Send page Print

International trends / Other publications

FRIDE in Casa de Galicia - Mats Karlsson: Can global governance keep pace with an interdependent world?

10/04/2008 By Publicaciones FRIDE

"For the first time in history, absolute poverty could be eradicated within one generation"

© FRIDE

For Mats Karlsson the famous phrase "no man is an island" sums up, now more than ever, the global challenges currently facing an interdependent world. According to the economist, although the questions have been well-articulated at the international level, there is still a great deal of work to be done.

In his opinion, the current challenges are framed in three global tendencies. For the first time in the history of humanity, absolute poverty could be eradicated in one generation or, at the most, two. Meanwhile, the emerging countries – China, Brazil, South Africa and India – have raised the number of powerful voices, making multipolarity a tangible reality. Thirdly, he emphasises that the accumulated experience of the institutions of global cooperation is allowing for progress to be better managed.

Successful experiences, such as that of Ghana, which has managed to meet the objective set by the Millennium Development Goals of reducing the level of extreme poverty by half (from 52% in 1990 to 26% today) shows that policies of development and cooperation are working better than ever; cooperation is advancing and there is a positive trend in this sense.

The challenges are greater for fragile states, in which stronger instruments are needed to tackle poverty and conflict, but the price of not doing so would be even higher. For this reason, the management of conflict and development must be the fruit of coordination between international organisms.

The economic growth being experienced in countries like Brazil, South Africa and India often brings with it a rise in the levels of inequality. For Karlsson, combatting this means developing employment and social security policies that guarantee similar living conditions for the entire population.

On the other hand, issues such as migration flows and climate change demand multidimensional responses in which different actors intervene on different levels. Only the UN can establish effective norms in the face of these interrelated challenges.

© FRIDE

Mr Karlsson indicated the importance of the private sector taking an active role in pursuing projects that bring profits and a sense of being “winners”, while he also argued that the scientific community must contribute knowledge and analysis in order to achieve common goals. These networks would contribute to facilitating policies that translate into realities.

The ability of institutions to achieve concrete results was questioned by Mr Karlsson, who confessed that he did not feel very optimistic with respect to the matter. However, he also said that without these institutions there would be no frames of reference for many international actions, some of which have been successful, especially in the area of peace and security (UN peacekeepers).

Anyhow, the main opportunity is now coming from bottom-up demand, that is to say from civil society to institutions, which he felt must be capable of adapting to these demands because they cannot effectively respond to these challenges alone.

Publishing groups

FRIDE in Casa de Galicia

Keywords

Development Globalization Governance Political economy Poverty reduction Regional powers UN

Bio author: Publicaciones FRIDE

'Publicaciones FRIDE' is the byline used whenever a publication doesn't have a specific author.