Cadmus (Nov 2021)
How can we Transform Global Governance for the 21st Century?
Abstract
The current global institutional architecture is a product of a bygone era of the power of dominant players to impose themselves on others. This paper argues that the multiple planetary emergencies upon us demand radical transformation of all institutions to reflect on the lessons learnt. It proposes an urgent examination of global governance institutions, with the UN system as the central pillar, with a particular focus on whether they are promoting justice and the social realisations that are part of their mandates. Countries in the Global South, such as South Africa, need to free themselves from the current irrational strictures of the Global Development Finance institutions, and mobilise their national resources—financial and natural—to provide basic needs and services to all their citizens to free their human potential. Citizens living dignified lives beyond survival would become creative energetic contributors to the wellbeing of all in a healthy biosphere, at local, national, regional, and global levels. We could do no better than heed Amartya Sen’s advice and overcome the “institutional fundamentalism” that has made us addicted to the current global institutional framework. The UN system, the Global Development Institutions have evidence of too many fault lines to be able to meet the reasonable social benefits of people living in Most of the World. A Reimagined global institutional framework for the 21st century is urgently needed to provide a platform for wellbeing of all in a healthy biosphere.
