The United Nations is organizing a series of consultations on various themes to support governments to agree on a post-2015 development agenda for when the Millennium Development Goals expire. Growth and employment is one of these thematic areas.
Consultations on growth and employment are being coordinated by an advisory group consisting of staff from the United Nations Development Programme, the International Labour Organization, UNCTAD, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and UN Women, as well as representatives of other international and civil society organizations.
The thematic e-discussion on development-led globalization will be led by UNCTAD from 25 January to 22 February 2013, and will be moderated by Ralf Peters and Amelia Santos-Paulino (from UNCTAD) and Jayati Ghosh (from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi).
The e-discussion has been launched on the World We Want 2015 website, as part of the Global Consultation on Growth and Employment for the post-2015 development agenda.
The e-discussion aims at advancing thinking in four areas:
Growth, diversification and structural transformation.
Jobs and livelihoods.
Development-led globalization.
Environmental sustainability and growth.
The efforts now underway to renew the global partnership for development are taking place in a very different world from the one that gave rise to the Millennium Declaration. The financial crisis, which began in the advanced economies in 2007-08, has not only served as a reminder that markets can fail, and with devastating consequences for growth, jobs and social welfare; it has also exposed the questionable assumptions and flawed values behind the idea of a self-regulating market economy.
UNCTAD, most recently in the Secretary-General's Report to UNCTAD XIII, has consistently suggested a battery of policy measures and institutional reforms at the national and the international level to support rising living standards in developing countries, build their resilience to external shocks, and help them pursue a balanced integration with the global economy. The challenge is less about "getting prices right" and more about "getting development right".
At the international level that means ensuring that the gains from greater interdependence, in the form of trade and financial flows, are widely shared, and that adequate and timely resources are available to help countries adjust to the pressure of a more interdependent world economy and to mitigate potential threats and crises that could upset prospects for more inclusive growth.
The e-discussion will focus on these challenges, with the aim of advancing the discussion on a new global development consensus. The widest possible participation is being encouraged, to include policymakers and academics, and representatives of governments, civil society and the private sector.
