Tony Addisson at the International Financial Architecture as a Global Public Good

Tony Addison has been invited to speak at the International Financial Architecture as a Global Public Good — an expert roundtable in support of Our Common Agenda. The event takes place online on 28 March 2022 at 9am (EST), and it will focus on weaknesses in the international financial architecture and suggestions for improvement.

In the Our Common Agenda report, the Secretary-General laid out a broad vision for a revitalized approach to global governance, announcing the formation of a High-Level Advisory Board on Global Public Goods (HLAB). This body will be tasked with identifying where governance improvements are most needed and proposing options for how this might be achieved. The High-Level Advisory Board will consider: (a) What new governance regimes are suitable for existing and new global public goods; (b) What gaps exist in existing global governance approaches to global public goods; and (c) How we might retool existing governance regimes to strengthen/protect global public goods.  

United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), working closely with the Executive Office of the Secretary General, is acting as the Secretariat for the HLAB, helping to connect it with thought leaders in a wide range of relevant arenas. The expert roundtable is co-organized with Queen Mary University of London and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) with support from UN Foundation. It is one of a series of expert roundtables that UNU-CPR is holding over the coming months to prepare framing inputs for the HLAB.

A stable and fair international financial architecture is critical to sustainable development ambitions. Such a system would support long-term financial planning and investment in key sectors (climate resilience, education, social protection, innovation, women’s empowerment), and respond quickly to global shocks by offering access to pooled resources through transparent mechanisms to ensure equitable recoveries. Our current global financial architecture falls short of these ambitions and does not promote stability for countries of the Global North and South on equitable terms.