NGO Roundtable on G-8/20 Summit Reform, June 3,
2005.
May 27,
2005
Dear
Friends,
The G-8
summit in Gleneagles, Scotland in July, will take up two major issues of
consequence: African development and global climate change. The UK has
invited China, India, Brazil and South Africa heads of state/government to
participate in part of the meeting. It is not the first time that the G-8,
a small group of industrial countries, is taking up issues of global
importance. Nor is this the first time that G-8 summits have included
leaders from developing countries in G-8 lunches, dinners or side events.
But there has been only one change in the membership in the G-7 summits
since they began in 1978 when Russia was added at heads of state meetings
(not finance ministers meetings) in the early 1990s.
Two
issues seem to be presented by the current arrangement. First, as the
international agenda becomes less trans-Atlantic or trilateral and more
global, there is a need for the summits to deal with broader issues than
those of consequence only to G-8 member countries. And second, as
developing countries themselves have strengthened their economic position in
the global economy, it seems less and less appropriate not to include
them as full members in the global steering committee.
Colin
Bradford and Johannes Linn, who are currently visiting scholars at
Brookings, wrote a Brookings Policy Brief, “Global Economic Governance at a
Crossroads: Replacing the G-7 with the G-20” just a year ago. They have
been collaborating with Canadian colleagues at the Centre for International
Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo and at the Center for Global
Studies (CFGS) at the University of Vancouver during the last year by
participating in conferences, workshops and roundtables. CIGI has provided
a small grant to Brookings for a series of Roundtables to explore the
whether the G-20 finance minister grouping, which includes ten major
developing countries (i.e., Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia,
Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey), could be elevated to
leaders level L-20 summits. As you may be aware, Canadian Prime Minister
Paul Martin has been advocating this idea for some time. (See Foreign
Affairs May/June 2005.)
New
Rules for Global Finance, a coalition of NGOs and academics, has been
working on global governance by efforts to open up the process of leadership
selection at the World Bank and IMF, to expand voice and vote for developing
countries on the Boards of the Bank and Fund, and to increase Parliamentary
Oversight of the Bank and Fund.
The New
Rules for Global Finance Coalition and Brookings, with their CIGI and CFGS
partners, would like to invite you to a Roundtable at Brookings on Friday
June 3rd from 9:15 AM to 12:30 PM to discuss the role of summits
in global governance and alternative summit reform proposals. Given the
need for thinking critically about these reforms at the global level, the
purpose of this Roundtable is to provide an opportunity to hear the views of
NGO leaders like you on how summits could play a more useful role in global
issues and on what alternative summit reform proposals have the greatest
promise.
We very
much hope that you or your representative will be able to participate in
this Roundtable. We anticipate roughly twenty-five NGO participants and
hope for a lively exchange of views and discussion. Background materials
will be available so that only brief presentations will be made to launch
the conversation. More material is available on websites listed below.
Please
RSVP to Jamie Baker at jbaker@new-rules.org (email) or by phoning
202-533-2580. If you have any questions regarding the Roundtable please
feel free to get in touch with any of us. We look forward to hearing from
you and to hearing your views on this important issue.
Sincerely yours,
Colin
Bradford
Visiting
Fellow, Brookings
Jo Marie
Griesgraber
Chair,
New Rules for Global Finance Coalition
Johannes
Linn
Visiting
Fellow, Brookings
James
Riker
Lead,
Governance Working Group, New Rules for Global Finance Coalition
Websites:
www.brookings.edu: Poverty and Global Economy Initiative, Events,
9/22/04
www.new-rules.org
www.cigionline.ca
www.L20.org
