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Titus Alexander
Founder and Chair of Charter 99 (www.charter99.org),
freelance educator and author of several books, including Unravelling
Global Apartheid and Citizenship Schools.
Global inequality is sustained by the west's unequal power to make the
rules which govern the world. Poverty has many causes, according to circumstances.
Lack of market access is an obstacle for some countries, while too much
access and openness to markets is a problem for others. Lack of education,
skills, investment, public health or good governance are priorities for
some areas, while corruption, conflict, exploitationand systemic injustice
need to be tackled first in others. For some countries, western indifference
or damaging policies by international agencies are the problem, while
in others it is the lack of involvement by the west and international
agencies. There is no single solution to all these problems. But the people
most closely affected need to have sufficient power to do something.
People can be very creative devising local solutions, but for many of
the world's poorest people the major problems are the result of internationalrules,
policies and priorities set by and for rich countries. The G7 richest
countries have about 12% of world population and three quarters of its
wealth. They have the world's most powerful military forces, enabling
them to impose their will in much of the world. They also exercise a form
of minority rule in the UN Security Council, World Bank, IMF, Bank of
International Settlementsand other major institutions of global governance(see
my bookUnravelling Global Apartheid,Polity Press, ISBN 0 7456 1352
7). As a result, decisions by these institutions naturally tend to favour
western interests. In particular,the world's rules on finance, trade,
security, environmental protection and climate change are heavily weighted
against the world's poorest people.
To deal with these issues, I propose seven areas for reform:
• International decision-makingmust be transparent and accountable,as
advocated by Charter 99 (www.charter99.org)
and transparency international (www.transparency.org).
Existing structures need to be made open and accountablebeforedeveloping
equal representation or direct elections to a world parliament. Formal
democratic structures would legitimize an unequal and unjust global system,
they would be too remote for most people and could be bought cheaply by
the rich and powerful, as in the United States and most large representative
democracies. Lack of democratic legitimacy coupled with strong accountabilitywill
keep global decision-makerson their toes - and they will be the first
to call for directly elected representativesat a global level. But not
before they are open and accountable.
• Climate change must be recognized as a global security issue,
managed by a robust framework to cut global greenhouse gas emissions to
a sustainable level and allocate emission rights on an equal per capita
basis (for details of this approach, known as Contraction and Convergence,
see www.gci.org.uk).
• Money is the driving force of our unsustainableglobal economy.
We need to reform global financial institutions along the lines originally
advocated by Keynes, but updated (see Michael Rowbotham,Goodbye America:
Globalisation and the Debts of the Developing Nations, Jon Carpenter
Publishing, 2000, ISBN: 1897766564).
• The World Trade Organisation (WTO) needs to
be more open and equitable; developing countries need the capacity and
access to exercise their majority effectively; international trade rules
and enforcement need to be even-handed;protectionist measures such as
intellectual property rights should be dealt with by the World Intellectual
Property Organisation, not the WTO; and there needs to be better linkage
with environmental, human rights and security issues. This is a critical
but complex area, which should ultimately come under a strengthenedsocial
and economic council of the United Nations (see below).
• The veto power of the Permanent Members of the United Nations
Security Council must be phased out; developing country representationstrengthened;
the capacity for conflict prevention, resolution and policing needs to
be boosted, to intervene effectively in cases like the genocide in Rwanda
and the prolonged wars in Africa; and the global arms trade needs to be
curbed.
• Environmental protectionneeds a 'security council', backed by
a world court for the environment.
• The commitmentto halve world poverty needs to be backed by a new
and strengthened social and economic council of the United Nations, with
equitable representation of the world's people and a direct voice for
its poorest people, to oversee the work of international agencies that
deal with human rights, welfare and the global economy.
The strategies and tactics most likely to bring about change are
• highly focused global coalitions campaigning on the specific
issues above, working through governments, pressure groups and business;
• active education and campaigning within western countries to raise
awareness and support for ending global poverty;
• citizenship education in schools to increase understanding and
participation in politics as a way of dealing with problems;
• and a deepening of democracy in all areas of life.
Placed on Fabian Global Forum, May 2002
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