Patricia
Fernandes da Silva
October
30, 2000
International
Organizations and Their Management: The United Nations System
Prof.
Ahmad Kamal
A well functioning International Financial System is condition “sine qua non” for a better economic balance between North and South. It is important to keep the programs of economic cooperation between developed and underdeveloped countries flowing. More important it is to make sure those programs are indeed appropriate and ensure that they will allow the poor countries to take advantage of the process of globalization and increase their economic grows. Clearly the process of re-formatting and rethinking the international financial system it is not simple, and it would be naive to believe that we can solve it here, nevertheless I present three suggestions that may help the process.
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Analysis
(a) Rethink the relationship between the big monetary organizations and the developing countries: Traditionally the relationship among the big monetary organizations i.e. World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European community etc has been one with big hierarchical connotations. The countries receiving help are depending on the directions given by the big organizations and have little or no say in the process. Instead the relationship should be one of continuous collaboration, where the big organizations listen to the needs of these countries from their prospective and look for suggestions from those same countries on what is the best way to address those issues. It seems obvious that even without the sophisticated technology of the ‘experts’ they are more likely to know what works for them, considering they have better knowledge of the cultural, economic, geographic, political and other conditions that will affect the outcome of the interventions.
(b) A better accountability system not only for the developing countries but also for the lending organization: Developing countries are accountable for the funds distributed to them by the international organizations or single developed counties with the purpose of busting their economic systems. A formal monitoring system should be available to track the spenditure of such funds. Information should be available among not only governments but also the population in general about how much money has been given towards a specific program, who is in charge of such program and how is the money to be spent. This transparency will allow for less mismanagement and corruption that unfortunately still prevail in many underdeveloped countries. As suggested by Ambassador Arthur C.I. Mbanefo of Nigeria during his lecture, the problem of corruption and mismanagement is one that can only be addressed by education. Hence the International organizations should pay particular attention to this issue because it is the base to solve many other problems.
(c) Develop a formal best practice system/
Crisis prevention Systems: It is important to learn with our mistakes. A formal best practices system will allow
for international financial organizations to know and register what works and
what doesn’t. Furthermore such document
should be distributes to all countries in order for them to learn and take
inspiration from their neighbors success stories. This should also allow the financial organizations to be able to
prevent future economic crisis and develop a crisis prevention system.
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Conclusion
The gap between the north and the south it is growing. It is important that all organizations take upon themselves to find solutions that will help decrease such gap. It is certainly in the interest of the developing countries but contrary to what many people in the developing countries believe, it is a problem of the developing countries as well.
What happens in a faraway country in Africa or in Asia will spillover to developing countries in Europe or even to the US, that is true globalization. Hence it is in the interest of all that the developing countries became more economic empowered.