The global crisis, speculative capital and innovative financing for development

One of the characteristics of globalization has been the marked volatility of financial flows. The realization that this was affecting growth and equity induced the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey in 2002, to adopt a global commitment to deal with the issue of development financing. Since then there has been a mixture of progress, backsliding and inaction. This article conducts a brief review of financial globalization and the current global crisis. It then examines the Monterrey Consensus, the evaluations by the United Nations Secretariat of compliance with the commitments accepted, and the financial system reforms needed to make globalization more equitable. It then proceeds to a stocktaking of the progress made under a North-South collaboration initiative, Action against Hunger and Poverty, in applying “innovative financing mechanisms” that can contribute to attainment of the Millennium Development Goals and help developing countries cope with critical situations like the current global recession. It concludes with proposals for dealing with the challenges that remain.