Towards a Strengthened and Stable International Financial Architecture Responsive to the Priorities of Growth and Development, Especially in the Developing Countries, and to the Promotion of Economic and Social Equity

A/RES/55/186View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 92e Financing of development, including net transfer of resources between developing and developed countries, published in 2001.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2001

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2001	A/56/173/Add.1	International financial architecture and development, including net transfer of resources between developing and developed countries report of the Secretary-General : addendum		A/RES/55/186

What’s in this document?

27 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Towards a stable international financial system, responsive to the challenges of development, especially in the developing countries”,³ the addendum thereto on regional perspectives and developments provided by the regional commissions⁴ and the addendum thereto provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on the work it has undertaken on the involvement of the private sector in the prevention and resolution of financial crises;⁵

³A/55/187.

⁴A/55/187/Add.1.

⁵A/55/187/Add.2.

Underlines the utmost importance of implementing the resolve expressed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration1 to create an environment, at the national and global levels alike, that is conducive to development and to the elimination of poverty, inter alia, through good governance within each country, as well as good governance at the international level and transparency in the financial, monetary and trading systems;

Also underlines the utmost importance of implementing the commitment in the United Nations Millennium Declaration to an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system;

Stresses the special importance of creating an enabling international economic environment through strong cooperative efforts by all countries and institutions to promote equitable economic development in a world economy that benefits all people, and, in this context, invites developed countries, in particular major industrialized countries, which have significant weight in influencing world economic growth, when formulating their macroeconomic policies, to take into account their effects in terms of the external economic environment favourable to growth and development, in particular of developing countries;

Also stresses the special importance of creating an enabling domestic environment through, inter alia, the rule of law, capacity-building, including institutional capacity-building, and the implementation of appropriate economic and social policies, so that domestic and international resources may be effectively mobilized and used for development;

Reiterates the urgent need to accelerate the growth and development prospects of the least developed countries, which remain the poorest and most vulnerable of the international community, and calls upon development partners, in particular industrialized countries, to facilitate the financing of their development, inter alia, through public and private financial flows, increased official development assistance, strengthened debt relief, the adoption of a policy of duty- and quota-free access for essentially all of their exports and enhanced balance-of-payments support, and in this context welcomes the holding at Brussels in May 2001 of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries;

Recognizes the stability of the international financial system as an important global public good and a necessary condition for positive financial flows for development, and, in this context, calls upon all countries, including major industrialized countries, whose policies have significant impact on most economies, to adopt and to pursue policies that promote international financial stability and facilitate financial flows for development, and requests the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, to provide information to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session on the analysis it has undertaken of international financial stability as a global public good;⁶

⁶See Global public goods: international cooperation in the 21st century, edited by Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg and Marc A. Stern, published for the United Nations Development Programme by Oxford University Press, New York, 1999.

Emphasizes, in this regard, the need to continue national, regional and international efforts to promote international financial stability and, to this end, to improve surveillance, early warning, prevention and response capabilities for dealing with the emergence and spread of financial crises in a timely manner, taking a comprehensive and long-term perspective while remaining responsive to the challenges of development and the protection of the most vulnerable countries and social groups;

Stresses the importance of strong domestic institutions to promote financial stability for the achievement of growth and development, inter alia, through sound macroeconomic policies and policies aimed at strengthening the regulatory systems of the financial and banking sectors, including considering arrangements in destination and source countries to reduce the risks of excessive international financial volatility and measures to ensure orderly, gradual and well-sequenced capital-account liberalization processes, and invites in this connection all relevant international institutions to continue to provide, upon the request of concerned countries, policy advice and technical assistance so as to strengthen their capacity in the above-mentioned areas;

Emphasizes the importance of deepening the convergence of the efforts of all international institutions able to contribute to the strengthening of an international financial architecture responsive to the priorities of growth and development, especially in developing countries, and to the promotion of economic and social equity;

Reiterates the need for broadening and strengthening the participation of developing countries in the international economic decision-making process;

Emphasizes the importance of the improved participation of developing countries in the work of the international institutions dealing with the reform of the international financial architecture, in particular the International Monetary Fund, as well as in relevant norm-setting processes;

Expresses the need for multilateral surveillance by the International Monetary Fund and regional and subregional institutions of all countries in a symmetrical manner;

Emphasizes that the international financial institutions, in providing policy advice and supporting adjustment programmes, should ensure that they are sensitive to the specific circumstances and implementing capacities of concerned countries and to the special needs of developing countries and should work towards the best possible outcomes in terms of growth and development, inter alia, through gender-sensitive employment and poverty eradication policies and strategies, and stresses the importance of national ownership of programmes supported by the International Monetary Fund for their sustained implementation;

Encourages the continuing efforts undertaken by the Bretton Woods institutions, the regional development banks and the International Labour Organization to help Governments to address the social consequences of crisis, and welcomes, in this regard, the commitments made by the General Assembly at its twenty-fourth special session on the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, to ensure that, when structural adjustment programmes are agreed to, they include social development goals, in particular those of eradicating poverty, promoting full and productive employment and enhancing social integration;

Emphasizes that the international financial institutions should, when invited by national Governments, provide assistance and advice, as appropriate, to the countries in their efforts to promote development and reduce poverty through national programmes, including, where relevant, nationally owned and developed poverty reduction strategy papers that integrate macroeconomic, structural and social policies;

Underlines the continuing importance of providing the international institutions, in particular the International Monetary Fund, with adequate resources to provide emergency financing in a timely and accessible manner to countries affected by financial crises, and notes the regional and subregional efforts to facilitate emergency financing in time of crisis;

Welcomes the progress made in developing early warning capacities to address in a timely manner the threat of financial crisis, and in this regard encourages the International Monetary Fund and other relevant international and regional institutions to continue their efforts to contribute to this process;

Calls upon the international community, in particular the World Bank and the regional development banks, and other relevant international and regional institutions, including the regional commissions, working with the private sector, to support the promotion of long-term private financial flows, especially foreign direct investments, inter alia, through enhanced technical cooperation, to all developing countries as well as economies in transition, in particular the least developed countries and other developing countries with special difficulties in attracting private financial flows, including those in Africa, as well as the small island developing countries, and, in this context, requests the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to provide information to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session on the work it has undertaken on this matter;

Reiterates its invitation to the International Monetary Fund to facilitate the dialogue among relevant actors to consider the possibility of establishing regulatory frameworks for short-term capital flows and trade in currencies;

Emphasizes that it is important for sovereign risk assessments made by private sector agencies to be based on objective and transparent parameters;

Reaffirms the need to consider appropriate frameworks for the involvement of the private sector in the prevention and resolution of financial crises, including the need to implement and further refine the framework laid down by the International Monetary and Financial Committee at its meeting held on 16 April 2000, and underlines the importance of an equitable distribution of the cost of adjustments between the public and private sectors and among debtors, creditors and investors, concerning, inter alia, highly leveraged operations, as well as the consideration, in exceptional cases, of debt standstill arrangements;

Emphasizes the important supportive role that stronger regional and subregional financial institutions and arrangements can play in the reform of the international financial system and the enhancement of financing for development;

Encourages the deepening of the dialogue between the Economic and Social Council and the Bretton Woods institutions, and in this regard recommends that at their next high-level meeting they consider the modalities needed to consolidate further a broader global agenda for a strengthened and stable international financial system that is responsive to the priorities of growth and development, in particular of developing countries, and to the promotion of economic and social equity in the global economy;

Requests the Secretary-General to make the present resolution available to the Preparatory Committee for the High-level International Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development, at its second substantive session, as an input for its work on the systemic issues contained in its preliminary substantive agenda;

Also requests the Secretary-General, in close cooperation with all relevant entities of the United Nations, including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the regional commissions, within their respective mandates, and in consultation with the Bretton Woods institutions, and taking into account the progress made at the high-level international intergovernmental event on financing for development, to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session on the implementation of the present resolution under a sub-item entitled “International financial system and development”, with an analysis of the current trend in global financial flows, including net transfer of resources between developed and developing countries, and recommendations to consolidate further a broader global agenda for a strengthened and stable international financial system that is responsive to the priorities of growth and development, in particular of developing countries, and to the promotion of economic and social equity in the global economy;

Requests the President of the General Assembly to present this resolution to the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank and the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund, before their joint annual spring meeting, in order to bring it to their attention as an input to their discussions on the matters addressed herein.

Towards a Strengthened and Stable International Financial Architecture Responsive to the Priorities of Growth and Development, Especially in the Developing Countries, and to the Promotion of Economic and Social Equity

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

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What’s in this document?

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