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Activists |
Activists,
NGOs, trade unions, lobby groups and other elements of civil society can
play an important role in correcting major problems with the global
financial system but to become more effective players they need to draw
from several lessons of recent years, according to a new study by the United
Nations University and the Centre
for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR) at the
University of Warwick, U.K. Today’s global financial system lacks stability, equity, democracy and efficiency and clearly needs to be better governed, the study says. Advocacy groups have had both positive and negative influences on the evolving situation. On the positive side, they promote attention “to the otherwise easily neglected social dimensions of global finance.” They are also an important source of information for the public and “a spur to democracy.” However,
the legitimacy of civil society involvement is not always clear and
tactics used in one region are not always appropriate elsewhere. In the wrong place, in fact, they hurt the activists’
cause. Experience in Russia, for example, has shown how western-style
activism in an unreceptive local political culture can be
counterproductive. Produced
by UNU and CSGR in a project involving 20 authors from 12 countries over
18 months, the study suggests ways to build the ability of activists and
others to engage in the debate more effectively.
For example, such groups need to choose between, or somehow
combine, demonstrations in the street and media campaigns with quiet
lobbying behind the scenes. Among
the positive aspects of civil society involvement in the global finance
arena:
The study's findings were discussed when United Nations University hosted a seminar on Global Finance and Civil Society after Prague: issues, challenges, implications for the United Nations at UN headquarters in New York on April 3 Speakers included the project coordinators, Albercht Schnabel, of United Nations University, and Jan Aart Scholte, Center for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization, University of Warwick; Gemma Adaba, International Confederaton of Free Trade Unions; Alison Van Rooy, North South Institute, Ottawa, Canada; Nodari Simonia, director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Moscow, Russia; Barry Herman, DESA, United Nations and Inge Kaul, United Nations Development Program.
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