Raising the FfD4 Ambition: Democratizing trade, financial and monetary governance under the aegis of the UN

Time: 1:15pm – 2:30 pm 

Moderator: Emma Burgisser, Christian Aid

Speakers:

• Jane Nalunga, SEATINI Uganda

• Tetteh Hormeku-Ajei, Third World Network-Africa

• Stefano Prato, Society for International Development

The event discussed concrete proposals on how FfD4 could provide the opportunity to democratize trade, financial and monetary governance and reaffirm the critical role of the United Nations in these domains, particularly from a developmental angle. Over the past period, there has been a progressive erosion of key agreements within the Monterrey Consensus under the belief by some powerful Member States, that trade governance, including on trade and development matters, needed to be entirely devolved to the WTO, while global financial and monetary coordination and regulation be taken up by the Group of 20. However, both have failed to deliver trade, financial and monetary frameworks that are consistent with strong developmental outcomes, the reduction of inequalities between and within countries, and socio-economic transformation in the Global South. On the contrary, their combined action contributed to the consolidation of international economic regimes that severely limit the economic, financial and monetary sovereignty of developing countries, by promoting their unfair and inequitable integration in a system that is governed by a few powerful countries and the institutions they command, in a context of increasing consolidation of unchecked economic power in a handful of transnational corporations.