced by boards whose composition better
represents the interests of the key stakeholders in, and the mandates of,
the respective organizations.

UN Security Council reform

The Security Council was designed by the UN Charter to balance

extra responsibility for the powerful, ensuring engagement and regional
representation, ensuring commitment. The veto was introduced to en-
sure that the most powerful states felt able to bring issues of direct
importance to them to the Council chamber; this privilege was bal-
anced by the concept that the most powerful should also accept extra
responsibility.
What the UN Charter did not do, however, was include a mecha-
nism for changes in power distribution and regional composition to be
reflected in a changing composition of the Security Council. Despite
significant changes in function of the UN, in the kinds of power and
capabilities needed to support it, and in the quadrupling of its mem-
bership, the Security Council has been reformed only once. Its cur-
rent composition, the continued availability of the veto to the postwar
powers and the disparity in influence between the Permanent 5 and
the variable membership of the Elected 10 are widely viewed as anach-

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Chapter 9

ronistic and illegitimate in the sense that Security Council decisions,

while legally binding, do not always enjoy widespread international
political acceptance and support.
The Security Council’s ability to maintain international peace and
security would be strengthened by reforms to its membership and to
the veto. The ability of any one of the Permanent 5 to veto UN action
has from the outset been a source of contention, has undermined po-
litical support for the organization and has in any case largely failed to
forestall the use of force outside the framework of the Charter.108 For
the veto two alternatives can be considered. One is replacing the veto
by a system of weighted voting, which would still provide reassurance
to the most powerful but would broaden real participation by elected
members in the Security Council’s decision-making. Somewhat more
realistically (since it does not involve having a permanent member agree
to give up their veto per se), a second option is instituting a system of
double vetoes—a system that would require at least two veto-holding
members to vote negatively to block a Security Council decision—for
instances when the Security Council faces issues most damaging to
international peace and security, especially crimes against humanity. It
is worth noting that had such a mechanism been in place, the Secu-
rity Council would likely have voted in a timely way to take action in
Kosovo and Darfur.
If such reform to the veto is not possible, which regrettably seems
to be the case at this time, membership reform should not add to the
problem by bringing in new veto-wielding members; this would only
further limit the Security Council’s ability to act. An interim option is to
add elected, but renewable, seats to the Security Council, open primar-
ily to the states within regional groupings that make the largest finan-
cial, military and political commitments to the UN—the “Option B”
proposed by the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.
Efforts to promote “Option A”—new permanent seats—ran aground at
the UN in 2005 and generated significant political divisions within the
membership.
Option B has two advantages. First, it links representation within
institutional governance structures to the engagement and commit-
ment of states—a point that can assist in making the case to domestic
constituencies for sustaining engagement at the global level. It can fur-
ther aid the legitimacy of the Security Council by making it evident
that the body reflects action by states that have taken responsibility and
made commitments, rather than simply states that had military power

91
 at an earlier age. Second, whereas Option A excludes from Security
Council decision-making more states than it includes, including several
that make major commitments, Option B retains the prospect for such
states to participate.

UN system reform

Since our Task Force was established, the UN Secretary-General has es-
tablished a new High-Level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence “to
explore how the United Nations system can work more coherently and
effectively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian
assistance and the environment. The study intends to lay the ground-
work for a fundamental restructuring of the United Nations operational
work, complementing other major reform initiatives currently under
way at the United Nations.”109
We believe it warranted to stress the importance of a set of reforms to
strengthen the UN system’s role in the management of global issues and
the provision of global public goods. Specifically, we believe that the UN
system—in particular, its specialized agencies—has a critical role to play
in the provision of issue-specific knowledge and coordination of action
to negotiate and to implement agreements for the provision of global
public goods. And independent evaluation of the performance of UN
agencies, funds and programmes would help enhance their credibility.
Greater use of evidence-based research and more consistent monitor-
ing of state compliance with international obligations would allow UN
system entities to report on global developments and serve as centres of
specialized knowledge, as hubs of professional networks, of interest to all
countries. In short, it would allow them to play a more pro-active role on
global issues and in shaping the provision of global public goods.
Such reforms are necessary to enhance the accountability of interna-
tional institutions both within the UN system and beyond.We now turn
to these reforms in greater detail.

Accountability

Here we elaborate a set of reforms that would generate improved trans-

parency—a critical component of accountability. In the long term such
reforms would be only one part of an effective strategy for ensuring ac-
countability. There will have to be an additional emphasis on sanctions

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Chapter 9

for non-performance if there are going to be effective mechanisms,

with sustained support, for the supply of global public goods.
Initial efforts to enhance transparency should focus on using evi-
dence-based research, monitoring state compliance and evaluating in-
stitutional performance.

Evidence-based action: research on global public goods

Action based on credible evidence is an important part of accountability.

Too much of the international sphere is taken up with interventions that
have at best a tenuous basis for the connection between the intervention
and the nature of the problem. And far too little is done to develop and
apply cost-benefit analysis to interventions. Evidence of a connection
between the problem and the designed solution and cost-benefit analysis
are both useful in convincing sceptical publics, parliaments and paymas-
ters to provide the necessary investments in global public goods.
The lack of adequate research into causal relationships bedevils pol-
icy development on terrorism prevention, on post-conflict economic aid
and other major spheres of international cooperation. The research that
emanates from international institutions in their own issue areas is often
methodologically weak or politically shaped; much could be done to im-
prove the independence and rigour of research within institutions. The
governing boards of international institutions should promote indepen-
dent peer review and related tools to enhance the quality of and reliability
of in-house research. And foundation and government sponsors of inde-
pendent research should encourage deeper work on these questions.
One problem is the lack of research and data; the other is sourcing.
In the context of national and international debates about whether to
support new investments in global public goods, vested interests that
stand to lose from the enhanced provision of a particular global public
good (such as reduced tariff protection) may exaggerate the costs and
minimize the benefits to the country. To counterbalance such sources
of misinformation, it is essential that credible independent information
and analysis be available to inform public debate.
One important source of information can come from the research
departments of selected global and regional institutions, including the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The value and influence of such work would be stronger were such
departments to develop a joint or well coordinated research programme
focused on the costs and benefits, and distributional impacts, of global

93
 public goods recommendations. Even here, however, we should be
aware of bias. International institutions tend to engage in research that
takes as an assumption the relevance of that institutions’ policy tools
and instruments.
As a result institutional research should be supplemented by inde-
pendent scholarly research and assessment.110 More generally the es-
tablishment of a research network across a range of issues to promote
independent research into global public goods would add value. Gov-
ernments and private companies should sponsor independent research
capacity and networking on global public goods.

Monitoring compliance

A second critical component of getting better accountability, and

through it better production of global public goods, is monitoring
compliance with international agreements. Governments often agree
to international solutions that contain no provision for monitoring their
compliance with obligations. Without monitoring it is impossible to
design incentives for performance or sanctions. Here again we stress that
if governments are not willing to relinquish some sovereign controls
and provide institutions with the relevant authority to monitor their
own compliance, they will seldom succeed in solving critical global
challenges.When international agreements contain provisions for mon-
itoring compliance, the odds of success rise significantly.
Any systems of monitoring compliance have to be both indepen-
dent and equitable. Any that are selective are doomed to political fail-
ure. All states have responsibility for the production of global public
goods and an interest in their achievements.Thus all states’ performance
should be monitored on an equal basis.
Transparent monitoring and reporting are critical for mobilizing
public opinion and for accountability—both before agreements are
reached and during implementation. They are particularly useful in
identifying free riders. At present, monitoring of country performance
is decidedly limited and uneven. Among international organizations,
only the IMF systematically monitors country performance through
its Article IV Consultations, reflecting its findings in the World Eco-
nomic Outlook and other publications. The OECD monitors its mem-
bers’ economic performance and policies in a wide range of areas, such
as development spending, employment, health, technology and innova-
tion, environment and education systems. The WTO monitors country

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performance through its periodic Trade Policy Reviews, but does little
with the findings, in part because of resource constraints. The Interna-
tional Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) annual report is another good
example, closely monitoring country implementation of agreed proto-
cols in all countries where it is deployed. But the lack of credible, inde-
pendent monitoring of all countries’ compliance with broader features
of the non-proliferation regime diminishes the overall political value
of IAEA reporting. Moreover, the fact that three countries in the past
five years have been able to misreport and evade IAEA inspections111
highlights the need for more stringent monitoring and verification pro-
cedures and mechanisms.
Other institutions do less. Partly to fill the void, other actors—both in
the official sector and in the policy research community—have launched
monitoring initiatives, such as the Security Council Report, which tracks
the decisions and actions of members of the UN Security Council, and
the Canadian Centre for Treaty Compliance.112 While many of these ef-
forts are excellent, they do not add up to a coherent information base for
policy-makers and private citizens to gauge progress, assess comparative
country performance and determine priorities for action. Nor is there
an agreed basis for evaluating international organizations’ performance
and results or a baseline for tracking progress over time.
Most regional and international organizations, as part of their re-
form programmes, need to upgrade their monitoring and surveillance
functions. To this end a concerted investment programme by interna-
tional agencies is needed to develop and analyse data sources on coun-
try compliance with their obligations, which will also contribute to
strengthening their surveillance functions.
The best approach is to build stringent reporting requirements into
regional and international agreements. A strong example is the Mon-
treal Protocol, which built effective monitoring and reporting require-
ments into the basic agreement, with carrots and sticks attached to the
outcome of that reporting.
There is also value in additional, voluntary reporting standards. For
natural resource revenue management in fragile states, the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was launched at the Johan-
nesburg Summit of September 2002 and endorsed by the G‑8 Meet-
ing of 2004, building on a non-governmental organization (NGO)
campaign, “Publish What You Pay”. Its purpose is to encourage, on
a voluntary basis, greater transparency in the revenues that compa-
nies in the extractive industries pay to governments. It addresses two

95
 concerns. One is that companies have not been subject to adequate
scrutiny and so have evaded payments to which governments were
entitled. The other is that public officials have diverted payments that
should have gone into the budget into improper uses. For both, trans-
parency in reporting payments makes scrutiny more feasible.The EITI
is a modest start, but could usefully be strengthened and extended to
other natural resource sectors, such as forestry and fisheries.113
Another mechanism warranting deeper use is peer review. Pio-
neered (at the international level) by the OECD and recently adopted
by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the
new UN Human Rights Council, peer-review processes have the ad-
vantages of being equitable, by definition, and of reinforcing a sense of
partnership and cooperation. A disadvantage is that peer-review mecha-
nisms can create mutual interest among parties in each having the other
down-play reports of violations, non-compliance and so on.
Another alternative is independent national mechanisms reporting
on their own states’ performance. The US General Accounting Office
has access to both open-source and confidential government docu-
mentation, as well as powers to subpoena information. Its reports are
highly credible and provide a solid, independent base of information to
judge government performance.The advantage of national mechanisms
is political: national constituencies are more likely to mobilize around
independent national reporting than international reporting. National
reports can be cumulated at the regional or international level to pro-
vide an overview of state performance.
All four mechanisms can usefully be complemented by academic
and NGO-based monitoring. Human rights organizations have set a
high benchmark here, providing across-the-board monitoring of states’
human rights performance on an independent basis. Increasing use of
similar reporting in the peace and security area—for example, by the
International Crisis Group—is already proving beneficial in stimulating
national accountability for states’ performance.
In international negotiations, governments should adopt formal
monitoring mechanisms to accompany international agreements.

Evaluating performance

Using evidence-based research for policy-making and monitoring state

compliance will provide important benchmarks for conducting proper
evaluation of actual performance, usually implemented through regional
or international agencies. Performance evaluations, if consistent, inde-
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pendent and repeated over time, can significantly enhance the ability
of leaders to target investments in global public goods and to mobilize
domestic support. Note, for example, that opinion polling finds that the
two most important reasons why Americans are sceptical about money
spent on international cooperation are that the money does not end up
with the needy and there is no monitoring of how money is spent.114
Most organizations have established some kind of an evaluation
system, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internal
Audit and Oversight Division, UN’s Office of the Under-Secretary for
Internal Oversight Services, UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s)
internal Evaluation and Oversight Unit and the WHO’s evaluation of-
fice.115 There have been recent attempts to strengthen these evaluation
systems, but so far only the IMF and the World Bank have evaluation
systems that are independent of management and report directly to
their boards. IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office is perhaps the most
independent. Among UN funds, programmes and agencies, and among
bilateral agencies, independent evaluation is episodic at best.
In the realm of peace and security there is very little evaluation of
either policies or initiatives, independent or otherwise.The UN Depart-
ment of Peacekeeping Operations has a best-practices section, which
now routinely conducts after-action reviews and makes these available
publicly. But it is under the managerial responsibility of the department
and cannot be seen as independent of the operations it evaluates. Oc-
casional use of outside evaluators helps but is inconsistent. And in other
areas—preventive diplomacy, mediation, counter-terrorism, counter-
proliferation and disarmament—there is no culture of evaluation, little
empirical research bases and less political will to open up to scrutiny.116
The standard for evaluation is set by the public health sector. Al-
most all developed country public health systems have strong cultures of
policy and intervention evaluation, rigorous independent methodolo-
gies for conducting evaluations and a policy culture that looks to the
outcome of evaluation when deciding about policy interventions. Cost-
benefit analysis is a well established feature of the political and policy
process. Even for tough ethical questions, cost-benefit analysis is part of
the equation. This clearly strengthens the sector’s performance and its
ability to attract sustained political support and public investment.
As part of their reform programmes, international institutions need
to set up or upgrade their monitoring and evaluation capacities, includ-
ing those for independent evaluation of their own performance on a
sustained basis. A concerted investment program is needed to develop,

97
 make available and analyse data sources on country performance, which
will also contribute to strengthening their surveillance functions.
With evidence-based research into global public goods issues, more
consistent monitoring of state compliance and credible, consistent eval-
uation of institutional performance, governments and publics would
have a substantial basis for weighing the merits of investments and en-
suring accountability for them. A consolidated set of such reports could
be provided to the Global 25 forum, providing it with a solid eviden-
tiary basis for debate and action.

Other aspects of accountability

Evidence, monitoring and evaluation are essential parts of a strategy to

enhance transparency. So too are reforms to ensure greater transparency
in the selection of the heads of international institutions. We commend
the UN Secretary-General for his recent efforts to make the selection
of senior officials more transparent and urge other institutions to adopt
similar reforms.
If greater transparency is to have its desired effect, two changes will
be needed. First, regional and international institutions must be adapted
to provide penalties for non-compliance; transparency mechanisms will
have most effect if linked to mechanisms to enforce international agree-
ments. Second, national governments must be held more effectively to
account for their fulfilment of international commitments.
At the international level, our report in Part II proposed a number
of specific measures to strengthen the role of international mechanism
in ensuring state compliance.
As for the necessary work at the national level, it is beyond the role
of this Task Force to propose necessary reforms to domestic system to
engender greater accountability for governments’ fulfilment of their in-
ternational commitments. Such reforms must of necessity arise from do-
mestic action. Here civil society has a critical role to play. In a compelling
recent example the Ford Foundation has helped to establish TrustAfrica,
an initiative designed to generate from within African countries the de-
mand for action against violence, corruption and similar ills. Among in-
ternational NGOs, organizations like Oxfam,Transparency International
and Amnesty International have been leaders in promoting domestic ac-
countability for international action. There is no substitute for domestic,
civic action to generate real accountability of this kind.

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Adequate and

10
Appropriate Financing:

Chapter
Why? Who? How?

Stronger national engagement and leadership on global issues are

critical for determining the appropriate policy and institutional
frameworks and setting priorities for the provision of global public
goods, thereby also determining financing needs. Similarly, national
governments bear the primary responsibility for ensuring that fi-
nancing needs for global public goods are met through direct public
funding and appropriate incentives and regulatory frameworks that
stimulate private funding and the use of market mechanisms.
Nations will gain major benefits by increasing their expenditure on
global public goods. Initial cost-benefit analyses of various global public
goods confirm that money spent on providing them can produce sig-
nificant savings compared to the cost of dealing with the ills that arise
when such goods are not provided, including financial shocks, spread of
new diseases, nuclear proliferation crises and so on. Indeed past experi-
ence demonstrates very high benefit-cost ratios for global public goods.
This suggests that significant additional expenditures on global public
goods are well justified. And with greater provision of global public
goods, investments in development will also reap greater returns.
Governments can also do more to tap the energy and initiative
of the private sector, including civil society, and to take advantage of
the specialized knowledge they can bring to bear. Examples include
recent developments in emission permit trading and advance mar-
ket commitments for new vaccines. We can foresee market-based ap-
proaches being expanded to address other global issues, in particular
in the areas of health, environmental services and knowledge. Such
extensions do, however, require the involvement of governments to
provide the necessary regulatory framework.
Even then, however, for governments to convince sceptical publics
of the value of investing in global public goods they will have to insti-
tute reforms to make better use of resources.
In short, we recommend in this chapter a five-part strategy for the
financing of global public goods: making better use of existing resources,

99
 improving resource mobilization, improving national systems for global
public goods spending, working with private sector and markets and
adopting innovative arrangements for financing. Finally, we repeat our
argument that broader use of carbon taxes would in addition to reduc-
ing carbon emissions generate significant new resources that could help
finance global public goods.

Why? Major returns from financing of global public goods

Despite recent positive developments in international financial flows,

the amount of available resources is not keeping up with the emerging
global challenges.The High-Level Panel on Financing for Development
estimated in 2001 that some $20 billion a year was required to begin
to address the need for global public goods—four times the spending
level at the time.117 Though that estimate was rough and certainly on the
low side, there is little doubt that further expenditure on global public
goods will be needed.
As governments begin to devote more resources to global public
goods, some are concerned that this will draw spending away from tra-
ditional development assistance.
Official development assistance and the financing of global public
goods are not the same, but they interact in several ways.118 First, the
purposes of the funding often coincide. Second, each can either supple-
ment or crowd out the other. Third, providing global public goods can
enhance or reduce the effectiveness of aid, and vice versa.
The fight against avian flu and other infectious diseases illustrates
this particularly well. Surveillance of the disease, research for a vaccine
and more effective treatments are global public goods. But the effec-
tiveness of surveillance and the distribution of vaccines and treatments
ultimately depend on the capacity of the health sector of developing
countries, including trained personnel and basic infrastructure. Building
such capacity is an important component of development programmes.
Therefore, capacity building—what is traditionally considered an ele-
ment of development assistance—is also a vital ingredient of supplying
a global public good.
Consequently the financing of certain aspects of global public
goods often comes from donor countries’ development budgets—for
example, in the areas of capacity building to control communicable
diseases and incremental costs to support the mitigation of climate

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change. But the relationship sometimes also goes in the other direction;
for instance, the financing of international peace building and enforce-
ment, which is not considered development assistance, contributes to
the reduction of poverty.
There are, however, major gaps in financing arrangements. Most
donor countries, for example, have few funding sources to pay for global
public goods activities in less developed countries except for where they
can be considered to fall within official development assistance (ODA).
Moreover, since many donor countries are focusing on poverty reduc-
tion in the poorest countries and therefore significantly narrowing the
list of countries to which ODA is allocated, there are even fewer tools
for paying for global public goods activities in the far wider set of coun-
tries that will need to be involved.
Two examples illustrate this, drawing from our priorities: paying for
counter-terrorism capacity building in countries that are not among the
least developed, and funding for capital account crisis programmes, such
as those in East Asia in the late 1990s. Neither is typically counted as
ODA, reasonably; but because of this, both tend to go underfinanced.
Going forward the international community will have to ensure that
funding the provisions of global public goods is made on their own merits,
that the development purposes of ODA are not eroded and that additional
funds are mobilized.

Benefits to financing

Financing global public goods can generate important returns, nation-

ally and globally, economic and social.
Whereas at the national level, finance ministries and legislators have
become accustomed to assessing public expenditure in terms of cost-
benefit analysis, such thinking is still largely in its infancy in the sphere
of international cooperation. This has the disadvantage of largely con-
fining international expenditure to the realm of the “voluntary” or “aid”
sectors, for which there are limited constituencies in some national con-
texts. (With important exceptions—witness the extraordinary response,
both official and unofficial, to humanitarian needs in the aftermath of
the Indian Ocean Tsunami.) This is misguided thinking when it comes
to global public goods; putting money towards these particular chal-
lenges can yield major returns.
Four examples illustrate how addressing global challenges can have
highly positive benefit-cost ratios. While both the benefit and the cost

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 estimates vary greatly from one study to the next, and many are subject
to considerable uncertainties, it is nevertheless clear in these cases that
the potential returns are very substantial.119
Dismantling nuclear stockpiles. The G‑8 Global Partnership
Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruc-
tion was established in 2002 to prevent terrorists from acquiring
weapons of mass destruction, by funding projects that would se-
cure or dispose of weapons of mass destruction, dismantle de-
commissioned nuclear submarines, dispose of fissile materials and
employ former weapons scientists.120 Full financing for the programme
(estimated at $20 billion) would reduce the risk of a nuclear attack—
estimated as costing at least between $300 billion and $1.4 trillion,121 to
say nothing of its human and environmental cost.
Strengthening global disease surveillance. Pandemics such as SARS and
the avian influenza are often not discovered early enough largely be-
cause of inadequate surveillance and reporting. The cost of pandemics
in terms of lives and financial expenditure is huge; the SARS outbreak
in 2003 is estimated to have cost the world up to $54 billion,122 and a
new flu pandemic might cost high income countries as much as $550
billion,123 again, to say nothing of lives lost or of the benefits in terms
of combating biological terrorism. Despite these costs there is no such
thing as a fully functioning global surveillance network to detect out-
breaks of new diseases.124 The cost of establishing a global surveillance
network to detect avian flu is estimated at $882 million.125
Mitigating climate change. Research and development in new tech-
nologies for mitigating global warming is insufficient for the size of the
challenge, as acknowledged by the G‑8 (Gleneagles 2005). Analysis sug-
gests that a multi-track mitigation policy—which would combine emis-
sion targets and new technology—would yield significant net benefits
and high benefit-cost ratios (in the order of 3:1).126 For any solution to
mitigate climate change, public funding of R&D expenditures on “cli-
mate friendly” technologies needs to increase substantially.
Malaria vaccine. There is a funding gap for basic medical research.
For malaria—which killed a million people in Africa in 2000127—pur-
suing the remaining phases of clinical trials, regulatory approval and
production of a single candidate vaccine would exceed the total public
and philanthropic funds presently available for the purpose of devel-
oping a malaria vaccine. But the payoff to developing a vaccine would
be very significant: by one estimate, GDP per capita in countries with

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intensive malaria could increase by up to 1.3% a year if the disease

were eliminated.128
The case for financing global public goods does not rest primarily
on such cost-benefit estimates.The main case rests on the critical needs
that are met, and the global ills avoided and global peace and prosper-
ity promoted, by the supply of global public goods. But cost-benefit
analysis of this type—especially if refined by evidence-based research,
as argued in chapter 9—can certainly be helpful in establishing priori-
ties and in mobilizing domestic support for financing, both in terms of
shoring up support for existing commitments and for necessary addi-
tional commitments.

Who? The responsibility of states and the role of markets

National governments and public policy-makers retain the principal re-

sponsibility for ensuring that financing is forthcoming for global public
goods. It is in states’ interest to do so, as it is their citizens and their private
sectors that benefit. This case needs to be made more consistently and
more effectively to national parliaments and political constituencies.
The financially strong states have particular responsibilities here, though
not exclusive ones. If the supply of global public goods is to be addressed,
these states will have to accept their responsibilities and make additional
and increasing financial commitments.
But states can also do much more to mobilize the market and harness
its power, as they increasingly do in the sphere of traditional national public
policy. With the correct incentives and disincentives in place, the market
can be a powerful tool through which to provide global public goods.

National action

The national level is critical in the supply of global public goods. In-
ternational decision-making has national roots and international agree-
ments are implemented nationally. The principle of subsidiarity—the
idea that problems should be solved closest to where they occur—is
important in providing global public goods.129
Domestic mobilization. The first and essential responsibility of na-
tional governments is making the case to domestic constituencies to
participate in the production of global public goods and to make short-
term sacrifices where required to do so.The challenges to doing so vary

103
 from context to context. In some countries the case will best be made
by an appeal to the global interest and to motives stemming from a
sense of shared humanity. In others it will best be made by an appeal to
national interest.What mix of appeal to national and global interest will
serve to mobilize is best left to specific national political actors.
Civil society actors can be particularly useful here, creating a lobby
and pressure for action at the global level and highlighting the urgency
of action (see box 10.1).We believe our approach to global public goods
is helpful here, highlighting as it does the benefit that accrues to national
constituencies from action at the global level, and the fact that the na-
tional and the global interest can be mutually reinforcing.
Coherence and financing at the national level. A second dimension of
national action is for heads of state to ensure that their national adminis-
trative and finance systems are properly geared to engagement on global
policy issues. This can be described primarily as a coherence challenge.
Coherence and broad ownership of national policies for domestic
issues are normally assured through cabinets and parliaments, but this

Box 10.1 Civil society: an emerging force in global governance

Until a few decades ago, global issues were mostly addressed by nation states alone. This has changed. In
recent years non-state actors, such as civil society organizations and business, have had a growing influence in
global debates and decision-making.a
A striking example is the influence of civil society on the development of the Mine Ban Treaty, adopted in 1997.
Political pressure on governments, which led to the treaty, was spearheaded by the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines, a civil society organization affiliated with more than a thousand non-governmental organizations
in about 60 countries. The campaign influenced the negotiations and ratification of the treaty, and the campaign
and its coordinator, Jody Williams, were awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1997. The Nobel committee recog-
nized that the treaty emerged from a joint effort involving both civil society groups and governments—a unique
achievement in international affairs.b
Another example is the Mediterranean-wide ban on the use of towed dredges and trawl nets at depths greater than
1000 meters, which recently came into force. This was the result of intense lobbying by the World Conservation
Union and WWF, in cooperation with other civil society organizations. Through coordinated action these organiza-
tions lobbied individual countries and released a comprehensive study on the status of deep sea fishing in the Medi-
terranean. These efforts led to 24 countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s General Fisheries Commission
adopting the ban in September 2005. These countries are now enforcing the agreement at the national level.c

a.  See Rischard (2002).

b.  www.nobel.no/eng_lect_97a.html
c.  www.iucn.org/places/medoffice/noticias/ban_fisheries_en.html

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is often not so for national policy on global issues, which does not
get the same attention. Traditionally international matters were the
preserve of foreign ministries. As the global dimensions of national
policy have been amplified in sector after sector, the ability of foreign
ministries to serve as central coordinating mechanisms for foreign
and global policy has lagged in all sectors of government. Individual
ministers and government departments thus can and often do pursue
national policies that have foreign or global effects that are contrary to
foreign or global policies in other sectors of the same government—a
suboptimal system at best.
Some national governments are exploring ways to achieve coherence
and broad ownership of their international policies.Examples include the
policy coherence unit in the Netherlands, Sweden’s global development
policy as decided by parliament and a whole of government approach
in Australia—processes for integrating all policy areas in the work to
achieve common goals in international engagements. As the regional
and global dimensions of national policy grow in importance, further
innovations to manage the national-regional-global relationship will be
required. In Europe some have called for EU affairs ministries to coor-
dinate the EU dimensions of national policy.130
Another question is how national finance systems account for spend-
ing on foreign and global policy questions. In Canada, the Prime Min-
ister’s Office initiated a two-track budgeting system designed to ensure
that national ministries pay out of their own resource allocation for the
international mechanisms they benefit from. More common is for na-
tional ministries to look to ODA budgets to pay for policies that relate
less to development and more to national sector policy initiatives. In the
absence of separate systems for financing global policy and global public
goods, using development funds is the only option for national ministries
that do not have significant budgets for foreign expenditure—again, a
suboptimal system at best.
Building national capacity. Because the provision of global public
goods requires action by many states, not just developed ones, an addi-
tional requirement is improving measures to build capacity.
Across the spectrum of global challenges, participation in generating
or implementing global agreements requires effective state institutions.
Many states have severe capacity constrains preventing them from play-
ing a full role in supplying global public goods.131 The past 20 years have
witnessed commitments to reform and strengthen development strate-
gies, but while it is estimated that investment in capacity development

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 activities represents about a quarter of official development assistance,132
it remains the “weakest element of donor assistance”.133
Building state capacity to manage transnational threats and con-
tribute to global public goods will require new ways of thinking
about development. For example, multilateral cooperation may un-
dermine the capacity of national systems. Vertical or issue-specific
programmes can have positive impacts on developing country capaci-
ties, but they can also impose a heavy toll on human resource and in-
stitutional development. Global issue-specific programmes in health
have often undercut existing capacities by failing to build sustainable
health systems, fragmenting health services and distorting the alloca-
tion of scarce human and financial resources.
Because global issue-specific programmes usually cannot be sustained
without the support of local systems, most developing countries need
help in building their general administrative systems and programmes.
In truth the international aid community knows much less than it needs
to about how external aid works to build national capacity. However
recent studies have demonstrated that the World Bank, with its expe-
rience and resources for running capacity-building programmes, has
the potential to do more to develop local capacities and facilitate the
absorption of global vertical programmes.134 The UN’s role in devel-
oping state capacity is under study by the High-Level Panel on UN
System-wide Coherence. Bilateral support is also relevant and would profit
from the participation of a wider group of countries, including emerg-
ing donors who have more recent experience than OECD countries in
building national administrative systems in a development context.
There is little doubt that donors should increase and sustain resources
to strengthen the capacities of developing countries in the global interest.
Increasing the harmonisation and coherence of donor programmes is the
first logical action. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness135 is put-
ting emphasis on country ownership and leadership and on harmonizing
development programmes.The declaration asserts that capacity develop-
ment is the responsibility of partner countries and that donors should
play a supportive role. It highlights that support for capacity development
should not only be based on technical aspects, but also should consider
the broader social, political and economic environment as well as the
need to strengthen human resources. The agenda is set for doing better,
but more remains to be done to translate declarations into actions.
In practice this requires knowing who does what and where and how
in capacity development. But clear, structured data are usually not available.

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One exception is the Doha Development Agenda Capacity-building Da-

tabase, jointly created by the WTO and the OECD/DAC (Development
Assistance Committee) in 2002. A response to coordinating the many ca-
pacity-building initiatives in the area of trade, it aims to share information,
monitor the implementation of agreed commitments and identify critical
gaps. A similar capacity database or clearing house should be encouraged
in each global public good area.

The energy of the market and civil society

Governments can also do more to tap into the energy of the market
and civil society.
Civil society and the private sector are playing an ever more im-
portant role in providing international finance. While the traditional
multilateral organizations are still the major channels for cross-border
cooperation, the number of international financing mechanisms has
increased dramatically. By one estimate the number of international
financing mechanisms that contribute to meeting global challenges, in-
cluding investment funds and philanthropic contributions, amount to
some 900–1,000.136 Perhaps most prominent among these is the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation in the area of communicable diseases, with
grant payments in 2005 totalling $1.4 billion,137 roughly equivalent to
the WHO’s annual budget138—now likely to increase substantially given
the major donation to the foundation from Warren Buffet.
And just as individual governments are entering public-private part-
nerships at the national level, non-state actors are joining up with inter-
national organizations. By one estimate the number of public-private
partnerships contributing to global public goods provision and foreign
aid has increased from 35 in 1990 to at least 400 in 2005.139
Markets are central to generating the scale of resources required to
meet the global challenges identified in this report. And they offer the
double dividend of enhanced efficiency and freeing up government re-
sources. Public policy has a key role to play in ensuring that markets are
created and that they are used to their full potential. Governments es-
tablish regulatory frameworks—by setting standards and assigning prop-
erty rights—and create incentives. Existing market instruments offer
governments tools to redress market failures in the provision of global
public goods.
One example of the emerging use of market mechanisms is in the
area of climate change. Emission permit trading has reduced harmful

107
 substances in the air, particularly at the regional level as exemplified by
the introduction of sulphur dioxide trading in the United States in the
early 1990s. More recently with the entry into force of the Kyoto Pro-
tocol and the creation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, a market
for carbon dioxide emissions permits has emerged and several trading
exchanges across Europe have been created. The Kyoto Protocol fur-
thermore allows for mechanisms that permit richer countries to offset
their carbon dioxide emissions against the emissions prevented when
technology that reduces greenhouse gas emissions is deployed in poor
countries.
Another example is the use of advance market commitments,
which have been under discussion in the G‑8 since Gleneagles in
2005—namely the use of official and charitable funds to guarantee a
minimum price and volume for the purchase of a vaccine.This mecha-
nism creates incentives for the private sector to invest in medical re-
search. By limiting the risks associated with an uncertain market, this
helps to motivate significant R&D investments necessary in producing
certain vaccines, especially those required to tackle infectious diseases
in the developing world.
The growing depth and breadth of financial markets have led to
market actors offering instruments that governments can use to manage
their risks. Such instruments include growth-indexed sovereignty bonds,
which provide issuing countries with an insurance policy to reduce debt
service obligations to bond holders if economic performance stalls. An-
other example is futures and options, which help mitigate the challenges
of commodity price volatility.
Market-based approaches could be expanded to address global issues,
in particular in the areas of health, environmental services and knowl-
edge.This requires the involvement of public sector actors to provide the
necessary regulatory framework.

How? Reform and innovation

We recommend a five-part strategy for raising additional financing for

global public goods:
• Make better use of existing resources.
• Improve resource mobilization.
• Improve national financing systems for global public goods.
• Work with the private sector and markets.
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• Adopt innovative arrangements for financing.

Make better use of existing resources

For governments to convince sceptical publics of the value of investing

in global public goods, they will have to demonstrate better use of re-
sources. Increased accountability of international institutions is critical
as discussed in the previous chapter—so are increased international ef-
forts to combat corruption and money laundering. Such improvements
would enhance the credibility of multilateral cooperation and, hence,
improve the prospects for additional funding for global public goods.

Improve resource mobilization

International organizations that provide global public goods are most

effective with predictable and sustained financing. To be successful,
funding cycles should allow sufficient time to demonstrate results and
for the organization to be held accountable. This is challenging with
annual funding cycles. Furthermore annual funding does not pro-
vide institutions with the predictability of financing that is required
for effective programme management. A three-year cycle for major
funding—through so-called replenishment processes—has proven a
successful model.140
The governing boards of those organizations—mostly UN funds
and programmes—which currently have annual, or ad hoc, funding
cycles should explore new funding models that would allow them to
demonstrate results and to be held accountable for their actions, draw-
ing on established best-practice formulas.
For replenishments to be successful, there should be broad participa-
tion, and the financial burden should be fairly shared. How can this be
achieved? First, by benchmarking contributions to benefits and ability/
capacity to pay. Negotiated burden-sharing arrangements should be made
as explicit as possible. Explicit shares provide a benchmark against which
performance can be judged. A country’s failure to contribute a previously
pledged amount provides an effective lever for the international commu-
nity to encourage its fulfilment.
Second, we can make use of benefit estimates to guide negotiations
on burden sharing. To justify a country’s contribution, a government
must be able to demonstrate that it is paying the country’s fair share.
One aspect of a fair cost-sharing arrangement is for every country to

109
 contribute in proportion to the benefit received. Such estimates—al-
though often difficult to establish—are helpful for policy-makers when
examining the total package of contributions for global public goods
made by countries.The International Maritime Organization represents
this principle the best; membership costs are in proportion to the rela-
tive size of a country’s merchant fleet.
Third, it is important that all countries with sufficient capacity par-
ticipate and contribute financially in replenishments.This is increasingly
the case today with emerging economies participating and contributing
in all major replenishments.

Improve national systems for global financing

If funding for global public goods is to be additional to ODA, as it

should be, states will have to adapt their national spending systems in
four ways:
• Revise national budget mechanisms to allow for greater flex-
ibility in spending abroad, including by the creation of new
mechanisms for more flexible use of domestic, sectoral budgets
to pay for international activities and capacity building within
those sectors.
• Adopt dual-track national budgeting systems to ensure that
global sectoral spending is properly allocated in national budgets
and not incorrectly allocated against development budgets.
• Track expenditure on global public goods by introducing a
line item for them in the OECD statistics (see below).
• Fulfil pledges for increased allocations for development assis-
tance, ensuring that sufficient resources are provided for de-
velopment activities that are also critical for the provision of
global public goods (such as health sector capacity building).
One way to capture additional spending would be to introduce a
line item for global public goods in the OECD statistics.141 Such an
item would only include contributions for the purposes of global public
goods that are not considered official development assistance. By high-
lighting these contributions more clearly in the official statistics—for
which countries often get only limited recognition—one might address
the inevitable tension between efforts by donors to achieve the target of
0.7% of gross national income as ODA and the financing of global pub-
lic goods.142 In the financing of some UN specialized agencies, ODA
and global spending are differentiated. For example, a fixed percentage

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of governments’ contributions to the WHO are counted as ODA, while

the rest is considered spending on global issues. New tracking methods
can build on these examples. Once such a line item is established in
the OECD statistics, a “league table” (a ranking report) of spending on
global public goods could be compiled. This would be helpful in gen-
erating domestic support for global public goods spending.
Global public goods spending should also be among the metrics
used to shape participation in a Global 25 forum.
Given the nature of global public goods, it is important in this context
that the OECD elaborates its mechanisms for cooperation within the con-
text of their growing cooperation with the major developing economies,
who are increasingly important contributors to global public goods.

Work with the private sector and markets

Governments should also do more to tap the energy and initiative of the
private sector (including civil society) and markets and to take advantage
of the specialized knowledge they can bring to bear, as discussed ear-
lier in this chapter. Examples include recent developments in emission
permit trading and advance market commitments. We envisage market-
based approaches being expanded to address other global issues, in par-
ticular in the areas of health, environment and knowledge. Governments
should provide the necessary regulatory frameworks and incentives.

Adopt innovative arrangements for financing

While national governments remain primarily responsible for financing

global public goods, this does not imply being restricted to conventional
tools for public finance. In recent years there have been ever increasing
calls for new and innovative sources of financing, sources that go beyond
traditional assistance from donor governments’ aid budgets. International
taxes, charges for the use of global commons, frontloading of aid com-
mitments and issuance of special drawing rights have all been grouped
under this broad rubric. The purpose of these new sources would pri-
marily be social development and poverty eradication, but many are also
being advanced against the background of a growing need for continu-
ous and predictable financial flows for global public goods purposes.
Some of the emerging ideas are politically controversial. Many are
concerned that these tools would put resources at the disposal of un-
elected international bureaucrats working in an international system

111
 for which there is limited trust and confidence—concerns that would
be addressed by the accountability reforms proposed above. Others are
concerned that so-called “global taxes” are a first step towards “world
government”. Despite such critiques, the international instruments
through which any global charge is levied remains under the supervi-
sion of sovereign states.
The international community has examined a whole range of ideas.
Among them are a tax on foreign currency transactions (or Tobin Tax),
collected on a national or market basis, covering a range of transactions
to be defined (such as futures, swaps and other derivatives); the cre-
ation of additional special drawing rights by the IMF for development
purposes, with donor countries making their Special Drawing Right
allocation available to developing countries; creation of a global lot-
tery, operated through national state-operated and state-licensed lotteries
with proceeds shared between national participants and an independent
foundation established in conjunction with the UN; and global devel-
opment bonds, a new asset class of debt security that mobilizes capital
in a systematic manner on capital markets for the purpose of financing
environmentally sustainable projects in developing countries.
While many of these approaches offer interesting economic and po-
litical benefits, we have chosen to focus on three alternative approaches,
two of which have already reached some early stage of implementation.
The airline ticket solidarity contribution and the International Finance
Facility for Immunization (IFFim) are the furthest developed of the
new and innovative sources, while carbon taxes would probably deliver
the highest return as it would have both a carbon-emission-reducing
effect and raise new international finance.
The airline ticket solidarity contribution. Among the most advanced
in this range of new ideas is the airline ticket solidarity contribution.
France recently proposed such a mechanism “… to combat hunger
and poverty and finance global sustainable development, inter alia,
health programmes including the fight against HIV/AIDS and other
pandemics”.143
Indeed France, together with five other countries, has been work-
ing for more than a year on concrete proposals for innovative financing
mechanisms which would help finance the Millennium Development
Goals. At the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations in New York in
2005, France proposed to create a financing scheme which would be
based on a solidarity contribution levied on airline tickets. Chile was
the first country to implement this scheme. France started applying

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the air-ticket contribution on 1 July 2006. Other countries that have

agreed to participate are Brazil, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Gabon,
Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Norway and the
United Kingdom. According to early estimates, the contribution from
this mechanism in France alone will generate up to 200 million Euros
annually. All other countries of the initiative will raise approximately the
same amount as a group.The United Kingdom, which already raises $1.8
billion a year from the taxation of commercial flights, has committed to
allocate a percentage of this revenue to the initiative.
The introduction of airline ticket contributions is expected to pro-
vide stable and predictable resources to, inter alia, help cover the recur-
rent costs of health programmes in developing countries. Some of the
revenue will be used to fund purchases of medical products, mainly
antiretroviral treatment of HIV/AIDS.
The levy would be collected by airlines, established nationally
through voluntary coordination between nations and monitored and
enforced nationally—a rare example of an internationally coordinated,
long-term fund-raising mechanism.
The International Finance Facility for Immunization. The other innova-
tive financing mechanism currently being introduced is the IFFim. It
is a pilot version of the International Finance Facility (IFF) which was
proposed by the British government. Essentially participants in the IFF
would be required to make a legally binding long-term commitment.
With this commitment the IFF can raise money immediately on the
international capital markets by issuing bonds, which the participants
are obliged to pay as they mature some 8–15 years into the future. Basi-
cally the IFF would “frontload” the flow of aid and thereby make more
resources available today for development, including measures needed to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals.144 To pilot this scheme the
UK and France launched the IFFim in November 2004.145 By apply-
ing the IFF principles on a small scale for a specific effort—improving
access to immunization—the sponsors want to demonstrate how the
facility could be a suitable instrument to help finance critical health pro-
grammes. The IFFim will borrow nearly $4 billion on the international
capital markets for immediate disbursement, using the donors’ commit-
ment of future payment as a way to generate more money upfront. The
money will be used to support new and underused vaccines and to
strengthen immunization services to combat diseases that cause a signifi-
cant proportion of child mortality (starting with DTP-Hepatitis B).

113
 The airline ticket solidarity contribution and the IFFim are prom-
ising innovations. We believe that it is warranted to invest political and
intellectual energy in exploring other new and innovative sources of
financing.
Carbon taxes. The potentially most significant tool, however, is car-
bon taxing.
A carbon tax is a tax on the consumption of fossil fuels at rates
that reflect the contribution of these fuels to CO2 emissions. A car-
bon tax produces a double dividend: reduced carbon emissions and
increased revenues.
Five countries have implemented a national carbon tax: Finland,
Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden. New Zealand will soon also
introduce a national carbon tax.
Substantial benefits could be realized by the use of carbon taxes in
all states at agreed levels based on the principle of common but dif-
ferentiated responsibility, and we urge governments to consider their
adoption. They could contribute towards the financing of critically im-
portant global public goods. And they could do much to mitigate global
warming by reducing emissions and redirecting resources towards the
development of alternative energy sources.

Summing up

If the sphere of inter-state cooperation is currently rather gloomy, it is

inspiring to see the level of energy and innovation emanating from the
growing engagement of private and civil society actors—actors, more-
over, who do not cleave to regional and political divisions that erode
the prospects for cooperation among states. Innovative partnerships be-
tween such actors and governments are likely to be an ever more im-
portant part of the process by which global public goods are financed.
Indeed, this innovation and energy is an uplifting note on which to
wrap up our analysis.
Of course highlighting this innovation does not mean that the fun-
damental responsibility of states is to be neglected. States remain re-
sponsible to their citizens and to one another for the global effects of
national policy and for mutual cooperation to solve global problems.
One way for states to act on that responsibility is to embrace in-
novative and ambitious efforts to generate new sources of financing for
global public goods, carbon taxes in particular.

114
 Meeting Global Challenges

Chapter 10

Taken together the reforms outlined above would help ensure ad-
equate and appropriate financing of critically important global pub-
lic goods. And again, the Global 25 would help initiate and monitor
these reforms.
Only when states match vision with resources will there truly be
the necessary ingredients—alongside legitimate and accountable institu-
tions—to adequately supply the global public goods so urgently needed.

115
116
Conclusion

If the priority global public goods issues we set out in Part II are to be
addressed, the goal must be to mobilize responsible leadership and use the
catalytic action it can generate to build a more reliable, more accountable
and properly resourced system for the supply of global public goods.
The first step is to enhance the prospects for catalytic action and re-
sponsible leadership by creating a forum in which those states with the
greatest capabilities can make the necessary commitments and generate
the necessary political momentum towards both the implementation of
specific strategies and the adoption of systemic reforms. Specifically we
call for the establishment of an informal forum, the Global 25, bringing
together those states and relevant representatives of other groups and
regions in a group small enough to allow substantive discussion and fo-
cused initiative, yet sufficiently inclusive to be legitimate and effective.
The second step involves reform of both regional and interna-
tional institutions to ensure that their governing mechanisms are widely
viewed as legitimate. We call for reforms to the governing mechanisms
of the IMF and the World Bank, and to the UN Security Council, as
well as for broader UN system reform. In the absence of such reforms,
the “good” in global public goods will be contested, and implementa-
tion will suffer.
Both sets of reforms would be enhanced by states and institutions
adopting a broad strategy of accountability, starting with measures to
enhance transparency through evidence-based research, monitoring of
state compliance and evaluation of institutional performance. Over time
these measures should be complemented by reforms that add heft to
assessments of results.
These reforms taken together require adequate and appropriate
financing and ultimately will help ensure the provision of global
public goods.
Transcending current international political divisions—recovering
from failed reforms and missed opportunities and overcoming mount-
ing dissatisfaction with the governance of the major international in-

117
 stitutions—will not be an easy task, or one that can be accomplished
quickly. Rather, it will take patient, sustained efforts over time.
Moving forward in this direction requires action from all sectors:
government and private, including civil society, and national, regional
and international.
The net result would be an international system more able to supply
global public goods—an international system, in other words, less divided
and more concerted in its action, more capable of joint, global action and
less vulnerable to global ills. A good, surely, to be desired by all.

118
Notes and References

119
Notes

Notes
1.  See Bergsten (2005).
2.  See Angell (1910).
3.  See Barry (2005).
4.  See www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/EUExternal
Relations24May.pdf.
5.  See UN Millennium Project (2005a).
6.  See Human Security Centre (2005).
7.  See Jones (forthcoming).
8.  See Kaul and Conceição (2006b).
9.  Telecommunications standards are set by the International Telecom-
munications Union. The WTO and the IMF, as well as the Basle group,
set international trade rules and financial standards. Civil aviation stan-
dards are set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
10.  See Collier (2006a).
11.  See Wolf (2004a).
12.  See Samuelson (1954).
13.  See Kaul and others (1999).
14.  See Sandler (2006).
15.  See, among others, Kaul and others (2003, 1999) and Barrett (2007).
An accessible definition and discussion is also found in Naim (2006).
16.  See Kaul and others (1999).
17.  Because this is so, it is also important that new efforts to provide
global public goods are sensitive to their developmental impact. For
example, efforts to improve the international financial stability regime
must incorporate an understanding of the potential negative economic
and social impact of financial stabilization and crisis response measures.
Further trade liberalization must be accompanied both by efforts to
build less-developed states’ capacity to participate in trade negotiations
and compensation mechanisms for those states adversely affected by
broader agreements on tariff reduction and the like. See Kaul and others

121
 (1999), Ferroni and Mody (2002), Kaul and Le Goulven (2003), Sagasti
and others (2005) and Kaul and Conceição (2006b).
18.  See Andersson (2006).
19.  Martin Wolf (2004b) makes a similar point in his book when he
says that “it is in the national interest of both states and their citizens
to participate in international treaty-based regimes and institutions that
deliver global public goods, including open markets, environmental
protection, health and international security.”
20.  See Mandelbaum (2005).
21.  Japan made a significant financial contribution to Interfet, as the
Australian-led operation was known, and it is important to acknowl-
edge also that the United States flexed its diplomatic and financial mus-
cle to generate Indonesian acquiescence to the Australian and later the
UN presence.
22.  Smaller states have also played such roles—as did, for example,
Costa Rica in respect of biodiversity, setting aside nearly a third of
its land mass as national parks and conservation areas and initiating
public-private partnerships with bioprospecting industries to finance
conservation, efforts which stood as examples and helped to shape the
eventual conclusion of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity.
See Arce (2004).
23.  See www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/.
24.  Some of the growing literature about global public goods refers to
the “production path” for generating the supply of global public goods
(see Kaul and others 2003). However, because the interaction between
levels and actors involved in the supply of global public goods can occur
in multiple different sequences, it is clarifying simply to set out the neces-
sary factors whose presence is critical rather than attempting to over spec-
ify the kinds of relationships between them that can generate supply.
25.  For example, some estimates show that when Thailand’s troubles
with the bird flu became known, the resulting collapse in poultry ex-
ports cost was well over $1 billion. The Economist, 12 August 2006.
26.  See World Bank (2005).
27.  Summary report. Meeting on avian influenza and human pan-
demic influenza, 7–9 November 2005, Geneva, Switzerland. Available at
www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2005/avian_influenza/summary_
report_Nov_2005_meeting.pdf. See also Brown (2005, p. A26).
28.  More than 39 million people live with HIV, and 2.9 million people
died of AIDS in 2005, bringing the cumulative total deaths to an estimated

122
 Meeting Global Challenges

Notes

28 million. See UNAIDS (2006). Malaria is estimated to cause 1.1–2.7 mil-

lion deaths worldwide every year. See UN Millennium Project (2005).
29.  See Sadik (2004).
30.  See Barrett (2006a).
31.  See www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/.
32.  See Murray (2006).
33.  See UNAIDS (2005).
34.  Ibid. Specifically when treatment is scaled up without strengthen-
ing prevention, the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa needing
treatment is projected to reach 9.2 million by 2020. However, if pre-
vention is scaled up together with treatment, “only” 4.2 million people
would require treatment.
35.  See Henderson (1993).
36.  This point is made by Garcia-Calleja and others (2004).
37.  See Zacher (1999).
38.  See Fidler (2004).
39.  See Kremer (2006).
40.  World Health Organization, World Health Report 2006. 
41.  See www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs302/en/index.html.
42.  See Joint Learning Initiative (2004).
43.  See Lele and others (2006).
44.  See Barrett (2007).
45.  See www.globalforumhealth.org.
46.  See Kremer and Glennerster (2004). The G-7 finance minister
communiqué from 21 April 2006 said: “Having endorsed the concept
of a pilot Advance Purchase Commitment for vaccines, we call for the
additional work necessary to make its launch possible in 2006.”
47.  See National Academy of Sciences (2006).
48.  See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2001). State-
ment of the academies from the G-8 countries, plus Brazil, India and
China to the G-8. And see also Cicerone (2005).
49.  These factors include emissions, which depend in turn on eco-
nomic growth, technologies and policy; take-up by the oceans and
other carbon sinks; and the effect of CO2 fertilization on terrestrial
absorption.
50.  Article 2, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 9 May
1992.
51.  See Barrett (2007).
52.  See, among others, Cline (2004) and Cooper (2002).

123
 53.  Five countries have implemented a national carbon tax: Finland,
Italy, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. New Zealand will intro-
duce such a tax in 2007.
54.  See Barrett (2007).
55.  Based on El-Ashry (2005).
56.  See http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/climat/emission.
Important are also the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund, launched
in 1999, and its more recent series of carbon funds, which aim to en-
hance confidence in the carbon market, reduce entry risks and address
market failures.
57.  See Barrett (2007).
58.  See Clémençon (2006).
59.  See World Bank (2006).
60.  For further elaboration, see, among others, Clémençon (2006).
61.  See Eichengreen (2006).
62.  While difficult to quantify, attempts at costing financial crises
point to the magnitudes; a study by Steffany Griffith-Jones and Ricardo
Gottschalk, Institute of Development Studies (2004), estimates that the
emerging market countries suffered an output loss during the 1995–
2002 period of $1,250 billion, mainly as a direct result of major cur-
rency crises. That is equal to an annual average of around $150 billion.
Another study—see Dobson and Hufbauer (2001)—estimates that the
average annual output loss from currency and banking crises amounted
to 2.2% in Latin America in the 1980s and 1.4% in Asia in the 1990s.
63.  See Eichengreen (2006).
64.  See Eichengreen (2007).
65.  In its World Economic Outlook publication.
66.  See Eichengreen (2007).
67.  As suggested by Mervin King, governor of the Bank of England;
see King (2006).
68.  Ibid.
69.  See Goldstein (2006).
70.  See IMF (2006).
71.  During the financial crises of the 1980s, lead banks brought credi-
tor banks to the table to hammer out agreements, aided by moral sua-
sion exercised by governments and central banks to participate in the
deal. But by the late 1990s, as the structure of sovereign finance had
shifted from syndicated bank loans to short-term deposits and bonds,
such approaches clearly were no longer possible.

124
 Meeting Global Challenges

Notes

72.  See Manuel (2002). By September 2004 41% of the value of the
outstanding stock of sovereign bonds from emerging market countries
contained CACs (progress report on Crisis Resolution to the Inter-
national Monetary and Financial Committee, International Monetary
Fund, Washington, D.C.).
73.  See www.iif.com/data/public/principles-final_0305.pdf.
74.  See Dervis (2005).
75.  Report on the IMF and Recent Capital Account Crises: Indone-
sia, Korea, Brazil. See IMF (2003).
76.  See Truman (2006b). In this respect, special attention needs to be
paid to the surveillance of off-shore financial centres.
77.  See Peretz (2006).
78.  See Collier (2006b).
79.  See Staiger (2006).
80.  As argued by Anderson and Martin (2006), “If members succumb
to the political temptation to put limits on tariff cuts for the most sen-
sitive farm products, most of the prospective gains from Doha could
evaporate.”
81.  See Bilal and Szepesi (2006).
82.  See UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (2004).
83.  See Human Security Centre (2005).
84.  UN Secretary-General speech, Madrid, 11 March 2005.
85.  See Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (2006). See also
the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
(1996).
86.  See Stiglitz (1999).
87.  See Barton (2006).
88.  For a recent, very detailed review of the CGIAR, see www.
worldbank.org/oed/gppp/case_studies/agriculture_environment/cgiar.
89.  See Barton (2006).
90.  Ibid.
91.  Established under a 1953 treaty, CERN was a way to achieve high-
energy physics on a scale that no country could achieve individually.The
CERN has been constructing and operating particle accelerators since
1954 and is currently building a large hadron collider (LHC). The par-
ticle collider must be built to a precise specification, and its construction
requires a particular level of expenditure. If a little less is spent on the
project, the specification will not be met, and the desired experiments
cannot be carried out. It was thus critical to secure financial partner-
ship from beginning to completion of the project. In a 1997 agreement

125
 between CERN on the one hand and the Department of Energy and
National Science Foundation on the other, the United States agreed to
cooperate in the LHC after giving up its own superconducting super
collider project in Texas.
92.  See Maskus (2006).
93.  However, against a general backdrop of disappointment, one small
but important step forward for developing countries was the 2001 WTO
Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, which emphasized that the
TRIPS Agreement should be applied in a manner supportive of the right
of states to protect the public health and promote access to medicines
for all of their people; reaffirmed the rights of states to issue compul-
sory licenses; and extended to 2016 the requirement that least devel-
oped countries comply with the TRIPS Agreement (e.g., provide patent
protection) in the pharmaceutical sector. A small but important further
step forward followed in 2003 and 2005 with the WTO agreement to
expand the possibilities for pharmaceutical producing countries to per-
mit exports of medicines under a compulsory license to address public
health problems in countries without adequate domestic pharmaceutical
manufacturing capacity.
Many countries are, however, adopting domestic patent legisla-
tion or entering into bilateral and regional trade agreements that con-
tain more extensive protections than required under the global WTO
TRIPS Agreement. These more extensive protections can have the ef-
fect of undermining the TRIPS provisions that allow states to protect
public health and may inhibit the capacity of countries to ensure access
to affordable medicines. There is a need to ensure that bilateral and re-
gional trade agreements do not restrict access to affordable medicines in
low and middle income countries, and that countries do not give away
their rights to protect public health in exchange for perceived opportu-
nities in agricultural, apparel or other commercial markets. See Barton
(2006) and Barrett (2007).
94.  See Finger (2002).
95.  This has been proposed by Barton and Maskus, consultants to the
Task Force Secretariat. See Barton and Maskus (2006). Whether the
proposed agreement should be part of the WTO as Barton and Maskus
suggest is a matter that should be further analysed.
96.  The G-8 political agreement on Kosovo set out the basic elements
of what became UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which set out
the terms of a political settlement and authorized the UN Interim Mis-
sion in Kosovo.

126
 Meeting Global Challenges

Notes

97.  Source: World Bank Quick Reference Tables, http://web.

worldbank.org/wbsite/external/datastatistics.
98.  Ibid.
99.  See Martin (2006).
100.  See UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
(2004), Linn and Bradford (2006), Dervis (2005) and Kaul and Con-
ceição (2006a).
101.  See www.g20.org/Public/AboutG20/index.jsp.
102.  See Shakow (2006a).
103.  Statement by Enrique Iglesias at the United Nations Confer-
ence on Trade and Development (UNCTADX), Bangkok, Thailand,
14 February 2000.
104.  See Amoako (2002).
105.  Shakow (2006a) notes that 24 industrial countries control 60% of
the votes in the IMF, while the other 160 members have only 40%.
106.  See Truman (2006a).
107.  See Peretz (2006).
108.  In 1946 the threat of veto blocked the UN from responding to
the outbreak of the first Arab-Israeli war, dampening the enthusiasm
and optimism with which the organization was born. Again in 1967 the
threat of veto blocked Security Council action in the Suez, further erod-
ing support for the organization. More recently, nothing has damaged
the UN so much as its unwillingness to respond to genocide in Rwanda
(where the United States and other Permanent 5 members withheld
support for a robust response), its non-action in Kosovo (where a veto
was threatened by Russia) and the glacial pace of its response to Darfur
(where the veto was implicitly threatened by China). These are all cases
where a veto or a threat of a veto has made more forceful and timely ac-
tion impossible.To make matters worse, where the veto has been threat-
ened or wielded, other actors—regional institutions or coalitions of the
willing—have acted anyway, notably in Kosovo and Iraq. International
opinion largely supported NATO action in Kosovo and has largely op-
posed US action in Iraq. But both events demonstrate that the veto
serves to block collective action but not to forestall the non-authorized
use of force, raising questions about its value and credibility as a feature
of the Security Council.
109.  The terms of reference of the High-Level Panel on UN Sys-
tem-wide Coherence can be found at www.un.org/events/panel/html/
page2.html.

127
 110.  At the independent research level, there is a different prob-
lem—geographical concentration. This differs from sector to sector.
In the public health area, scientific expertise is geographically diffuse.
This helps when it comes to developing national policy and support
for recommendations; it may be a parochial reality, but it is a reality
that national constituencies are likely to be more swayed by research
that has a national or at least a regional component to its production.
In development and finance, scientific and research expertise is more
concentrated, though important Asian, Latin American and increasing
numbers of African centres are changing this. When it comes to peace
and security, research expertise is overwhelmingly concentrated among
northern countries, and particularly in US universities.
111.  Specifically the Arab Republic of Libya, the Democratic Re-
public of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran have all been found
by the IAEA Board of Governors to be in non-compliance with IAEA
reporting requirements.
112.  See www.securitycouncilreport.org and www.carleton.ca/cctc/.
113.  The Commission for Africa endorsed such extension. See www.
commissionforafrica.org/english/home/newsstories.html.
114.  See, for example, the Studies of World Opinion of the Program
on International Policy Attitudes at www.pipa.org.
115.  See Shakow (2006a).
116.  Good examples include a Center on International Coopera-
tion evaluation of the prevention activities of the UN’s Department
of Political Affairs, reproduced in Barnett Rubin “Prevention”, Global
Governance; and its independent Annual Review of Global Peace Opera-
tions—undertaken with the support of the UN Department of Peace-
keeping Operations. Available at www.cic.nyu.edu.
117.  See UN High-Level Panel on Financing for Development (2001).
118.  See Jacquet and Marniesse (2006).
119.  While the examples below are pure illustrations of the orders of
magnitude, we argue in the chapter on accountability that more re-
search efforts should go towards improving the methodology and firm-
ing up such estimates.
120.  Statement by G-8 leaders at their meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta,
Canada, 27 June 2002.
121.  See Abt Associates, Inc. (2003).
122.  See Lee and McKibbin (2004).
123.  See World Bank (2005).
124.  See Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2002).

128
 Meeting Global Challenges

Notes

125.  “Avian Influenza Control and Eradication,” FAO proposal for a

global program, 17 March 2006.
126.  See Barrett (2006b). Pioneering research by William Nordhaus
suggests that an “optimal” mitigation policy initiated in 2005 would yield
a benefit equal to $283 billion in present value terms at a present value
cost of $92 billion.The net benefit would thus be $192 billion in present
value, and the benefit-cost ratio 3:1. Nordhaus’ supporting calculations
indicate that the marginal benefit of mitigation is just over $9 per ton car-
bon, which would be the optimal carbon tax, and that the corresponding
optimal reduction in carbon emissions would be roughly 5%.
127.  See Arrow and others (2004).
128.  See Gallup and others (2001).
129.  See Andersson (2006).
130.  See de Silguy (2006).
131.  See Baser (2006).
132.  Ibid. See also World Bank’s Global Development Finance 2001 and
their estimates for “complementary activities”, defined as activities that
have predominantly national reach, yet are critical for the delivery of
global public goods or for the absorption of their benefits (p. 110).
133.  See OECD-DAC (2005).
134.  See Lele and others (2006) and Shakow (2006b).
135.  In March 2005 the Second High-Level Forum on Aid Effective-
ness took place in Paris. Over 100 donor and developing countries as
well as several development institutions signed up to the “Paris Declara-
tion on Aid Effectiveness”, committing their institutions and countries
to stepping up efforts to maker aid more effective.
136.  See Kaul and Conceição (2006b).
137.  See www.gatesfoundation.org/MediaCenter/FactSheet.
138.  The WHO’s total biennium budget for fiscal years 2004–2005 was
$2.8 billion. Available at www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/PB2006/
P1-en.pdf.
139.  See Kaul and Conceição (2006b).
140.  The World Bank’s International Development Association, the
Global Environment Facility, the International Fund for Agricultural
Development, the African Development Fund and the Asian Devel-
opment Fund all have regular replenishment mechanisms. In October
2003 the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria also
decided to establish a similar funding model.
141.  Non-ODA line items already exist for other official flows, private
flows at market terms and net grants by NGOs. It can be noted that

129
 only a percentage of members’ contributions to certain international
organizations are considered development assistance, such as for the
WHO, UNESCO and GEF. This illustrates well the dual roles of many
of the international organizations, as both providers of global public
goods and as development agencies.
142.  See Atkinson (2005) and www.hm-treasury.gov.uk.
143.  Berlin Declaration, June 2005, and www.unitaid.eu.
144.  It should be noted that some have criticized the IFF notion as
one that “borrows against youth”.
145.  Since then, Brazil, Italy, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have also joined the Facility. See
also www.iff-immunisation.org.

130
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Annexes

139
 1

Annex
Terms of Reference

In an interdependent world, national development goals can often not be

met by national policies alone. Thus complementary, international as well
as regional cooperation is required in order to produce locally desired de-
velopment outcomes. Recognizing these interdependencies, Sweden and
France have taken the initiative to establish an international task force with
a mandate to foster an enhanced provision of international public goods,
global and regional, which are of critical importance for eliminating pov-
erty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In an in-
terdependent world, extreme poverty and its manifold consequences are of
concern to all; and it is thus in the enlightened self-interest of all to ensure
a life in dignity for all. It is in our common interest to secure sustainable
development in all its dimensions—environmental, social and economic.

Background

While the notion of international public goods is gaining widespread

recognition in the international development debates, the concept is
met with circumspection and reservation, calling for further clarifica-
tion and discussions. The notion refers to issues of global concern—
common concerns of all—and voices have been raised suggesting the
initiation of a participatory process in order to gain a better understand-
ing of the analytical as well as practical-political relevance of the con-
cept and how it can be translated into concrete policy actions. It is in
this light that a temporary International Task Force (ITF), which would
work in a highly consultative manner, has been established.

Objective

The ITF shall conduct its analyses and make its recommendations, act-
ing with complete independence.

141
 The ITF should systematically assess and clarify the notion of global
and regional public goods and which public goods to accord policy and
expenditure priority. It should identify key international public goods
from a perspective of poverty reduction and of common interest for
sustainable development and make recommendations to policy-makers
and other stakeholders on how to provide and finance them. It should
also propose responsibility for follow-up and monitoring effectiveness
and results.

Tasks

Task I—Defining international public goods

With the current debate on international or global public goods as

a point of departure the International Task Force should recommend
pragmatic definition(s) of international public goods. This task should
be approached with rigour and pragmatism with the objective of bridg-
ing the gap between the international academic discussion and policy-
making and action.

Task II—Priorities in the provision of international public goods for

development

Selection of key international public goods

The ITF should identify a short list of key international public goods
prioritized from the perspective of how they would help countries to
eliminate poverty and reach the MDGs. The selection will be made
through analytical work and a participatory process with concerned
stakeholders, including representatives of governments, civil society and
the private sector. The interplay between the global and regional levels
and national development efforts should be given special attention.
Learning lessons from past experience: management
The ITF should analyse the existing institutional framework for
setting priorities and providing identified international public goods.
The analysis should also cover the division of labour between relevant
stakeholders at national, regional and global levels. It will also consider
possible changes of the international system to enhance the provision
of the identified international public goods.

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Annex 1

Learning lessons from past experience: financing

The ITF should explore the wide spectrum of financing options,
including market creation, regulations, private and public sources, part-
nerships and innovative financing mechanisms. Special attention should
also be given to lessons to be learned from international public goods
which are currently well financed through private and public sources,
including and excluding aid. These tasks should be undertaken with a
view of providing recommendations for appropriate financing and re-
lated arrangements for the identified and prioritized international pub-
lic goods.

Task III—Recommendations for future actions

Based on its findings the ITF will present a final report with recom-
mendations and guidelines to policy-makers for accelerating poverty
reduction and sustainable development through an enhanced provi-
sion of international public goods. The ITF will help ensure that
the recommendations are well disseminated and fully considered by
policy-makers.

143
 2
Biographies of the

Annex
Task Force Members

K.Y. Amoako

K.Y. Amoako was Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission

for Africa (ECA) from 1995 to 2005. He is Chair of the Commission for
HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa and recently served as a member
of the Commission for Africa. Prior to ECA, he worked at the World
Bank for two decades, where his last position was Director of the Edu-
cation and Social Policy Department.

Gun-Britt Andersson

Gun-Britt Andersson has been Ambassador and Permanent Representa-

tive of Sweden to the OECD and to UNESCO since June 2003. She is
the former State Secretary for Development Cooperation, Migration and
Asylum Policy as well as for Social Security. During the years 1992–94
she was director of the UN Relief and Works Agency Operations at the
West Bank. Before that, starting in 1969, she held a number of positions
in the Swedish Development Cooperation Administration, including
Deputy-Director of the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation
with Developing Countries.

C. Fred Bergsten

C. Fred Bergsten has been Director of the Institute for International

Economics since its creation in 1981. He was Assistant Secretary of the
US Treasury from 1977 to 1981 and Assistant for International Eco-
nomic Affairs to the National Security Council from 1969 to 1971. He
was also Chairman of the Competitiveness Policy Council, which was
created by Congress, throughout its existence from 1991 to 1995 and
Chairman of the APEC Eminent Persons Group throughout its exis-
tence from 1993 to 1995. He is the author, co-author or editor of 37

145
 books on a wide variety of international economic affairs, most recently
of China: The Balance Sheet—What the World Needs to Know Now About
the Emerging Superpower, and The United States and the World Economy:
Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade.

Kemal Dervis

Kemal Dervis was appointed Administrator of the United Nations De-

velopment Programme in 2005. In 2001–2002 he was Turkey’s Minister
for Economic Affairs, and in 2002–2005 he was a member of the Turk-
ish Parliament, which included participation in the European Consti-
tutional Convention. Prior to this, he was a Vice President at the World
Bank, where he had worked since 1978 after teaching at Princeton
University and the Middle East Technical University.

Mohamed T. El-Ashry

Mohamed T. El-Ashry is Senior Fellow with the UN Foundation. He

served as Chairman and CEO of the Global Environment Facility from
1994 to 2003. Prior to that, he was the Chief Environmental Advisor
to the President and Director of the Environment Department at the
World Bank. He has also served as Senior Vice President of the World
Resources Institute and as Director of Environmental Quality with the
Tennessee Valley Authority.

Gareth Evans

Gareth Evans has been, since 2000, President and Chief Executive of
the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, an independent multi-
national NGO working to prevent and resolve deadly conflict world-
wide. He was previously a member of the Australian Parliament for 21
years, 13 as a Cabinet Minister, including Foreign Minister from 1988
to 1996. He co-chaired the International Commission on Intervention
and State Sovereignty, which reported in 2001, and was a member of
the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges
and Change in 2004 and the Blix Commission on WMD in 2006.

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Annex 2

Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias is the General Secretary of the Ibero-American Gen-

eral Secretariat. He was President of the Inter-American Development
Bank for 20 years. He served as Minister of Foreign Relations of Uru-
guay from 1985 to 1988. He was the Executive Secretary of the UN
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean from
1972 to 1985.

Inge Kaul

Inge Kaul is Special Adviser, Office of Development Studies, United

Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York. She was the
Director of the Office of Development Studies from 1995 to 2005 and
Director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office from 1989
to 1994. Before that, she held other senior policy positions in UNDP.

Lydia Makhubu

Until recently, Lydia Makhubu was President of the Third World Orga-
nization for Women in Science and Vice Chancellor of the University
of Swaziland. She is currently a Professor Emeritus and a member of the
Senate in the Parliament of Swaziland.

Trevor Manuel

Trevor Manuel has been Minister of Finance of South Africa since 1996
and a member of the National Executive Committee since 1991. He
served as Minister of Trade and Industry during the years 1994–1996.
He was on the Advisory Committee of the UN Initiative for Trade Ef-
ficiency in 1994.

Hisashi Owada

Hisashi Owada is a judge of the International Court of Justice. He has

served in various posts in the Government of Japan, including Private
Secretary to the Prime Minister of Japan, Deputy Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Japan and Permanent Representative of Japan to the United
Nations. He has also been a professor at Tokyo, Waseda, Harvard, New
York and Leiden Universities.

147
 Nafis Sadik

Nafis Sadik is Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General and his

Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. In 1971, she
joined the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) serving in vari-
ous capacities until her appointment as its Executive Director in 1987.
Dr. Sadik retired from UNFPA in December 2000.

Brigita Schmögnerová

Brigita Schmögnerová is Vice President of Human Resources and Ad-

ministration at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Develop-
ment. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe from 2002 to 2005. Before that, she served as
Economic Adviser to the President of the Slovak Republic in 1993,
the Deputy Prime Minister in 1994 and the Finance Minister during
1998–2002. From 1995 to 1998, she was a member of Parliament.

Yves-Thibault de Silguy

Yves-Thibault de Silguy became the Chairman of Vinci in June 2006.

Before that, he was Senior Executive Vice President of Suez. He is a
former member of the EU Commission, where he was in charge of
Economic, Monetary and Financial Affairs. In 1993, he was the Sec-
retary-General of the Interdepartmental Committee for Questions of
Economic Cooperation in Europe. He has also been an adviser on Eu-
ropean affairs to two Prime Ministers of France.

M.S. Swaminathan

M.S. Swaminathan currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnol-

ogy at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and is Chairman of
India’s National Commission on Farmers. Dr. Swaminathan has served
as Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee, Chairman of the
UN Food and Agricultural Organization Council, President of the In-
ternational Union for the Conservation of Nature and Director-Gen-
eral of the International Rice Research Institute. He is the current
President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

148
 Meeting Global Challenges

Annex 2

in 1971, the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986 and the first
World Food Prize in 1987.

Tidjane Thiam

Tidjane Thiam is the Chief Executive Officer of Aviva Europe. He

joined Aviva in 2002. Aviva is the largest British insurance company and
the fifth largest insurance company in the world. From 1994 to 1999, he
served in the Government of Cote d’Ivoire in various roles, first from
1994 to 1998 as CEO of the National Bureau for Technical Studies and
Development and from 1998 to 1999 as Minister of Planning and De-
velopment. Prior to this, he was a partner in McKinsey & Company.

Ernesto Zedillo

Ernesto Zedillo is the Director of the Yale Center for the Study of
Globalization. He is also a professor in the field of International Eco-
nomics and Politics and an adjunct professor of Forestry and Envi-
ronmental Studies at Yale University. He was the President of Mexico
from 1994 to 2000. He served as the Chairman of the UN High-Level
Panel on Financing for Development in 2001, Co-Coordinator of the
UN Millennium Project’s Task Force on Trade from 2002 to 2005 and
Co-Chairman of the UN Commission on the Private Sector and De-
velopment in 2004. He is also a member of the High-Level Commis-
sion on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

149
 3
Principal Meetings

Annex
and Seminars

Meetings of the Task Force

First meeting of the Task Force

New Haven, Conn., 25 September 2003
Second meeting of the Task Force
Istanbul, 5 March 2004
Third meeting of the Task Force
Washington, D.C., 7–8 October 2004
Fourth meeting of the Task Force
New York, N.Y., 10–11 January 2006
Fifth meeting of the Task Force
Paris, 11–12 May 2006
Sixth meeting of the Task Force
Stockholm, 27–28 June 2006

Meetings of the Group of Friends of the Task Force

First meeting of the Group of Friends

Paris, 3 July 2003. Hosted by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, France.
Second meeting of the Group of Friends
Stockholm, 18 May 2004. Hosted by
the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Third meeting of the Group of Friends
Berlin, 21 January 2005. Hosted by
the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development, Germany.
Fourth meeting of the Group of Friends
London, 22 June 2006. Hosted by the Department for
International Development, United Kingdom.

151
 Other consultations and seminars

Brainstorming meeting
Stockholm, Sweden, 7 February 2003
International Policy Workshop on Global Public Goods
Berlin, 4 November 2003. Hosted by Inwent, Germany.
Expert meeting
Sigtuna, Sweden, 2 September 2004
OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development
Paris, 9 September 2004
Africa regional consultation
Addis Ababa, 28 January 2005. Hosted by the
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and
the African Development Bank.
Europe regional consultation
Brussels, 8 February 2005. Hosted by the European Commission.
Asia regional consultation
Manila, 18 February 2005. Hosted by the
Asian Development Bank.
Latin America regional consultation
Santiago de Chile, 1 March 2005. Hosted by the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Consultation with civil society organizations
Paris, 19 April 2005. Hosted by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, France.
Financing Global Public Goods, L-20–The G-20 at the Leader’s Level
Princeton, N.J., 1 February 2006

152
Participants in Meetings of the

4
Group of Friends of the Task Force

Annex
and Regional Consultations

Participants in the Group of Friends of the Task Force,

Chaired by Gun-Britt Andersson

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Austria

Ministry for Development Cooperation, Belgium
Ministry of Finance, Brazil
Canadian International Development Agency, Canada
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chile
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland
Agence Française de Développement, France
Ministry of Finance, France
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nu-
clear Safety, Berlin, Germany
Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany
Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, Germany
Ministry of External Affairs, India
GTZ, Germany
Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, Mali
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mexico
Ministry of Health, Mexico
High Commission of Mozambique, Mozambique
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain

153
 Ministry of the Environment, Sweden
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Ministry of Finance, Sweden
Swedish Development Co-operation Agency, Sweden
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uganda
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, United Kingdom
Environment Agency, United Kingdom
HM Treasury, United Kingdom
Department for International Development, United Kingdom
United States Agency for International Development, USA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Vietnam

European Commission
African Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
Development Assistance Committee—OECD
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Inter-American Development Bank
International Monetary Fund
Inter-Parliamentary Union
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
United Nations
United Nations Development Program
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
United Nations Environment Program
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
World Bank
World Health Organization
World Intellectual Property Organization
World Trade Organization

Association of German Scientists, Berlin, Germany

Expert Group on Development Issues, Stockholm, Sweden
German Advisory Council on Global Change, Berlin, Germany
German Development Institute, Bonn, Germany
Global Policy Forum Europe, Bonn, Germany
InWEnt—Capacity Building International, Berlin, Germany

154
 Meeting Global Challenges

Annex 4

Overseas Development Institute, London, United Kingdom

Swedish Institute for Infectious Diseases Control, Solna, Sweden
Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
The Global Exchange for Social Investment, Berlin, Germany
Third Generation Environmentalism, London, United Kingdom
Transparency International, Berlin, Germany
University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Sweden

Participants in regional consultations

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Angola

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Argentina
Ministry of Health and the Environment, Argentina
Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Bahamas
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Belgium
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Brazil
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, British Virgin Islands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Chile
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Colombia
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Czech Republic
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ecuador
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Estonia
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Egypt
Prime Minister Offices, Ethiopia
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, France
Ministry of Finance, Gabon
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Greece
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ghana
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Honduras
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Hungary
Ministry of External Affairs, India
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Indonesia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iran
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ireland

155
 Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Guatemala
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Kazakhstan
Ministry of Finance, Kazakhstan
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Kenya
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Korea
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Latvia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Luxembourg
Ministry of Finance, Mali
Ministry of Health, Mexico
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Morocco
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Netherlands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Nicaragua
Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Paraguay
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Peru
Ministry of External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation,
Santa Lucia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, South Africa
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Tanzania
Ministry of Planning and Finance, Timor-Leste
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Tuvalu
Ministry of Finance Economic planning and Industries, Tuvalu
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uganda
Ministry of Finance, Uganda
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, United States Virgin Islands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Uruguay
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Vietnam

African Development Bank

Asian Development Bank
Central Bank of Nigeria
Central Bank of Uganda
Central Bank of West African States
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

156
 Meeting Global Challenges

Annex 4

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
European Commission
European Investment Bank
European Union Council
Inter-American Development Bank
International Organization for Migration
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Pan American Health Organization
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
United Nations Development Fund for Women
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Children’s Fund
United Nations Population Fund
West African Economic and Monetary Union
World Bank
World Health Organization
World Intellectual Property Organization

African Business Roundtable, Johannesburg, South Africa

African Capacity Building Foundation, Harare, Zimbabwe
African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi, Kenya
Agrisud International, Paris, France
Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines
Asociación Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de Promoción, San
José, Costa Rica
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Dhaka,
Bangladesh
B’nai B’rith Internacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, South Africa
Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, Indonesia
Chevron Texaco Corporation, Washington D.C., USA
Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea
Conservation International, Washington D.C., USA
Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Copenhagen Consensus Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark

157
 Forests and the European Union Resource Network, Brussels,
Belgium
Forum Empresas, Santiago, Chile
Fundazucar, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United
Kingdom
Instituto Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo, Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Instituto Latinoamericano de Servicios Legales Alternativos, Bogotá
D.C., Colombia
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, Malaysia
Japan Institute of International Affairs, Tokyo, Japan
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Malaysia
Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa, Abi-
djan, Cote d’Ivoire
OXFAM, London, United Kingdom
Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Manila, Philippines
Policy Network, London, United Kingdom
Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latino Americana y del Caribe, Santiago,
Chile
Red Interamericana para la Democracia, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Shanghai Institute for International Studies, Shanghai, China
Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe, Caracas,Venezuela
Swiss Business Federation, Zurich, Switzerland
M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India
The Foundation for Development Cooperation, Brisbane, Australia
United Nations University, Bruges, Belgium
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Accra, Ghana

The organizations and individuals listed here are in no way accountable

for any mistake, errors or other inadequacies in the report. The Task
Force accepts full responsibility for the contents and recommendations
of the report.

158
Papers Commissioned and Published
by the Secretariat of the International
5

Annex
Task Force on Global Public Goods

These papers are available in the following seven volumes.

Volume 1: Infectious Disease

Transnational Public Goods for Health, by Scott Barrett, School of

Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Global Public Goods in Communicable Disease Control, by
Michael Kremer, Harvard University
Ensuring Markets for New Drugs and Vaccines for Poor Coun-
tries: Institutional Requirements and Possibilities, by Ronald
G. Ridker, independent consultant
Microbicides as an Option for HIV Prevention, by Pasi Penttinen,
Finnish Medical Network
The Role of the World Health Organization in the Control of
Communicable Diseases, by Christopher J.L. Murray, Harvard
University
Health System Capacities in Developing Countries and Global
Health Initiatives on Communicable Diseases, by Uma Lele,
Ronald Ridker and Jagadish Upadhyay (all formerly with the World
Bank’s Independent Evaluation Office)

Volume 2: Global Commons

Managing the Global Commons, by Scott Barrett, School of Ad-

vanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
The Costs and Benefits of Protecting Global Environmental
Public Goods, by Raymond Clémençon, University of Califor-
nia, San Diego

159
 Resource Needs and Availability for Protecting Global Envi-
ronmental Public Goods, by Raymond Clémençon, University
of California, San Diego
Sustainable Management of the Global Natural Commons, by
Daniel Esty,Yale University
Assessing the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), by Maria Ivanova, The College of William & Mary and
Yale University
Capacity Building for Global Environmental Protection, by
Raymond Clémençon, University of California, San Diego

Volume 3: Financial Stability

Financial Stability, by Barry Eichengreen, University of California,

Berkeley
The International Financial Architecture and the Emerging
Economies, by Morris Goldstein, Institute for International Eco-
nomics, Washington, D.C.
Financial Stability: A Global Public Good, by Jim Turnbull,Triarii
Advisors, Ltd.
The IMF as the Principal Institution for Promoting the Global
Public Good of Financial Stability, by David Peretz, indepen-
dent consultant
Anti–money Laundering as a Global Public Good, by Edwin M.
Truman, Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C.

Volume 4: International Trade

Contribution on the International Trade Regime, by Robert

Staiger, the University of Wisconsin and NBER
The International Public Goods Needed to Promote Interna-
tional Trade, by Paul Collier, Oxford University
The World Trade Organization: An Assessment, by Constantine
Michalopoulos, independent consultant
Capacity Building for Trade as a Global Public Good, by Sa-
noussi Bilal and Stefan Szepesi, European Centre for Development
Policy Management

160
 Meeting Global Challenges

Annex 5

Volume 5: Peace and Security

Peace and Security, by Paul Collier, Oxford University

Reforming International Institutions to Promote International
Peace and Security, by James D. Fearon, Stanford University
Peace and Security, by John Stremlau, The Carter Center
Capacity Building for Peace and Security: A Look at Africa, by
Volker Hauck and Jan Gaspers, European Centre for Development
Policy Management
The Costs of Armed Conflict, by Elisabeth Sköns, Stockholm In-
ternational Peace Research Institute

Volume 6: Knowledge

Knowledge, by John H. Barton, Stanford University

Scientific and Technical Information for Developing Nations,
by John H. Barton, Stanford University
Information as a Global Public Good, by Keith E. Maskus, Uni-
versity of Colorado at Boulder
Capacities for Global Management of Intellectual Property:
Mapping Out Global Initiatives and Opportunities for Im-
provement, by Paul Engel and Sophie Houée, European Centre for
Development Policy Management

Volume 7: Cross-Cutting Issues

Critical Factors for Providing Transnational Public Goods,

by Scott Barrett, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns
Hopkins University
Financing Global Public Goods: Issues and Prospects, by Pierre Jac-
quet and Sarah Marniesse, Agence française de développement (AFD)
Review of Lead Institutions for Global Public Goods, by Alex-
ander Shakow, independent consultant
Regional Public Goods and Regional Cooperation, by Todd
Sandler, University of Southern California
Regional Cooperation: A Tool for Addressing Regional and Global
Challenges, by Björn Hettne and Fredrik Söderbaum, Department
of Peace and Development Research, Göteborg University

161
 Strengthening the Capacity of Developing Countries to Par-
ticipate in the Provision of Global Public Goods, by Heather
Baser, European Centre for Development Policy Management

162
Index

163
 ABST (access to basic science and tech- Benefit-cost ratios, 101–02
nology), xxi, 68–69 Benefits of global public goods, 99,
Accountability, 25, 92–98 101–03
Acid rain, 8 Bergsten, C. Fred, 145–46
Adaptation, xv, 43 Best-shot public goods, 20
Advance market commitments, 108 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 22–23,
Advance Purchase Commitment for vac- 107
cines, 123n46 Biological materials, misuse of, 58
Africa: agriculture, 41. debt relief, 78. Biological Weapons Convention, 4
need for health workers, 36. regional Blix Commission, xix–xx, 60, 61–62
institutions, 86. underrepresented in Bondholders, debt rescheduling and re-
the G-20, 82 structuring, xvi, 47–48
African Union (AU), 82, 86–87 Bonds: global development, 112. growth-
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects indexed sovereignty, 108
of Intellectual Property Rights. See Brazil, 41, 79
TRIPS Broad ownership of national policies,
Agriculture: in African tropical zones, 41. 104–05
bringing into the WTO framework, Buffet, Warren, 107
68. commitment to reform, xviii, 53. Burden sharing, 109–10
Doha Round breakdown and, xvii,
52. multilateral trading system and, CACs (collective action clauses), 48,
51 125n72
Aid. See Official development assistance Canada: budgeting system, 105. GDP, 79.
(ODA) peacekeeping operations, 22
Aid for trade fund, xviii, 52, 53–54 Canadian Centre for Treaty Compliance,
Airline ticket solidarity contribution, 95
112–13 Capacity building: in developing coun-
Amnesty International, 98 tries, xv, 43. vital to supplying a global
Amoako, K.Y., 145 public good, 100
Andersson, Gun-Britt, 145 Capacity development, 106–07
Angell, Normal, 5 Carbon dioxide: emissions permits, 108.
Annual funding cycles, 109 reducing emissions of, 41
Argentina, 45 Carbon taxes, xiv, 41, 114
Asian regionalism, 86 Carbon trading, 42
Association of South East Asian Nations Catalytic efforts, 74
(ASEAN), 86 Catalytic leadership and action, 21–23
Australia: GDP, 79. Kyoto Protocol, 40. CERN (European Organization for Nu-
Timor Leste state, 22. whole of gov- clear Research), 67, 125–26n91
ernment approach, 105 Chile, 112

164
 Meeting Global Challenges

Index

China: climate change role, 41. exclusion Costa Rica, 122n22

from the G-8, 79. GDP, 79. Kyoto Countries: catalytic roles, 22. national
Protocol, 40 carbon tax, 124n53. provision of
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), 7 global public goods, 21–22. See also
Civil society: engagement by, 8. influence States
of, 104b. providing international fi- Crises. See Financial crises
nance, 107 Crisis management, xvi
Clean Energy Financing Facility, 43 Crisis prevention, xv
Clean energy technologies, xv, 42, 43 Crisis response by the IMF, 49
Climate change: impact on different Cross-border challenges, x, 13
countries, 18. long-term conse- Cross-border financing of illegal and ter-
quences, 39. market mechanisms, rorist activities, 48
107–08. mitigating, 102, 129n126. Cross-border reciprocity in patents,
possibility of abrupt, 41. tackling, copyrights and trademarks, 66
xiv–xv, 16b, 39–43 Current account imbalances, 49
Coherence at the national level, 104–05
Collective achievement, 4 Democratizing governance, 87
Collective action clauses (CACs), 48, Derivatives, 49
125n72 Dervis, Kemal, 146
Collective security, 55–56 Developed countries, promoting growth,
Common knowledge, 66–68 47
Complementary activities, 129n132 Developing countries: adaptation ca-
Compliance, monitoring, 94–96 pacities, 43. capacity building, xv, 43.
Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, donors strengthening, 106. influence
xx, 4 in the global market, 10. multilateral
Conflict: correlation with poverty, 10. trading system supportive of, 51–52.
cost of, 16b transfer of scientific knowledge to,
Consensus, 20 xxi. TRIPS agreement effects, 68.
Constraint, 20 World Bank representation, 90
Consultative Group on International Developing economies, non-participa-
Agricultural Research (CGIAR), tion in G-8, 79
xxi, 16b, 43, 67 Development assistance. See Official de-
Container security, 57 velopment assistance (ODA)
Contingent Credit Line, 48 Development, global public goods pro-
Convention on Biological Diversity pelling, 15, 16b
(1992), 122n22 Disarmament process, 60
Convention on Long-range Transbound- Disease surveillance. See Surveillance
ary Air Pollution (1979), 8 Doha Development Agenda Capacity-
Cooperation, barriers to, 4 building Database, 107
Corruption, xxv

165
 Doha Round: breakdown of, 51–53. ca- Financial Action Task Force on Money
talysing, xviii. core objective of, xvii. Laundering, 48
cost of failure in, xvii. stalemate in, 4. Financial crises, 45, 47–48, 124n62
strategy to resume, 53–54 Financial incentives, 26–27
Domestic accountability, 98 Financial instability, 46
Domestic mobilization, 103–04 Financial markets, 46
Domestic public good, 14b Financial stability, xv–xvi, 16b, 45–49
Donor countries, focus on the poorest Financing: adequate and appropriate,
countries, 101 xxiv–xxvi, 26–27. development ver-
Double vetoes, 91 sus global public goods, 15–16. global
Drugs, global stockpiles of, 35 public goods, 99–115. innovative ar-
Dual-track national budgeting systems, rangements for, xxvi, 111–14. na-
xxv, 110 tional systems for global, 110–11
Force. See Military force
East Asian crisis (1996-98), 9, 16b, 45 Ford Foundation, 98
EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Foreign currency transactions, tax on,
Initiative), 95, 96 112
El-Ashry, Mohamed T., 146 France: creating international bodies, 22.
Emerging markets, 47, 48 financing schemes, 112–13. GDP, 79
Emission permit trading, 107–08 Free-rider problem, xi, 14b, 19, 50, 68
Emissions caps and trade strategy, xiv–xv, Free riders, identifying, 94
42 Free riding: disincentives against, 25. by
Engagement at the global level, 91 individual countries, 45
European constitution, 4
European Organization for Nuclear Re- GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
search (CERN), 67, 125–26n91 and Trade), 49, 51
European Union (EU): Emissions Trad- GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and
ing Scheme, 42, 108. implementing Immunization), 36
the Monterrey consensus, 6. protec- G-8, 78, 79
tion of databases, 67. source of stabil- G-8 Global Partnership Against the
ity and growth, 22 Spread of Weapons and Materials of
Evaluation of international institutions, Mass Destruction, 102
xxiv, 97 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Evans, Gareth, 146 (GATT), 49, 51
Evidence-based action, 93–94 General Fisheries Commission, 104b
External aid, 106 Geographical concentration at the inde-
Extractive Industries Transparency Initia- pendent research level, 128n110
tive (EITI), 95, 96 Germany, 79
Global 25 forum: case for, 77–84. com-
Finance G-20. See G-20 position, 82–83. conditions for an

166
 Meeting Global Challenges

Index

effective, 81–82. establishment, 117. Governments: creation of knowledge, 65.

participation in, 111. political ob- democratically elected, 19. markets
stacles, 83. potential role, 80–81. pro- and civil society, 107–08. preferences
posal for, xxii, 74–75, 79–81 and priorities of, 18–19. responsibil-
Global affairs, power and capacity in, 11 ity for financing, 103. sovereignty of,
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immu- 18, 19. See also States
nization (GAVI), 36 Great Depression, global financial mar-
Global development bonds, 112 kets and, 45
Global Environment Facility, 43 Green revolution, 65–66
Global Forum for Health Research, 36 Greenhouse gases, 39
Global Fund to Fight AIDs, Tuberculosis Greenhouse-gas-efficient technologies,
and Malaria, 8, 36, 78 43
Global interests, 17, 104 Growth-indexed sovereignty bonds, 108
Global lottery, 112 G-20: augmenting, 82. correcting imbal-
Global Partnership Against the Spread of ances, 82–83. gathering of finance
Weapons and Materials of Mass De- ministers, 79, 80b. transforming,
struction, 78 79–81
Global preparedness-to-response chain
for infectious diseases, xiv Health, security dimensions to, 9
Global problems, barriers to solving, 19 Health systems, strengthening national,
Global public goods: benefit-cost ratios, 36
xxiv. as common goals, 13. concept Health workers, needed to combat infec-
of, 17–18. contributions to, 82. costs tious diseases, 36
of, 26. critical, xiii–xxi. definition of, Hedge funds, 49
x, 14b. expenditure on, xxiv, xxv. fi- High-Level Panel on Financing for De-
nancing, xxiv, xxv–xxvi. national velopment, 41, 80, 100
financing systems for, xxv–xxvi. pro- High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges
vision of, xxi–xxvi, 15, 73–75. short and Change, xxiii, 55–56, 62, 80, 91
supply of, 18–20 High-Level Panel on UN System-wide
Global taxes, 112 Coherence, 92, 106
Global vertical programmes, 106 HIV/AIDS: costs of, 34. deaths, 122–
Global warming, xiv, 39 23n28. prevention and care strategy,
Globalization of knowledge, xx–xxi, 65 35
Good in global public good, 19, 23 Human Rights Council. See United Na-
Governance mechanisms: of regional and tions Human Rights Council
international institutions, 23–24. rep-
resentation in, 88 IAEA (International Atomic Energy
Governance reforms of international in- Agency), 9, 24, 95, 128n111
stitutions, 85–92 Iglesias, Enrique, 147
IMF. See International Monetary Fund

167
 Incentives, 107 International cooperation: benefits of,
Independent Evaluation Office (IMF), 6–9. bolstering, 4. evolution of, ix, 3.
97 focus on, 14–15. for knowledge, 66–
India: climate change role, 41. GDP, 79 69. in the national interests of all, 17.
Indian Ocean tsunami, 6 obstacles to, 20–27. reform opportu-
Industrialization, increasing greenhouse nities, 4. uses of, x, 13
gases, 39 International Finance Facility for Immu-
Infectious diseases: controlling, 34–37. nization (IFFim), 36, 113
growing threat of, 9. preventing, xiii– International Finance Facility (IFF), 113
xiv, 16b, 33–37 International financing mechanisms, 107
Innovation, pull incentive for, 37 International Health Regulations, sur-
Innovative arrangements for financing, veillance protocols, 35
111–14 International institutions: accountability
Institutional research, supplementing, 94 of, 92–98. governance and account-
Institutional summits, 77–78 ability of, 85–98. limits of, 9–10.
Institutions: analytical and operational provision of global public goods,
capacity, 24. decision-making mech- xxii–xxiv. reform of, 117. research
anisms, 25. governance and account- from, 93. selection of heads of, 98.
ability, xxii–xxiv. production of global strengthening with integrated mech-
public goods, 23–25 anisms, 88–89
Insurance-type instrument, allowing International Maritime Organization,
draws from the IMF, 48 110
Intellectual property, 66–67 International mechanisms: public and po-
Intellectual property rights, xx–xxi, 65 litical skepticism, 25. underinvestment
Interconnections between issue areas, 9 in and underperformance by, 11
Interdependence: of global public goods, International Monetary Fund (IMF):
73–74. increasing opportunities and drawing rights, 48, 112. evaluation
risks, 5 system independent of management,
Interfet, 122n21 97. executive board encouraging
International agreements, uncertainty of, change, 90. failure to reform, 4. gov-
18 ernance of, xxiii. governance reform,
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, 67 89–90, 117. monitoring of country
International Atomic Energy Agency performance, 94. multilateral surveil-
(IAEA), 9, 24, 95, 128n111 lance at, 47. reforming mechanisms
International Campaign to Ban Land- and representation of, xxii, 75. re-
mines, 104b gional and sub-regional groupings,
International community, financial sta- 86. specialized capacity of, 24. strains
bility, 47–49 at, 9. strengthening, xvi, 49. strength-
International Consultative Group on ening multilateralization of surveil-
Clean Energy Research, 42 lance, 46. surveillance by, xv, 46

168
 Meeting Global Challenges

Index

International organizations, centraliza- Latin America, regional efforts, 86

tion of activity among, 24 Leadership: catalytic, 21–23. conditions
International policies, coherence and of, 20. energy of national, 77. inter-
broad ownership of, 105 national, xiii. national versus interna-
International programmes, disease-spe- tional, 21
cific vertical, 36 Legitimacy of governing mechanisms, 24
International public good, 14b Local level, 21
International response to climate change, Local public good, 14b
39–41
International summits. See Institutional Macroeconomic policies, 46
summits Makhubu, Lydia, 147
International technical agencies, setting Malaria: benefits of reducing, 16b. costs
global standards, 8, 121n9 of, 34. deaths, 123n28. vaccine devel-
International trade, promoting, 16b opment, 102–03
International trading system, strengthen- Mandate of the proposed Global 25
ing, xvi–xviii, 49–54 forum, 82
Interventions, applying cost-benefit Manuel, Trevor, 147
analysis to, 93 March of Dimes Foundation, 22
Italy, 79 Markets: financial, 45–49. meeting global
challenges, 107–08. tapping the en-
Japan, 79, 122n21 ergy and initiative of, 111. working
Johannesburg Summit, 95 with, xxvi
Mass destruction, weapons of, 102
Kaul, Inge, 147 MDGs (Millennium Development
Khan, A.Q., 61 Goals), 16b
Knowledge: generating, xx–xxi, 16b. as a Medical research, funding gap, 102
global public good, 65. increasing for Mediterranean, deep sea fishing in, 104b
vaccines and treatment, 34, 36–37. Membership in the Global 25 forum, 81
international cooperation for, 66–69. Mexico: climate change role, 41. finan-
trends in, 66 cial crisis (1994), 45. GDP, 79
Knowledge gap between rich and poor Military force, xx, 62–63, 127n108
countries, xxi, 67 Millennium Development Goals
Kosovo: political agreement on, (MDGs), 16b
78, 126n96. UN non-action in, Mine Ban Treaty, 104b
127n108 Ministers on Climate Action, 40
Kyoto Protocol, 4, 39–40, 42, 108 Money laundering, xvi, xxv, 48
Monitoring: accompanying international
Land mine ban, 8, 104b agreements, xxiii. compliance with
Large hadron collider (LHC), international agreements, 94–96
125–26n91 Monterrey consensus, 6

169
 Montreal Protocol: financial incentives, Non-excludability quality, 13
27. monitoring and reporting re- Non-rivalry quality, 13
quirements, 95. results, 7. voluntary Non-state actors, 104b, 107
controls, 25 Nordhaus, William, 129n126
Multifibre Agreement (MFA), 51, 68 North Korea, 60
Multilateral cooperation, 106 Norway, 22
Multilateral security institutions, 7 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
Multilateral trading system, xvi–xvii, xix, 59–61
xviii, 49, 50–51 Nuclear stockpiles: clean-up of, 78. dis-
Multilateralism, 8 mantling, 102. retention of, 59–60
Multi-track approach to climate change, Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG), 61
41–43, 102 Nuclear weapons: outlawing, 61–62. pre-
venting the spread and use of, xix–
National authorities, engagement in xx, 59–61, 60f
global policy, 77–79 Nuclear weapons states (NWS), 60f
National autonomy, 17 Nunn-Lugar Initiative, 61
National budget mechanisms, xxv, 110
National capacity, building, 105–07 Obstacles to international cooperation,
National finance systems: for global pub- 20–27
lic goods, xxv–xxvi. spending on for- OECD: DAC (Development Assistance
eign and global policy questions, 105 Committee), 107. line item for
National governments. See global public goods, xxv–xxvi, 110–
Governments 11. monitoring members’ economic
National interests, reinforcing global in- performance, 94–95
terests, 17 Official development assistance (ODA),
National leadership, mobilizing and cap- xxiv–xxv, 15–16, 100–101, 110
turing energy of, 77 Onchocerciasis Control Program, 8
National level: coherence and financing Options A and B, 91–92
at, 104. as critical to global public Organization for Security and Co-op-
goods, 103–07. provision of global eration in Europe (OSCE), 78
public goods, 21 Owada, Hisashi, 147
National public goods, x, 13, 14b Oxfam, 98
National resources, committing, 17 Ozone layer, 7, 7f
National systems for global financing,
110–11 Pandemics, 33, 102
Nations. See Countries; States Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness,
Negotiations of the whole, 23–24 106, 129n135
Netherlands, 105 Patent legislation, 126n93
New Economic Partnership for African Peace: achieving, xviii–xx, 16b. preserv-
Development (NEPAD), 86, 96 ing international, 55–63

170
 Meeting Global Challenges

Index

Peacebuilding Commission, 56 Protectionism: preventing or reducing,

Peacekeeping, 22 49. trading opportunities missed,
Peer review, 96 xvii
Performance, evaluating, 96–98 Prototype Carbon Fund, 124n56
Policing strategy to combat terrorism, 58 PSI (Proliferation Security Initiative), 61,
Political interference on issues of surveil- 79
lance, 46 Psychological strategy to combat terror-
Political obstacles to the Global 25 ism, 59
forum, 83 Public domain, stock of knowledge in,
Political strategy to combat terrorism, 58 66
Political summits, 78–79 Public goods: best-shot, 20. concept, 13.
Polity-building strategy to combat ter- importance, 17–18. provision, xii–
rorism, 58–59 xiii. qualities, x
Poverty: correlation with conflict, 10. Public health sector, standard for evalua-
eradicating extreme, 16b tion set by, 97
Power, distribution of, 8, 10 Public health systems, 34, 35–36
Preferences, differing, xi, 18–19 Public-private partnerships, 107
Preparedness-to-response chain for in- Pull incentive for innovation, 37
fectious diseases, 34–36
Prevention and care, 35 Quad, xviii, 53
Principles for Stable Capital Flows and
Fair Debt Restructuring in Emerg- Regional conflict, mediating, 86
ing Markets, xvi Regional institutions, reform of, 117
Principles of legitimacy for the use of Regional participation in global decision
force, 62–63 making, 86–87
Priorities, differing, xi, 18–19 Regional public goods, x, 13–14
Private sector: energy and initiative of, Regional summits, 78
111. knowledge generation, 66–67. Regional surveillance by the IMF, 47
providing international finance, 107. Regional tensions, 86
working with, xxvi Regions, cooperating, 8
Private sector actors, engagement by, 8 Regulatory frameworks, 107
Production path, 122n24 Replenishment, 109, 110, 129n140
Proliferation, preventing, 61 Reporting: disease outbreaks, 35. volun-
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), 61, tary standards for, 95
79 Representation: in the Global 25 forum,
Prosperity, promoting global, 45–54 81. in international institutions,
Protection strategy of preventive national 88–89
security, 58 Republic of Korea, 79
Research: into causal relationships, 93.
evidence-based by the UN, 92.

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 free exchange of scientific, 67. geo- Soviet Union, smallpox eradication, 22,
graphical concentration of expertise, 23
128n110. on impacts of global public Spain, 79
goods, xxiii. indicating ineffective- Special drawing rights by the IMF, 112
ness of aid, 10 Specialized capacity of institutions, 24
Resource mobilization, xxv, 109–10 Spontaneous globalization of knowledge,
Response to infectious diseases, 35–36 65
Risks, 5 Standards: setting for non-proliferation
Rotary International, 22 and counter-terrorism, 89. setting
Russia: financial crisis (1998), 45. GDP, global, 8, 121n9. voluntary for re-
79 porting, 95
Rwanda, 127n108 States: capacity building, 106. disease pre-
vention and response, 36. effective-
Sadik, Nafis, 148 ness of institutions, 105–06. providing
SARS: cost, 102. onset, 35. World Health global public goods, 15. responsibil-
Organization (WHO) response, 6 ity of, 10–11. sharing in benefits, 17.
Schmögnerová, Brigita, 148 voluntary interaction between, 19.
Scientific research. See Research voluntary interaction between sover-
Security: achieving, xviii–xx, 16b. col- eign, 19. See also Countries; Govern-
lective, 55–56. health matters and, 9. ments; National governments
preserving international, 55–63 Strategies: capacity building, 43. clean
Security Council. See United Nations energy, 42. climate change, 102. to
Security Council combat terrorism, 58–59. emissions
Security policy, role of nuclear weapons caps and trade, 42. financing global
in, 61 public goods, 99–100, 108–14. HIV/
Short-term politics, outweighing long- AIDS prevention and care, 35. infec-
term perspectives, 18 tious disease control, 34–37. provid-
de Silguy,Yves-Thibault, 148 ing global public goods, 31. resuming
Smallpox, eradication of, 26, 26f the Doha Round, 53–54
Smuggling of nuclear materials and Structural reform of international insti-
weapons, 61 tutions, 75
Solidarity contribution on airline tickets, Subregional summits, 78
112–13 Sub-Saharan Africa, need for health
Sources of information for research, 93 workers, 36
South Africa, 41 Subsidiarity, principle of, 21, 103
Sovereign debt, rescheduling and restruc- Sulphur dioxide trading in the United
turing, 47–48 States, 108
Sovereign states. See States Summation problem, xi, 19
Sovereignty: of governments, 18, 19. Summit fatigue, 83
weakening cooperation, xi Summits, 77–79

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 Meeting Global Challenges

Index

Surveillance: IMF strengthening global, Tropical diseases, research facilities, 37

46. by international agencies, 95. TrustAfrica, 98
network to detect avian flu, 102. re-
gional by the IMF, 47. strengthening UN. See United Nations
global for disease, 102. through re- UN Framework Convention on Climate
gional health centers, 35 Change (UNFCCC), 39
Swaminathan, M.S., 148–49 UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Chal-
Sweden, 105 lenges, and Change. See High-Level
Panel on Threats, Challenges, and
Tax evasion, 48 Change
Technological change, 5 Underrepresented countries at the IMF,
Technology development norms, rebal- 90
ancing, 68 UNESCO, 24
10/90 gap, 36 United Kingdom: GDP, 79. taxation of
Terrorism: causes, 59. condemned by commercial flights, 113
UN World Summit, 56. costs, 57. United Nations: ending conflicts, 7. fi-
data, 57. definition, xix, 59. deterring, nancial incentives for peacekeeping,
xix, 57–59 27. not represented in the G-20, 82.
Test Ban Treaty, 61 system reform, 92
Textiles and clothing, quotas, 51 United Nations Department of Peace-
Thailand, 122n25 keeping Operations, 97
Thiam, Tidjane, 149 United Nations Environment Pro-
Tobin Tax, 112 gramme (UNEP), 97
Towed dredges, 104b United Nations General Assembly, re-
Trade: abolishing all barriers to, 16b. lack gional and political groupings in, 89
of ambitious reformers, 52. security United Nations Human Rights Council,
of, 57 56, 96
Trade Policy Reviews, 95 United Nations Security Council: legit-
Trading system, rule-based multilateral, imacy of, 63. mechanisms and rep-
49, 50f resentation of, xxiii. reform, 90–92.
Transparency: generating improved, 92– reforming mechanisms and repre-
93. of monitoring and reporting, 94. sentation of, xxii, 75, 117. reliance
in reporting payments, 96. in reve- on, xix. Security Council Report,
nues from extractive industries, 96. in 95. tracking, 95. veto, 63, 90–91,
the selection of officials, 98 127n108
Transparency International, 98 United Nations World summit (2005),
Trawl nets, 104b 56
TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related United States: account and fiscal imbal-
Aspects of Intellectual Property ances, 47. climate change role of, 40.
Rights), xxi, 66–68, 126n93 contribution to Interfet, 122n21. in-

173
 stitutional frameworks forged by, 22. World Health Organization (WHO):
Kyoto Protocol, 40. patentable re- budget, 129n138. eradication of
search findings, 67. sulphur dioxide smallpox, 22. evaluation office, 97.
trading, 108. underpinnings to the Global Outbreak Alert and Response
global economy, 22 Network, 36. improved reputation, 9.
Uruguay Round, 51, 66 response to SARS, 6. specialized ca-
US General Accounting Office, reports pacity, 24
of, 96 World Intellectual Property Organiza-
tion, 66, 97
Vaccines: Advance Purchase Commit- World Summit (UN), 56
ment, 123n46. increasing knowledge, WTO (World Trade Organization): bind-
34, 36–37. malaria, 102–03. price and ing dispute resolution system, 25.
volume, 108. production and distri- Declaration on TRIPS and Public
bution, 34 Health (2001), 126n93. Doha Devel-
Veto: threats of UN, 127n108. United opment Agenda Capacity-building
Nations Security Council, 63, 90–91 Database, 107. monitoring country
Violence, interconnectedness of global, 5 performance, 95
Voluntaryism, 21 WWF (World Wildlife Fund), 104b

Wars, decline in major, 6 Zedillo, Ernesto, 149

Weakest link problem, xi, 19, 26 Zero-sum approach, 18
Weapons of mass destruction, 102
Weapons of Mass Destruction Commis-
sion, xix–xx, 60, 61–62
Weighted voting, 91
West African countries, combating river
blindness, 8
WHO. See World Health Organization
Williams, Jody, 104b
Win-win approaches, 18
World Bank: Clean Energy Financing
Facility, 43. evaluation system, 97.
governance, xxiii. governance reform,
89–90, 117. Prototype Carbon Fund,
124n56. reforming mechanisms and
representation, xxii, 75. regional and
sub-regional groupings, 86. special-
ized capacity, 24
World Conservation Union, 104b
World Health Assembly, 23–24

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 About this book This report explains the concept of global public
goods using historical evidence and illustrates
their importance by highlighting six priority
global issues where their provision is critical. It
suggests broad strategies in those areas for more
effectively providing the good in question, and it
makes more specific recommendations for the
kind of structural changes needed at national
and international levels.

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Ta s k F o r c e o n G l o b a l P u b l i c G o o d s
The world’s promise can be realized and its diseases can be halted, their effects cured.
perils restrained only through extensive and Climate change can be slowed, its effects
ambitious cooperation across borders. Ours is a mitigated. International terrorism can be
world of shared risks and common deterred, and the use of weapons of mass
opportunities, grounded in the realities of destruction prevented. These goals are difficult,
mutual dependence and growing but achievable. So too is the goal of expanding
interconnection. All peoples’ health, security the prosperity that arises from a combination of
and prosperity depend in part on the quality of peace and security, financial stability and
their international cooperation, as does the international trade.
health of the environment. These global issues pose special challenges.
Because this is so, international cooperation In broad terms the goals are widely shared, and
has evolved from being a sphere of interstate all states have national interests in achieving
negotiations on foreign policy matters to a them; but in most instances no state and no
central part of how governments and people private actor, however rich and powerful, can
manage their day-to-day lives. And it has been a achieve them alone. Only by acting together, by
powerful and tangible force for progress. Past cooperating across borders, can problems like
successes provide solid evidence for what can these be effectively and efficiently addressed.
be achieved in the future. With shared vision International cooperation is in the national
and collective action, major accomplishments interest of all states.
can be realized. The spread of infectious

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