The seminar was organized to discuss the findings of a new study, New Roles and Functions for the UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions, prepared by UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER) with support from the UN Division for Social Policy and Development and Finland's Foreign Affairs Ministry. 

The study warns that the U.N., World Bank and International Monetary Fund, created at the end of World War II, today operate on badly outdated political and economic foundations and need to be overhauled before a crisis induced by globalization forces the changes required.

The seminar was moderated by John Langmore, Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development, and featured presentations by three of the experts who contributed to the study:

• Project coordinator Deepak Nayyar, vice chancellor of Delhi University, who co-authored and edited the report

• Richard Falk, of the Centre of International Studies at Princeton University, who wrote the chapter on UN reform

• Jose Antonio Ocampo, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, who wrote about the prospects for reforming the international financial system.

AP coverage
Press Release

John Langmore

José Antonio Ocampo

Photos courtesy of
Leila Mead/IISD