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January 31, 2007
World Trade, Climate Change and Africa
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
Davos is over, some thoughts remain and most importantly, a call to action. I briefly go into some of the problems in the Davos’ agenda shared by Tony Blair:
• World Trade
• Climate Change
• Africa
Businesses must engage in these conversations not only for a moral cause but for a strategic interest, which goes way beyond corporate responsibility.
"Once we work out what is at stake, we need a multilaterism which translates the will into action, since it requires sustaining the global purpose, requiring global instruments of effective multilateral action."
Several thoughts on interdependency and intervention capabilities within existing institutions and perhaps new ones were addressed. As an example, a UN without Germany, Japan, Brazil and India as permanent members will not only loose legitimacy but it will also inhibit action; the need of giving greater power to the UN Secretary General; merging the IMF and the World Bank; the G8 metamorphosis to the G8+5, to name a few.
But most interestingly, the Concept of Nation-Building (that is, the capacity for effective self government within a country) as it still being in its infancy was brought to the table. It is when seeing issues like corruption play such a pivotal role in the Africa conversation for example, that nation-building is core in order to bring change about.
Proper infrastructure of governments; functioning commercial and legal systems; health and education ministries; economic authorities; and police and military which perform the tasks they should under proper rules of governance, which are a given in many developed countries, are still a must in other countries. These are the life blood of true progress for nations struggling to be nations.
These, acording to Blair, are the new skills the international community must develop. To some like The Guardian or the Herald Tribune, it seemed as though he was looking for a job. But what’s wrong with politicians like Blair, Clinton or Gore focusing on the global agenda?
Posted on 31 January 2007 in Development, Environment, Diversity, Corporate Responsibility
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