Our World in 2018

requiring both creditors and debtors
to make adjustments wherever
imbalances arise. And Nobel laureate
economist Joseph E. Stiglitz has called
for an IMF scheme to insure emerging
countries against risk, thereby freeing
them from having to hold excessive
reserves, which are unproductive in
normal times.
Generally speaking, reducing
macroeconomic imbalances and
boosting growth will require a stronger
G20. The premier forum for economic
cooperation should have an executive
capacity and a broader and more
representative membership.
When I was prime minister
of the United Kingdom, the
British government fought
hard for a world trade deal, while India
and America remained at loggerheads
over curbing agriculture imports to
protect Indian farmers’ livelihoods.
TA
rim countries are discussing their own
multilateral trade deals, which suggests
that we should be planning for a time,
post-Trump, when a new world trade
deal might be possible once again.
In the meantime, as Nobel laureate
economist Michael Spence has
eloquently argued, the IMF should
be intensifying its focus on global
surveillance, in order to identify and
remove structural weaknesses in a fastchanging
world economy.
It would also help if plans for
financing the UN Sustainable
Development Goals for 2030 included
recapitalizing the World Bank to give it
more borrowing power.
The Bank’s resources could be
increased substantially by merging
its low-income-country fund, the
International Development Association,
with its middle-income-country fund, the
International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development, and by encouraging
more cooperation between it and other
regional development banks.
As participants discussed at the
pioneering Billions to Trillions forum
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, almost three
years ago, development targets for the
environment, health, gender equality,
and employment call for innovative
delivery plans to make the best use of
the world’s $160 billion aid budget.
The International Commission on
Financing Global Education Opportunity,
which I chaired, has proposed a privatepublic
financing facility that could
complement existing institutions and
GLOBAL VS. LOCAL WORLDS
raise an additional $10 billion annually
for education worldwide. More to the
point, we must develop mechanisms
that go beyond simply holding out a
begging bowl. Only through innovation
can we adequately provide for the
world’s 20 million refugees and 60
million displaced people, who have
the UN, under Secretary-General
António Guterres, is working so hard
to help.
It is right for the international
community to set ambitious
development goals. But our failure to
deliver on those goals will invite charges
of betrayal. Nationalists will continue to
argue that mainstream leaders cannot
be trusted, and extremists of all stripes
will insist that coexistence among
countries, cultures, and religions is
impossible.
With America in retreat and Brexit
threatening to isolate Britain, 2018 will
almost certainly have setbacks. But
waiting in the wings is a new agenda that
can ensure prosperity for all countries,
not just through national actions, but
also through enhanced international
cooperation, starting in the areas with
the most promise, and then spreading
across the board.
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OUR WORLD | 2018
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018. www.project-syndicate.org
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