Category: Reviving multilateralism

Reviving multilateralism

Support to Ukrainian refugees and official development assistance

By Haje Schütte, Senior Counsellor and Head, Financing for Sustainable Development Division, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD

In the first week of the Ukraine war, roughly 6,000 people crossed the border into neighbouring countries every hour. This sort of displacement is unprecedented in modern day Europe. At the time of writing, two thirds of Ukraine’s refugees, mostly women and children, are hosted by Poland, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. 

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

The IMF and the capital account: Another step forward but still out of step

By Kevin P. Gallagher, Professor and Director of the Global Development Policy Centre at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies, and Co-Chair of the ‘Think 20’ Task Force on International Finance to the G20 and José Antonio Ocampo, Professor at Columbia University and former UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Finance to the G20

Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took another step forward in recognising that regulating international capital flows is important to maintain financial stability. However, the IMF’s new policy change is still not fully in step with the policies needed to manage the capital account volatility that emerging and developing countries face. 

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Development Matters
Covid-19, Reviving multilateralism

Covid-19 vaccines and official development assistance

By Haje Schütte, Senior Counsellor and Head, Financing for Sustainable Development Division, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD

When scientists announced the discovery of a Covid-19 vaccine, the world sighed with relief. But soon after, many people around the globe discovered that others would get access to jabs faster than them. The sad term ‘vaccine inequality’ was coined. Only 6% of people are fully vaccinated in low-income countries today. In a bid to fill the gaps and curb the pandemic, there were calls for high-income countries to share and donate vaccine doses to developing countries, in particular through the COVAX Facility – the multilateral mechanism for providing developing countries with vaccines.

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

What the Russia-Ukraine war means for Bangladesh’s economy

By Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)[1]

Since the war between Russia and Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, the global economy has entered a new terrain of uncertainty. The war-induced challenges have surfaced on various fronts. With global economic integration, a crisis of such nature, which involves a country like Russia, is bound to impact other economies.[2]

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

The European way: policy first for the people

By Anna Terrón Cusí, Director of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP)

“Policy first” is an emerging concept in the European Union’s (EU) external action and development co-operation. The idea is that shared policies and political priorities between the EU, EU Member States and partner countries should guide the EU’s external action and development co-operation, as opposed to former approaches more driven   by  the legal and administrative aspects of external financial instruments rather than policy.

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Development Matters
Development in Transition, Latin America and the Caribbean, Reviving multilateralism

How Latin America can tackle the international and national drivers of discontent

By Rita Da Costa, Senior Counsellor and Head of Development in Transition, Adriana Caicedo, Policy Analyst and Martina Lejtreger, External Consultant, OECD Development Centre

Deepening economic disparity, inequalities and social injustice have been at the heart of the mass demonstrations that have multiplied in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since late 2019. This trend is likely to intensify in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the number of people in poverty has increased by 22 million since the start of the COVID-19 crisis and inequalities continue to rise, the stock of wealth held by billionaires in LAC has risen by more than 40%. The current context opens a window of opportunity for LAC to exit the crisis by establishing a new social contract, but this will require a step change in international co-operation.

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Development Matters
Covid-19, Reviving multilateralism

No time to lose: strengthen global vaccine co-operation and leave no country behind

By Zhang Laiming, Vice President and Research Fellow of the Development Research Center of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China

In the fight against COVID-19, the most pressing priority is to bridge the global vaccine divide. While 71.56% of the population in high-income countries have been fully vaccinated, the same can be said for only 4.89% of people in low-income countries. As long as the vaccine divide exists, the coronavirus will not stop spreading and mutating, and no country will be safe. To this end, countries must work together. So, what needs to be done in the near future?

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Development Matters
Development in Transition, Latin America and the Caribbean, Reviving multilateralism

Can Mexico change the face of international co-operation for development?

By Gerardo Bracho, International Co-operation Expert and Member of the Mexican Foreign Service  

We still do not have all the details on the “World Plan for Fraternity and Well-Being” that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently proposed at the UN. What is clear, however, is its ambition to pull our present paradigm of international co-operation for development out of the doldrums.

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

Building a more collaborative and inclusive international co-operation system

By Xiuli Xu, Professor, Dean of the College of International Development and Global Agriculture (CIDGA), China Agricultural University

The term “development” that emerged in Western Europe over 300 years ago has evolved into a set of ideas, institutions and practices, particularly encompassing the concept of official development aid (ODA) that emerged after the Second World War, led by OECD countries. Development concepts, principles and approaches have long been supplied by Western countries, even though a distinction exists between “an interpretive discourse” and “a normative discourse” – with the former indicating a wider pattern of non-Western countries’ societal change and the latter consisting of Western donor agencies’ deliberate efforts to “improve” recipient countries.

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Development Matters
Reviving multilateralism

A greener post-COVID development strategy: Time to mainstream new development indicators

By Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)

The COVID-19 crisis has given us an opportunity to reset development priorities as wider efforts to build forward better, with a smaller carbon footprint, make headway across countries. But are 20th century measurement instruments fit for the challenge? Building forward better requires effective and efficient measures adapted to desired development outcomes. For instance, the COVID-19 crisis has sensitised society to the need for better health infrastructure, as well as a greener and healthier environment. It has also exposed major social exclusion and increased inequalities. The pandemic has been a wakeup call to urgently fulfil the commitments of Agenda 2030 and shift to a new development paradigm connecting the five Ps: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership.

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Development Matters