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In-Depth Information
the authority which the world needs more than ever': Dag Hammarskjöld,
who was UN Secretary-General from 1953 to 1961.
Starting in the 1980s, a succession of United Nations commissions
would produce several significant reports that would call for 'alterna-
tive' visions of how inequality, people's general welfare and environ-
mental sustainability might be better addressed than in previous
decades. Two Brandt Reports, '
North-South, A Programme for Survival
(UNDP 1980) and
Common Crisis
(UNDP 1983), would be followed by
the Brundtland Commission's
Our Common Future
as a 1987 state-
ment of the UN World Commission on Environment and Development
(UNWEP 1987). Rounding out these UN Commission global visions was
the extremely successful 'Environmental Summit' held in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992, and the resultant progressive
Agenda 21
which explic-
itly focused upon the means by which 'sustainable development' could,
and should, be pursued globally (see Chapter 2.5).
As noted previously, the United Nations was never able to become
fully involved in assisting its developing country members; one reason
was its preoccupation with peace and security issues in the earlier dec-
ades. Human rights, basic needs, health, education and welfare, child
welfare, family planning and such, were on the agendas of some of its
constituted affiliates, such as the World Health Organization (WHO),
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and specialist branches
such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). On the other hand, the development missions
of its member organizations such as the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO), and the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) were discussion forums, never
implementation agencies.
Later, in the post-1980 era of globalization, this 'mission-avoidance'
would be partially rectified with the UN's involvement in the formulation
of the Millennium Development Goals (see Chapter 1.5), and with the
greater financial role played by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in providing development grant assistance. Of note,
in this respect, was the publication of UNDP's
Human Development
Report 1990
in which 'people-centred development' was trumpeted as the
best development strategy for the future global economy (see Chapter 2.2).
When the World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programmes
(SAPs) were in ascendance, however, the UN was powerless to intervene
or intercede, thereby demonstrating the imbalance in geo-political, global
authority of these IFIs over that of the UN and its affiliate organizations.
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