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Kofi Annan
By Peter Guest | Published: 08 April, 2009
“The G8 and G20 have influence, but they don’t have legitimacy. They have influence because they are big economies, they meet once a year, make decisions that affect people who are not invited to the table. If you are going to reform the system, it has to be based on universality”
It was the architecture of global diplomacy that made him a household name, but in this time of economic turmoil, Kofi Annan is advocating a restructuring of international institutions to better reflect the realities of the day and to bring the world out of crisis on a trajectory that will provide more even and equitable growth.
Africa, Mr Annan says, speaking in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, can be at the heart of a global stimulus plan. The continent is loaded with “shovel-ready” projects in transport infrastructure and clean energy, which could stimulate job creation and economic growth worldwide, he says. However, he warns, without a short term rescue package, effected by giving African nations access to financial assistance and by honouring existing aid commitments, the continent could endure instability and human crises.
Speaking before the G20 gathering in April, a meeting ostensibly called to rewire the global economy and reform the malfunctioning postwar international financing institutions, Mr Annan’s call for the inclusion of Africa in any stimulus package is not new. Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, advised at Davos this year that 0.7 percent of all national stimulus packages should be redirected to the developing world. The fear remains, however, that these powers, faced with domestic concerns, will revert to protectionism and short-term self-interest.
“I can understand why they would choose to focus on their own immediate problems,” Mr Annan says. “And yet when you look at the issue critically, you look at the world we live in today, we are dealing with problems that no one country can tackle if it wants to go it alone. Lots of countries thought they were going to be bypassed by the crisis, and yet everybody is touched because of the way that our economies and fortunes are interlinked.”
He recalls the Asian financial crisis, which broke during his term as secretary general of the United Nations. At that time, angry calls for transparency were thrown back and forth between international investors and the destabilising Asian economies.
That crisis remained relatively localised and could be dealt with with localised, short-term solutions, and perhaps, Mr Annan suggests, was a missed opportunity to begin global reforms that could have forestalled the problems the global economy is facing today.
“I really hope that they’re not going to make that mistake this time around,” he says. “A time of crisis is a time for reform and change of paradigms. If we think about it seriously – and we appear to be doing some of the thinking that we should do – I would not be surprised if we conclude that yes, short term is important, but the long term is something that we cannot put off any longer.”
