There was widespread agreement at a UN General Assembly debate in New York (June 28) that international financial institutions are not positioned to address 21st century issues like climate change, migration, food and energy security.  Institutions such as the IMF and World bank were established 60 years ago to deal with global economic governance issues.

Although there was no clear agreement on whether the UN could do any better, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thinks it could. He reminded the gathering that “the General Assembly, in its recent resolution on global economic governance, recognized the need for an inclusive, transparent and effective multilateral system, with an effective United Nations at its center.”

The General Assembly’s democratic nature of ‘one state, one vote’ with 192 countries of varying size having the same impact, can make their decisions appear less credible. And despite recent cooperation between the UN and the G-20 major economies, credibility and legitimacy remain a question in the eyes of developing countries.

A proposal by the Director-General of the WTO (World Trade Organization), Pascal Lamy, to give the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) the same status as the Security Council received considerable support. In recent years there has been growing international support for strengthening ECOSOC’s role regarding global economic governance.

As envisaged by Lamy, a reconstituted ECOSOC would “be tasked to assess the overall state of today’s geopolitics,” and world economy and provide a long-term framework to ensure consistency among various international organizations.

Brazil’s former Foreign Minister, Ceslo Amorim, supported the idea, saying that although the G-20 replaced the G-8 in 2008 “with a little more African and a little less European sauce,” he still doesn’t like the group.  Slovenia’s President Danilo Turk suggested that ECOSOC could serve as an interface between the G-20 and the UN.

Richard Stanley of the Stanley Foundation, a US NGO focused on global leadership, said that entities such as the G-20 should not be a source of concern. “The current debate should go further than the UN toward integrating a truly global perspective,” and include civil society and the private sector in any formulation of global governance.

Established in 1945, ECOSOC currently has 54 member states elected by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Seats are based on geographical representation with 14 for Africa, 11 for Asia, 10 to Latin America, 6 to Eastern European States, and 13 to Western Europe and other States, including the US. Voting is by majority and no state has veto power.