“Restoring global trust and confidence”
“Restoring global trust and confidence”
Remarks by Mr. Kofi Annan Remarks at “Global Horizons”,
Oxford Analytica’s Conference, Oxford, England
16 September 2011
I am delighted to be with you tonight at this magnificent venue and for this chance to share views with such a distinguished audience.
Given the breadth of experience within this room, I can think of few better audiences to address the state of our world and the challenges we face.
As your knowledge and links demonstrate, there is no doubt that our world today is more open and interconnected than ever before.
We live at a time of immense opportunities.
But it is also a world of great dangers, where a threat to one is a threat to all.
The scale and complexity of these shared challenges often seems to have outgrown the framework through which they must be tackled.
Our political leaders and institutions of governance and finance are struggling to keep up.
For while our challenges are global, our solutions and approaches remain stubbornly local.
This paradox is not new but it is becoming more important.
At the beginning of the new millennium, when I was Secretary-General, I asked a group of wise women and men to look ahead and advise on new Threats, Challenges and Changes.
I invited them to generate ideas on how the UN and its Member States could work together to meet these threats.
The panel identified six clusters of threats which would demand our attention and response, and left no doubt as to their unprecedented scale and complexity.
These six groupings were war between states; violence within states which included civil wars, large scale human rights abuses and genocide.
Thirdly were the challenges posed by poverty, infectious disease and environmental degradation which included the impact of climate change, food security, energy and resource scarcity, and loss of biodiversity.
We then had the challenges posed by nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons; and the threat of terrorism.
And finally the growth of transnational organized crime, including the narcotics trade, human trafficking, and piracy – a by-product, as we are seeing, of fragile states.
This is a full and frightening list. And while in the past decade, some of these challenges have diminished – such as war between states – others have loomed larger.
Terrorism, as we marked in the sombre anniversary on Sunday, continues to costs lives and destroy hopes.
Climate change is making extreme poverty, famine and infectious disease, more pronounced and difficult to address.
Our continuing failure to cooperate and tackle climate change – an all-encompassing threat to security, health, and economic stability – will only worsen these and other threats in the coming years.
Extreme weather events and speculation in commodity markets have both played a role in the dramatic rise in food prices, increasing food shortages and fuelling unrest.
Rising energy prices, too, have hit hundreds of millions of people, increasing anger and frustration at governments and corporate leaders.
This growing frustration is perhaps one of the most dangerous trends with implications for peace and security everywhere.
And it is, of course, the severe economic crisis which has played the biggest role in undermining confidence and trust.
Citizens across the world are angry at the private greed and institutional failure which plunged the global economy into the severest crisis for generations.
They understand that financial institutions around the world behaved recklessly, driven by a culture which put short-term profits over long-term benefits.
Our global financial institutions, too, turned a blind eye to the dangers being run.
And Governments ducked their responsibility to understand, police and take measures to protect against the risks.
Growing inequality in incomes and wealth was decried but little was done to correct it.
Regulation was often painted as unnecessary – as is still the case – and taxation for the wealthy unfair and damaging, rather than necessary for more resilient and inclusive societies.
The result of these failures is that Governments around the world are struggling with massive debts and low growth.
We are seeing as well billions of people who played no part in these mistakes suffering the pain in terms of lost jobs, squeezed incomes, debt and poorer quality of life.
And regrettably, much of our progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is in danger of being rolled back.
The risk of world depression may seem behind us but we face an economy scarred by patterns of continuing low, job-poor and unequal growth – with the strong likelihood of a new crisis down the line.
We can’t afford to return to business as usual – something the public, if not always their leaders, seem to understand.
So it is no surprise that citizens across the world have taken to the streets to protest about the unfairness of this future.
They are rightly angry that while financial institutions were seen as “too big to fail”, they are regarded as too small to matter.
The economic crisis – and high food and energy prices – also played a major part in fuelling the extraordinary democratic protests we have seen in North Africa and the Middle East over the last year.
Youth unemployment rates – as much as seven or ten times the rate of adult unemployment – helps explain the leading role of young people in the movement for freedom and change.
But it was also the disconnection between long-serving rulers and their people, and anger at political systems seen as corrupt, unaccountable and unresponsive to the hopes and concerns of their citizens.
The Arab Spring has transformed the political dynamics of the entire region. But I don’t need to tell this audience that the future remains uncertain.
There will be many challenges before democratic institutions are built, and peaceful and prosperous futures can be secured.
But the recent events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have put dictators around the world on notice and given hope to all those who want a say in their country’s future.
The protestors’ bravery must also ensure that we never again believe that the desire for democracy, good governance, rule of law and respect for human rights is restricted to only some parts of the world.
These are universal values and we must do what we can to help these ambitions be globally realized.
It is not just, of course, in dictatorships where there is discontent with political systems or the standards of governance.
In many long-standing and stable democracies, citizens are turning their backs on elections.
We are seeing a widespread and worrying reduction in voter turn-out and increasing support for fringe groups with often divisive programmes.
This apathy makes it easier for narrow and vested interests to capture the political process, which only further reduces public trust and legitimacy.
Ladies and gentlemen, the break down in trust between leaders and people is serious because it undermines our ability to take the hard decisions necessary to tackle the huge challenges we face.
We desperately need a change of approach to restore trust in governance and institutions, to reconnect leaders with the concerns and hopes of their dissatisfied and frustrated citizens.
So what needs to happen? How can these ambitions be met?
First, I believe there must be decisive steps to begin shaping a global economy that is more efficient and inclusive, and where the benefits are more fairly shared.
Globalisation has brought many rewards. It is a tide which can’t be turned back.
But that does not prevent us putting in place fair rules and policies so the benefits flow to all, not just the few.
Second, overcoming today’s challenges demands multilateral cooperation. No country, no matter how wealthy or powerful, can hope, for example, to tackle climate change on its own.
Yet too many of our leaders have failed to embrace this new ethos and remain focused on narrow national considerations or short-term interests, forgetting that the collective or regional interest is often also the national interest.
A solution in which only one side wins is never likely to be sustainable. Co-operation rather than confrontation needs to come centre-stage.
This means governments – and sometimes their citizens too – recognizing that when national borders rarely contain problems , collective decision-making is in the interests of all.
For our multi-lateral system to be effective and possess legitimacy of authority, it can no longer only be the voices of the powerful and wealthy that carry weight.
Nor can it only be the weak who are expected to respect international obligations and standards.
Thirdly, leaders have to find the courage to defy powerful vested interests and focus on the common good.
They have to understand, too, that there are no easy answers or silver bullets to the problems we face.
Building a fair and secure world requires intellectually-rigorous analysis and policy formulation, the sharing of knowledge but also the realisation that solutions for one country may not work elsewhere.
Finally, we need, both nationally and internationally to put a new focus on fairness, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
For far too long, poverty and inequality have been allowed to fester even in democracies.
And for far too long autocrats have been allowed to rule without the consent and the participation of their people.
Governments and leaders must be judged by their ability to deliver on the needs and aspirations of their people.
When assessing nations, we tend to focus too much on stability and economic growth at the expense of rule of law and respect for human rights.
When judging countries only by the first two criteria, autocrats can often point to success.
But healthy, strong and sustainable societies need to be built on the three pillars – peace and security; development; and rule of law and respect for human rights.
For there can be no long term security without development, and no long-term development without security.
And both have to be rooted in the rule of law and respect for human rights.
It is a message which the last few months have underlined and is understood by citizens around the world.
From Tahir Square to Puerta del Sol, in the streets and plazas of many countries, we have already seen popular movements demanding social justice, respect for human dignity, and accountable and responsive Governments.
This is a challenging and uncertain time.
But if we respond with courage and in the right way, it could also be the springboard to a more peaceful, prosperous and fairer world.
Thank You
