NGLS Report: Civil Society Consultation on the Work of the President of the UN General Assembly’s Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System

In the wake of the global financial and economic crisis, the President of the United Nations General Assembly set up a Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System to reflect on the causes of the crisis, assess its impacts on all countries and suggest adequate responses to avoid its recurrence and to begin the process of restoring global economic stability. The Commission has a relatively short span of time to carry out its work and to produce a final report, to be distributed to Member States, other involved parties and the wider public, as part of a larger United Nations initiative to achieve the needed financial and economic reforms. The report will be considered in the preparatory process leading up to the UN Conference at the highest level on the world financial and economic crisis and its impact on development (called for in the final document adopted at Doha in December 2008 – resolution A/RES/63/239).

The GA President called upon the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) to bring together civil society-based expertise and insights and compile it into one report in order to inform the preparations of the President’s Commission on Financial Reforms. NGLS accomplished this through a three-week online consultation (26 January-13 February) that sought feedback on the four working themes of the Commission (financial regulation; multilateral issues; macroeconomic issues and addressing the crisis; and reforming the global financial architecture). NGLS then had ten days to prepare this report.

Nearly 100 responses were received during the consultation, many of them from different networks that bring together millions of people on different issues (trade, gender, global unions, environment, etc.) across several countries from the North and the South. Many of the organisations that responded are networks of hundreds of organizations or even “networks of networks” representing thousands of members. Other submissions reflect the views of a smaller number of organizations or people.

The NGLS online consultation aimed at being as inclusive as possible and was designed to interface with the way the Commission is structuring its work. NGLS has an extensive outreach capacity to civil society organizations; and, once informed, the organizations themselves took it upon themselves to advertise the consultation within their own networks.

The NGLS report does not represent a “consensus document” among NGOs, but aims to reflect the content of civil society proposals to reform the international financial and monetary system. It is hoped that it will serve to spark debate and to shed light on a number of issues.

For further information on methodology of this consultation, see the NGLS website (www.un-ngls.org/cfr). A number of NGO submissions can also be found there.

To read the report (pdf) : pdf finalreport