• by Sylvia Borren
• Tuesday, June 30, 2009
• Inter Press Service

After weeks of negotiations, the conclusion of the UN High Level Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis (24-26 June) was a huge disappointment, writes Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and Worldconnectors.

In this article, Borren writes that most developing nations feel they have been railroaded into accepting a very weak compromise with only an ad-hoc UN working group to continue the process. Civil society is angry that no concrete bailout measures have been agreed on for the most affected: women and the socially marginalised.

According to the UN Millennium Campaign, world leaders spent ten times more money last year on bailing out the financial world than they spent in 49 years on development aid. The world's most powerful political leaders are maintaining their disregard for human rights by not taking responsibility for the effects of the economic and climate crises that they have caused.

The good news of this UN conference is that there are many transformative solutions being brought to the table, all pointing in the same direction: investment in people. The bad news is the notable lack of urgency and political will to move boldly on the many solutions put forward.

(*) Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and Worldconnectors. At the UN High Level Conference on the Financial and Economic Crisis she represented the 170 million workers of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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