The UN and Development Thinking and Practice

Abstract

Over the 60 years of its existence, the UN has led the way in a large number of areas of economic and social development. It has made major and pioneering contributions—nationally and internationally—in the setting of development priorities, in analysing strategic issues, in developing a statistical system to quantify them and in the formulation of recommendations across a wide field of important policy matters. With the benefit of hindsight, one can see not only that the UN has often led the way hut that it has often also been right when others—in particular, the Bretton Woods institutions—have been opposed, doubting or reluctant to follow. Yet, often—five, 10 or 15 years later—the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others have changed their mind and moved to adopt the very policies or approaches that they had rejected earlier. Unfortunately, and despite this evidence, the Bretton Woods institutions still receive overwhelming support and funding from the donor countries. In contrast, the UN funds and institutions are treated as marginal in matters of economic and social policy-making. The UN receives much less funding. This article argues that the time has come for major rethinking and some redressing of the balance. International action on development would be greatly advanced if policy-makers, especially those within donor agencies, gave more attention to the ideas of the ‘New York dissent’ and less to those of the ‘Washington consensus’.