Main Global Issues and Problems
NGOs Focus On...
We are developing this section to link to websites of NGOs at the United Nations and through out the world, who are focused on these people issues. If you would like your organization linked, or have suggestions, contact the Administrator. We see four major groupings:
1. NGOs affiliated with the United Nations in official status.2. NGOs worldwide, but not associated with the United Nations.
3. The United Nations (Country Governments) and UN bodies.
4. Civil Society Sector - organizations which are genuinely interested in these issues, as they effect the peoples. Including Universities and public sector organizations.
***It is suggested that Private Sector does not become blurred in with the civil society sector until they demonstrate measurable concern for peoples issues. And stop this "we have no accountability or responsibility, except to our shareholders" - which they themselves hold control of. Since money and power is shifting out of the hands of Big Governement and into the hands of Big Corporations they have a responsibility to give some back to the people. Not a lot, just a tiny bit! They will never miss it, with the trillions and billions of $dollars moving around the global every day.
We have heard some corporate executives tell the people "they are not entitled to it." Just the same, we believe not all corporate executives and their families are all that greedy, cold, crass, heartless (current terms heard often.)
LEAST WE FORGET! A REMINDER TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS:
We would like to remind the private sector that their corporations were built with their countries workers, their countries customers who paid for their products and their countries investors who gave them their own hard earned monies, their citizens taxes, their peoples mutual funds, their peoiple's pension funds, and their personal savings.
Globalization is having profound effects an us all. We are all feeling the impacts of the "New Economic World Order" that is taking shape. The effects are different for the Developed Countries and the Developing Countries and the Least Developed Countries. They are changing the focus at the United Nations, and in each of our countries. Globalization is even effecting our families, our races, religions and of course our jobs and maybe our security.
This change process is causing the Non Governmental Organizations NGOs to rethink their own strategies and focus points. We will look at some of the key globalization issues as they impact different areas of the world.
Issues-Changes Impacting the Developed World...
Greed and Lack of Compassion (Financial Managements who only understand "fixed costs," "cutting people," and "net present value" of their stocks, which all adds up to more "dumping" of people.)Control of Governments by the Private Sector; Campaign financing, Downsizing of Governemnt to reduce their control of corporations, key government positions held by corporate excutives, easing of taxes on corporations.
Control of the Media - by the Private Sector. No international news in the USA. As compared to 24 hours of BBC, ITN and even a different CNN International outside of the USA, all competing to let you know what is happening in the world - even Africa and Canada has better international news coverage than the U.S.A.
Continual Loss of Jobs - Downsizing, to move jobs, money and markets overseas.
Forcing the downsized workers to start thir own or join entrepreneurial companies with high failure rates, and then changing the bankruptcy laws so that the people can not protect their family assets... like homes. All while holding the one or two winners up as the examples of the benefits of entrepreneurialship.
Destruction of Middle Class (A marginalizing of the middle class.)
Increasing Gap between Rich and Poor (More tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the poor and middle classes.) Tremendous compounding of wealth in the hands of a few.
Control of People - Changes in Laws - Changes in the Bench. Note: the current republican congress not addressing President Clintons appointees to the bench.
Insistent building of Prisons and Police expansion. Current recruitment campaign for all branches of the military. Are we about to fight a war? With Whom? What happened to the Peace Dividend?
Family Values (due to globalization and loss of jobs and benefits - mothers working.)
Decrease in quality and quantity of Education (due to deliberate cuts to education every year since 1980. First exception is Presidents Clintons December 1998 announcemnet to spend some money on Education.)
Healthcare problems: (rising costs - non-payment of paid for benefits - loss of jobs with benefits - take over of hospital system by private sector.) Attack of First Lady and President when they tried to fix it and assure healthcare for all. Even the AMA American Medical Association is bring the first law suit against the biggest Health Care Provider in America for their focus on the "bottom line." "cutting cost," "driving the Doctors wages down" and "providing less health care and seletions for the people."
Increase in Health diseases, which were under control, due to social cuts.
Food problems in privatized hospitals. Call-girls in privatized prisons. And they want us to privatize our social security system.
Privatization and Market Economy with all its failures and abuses and the downsizing of governments only reduces the governments ability to monitor markets/corporations and protect the people.
Taxation Relief for the Rich, more taxation and the IRS for the weakest poorest people.
Continual Attack on the United Nations ... the last bastion of the peoples rights... the only place on earth where people can lobby 185 governments of the world.
Deliberate reduction of the "social safety nets" (equating it to left-wing socialism or communism - here comes McCarthyism again.) All while in bed with the biggest communist country in the world.
New York City Financial Capital of the World; and New York City Third World City of the USA with 54 per cent of the children born into poverty and thousands of people starving without food and healthcare services.
Issues-Changes Impacting the Developing World...
Need for the Creation of Jobs. A lot of youth without jobs.Flood of People into the Cities.
Family Values.
Water, Food, Health, Habitat, Environment.
Lack of ability, know-how and technology to compete in the Global Markets.
Loss of Country: Assets - Resources - Businesses.
Being left behind with the technology - internet - telecommunications - informatics.
Financial Dominance by outsiders through structural adjustments and MAIs.
Social pressures brought about by structural adjustments demand to cut social programs to pay the macro debt.
Issues-Changes Impacting the Least Developed World...
Less of a chance than the Developing Countries. Includes all of the Developing Issues above...just to a greater degree.In some cases, no money to assist in their problems...cuts in ODA to almost zero!
Water, Food, Health, Habitat, Jobs, Environment, Education etc etc etc.
Flood of Arms-for-Sale (with increasing killing effectiveness.)
Wars and resulting Slaughter and deliberate targeting of Women and Children.
Massive refugee problems with no protection or respect for relief NGOs like the Red Cross.
Take over of assets and businesses by transnationals and foreign investors.
The Deficiencies of the Global Capitalist System:
1. The uneven distribution of benefits.2. The instability of the financial system.
3. The incipient threat of the global monopolies and oligopolies.
4. The ambiguous role of the state.
5. The question of values and social cohesion.
- By George Soros in The Atlantic Monthly, January 1998 issue.
American citizens from religious groups/churches to farmer militias and many business leaders, professors and intellectuals in between, are all speaking out about the impacts of globalization on the Developed Countries and the rest of the world.The "Contract with America:" Whos America? Whos Contract?
Global Economic Development or Decay
The world has witnessed enormous economic development in recent decades, but the generation of wealth and prosperity has been very uneven, so uneven that economic imbalances are seen to exacerbate serious social problems and political instability in virtually every region of the world. The end of the cold war and the accelerated emergence of a global economy have not solved persistent problems of extreme poverty, indebtedness, underdevelopment and trade imbalances, especially in developing regions.
One of the founding principles of the United Nations is the conviction that economic development for all peoples of the world is the surest way to achieve political, economic and social security. It is a central preoccupation of the Organization that over 60 per cent of the world's population, most of them in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, subsist on $2 or less per day. About 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty. Nearly 1 billion people are illiterate, and over 1 billion lack access to safe water. Every day, some 840 million go hungry or face food insecurity.
The United Nations continues to be the single institution dedicated to finding ways to ensure that economic expansion and globalization are guided by policies aimed at ensuring human welfare, sustainable development, the eradication of poverty, fair trade policies and the reduction of crippling indebtedness.
The United Nations urges the adoption of macroeconomic policies that address these imbalances, particularly the growing gap between the North and South, the persistent problems of the least developed countries, and the unprecedented requirements of the economies in transition from centralized to market economies. The Organization has worked at the global and national levels for the creation of an enabling environment for development. It is engaged everywhere in helping the efforts of people to escape from the trap of poverty and hunger, and in promoting child survival, environmental protection, women's progress, human rights and democracy. For millions in poor countries, these programmes of assistance are the United Nations.
Official Development Assistance - ODA
Through their policies and financial flows, the Organization's lending institutions have, collectively, an enormous influence on the economies of developing countries. This is especially true for the least developed countries (LDCs), which include 48 nations whose extreme poverty and indebtedness have marginalized them from global growth and development. The LDCs are the focus of several United Nations assistance programmes, including the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countriesfor the 1990s, whereby LDCs, the majority of which are in Africa, are targeted as priorities for international development cooperation. Donor countries have agreed to commit 0. 15 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) to this group of nations. Small island developing States (see also page 205), landlocked developing countries and countries with economies in transition to market economies also suffer from critical problems requiring special attention from the international community and are similarly priorities in the assistance programmes of the United Nations system.
Declining Assistance to Development
In 1980, industrialized countries pledged at the General Assembly to devote 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) to official development assistance (ODA) to developing countries. But that target has been reached by only a few countries - currently Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden. In fact, Nordic countries by themselves provide over 20 per cent of total ODA each year. On average, ODA has remained at less than half of the targeted level, or about 0.3 per cent of industrialized countries' GNP. With the end of the cold war, ODA has fallen by 14 per cent in real terms between 1992 and 1995. By 1996, ODA, at $58 billion, represented a mere 0.25 per cent of the GNP of the 21 main donor countries - its lowest level in 30 years. The largest donor continued to be Japan, followed by the United States, Germany and France.
In the past, official development finance from northern Governments represented the bulk of the financial resources going into developing countries. But in the last few years, private investment in developing countries has increased dramatically, and private investments and loans now far outweigh official flows. Of total resource flows from donor countries in 1996 of $304 billion, $238 billion was private flows, and only $66 billion was official flows, including non-ODA funds.
Both the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development carefully monitor these financial flows and point to serious problems that still must be addressed. Eighty per cent of the private capital flow to developing countries, for example, goes to just 12 countries; the poorest countries attract less than 1 per cent of total foreign investment flows; and nearly 50 developing countries are not receiving any foreign capital at all.
Reflecting concern over these issues, the General Assembly decided in 1997 to convene an international conference or a special session of the Assembly by the year 2001 which would be devoted exclusively to the issue of financing for development. The high-level meeting would address, among other things, the continuing high level of indebtedness, the mobilization of innovative domestic and private resources for development, and governance of the international monetary, financial and trade systems.
Africa - a United Nations Priority
The United Nations, reflecting the concern of the international community, has made the critical socio-economic conditions in Africa a priority concern. In affirming its commitment to support the region's development, it has devised special programmes to find durable solutions to external debt and debt-service problems, to increase foreign direct investment, to enhance national capacity- building, to deal with the shortage of domestic resources for development and to facilitate the integration of the African countries into subregional, regional and world trade.
At its 1986 special session on Africa, the General Assembly adopted the Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990 (UNPAERD), which sought to mobilize political and financial support for economic reforms. Reviewing the Programme of Action in 1991, the Assembly called for a New Agenda for Development of Africa in the 1990s to ensure continued support for the region by achieving an average real growth rate in gross domestic product of at least 6 per cent a year through out the 1990s. The New Agenda accords special attention to human development and increased employment, and to programmes which promote rapid progress in life expectancy, the integration of women in development, child and maternal health, and the provision of adequate nutrition, water and sanitation, education and shelter.
To ensure coordination of United Nations policy-making and of its extensive programmes in the region, the General Assembly launched in 1996 the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa (UNSIA) to help accelerate Africa's development in the decade to 2005. UNSIA is designed to rationalize and maximize the impact of United Nations assistance, including that of UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and the Bretton Woods institutions, through more effective coordination at headquarters and at the country level. The Initiative's mechanisms work to forge coherent partnerships to focus on priorities already identified by African countries.
Official development assistance (ODA) to all developing countries has averaged around $60 billion a year in the 1990s (see box on opposite page). United Nations ODA is derived from two sources: grant assistance from United Nations specialized and technical agencies and United Nations funds and programmes, which has averaged around $4.5 billion; and loans from lending institutions of the United Nations system, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank.
ODA from the United Nations system is widely distributed among 130 countries. Africa receives nearly 40 per cent of all United Nations system grant resources, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America each receive 22 per cent, Europe 6.6 per cent and Western Asia 6 per cent.
In 1996, the latest year for which a detailed breakdown is available, the sector comprising humanitarian assistance and disaster management was the largest single recipient of grant-financed development activities of the United Nations system, accounting for over a quarter of total outlays, followed by the health sector. This does not include expenditures by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which in recent years have averaged around $1 billion annually (see Chapter 5, page 253). In addition, IFAD invests over $250 million a year in loans and grants aimed at relieving hunger and rural poverty (see pages 145 and 163). Finally, the World Bank provides loans totalling over $20 billion a year, while the other so-called Bretton Woods institution, the International Monetary Fund, also offers various forms of support to countries in financial difficulties (seepages 135 and 136 respectively).
But the activities of the United Nations system have been affected by the marked decline of the share of ODA in total resource flows (see box on page 130). Moreover, the share of United Nations system developement grants in declining total ODA has dropped from around 8 per cent ($4.9 billion) in 1993 to less than 7.5 per cent ($4.3 billion) in 1996.
As general (core) resources provided to United Nations agencies and bodies have declined, there has been a relatively rapid increase in non-core resources provided for specific programmes, projects or funds. While all countries contribute to development cooperation, nearly 90 per cent of core resources is provided by only 15 industrial countries. The traditional donor base has been static, despite significant changes in the global economy.
One child born in New York City, Paris or London will consume, waste and pollute more in a life time than as many as 50 children born in the average developing country. The wealthiest 20% of the world's people use 58% of the world's energy and consume 45% of all meat and fish. They own 87% of the world's vehicles and have access to 74% of all telephone lines. Poor households typically spend more than half of their income on food. Still, about one-fifth of the 4.4 billion people living in developing countries are malnourished. A 1986 survey showed that citizens in the USA believed they needed an income of at least $50,000 a year to "fulfill their dreams." By 1994, the figure doubled to $100,000. Public spending on primary and secondary education averages $15,500 per person in Luxembourg, and $57 in China. Public and private spending on health care averages about $2,000 per person in Finland, and $3 in Viet Nam. The average person in North America uses more than twice as much electricity as someone in the European Union, and 14 times more energy than someone in the developing world. An additional $6 billion a year would be needed to achieve universal basic education - about $2 billion less than what is currently spent in the USA alone on cosmetics. An additional $13 billion a year would be needed to ensure basic health and nutrition for all - a fraction of the amount spent in Europe on cigarettes ($50 billion) or alcoholic drinks ($105 billion). An additional $9 billion a year would be required to provide clean water and sanitation worldwide. That is about half the money currently spent on pet food in Europe and the USA. In 1997 the world spent $435 billion on advertising, mostly in Europe, North America and Japan. That is nearly 8 times the amount that was channeled to the developing world in the form of official development assistance (ODA).
at the bottom of each page.
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