"Multilateral institutions need to preserve their independence of analysis and of critical perspective."
Why does widening inequality around the world concern you?
Coming immediately after the most destructive financial crisis since the 1930s, the sudden awareness that inequality is worsening, principally in advanced economies, constitutes an additional and serious challenge to the argument that globalisation would improve people's welfare inside and among countries. As practically all policy advice provided to developing nations in recent years has been based on that now doubtful premise, it is crucial to understand what mechanisms are responsible for spreading inequality and what should be the best policies to counter those factors.
What is the most important contribution that multilateral institutions could make to tackle widening inequality?
Inequality as well as climate change are global problems. Only at the multilateral level will it prove possible to build consensus on its causes and on the best public policies to deal with such a widespread challenge. For this to happen, multilateral institutions need to preserve their independence of analysis and of critical perspective, resisting the continuous attempt on the part of powerful nations to dictate the multilateral agenda and the policy advice they provide developing nations and nations in general.
Mr. Rubens Ricupero will speak at the plenary session on Macroeconomic dimensions of inequality on 18 June
Currently Dean of the Faculty of Economics and International Relations of Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), in São Paulo, Brazil, Mr. Rubens Ricupero was, between l995 and 2004, the Secretary General of UNCTAD.
In 1994, as Brazil's Minister of Finance and Economy, he supervised the launching of the new currency, the real, which brought to an end more than 30 years of chronically high inflation. Before that, he had been Minister of the Environment and Amazonian Affairs, and Chairman of the Negotiation Group on Finance, during the UN Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio in 1992.
Mr. Ricupero was also Chairman of the GATT Council of Representatives (1990), Chairman of the GATT Contracting Parties (1991), Coordinator and spokesperson for the Informal Group of Developing Countries in the GATT (1988-1992). He represented Brazil as Ambassador at the GATT and the United Nations Organization, Geneva (1987-1991), Ambassador to the United States of America (1991-1993) and Ambassador to Italy (1995). He holds a law degree from the University of São Paulo.
