Issue 26: July-August 2003

Wanted: globalization
that benefits everyone

Making globalization work for the benefit of all humankind – that's the challenge facing experts about to gather at UN University Centre, Tokyo, for a two-day international conference called Globalization with a Human Face – Benefiting All.

The conference, co-organised with UNESCO, runs July 30-31 and begins with a public forum to explore the current understanding of globalization: the factors promoting it; its side-effects, intended or otherwise, in a number of key policy areas; and its impact on cultural diversity and ethics. The second day will feature parallel workshops probing globalization's policy implications for culture, education, the environment and media and communications.

Although globalization – a process characterized by shrinking space, shrinking time and disappearing borders – has the potential to bring great advances for humankind, markets alone cannot ensure that these advances are shared equally by all members of the global community. Global market forces can have negative effects on the provision of public goods such as social services, a healthy environment or pluralistic cultural expression.

The international community needs to place stronger emphasis on the impact of globalization on human well-being, minimising its negative side-effects by reforming governance on the international, regional and local levels. 

Delegates to the UNU-UNESCO conference will take stock of the progress in understanding the multiple linkages between the economic and political driving forces of globalization and socio-cultural development and evaluate the effectiveness of political action taken to balance the negative with the positive effects of globalization on people's lives.

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