An Economic and Social Security Council at the United Nations

Date: Mar, 2001
ODID Working Paper No. 68
Author(s): Frances Stewart (QEH) and Sam Daws (New College)

The founders of the UN created no effective institutions for world economic and social governance, nor for protecting the poor at a world level. They are needed because: neither markets nor national governments fully take into account what happens beyond their borders - for example pollution of the ozone layer, or the effect of interest rate policy in one country on capital flows elsewhere; some activities cannot be controlled nationally: for example international movements of labour and capital, which governments may wish to regulate or tax; there are worldwide agreements that extreme poverty should be ended, and yet many governments lack the resources, or power, or will to act.

ODID Author(s)