The specialized agencies
of the United Nations
Dr Khalil Hussein
Professor at faculty of law at Lebanese university
Director of studies at Lebanese Parliament
Coordination of Specialized Agencies.
The Charter authorizes the Economic and Social Council, established by inter-governmental agreement and having wide international responsibilities, to "coordinate the activities of specialized agencies."
By special agreement many of these agencies have been brought into relationship with the United Nations.These agreements provide for reciprocal representation of the United Nations and each specialized agency; proposal of agenda items; membership in the specialized agency; exchange of information and documents; assistance to the Security and Trusteeship Councils; personnel arrangements; budgetary and financial arrangements; financing of special services; relations to the International Court of Justice; Public Information; Liaison.
A standing committee of administrative officers, consisting of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the corresponding officers of the specialized agencies that have been brought into relationship with the United Nations, was instituted by an Economic and Social Council resolution of September 21, 1946, to insure the fullest and most effective implementation of the agreements entered into between the United Nations and the specialized agencies.
International Labour Organization
(ILO)
The International Labour Organization was created in 1919, at the end of the First World War, at the time of the Peace Conference which convened first in Paris, then at Versailles. The need for such an organization had been advocated in the nineteenth century by two industrialists, Robert Owen (1771-1853) of Wales and Daniel Legrand (1783-1859) of France.
After having been put to the test within the International Association for Labour Legislation, founded in Basel in 1901, their ideas were incorporated into the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, adopted by the Peace Conference in April of 1919.
The initial motivation was humanitarian. The condition of workers, more and more numerous and exploited with no consideration for their health, their family lives and their advancement, was less and less acceptable. This preoccupation appears clearly in the Preamble of the Constitution of the ILO, where it is stated, "conditions of labour exist involving ... injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people. "
The second motivation was political. Without an improvement in their condition, the workers, whose numbers were ever increasing as a result of industrialization, would create social unrest, even revolution. The Preamble notes that injustice produces "unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled."
The third motivation was economic. Because of its inevitable effect on the cost of production, any industry or country adopting social reform would find itself at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its competitors. The Preamble states that "the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries."
Another reason for the creation of the International Labour Organization was added by the participants of the Peace Conference, linked to the end of the war to which workers had contributed significantly both on the battlefield and in industry. This idea appears at the very beginning of the Constitution: "universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice."
The ILO Constitution was written between January and April, 1919, by the Labour Commission set up by the Peace Conference. The Commission was composed of representatives from nine countries, Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, under the chairmanship of Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL). It resulted in a tripartite organization, the only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies. The ILO Constitution became Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles
Structure of the ILO
The ILO accomplishes its work through three main bodies, all of which encompass the unique feature of the Organization: its tripartite structure (government, employers, workers).
- International Labour Conference: The member States of the ILO meet at the International Labour Conference in June of each year, in Geneva. Each member State is represented by two government delegates, an employer delegate and a worker delegate. They are accompanied by technical advisors. It is generally the Cabinet Ministers responsible for labour affairs in their own countries who head the delegations, take the floor and present their governments' points of view.
- Employer and worker delegates can express themselves and vote according to instructions received from their organizations. They sometimes vote against each other or even against their government representatives.
The Conference plays a very important role. It establishes and adopts international labour standards. It acts as a forum where social and labour questions of importance to the entire world are discussed. The Conference also adopts the budget of the Organization and elects the Governing Body.
- The Governing Body is the executive council of the ILO and meets three times a year in Geneva. It takes decisions on ILO's policy. It establishes the programme and the budget which it then submits to the Conference for adoption. It also elects the Director-General.
It is composed of 28 government members, 14 employer members and 14 worker members. Ten of the government seats are permanently held by States of chief industrial importance. Representatives of other member countries are elected at the Conference every three years, taking into account geographical distribution. The employers and workers elect their own representatives respectively.
3. The International Labour Office is the permanent secretariat of the International Labour Organization and focal point for the overall activities that it prepares under the scrutiny of the Governing Body and under the leadership of a Director-General, who is elected for a five-year renewable term. The Office employs some 1,900 officials of over 110 nationalities at the Geneva headquarters and in 40 field offices around the world. In addition, some 600 experts undertake missions in all regions of the world under the programme of technical cooperation. The Office also constitutes a research and documentation centre and a printing house issuing a broad range of specialized studies, reports and periodicals
The Strategic Objectives of the ILO
"In an uncertain world, an organization must have a clear sense of its objectives and strategies. Tactics and specific activities may have to be adjusted quickly to meet changing circumstances, but this should be done with a clear sense of purpose. The organizing theme for the period 2002-05 is putting the decent work agenda into practice."
- Promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work.
- Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income.
- Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all.
- Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue.
- Cross-cutting activities.
World Health Organization
(WHO)
World Health Organization (WHO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters in Geneva. WHO was established in 1948. According to its constitution it is “the directing and coordinating authority on international health work” and is responsible for helping all peoples to attain “the highest possible levels of health.”
The services of the agency may be either advisory or technical. Advisory services include aid in training medical personnel and in disseminating knowledge of diseases such as influenza, malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, venereal diseases, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); maternal and child health; nutrition; population planning; and environmental sanitation. The agency maintains health-demonstration areas for sustained application of modern techniques to improve general health conditions and to combat specific diseases interfering with agricultural productivity and overall economic development. The technical services include biological standardization and unification of pharmacopoeias, collection and dissemination of epidemiological information, special international research projects on parasitic and viral diseases, and publication of a series of technical and scientific works.
The central structure of WHO includes the policymaking body called the World Health Assembly, which consists of delegates of all member nations and meets yearly; an executive board of 31 individuals elected by the assembly; and a secretariat, consisting of a director-general and a technical and administrative staff. The agency maintains regional organizations for Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean area, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the western Pacific area.
The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from all 192 Member States. Its main function is to determine the policies of the Organization. The Health Assembly appoints the Director-General, supervises the financial policies of the Organization, and reviews and approves the Proposed programme budget. It similarly considers reports of the Executive Board, which it instructs in regard to matters upon which further action, study, investigation or report may be required.
The Executive Board is composed of 32 members technically qualified in the field of health. Members are elected for three-year terms. The main Board meeting, at which the agenda for the forthcoming Health Assembly is agreed upon and resolutions for forwarding to the Health Assembly are adopted, is held in January, with a second shorter meeting in May, immediately after the Health Assembly, for more administrative matters. The main functions of the Board are to give effect to the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly, to advise it and generally to facilitate its work.
The Secretariat of WHO is staffed by some 3500 health and other experts and support staff on fixed-term appointments, working at headquarters, in the six regional offices, and in countries.
The Organization is headed by the Director-General, who is appointed by the Health Assembly on the nomination of the Executive Board. The current Director-General is LEE Jong-wook.
Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO)
international agency established by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1966 to help developing nations build strong economies by creating a solid industrial base. The organization offers technical assistance, fosters international industrial partnerships, and funds projects that aid the efforts of emerging nations to achieve long-term prosperity. UNIDO projects include initiatives to privatize ownership of businesses in developing nations and to assist efforts by former Communist countries in Eastern Europe to reduce industrial pollution. UNIDO has headquarters in New York City and Geneva, Switzerland. It receives contributions from 168 member nations.
Like many other international aid and development organizations, UNIDO experienced pressure to reform its operations in the 1990s. From 1993 to 1996, UNIDO cut its staff from 1250 employees to 800. The organization reduced its budget from $131 million in 1995 to $90 million in 1996. Most of the cuts occurred in administration, rather than in field programs. As a consequence of the reform effort, UNIDO now places special emphasis on the world’s very poorest nations, especially those in Africa. It also focuses on industries related to agriculture, food, clothing, and shelter.
Despite UNIDO’s reform efforts, the United States withdrew from the organization at the end of 1996, citing federal cutbacks in foreign aid expenditures and a lack of commitment to the agency from some members of the U.S. Congress. In 1996, Britain and Australia also announced plans to withdraw from UNIDO. Critics in the United States and Britain concede that UNIDO has made substantial progress in meeting the reform goals of member nations. The decision of both countries to withdraw from the organization instead reflects domestic political considerations and the desire to send a message to the UN about the need for further reform of its operations. Critics also argue that at least two other UN organizations—the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) — focus on development in impoverished nations. Because the United States and Britain contributed one-third of the organization’s budget, their withdrawals have raised questions about UNIDO’s ability to survive.
Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO)
United Nations (FAO), is a specialized United Nations agency whose main goal is to afford freedom from hunger on a world scale. According to its constitution, the specific objectives are “raising levels of nutrition and standards of living ...and securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products ....”
The FAO originated at a conference called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hot Springs, Virginia, in May 1943. The 34 nations represented established the UN Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. In October 1945 the first session of the FAO was held in Québec.
Structure
At present the organization has 161 members; it is headed by a director general. Each member nation has one vote in the general conference, the policymaking body that convenes once every two years to approve programs, budgets, and rules of procedure, as well as to make recommendations on agricultural questions. The 49-member FAO council meets between conference sessions to monitor the world food situation and suggest necessary action. The council's committees deal with problems on agriculture, commodities, forestry, and fisheries. The third organ, the secretariat, is responsible for implementing FAO programs. Main headquarters is in Rome.
Activities
Functions of the FAO include collecting, analyzing, and distributing information about nutrition, food, and agriculture; fostering conservation of natural resources; and promoting both adequate national and international agricultural-credit policies and international agricultural-commodity arrangements. Among its projects are the development of basic soil and water resources; the international exchange of new types of plants; the control of animal and plant diseases; and the provision to needy member nations of technical assistance in such fields as nutrition, food preservation, irrigation, soil conservation, and reforestation. In recent years, the FAO has worked to develop new plant mutations by using radioactive materials, to aid developing nations in cultivating fast-growing varieties of crops such as rice and wheat, and to establish monitoring networks to warn of possible food shortages (such as the current potential for widespread starvation in Africa).
In 1974 the FAO helped organize the World Food Conference, held in Rome, which considered the critical problem of maintaining adequate food supplies. On the recommendation of the conference, the FAO expanded its information-gathering services to facilitate improved worldwide food security.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), specialized United Nations agency, formally established in December 1977. The agreement creating IFAD was an outgrowth of the World Food Conference held in Rome in 1974. IFAD's major function is to lend money to help developing nations improve their food production, reduce malnutrition, and provide agricultural employment. Resources are channeled to the poorest rural populations. In 2001 the fund had 162 members. It is directed by a governing council, on which all members are represented, and administered by an 18-member executive board. IFAD headquarters is in Rome.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. The Conference was organized in response to the food crises of the early 1970s that primarily affected the Sahelian countries of Africa. The Conference resolved that "an International Fund for Agricultural Development should be established immediately to finance agricultural development projects primarily for food production in the developing countries". One of the most important insights emerging from the Conference was that the causes of food insecurity and famine were not so much failures in food production, but structural problems relating to poverty and to the fact that the majority of the developing world’s poor populations were concentrated in rural areas.
IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poorest people – 900 million women, children and men – live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods.
Working with rural poor people, governments, donors, non-governmental organizations and many other partners, IFAD focuses on country-specific solutions, which can involve increasing rural poor peoples’ access to financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources.
IFAD Strategic
IFAD’s activities are guided by the Strategi Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Their Poverty. The framework’s three strategic objectives are to:
- strengthen the capacity of the rural poor and their organizations
- improve equitable access to productive natural resources and technologies
- increase access by the poor to financial services and markets
Underlying these strategic objectives is IFAD’s belief that rural poor people must be empowered to lead their own development if poverty is to be eradicated. Poor people must be able to develop and strengthen their own organizations, so they can advance their own interests and dismantle the obstacles that prevent many of them from creating better lives for themselves. They must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, and they need to strengthen their bargaining power in the marketplace.
All of IFAD’s decisions – on regional, country and thematic strategies, poverty reduction strategies, policy dialogue and development partners – are made with these principles and objectives in mind. As reflected in the strategic framework, IFAD is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve the proportion of hungry and extremely poor people by 2015.
Working in partnership to eradicate rural poverty
Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD works with governments to develop and finance programmes and projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves.
There are close to 200 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totaling US$ 6.5 billion. IFAD has invested almost US$ 3 billion in these initiatives. At full development, these programmes will help more than 100 million rural poor women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$ 8.5 billion in 676 projects and programmes that have reached more than 250 million poor rural people.
But this represents only part of the total investment in IFAD projects and programmes. In the past 26 years, a further US$ 15.2 billion in cofinancing was contributed by partners. Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries have contributed more than US$ 8.4 billion, while another US$ 6.8 billion has been contributed by external cofinanciers, including from bilateral and multilateral donors. This represents a total investment of about US$ 23.7 billion, and means that for every dollar IFAD invested, it was able to mobilize almost two dollars in additional resources.
IFAD tackles poverty not only as a lender, but also as an advocate for rural poor people. Its multilateral base provides a natural global platform to discuss important policy issues that influence the lives of rural poor people, as well as to draw attention to the centrality of rural development to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
IFAD Membership
Membership in IFAD is open to any state that is a member of the United Nations or its specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Governing Council is IFAD’s highest decision-making authority, with 164 Member States represented by Governors, Alternate Governors and any other designated advisers. The Council meets annually. The Executive Board, responsible for overseeing the general operations of IFAD and approving loans and grants, is composed of 18 members and 18 alternate members. The President, who serves for a four-year term (renewable once), is IFAD’s chief executive officer and chair of the Executive Board. The current President of IFAD is Mr Lennart Båge, who is serving his first four-year term.
International Telecommunication Union
(ITU)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), specialized United Nations agency, originally formed in Paris in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union. In 1934 the ITU was established to succeed all previous agencies in the telecommunications field, and in 1947 it became affiliated with the UN. The ITU has no permanent constitution, but its existence is renewed periodically by agreement among the members.
The objectives of the ITU are to maintain and extend international cooperation for the improvement and rational use of telecommunications of all kinds; to promote the development and efficient operation of technical facilities in order to improve telecommunication services, increase their usefulness, and make them generally available to the public; and to coordinate the actions of nations so they may attain these goals. Special concerns include the problems and opportunities arising from space telecommunications and the improvement of telecommunications in developing member nations.
The ITU is composed of 162 member states and has its headquarters in Geneva. The principal organ of the union is the plenipotentiary conference, which normally meets once every five years. The conference elects a 41-member administrative council that meets once a year to approve the ITU budget and to coordinate the work of the other organs of the union. These organs are the General Secretariat, the International Frequency Registration Board, the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, and the International Radio Consultative Committee. World and regional administrative conferences are held occasionally to deal with technical questions.
Purposes
Every time someone, somewhere, picks up a telephone and dials a number, answers a call on a mobile phone, sends a fax or receives an e-mail, takes a plane or a ship, listens to the radio, watches a favourite television programme or helps a small child master the latest radio-controlled toy, they benefit from the work of the International Telecommunication Union.
The Union was established last century as an impartial, international organization within which governments and the private sector could work together to coordinate the operation of telecommunication networks and services and advance the development of communications technology. Whilst the organization remains relatively unknown to the general public, ITU’s work over more than one hundred years has helped create a global communications network which now integrates a huge range of technologies, yet remains one of the most reliable man-made systems ever developed.
As the use of telecommunication technology and radioc ommunication - based systems spreads to encompass an ever-wider range of activities, the vital work carried out by ITU is taking on growing importance in the day-to-day lives of people all around the world.
The Union’s standardization activities, which have already helped foster the growth of new technologies such as mobile telephony and the Internet, are now being put to use in defining the building blocks of the emerging global information infrastructure, and designing advanced multimedia systems which deftly handle a mix of voice, data, audio and video signals.
Meanwhile, ITU’s continuing role in managing the radio-frequency spectrum ensures that radio-based systems like cellular phones and pagers, aircraft and maritime navigation systems, scientific research stations, satellite communication systems and radio and television broadcasting all continue to function smoothly and provide reliable wireless services to the world’s inhabitants.
Finally, ITU’s increasingly important role as a catalyst for forging development partnerships between government and private industry is helping bring about rapid improvements in telecommunication infrastructure in the world’s under-developed economies.
Whether in telecommunication development, standards-setting or spectrum sharing, ITU’s consensus-building approach helps governments and the telecommunication industry confront and deal with a broad range of issues which would be difficult to resolve bilaterally.
The result is real-life, workable agreements which benefit not only the telecommunication industry as a whole but, ultimately, telecommunication users everywhere.
Under the Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union, the purposes of ITU are:
- To maintain and extend international cooperation between all its Member States for the improvement and rational use of telecommunications of all kinds
- To promote and enhance participation of entities and organizations in the activities of the Union, and to foster fruitful cooperation and partnership between them and Member States for the fulfilment of the overall objectives embodied in the purposes of the Union
- To promote and offer technical assistance to developing countries in the field of telecommunications, and also to promote the mobilization of the material, human and financial resources needed to improve access to telecommunications services in such countries
- To promote the development of technical facilities and their most efficient operation, with a view to improving the efficiency of telecommunication services, increasing their usefulness and making them, so far as possible, generally available to the public
- To promote the extension of the benefits of new telecommunication technologies to all the world’s inhabitants
- To promote the use of telecommunication services with the objective of facilitating peaceful relations
- To harmonize the actions of Member States and promote fruitful and constructive cooperation and partnership between Member States and Sector Members in the attainment of those ends
- To promote, at the international level, the adoption of a broader approach to the issues of telecommunications in the global information economy and society, by cooperating with other world and regional intergovernmental organizations and those non-governmental organizations concerned with telecommunications.
the Universal Postal Union's
(UPU)
The postal service forms part of the daily life of people all over the world. Even in the digital age, the Post remains, for millions of people, the most accessible means of communication and message delivery available.
The postal services of the Universal Postal Union's 190 member countries form the largest physical distribution network in the world. More than six million postal employees work in over 700 000 postal outlets to ensure that some 430 billion mail items are processed and delivered each year to all corners of the world.
Keeping pace with the changing communications market, Posts are increasingly using new communication and information technologies to move beyond what is traditionally regarded as their core postal business They are meeting higher customer expectations with an expanded range of products and value-added services.
Established in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) with its Headquarters in the Swiss capital Bern, is the second oldest international organisation after the International Telecommunications Union.
With 190 member countries, the UPU is the primary forum for cooperation between postal services and helps to ensure a truly universal network of up-to-date products and services. In this way, the organisation fulfils an advisory, mediating and liaison role, and renders technical assistance where needed. It sets the rules for international mail exchanges and makes recommendations to stimulate growth in mail volumes and to improve the quality of service for customers.
However, as a non-political organisation, it does not interfere in matters that fall within the domestic domain of national postal services. For example, Posts set their own postage rates, decide which and how many postage stamps to issue, and how to manage their postal operations and staff.
By virtue of its mission to develop social, cultural and commercial communication between people through the efficient operation of the postal service, the UPU is called upon to play an important leadership role in promoting the continued revitalisation of postal services.
The UPU today and tomorrow
The same forces affecting the world's Posts - globalization, growing customer expectations, increased competition and progress in communications technologies - have also caused the UPU to review its own mission and role. Although its fundamental mission of developing social, cultural and commercial communication among the people of the world has remained remarkably constant throughout its history, the UPU has seen the need to reshape its structures in order better meet the needs and expectations of its members.
The UPU will continue to work toward the goal of ensuring that all people have affordable and reliable access to postal services. One of its future roles will be to develop and monitor standards for the provision of universal postal service, including such features as access to service, efficiency, customer satisfaction, security and reasonable pricing.
The UPU will also continue to provide technical assistance, training and consultant services in order to improve the quality of the postal service and help implement new systems in developing countries.
The future role of the UPU will be one that is more inclusive of external stakeholders, ensuring that the changing needs of postal customers are addressed effectively. The UPU will therefore increasingly provide a global forum for its members and external partners. In this way, it will remain a vital force in the continued development of postal services.
UPU Mission statement
The mission of the Universal Postal Union is to foster the sustainable development of quality universal, efficient accessible postal services in order to facilitate communication among the people of the world by:
- Guaranteeing the free circulation of postal items through an interconnected single postal territory
- Promoting the adoption of fair and common standards and the application of technology
- Cooperation and interaction among stakeholders
- Facilitating the effective provision of technical cooperation
- Ensuring that the changing needs of customers are addressed
The International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO)
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), specialized technical agency of the United Nations, created as a permanent body on April 4, 1947, for the purpose of promoting the safe and orderly development of civil aviation throughout the world. The agency sets international standards and regulations necessary for the safety, efficiency, and regularity of air transport. The ICAO also serves as a medium for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its member nations, and it provides technical assistance to countries who need help maintaining civil aviation facilities or meeting the global standards set by the ICAO. The ICAO also produces technical publications and special studies.
The agency has been instrumental in improving meteorological services, air traffic control, air-to-ground communications, search and rescue operations, and other measures for safe international flight. It also has done much to simplify customs and immigration procedures and public health regulations related to international air travel. The fight against airplane hijacking and other terrorist attacks and the effects of aircraft noise on the environment also have been of special concern to the ICAO.
The ICAO is composed of 180 member nations that meet once every three years at an assembly. Its executive body in the interim is a council consisting of representatives from 33 member nations who are elected by the assembly on the basis of their relative importance in international air transport and of geographical distribution. The ICAO has its own secretariat, headed by a secretary general appointed by the council, and several permanent technical committees. The agency headquarters is in Montréal.
International Maritime Organization
(IMO)
The International Maritime Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for measures to improve the safety and security of international shipping and to prevent marine pollution from ships. It also is involved in legal matters, including liability and compensation issues and the facilitation of international maritime traffic. It was established by means of a Convention adopted under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva on 17 March 1948 and met for the first time in January 1959. It currently has 164 Member States. IMO's governing body is the Assembly which is made up of all 164 Member States and meets normally once every two years. It adopts the budget for the next biennium together with technical resolutions and recommendations prepared by subsidiary bodies during the previous two years. The Council acts as governing body in between Assembly sessions. It prepares the budget and work programme for the Assembly. The main technical work is carried out by the Maritime Safety, Marine Environment Protection, Legal, Technical Co-operation and Facilitation Committees and a number of sub-committee.
What does IMO do?
When IMO first began operations its chief concern was to develop international treaties and other legislation concerning safety and marine pollution prevention.
By the late 1970s, however, this work had been largely completed, though a number of important instruments were adopted in more recent years. IMO is now concentrating on keeping legislation up to date and ensuring that it is ratified by as many countries as possible. This has been so successful that many Conventions now apply to more than 98% of world merchant shipping tonnage. Currently the emphasis is on trying to ensure that these conventions and other treaties are properly implemented by the countries that have accepted them. The texts of conventions, codes and other instruments adopted by IMO can be found in the section dealing with Publications.
Structure
The Organization consists of an Assembly, a Council and four main Committees: the Maritime Safety Committee; the Marine Environment Protection Committee; the Legal Committee; and the Technical Co-operation Committee. There is also a Facilitation Committee and a number of Sub-Committees support the work of the main technical committees.
Assembly
This is the highest Governing Body of the Organization. It consists of all Member States and it meets once every two years in regular sessions, but may also meet in an extraordinary session if necessary. The Assembly is responsible for approving the work programme, voting the budget and determining the financial arrangements of the Organization. The Assembly also elects the Council.
Council
The Council is elected by the Assembly for two-year terms beginning after each regular session of the Assembly.The Council is the Executive Organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the Organization. Between sessions of the Assembly the Council performs all the functions of the Assembly, except the function of making recommendations to Governments on maritime safety and pollution prevention which is reserved for the Assembly by Article 15(j) of the Convention.
Other functions of the Council are to:
- co-ordinate the activities of the organs of the Organization;
- consider the draft work programme and budget estimates of the Organization and submit them to the Assembly;
- receive reports and proposals of the Committees and other organs and submit them to the Assembly and Member States, with comments and recommendations as appropriate;
- appoint the Secretary-General, subject to the approval of the Assembly;
- enter into agreements or arrangements concerning the relationship of the Organization with other organizations, subject to approval by the Assembly.
Council members
The IMO Convention provides that in electing the Members of the Council the Assembly shall observe the following criteria:
- ten shall be States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services;
- ten shall be other States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade; and
- twenty shall be States not elected under (a) or (b) above which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world.
The Members of the Council elected by the 23rd Assembly for 2004 and 2005 are as follows:
Maritime Safety Committee (MSC)
The MSC is the highest technical body of the Organization. It consists of all Member States. The functions of the Maritime Safety Committee are to “consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with aids to navigation, construction and equipment of vessels, manning from a safety standpoint, rules for the prevention of collisions, handling of dangerous cargoes, maritime safety procedures and requirements, hydrographic information, log-books and navigational records, marine casualty investigations, salvage and rescue and any other matters directly affecting maritime safety”.
The Committee is also required to provide machinery for performing any duties assigned to it by the IMO Convention or any duty within its cope of work which may be assigned to it by or under any international instrument and accepted by the Organization. It also has the responsibility for considering and submitting recommendations and guidelines on safety for possible adoption by the Assembly.
The “expanded MSC” adopts amendments to conventions such as SOLAS and includes all Member States as well as those countries which are Party to conventions such as SOLAS even if they are not IMO Member States.
The Marine Environment Protection Committee
(MEPC)
The MEPC, which consists of all Member States, is empowered to consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with prevention and control of pollution from ships. In particular it is concerned with the adoption and amendment of conventions and other regulations and measures to ensure their enforcement.The MEPC was first established as a subsidiary body of the Assembly and raised to full constitutional status in 1985.
Sub-Committees
The MSC and MEPC are assisted in their work by nine sub-committees which are also open to all Member States. They deal with the following subjects:
Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG),Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers(DSC),Fire Protection (FP),Radio-communications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR),Safety of Navigation (NAV), Ship Design and Equipment (DE), Stability and Load Lines and Fishing Vessels Safety (SLF),Standards of Training and Watch keeping(STW), Flag State Implementation (FSI).
Legal Committee
The Legal Committee is empowered to deal with any legal matters within the scope of the Organization. The Committee consists of all Member States of IMO.
It was established in 1967 as a subsidiary body to deal with legal questions which arose in the aftermath of the Torrey Canyon disaster.The Legal Committee is also empowered to perform any duties within its scope which may be assigned by or under any other international instrument and accepted by the Organization.
Technical Co-operation Committee
The Technical Co-operation Committee is required to consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with the implementation of technical co-operation projects for which the Organization acts as the executing or co-operating agency and any other matters related to the Organization’s activities in the technical co-operation field.
The Technical Co-operation Committee consists of all Member States of IMO, was established in 1969 as a subsidiary body of the Council, and was institutionalized by means of an amendment to the IMO Convention which entered into force in 1984.
Facilitation Committee
The Facilitation Committee is a subsidiary body of the Council. It was established in May 1972 and deals with IMO’s work in eliminating unnecessary formalities and “red tape” in international shipping. Participation in the Facilitation Committee is open to all Member States of IMO.
The 1991 amendments to the IMO Convention, when they come into force, will institutionalise the Facilitation Committee, putting it on the same standing as the other Committees. However, these amendments have not yet received enough acceptances to come into force.
Secretariat
The Secretariat of IMO consists of the Secretary-General and nearly 300 personnel based at the headquarters of the Organization in London.
Regional Co-ordination
IMO has appointed three regional co-ordinators in Africa.
The World Meteorological Organization
(WMO)
The UN system’s authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources.
The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 187 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873. Established in 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.
Since its establishment, WMO has played a unique and powerful role in contributing to the welfare of humanity. Under WMO leadership and within the framework of WMO programmes, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services have contributed substantially to the protection of life and property against natural disasters, to safeguarding the environment and to enhancing the economic and social well-being of all sectors of society in areas such as food security, water resources and transport. It has a unique role within the UN system it facilitates the free and unrestricted exchange of data and information, products and services in real- or near-real time on matters relating to safety and security of society, economic well being and the prevention of the environment.
As weather and climate know no national boundaries, international cooperation at a global scale is essential for the development of meteorology and operational hydrology as well as to reap the benefits from their applications. WMO provides the framework for such international cooperation.
WMO is playing a leading role in international efforts to monitor and protect the environment through its Programmes, such as the World Weather Watch Programme, World Climate Programme, the Atmospheric Research and Environment Programme, and the Hydrology and Water Resources Programme. For instance, in collaboration with the UN agencies and the NMHSs of Members, WMO continues to support the implementation of relevant conventions such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Vienna Convention on the Protection of Ozone Layer and its Protocols and Amendments. WMO is instrumental in providing advice and assessments to governments on matters relating to the above Conventions. These activities contribute towards ensuring the sustainable development and well-being of nations.
In the specific case of weather natural disasters which account for nearly three-quarters of all are such events, WMO’s programmes provide the vital information for the advance warnings that save many lives and reduce damage to property and the environment. Human induced disasters chemistry, nuclear and forest fire . Numerous studies have shown that, apart from the incalculable benefit to human well-being, every dollar invested in meteorological and hydrological services produces an economic return many times greater, often ten times or more.
The vision of the WMO for the Sixth Long-term Plan (2004-2011) is to provide world leadership in expertise and international cooperation in weather, climate, hydrology and water resources, and related environmental issues, and thereby to contribute to the safety and well being of people throughout the world and to the economic benefit of all nations.
WMO Purposes To facilitate world-wide cooperation in the establishment of networks of stations for the making of meteorological as well as hydrological and other geophysical observations related to meteorology, and to promote the establishment and maintenance of centres charged with the provision of meteorological and related services;
- To promote the establishment and maintenance of systems for the rapid exchange of meteorological and related information;- To promote the standardization of meteorological and related observations and to ensure the uniform publication of observations and statistics;
-To further the application of meteorology to aviation, shipping, water problems, agriculture and other human activities;
- To promote activities in operational hydrology and to further close co-operation between Meteorological and Hydrological Services;
- To encourage research and training in meteorology and, as appropriate, in related fields and to assist in coordinating the international aspects of such research and training
WMO Structure
The World Meteorological Congress, the supreme body of the Organization, brings together the delegates of Members once every four years to determine general policies for the fulfilment of the purposes of the Organization, to approve long-term plans, to authorize maxi-mum expenditures for the following financial period, to adopt Technical Regulations relating to international meteorological and operational hydrological practice, to elect the President and Vice-Presidents of the Organization and members of the Executive Council and to appoint the Secretary-General.
The Executive Council, the executive body of the Organization and is responsible to Congress for the coordination of the programmes of the organization and of the utilization of its budgetary resources in accordance with the decision of Congress. composed of 37 directors of National Meteorological or Hydrometeorological Services, meets at least once a year to review the activities of the Organization and to implement the programmes approved by Congress.
The six regional associations (Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South-West Pacific and Europe), composed of Members, coordinate meteorological and related activities within their respective Regions.
The eight technical commissions, composed of experts designated by Members, study matters within their specific areas of competence (technical commissions have been established for basic systems, instruments and methods of observation, atmospheric sciences, aeronautical meteorology, agricultural meteorology, oceanography and marine meteorology jointly with IOC of UNESCO, hydrology, and climatology).
The Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, serves as the administrative, documentation and information centre of the Organization. It prepares, edits, produces and distributes the publications of the Organization, carries out the duties specified in the Convention and other Basic Documents and provides secretariat support to the work of the constituent bodies of WMO described above.
United Nations Educational Scientific &
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), agency of the United Nations established in 1946 to encourage collaboration among nations in the areas of education, science, culture, and communication. Through such cooperative endeavors, UNESCO hopes to encourage universal respect for justice, laws, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. The organization’s founding statement declares that “peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.”
More than 180 nations belong to UNESCO. The agency has its headquarters in Paris, France, and operates educational, scientific, and cultural programs and exchanges from 60 field offices worldwide. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include international science programs; literacy, technical, and teacher-training programs; regional and cultural history projects; and international cooperation agreements to secure the world’s cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights.
Withdrawlal of the United States and the United Kingdom
In 1984 the United States withdrew from UNESCO. the United Kingdom left the organization in 1985. Together, these two nations accounted for 30 percent of the UNESCO budget. Their decisions to withdraw resulted from concerns about corruption and waste within the agency and a perception of anti-Western bias in its statements and activities.
Criticism of UNESCO in the early 1980s centered on the autocratic management style of the agency’s general director, Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow of Senegal. Excessive spending on consultants, social functions, and projects of dubious merit characterized M’Bow’s tenure. M’Bow also shifted resources from field offices into the Paris headquarters. By 1984 six employees worked in the Paris office for every worker in the field, and 80 percent of the agency’s budget supported administrative expenses in Paris.
At the same time, controversy surrounded UNESCO’s willingness to support efforts by non-Western governments to establish a New World Information and Communications Order (NWICO). Advocates of the NWICO argued that journalists from Western, industrialized nations both dominated and distorted press coverage in developing nations. NWICO reform proposals included requirements that journalists be licensed by national governments and that balance in news coverage be guaranteed. The U.S. government, along with many American journalists, opposed the NWICO. They argued these proposals would result in government control of the press and would destroy international standards of press freedom.
Reform efforts
In the years since the United States and the United Kingdom withdrew from UNESCO the agency has tried to lure these countries back by reforming its operations. In 1987 Spanish biochemist Federico Mayor succeeded M’Bow as director general. Since then, UNESCO has slashed payroll levels by nearly 50 percent and implemented new procedures to control spending and to evaluate programs and personnel. UNESCO has refocused on educational and scientific field projects. The agency has also abandoned its efforts to create a new information order linked to government control of the press. Although the United States and the United Kingdom have not committed to rejoining UNESCO, the prospects for their return have improved significantly since the late 1980s.
A unifying theme
UNESCO contributing to peace and human development in an era of globalization through education, the sciences, culture and communication.
Three main strategic thrusts
- Developing and promoting universal principles and norms, based on shared values, in order to meet emerging challenges in education, science, culture and communication and to protect and strengthen the “common public good” ;
- Promoting pluralism, through recognition and safeguarding of diversity together with the observance of human rights;
- Promoting empowerment and participation in the emerging knowledge society through equitable access, capacity-building and sharing of knowledge.
Twelve strategic objectives
Education
- Promoting education as a fundamental right in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- Improving the quality of education through the diversification of contents and methods and the promotion of universally shared values ;
- Promoting experimentation, innovation and the diffusion and sharing of information and best practices as well as policy dialogue in education. Sciences
- Promoting principles and ethical norms to guide scientific and technological development and social transformation ;
- Improving human security by better management of the environment and social change
- Enhancing scientific, technical and human capacities to participate in the emerging.
knowledge societies
Culture
- Promoting the drafting and implementation of standard-setting instruments in the cultural field ;
- Safeguarding cultural diversity and encouraging dialogue among cultures and civilizations ;
- Enhancing the linkages between culture and development, through capacity-building and sharing of knowledge.
Communication and Information
- Promoting the free flow of ideas and universal access to information ;
- Promoting the expression of pluralism and cultural diversity in the media and world information networks ;
- Access for all to information and communication technologies, especially in the public domain.
World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO)
Introduction
1. Every fourth year, the Director General is required to present a "plan for the medium term" covering four years following the biennial period for which he presents, at the same time, a draft program and budget. The last such plan was presented to Member States in 1999.
2. The current document presents a Medium-term Plan for WIPO programs and activities highlighting the vision and strategic direction of WIPO for the four-year period from 2006 to 2009 following the 2004-2005 biennium.
Vision
3. The main objectives of the Medium-term Plan, as expressed in the past remain constant: maintenance and further development of the respect for intellectual property throughout the world. This means that any erosion of the existing protection should be prevented, and that both the acquisition of the protection and, once acquired, its enforcement, should be simpler, cheaper and more secure.
4. The objectives mentioned above are mandated by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, Article 3 of which clearly states:
'(i) to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international organization,
'(ii) to ensure administrative cooperation among the Unions.'
5. The 21st Century is a century of many challenges- including bridging the widening knowledge divide, the reduction of poverty, and the attainment of prosperity for all. The success of a country in meeting these challenges will depend upon its ability to develop, utilize and protect its national creativity and innovation. An effective intellectual property (IP) system allied to pro-active policy-making and focused strategic planning, will help such a nation promote and protect its intellectual assets, driving economic growth and wealth creation.
6. In this context, there is a widely recognized need to enhance and develop the objectives stated in the WIPO Convention in order to enable the Organization to better assist Member States in meeting the challenges of the changing world.
7. Thus, WIPO's objective for the new century is the promotion of the effective protection and use of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation with and among Member States and all other stakeholders. This is to be achieved by creating an environment and infrastructure conducive to an enhanced understanding of the contribution of IP to human life through economic, social and cultural development, and, in particular, by assisting developing countries in their capacity building for greater access to, and use of, the IP system. WIPO seeks to continually enhance its role as the leading international organization, and the UN specialized agency, responsible for initiatives in respect of effective international cooperation in the area of IP.
8. It is recalled that, in September 1999, Member States noted with satisfaction the content of document A/34/3 "Vision and Strategic Direction of WIPO," which contained a Medium-term Plan for the period from 2002 to 2005. It is further recalled that the plan listed several priority areas identified by the Organization as being of key importance in responding to the challenges facing Member States. They included demystification, empowerment, collective leadership, synergies, promotion of creative and innovative activity, progressive development and codification of international IP law, global protection systems and services and the global cooperation system. In order to strengthen its effectiveness in responding to the needs of Member States in these and other areas, WIPO has modernized its infrastructure and improved its management, and has also, over the last four years, introduced several new initiatives to deal with the dynamic and rapid evolution of the IP-related environment. Much progress has been made, for example, the demystification campaign, in particular, has heightened understanding among leaders and policy-makers worldwide of the importance of IP as a policy tool for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries.
9. Against this backdrop and to consolidate what has been achieved, it is proposed that the next medium-term plan, for 2006 to 2009, should continue to reflect "the central role of IP as an important tool for social development, economic growth and wealth creation" (document A/38/3). It will also seek to enhance global understanding of IP as "the foundation of human existence and co-existence," [which] "is foreign to no culture and native to all nations" (document A/38/3). Therefore, WIPO's major objective can be said to be making IP "closer to people recognizing the diversity of cultures, origins and systems"
Policy Framework
10. To realize the above, a policy framework will be established on the basis of the principles developed during the current Medium-term Plan. These are:
(a) IP is an important factor in fostering creativity and invention, which are the driving forces in a knowledge-based economy.
(b) Every country should be encouraged to develop an IP culture appropriate to its needs, including a focused national IP strategy, the most suitable national IP system, and the fostering of a nation-wide perception of IP (both at the policy planning and grass-roots levels) as a powerful tool for economic, social and cultural development.
(c) The IP system, including its legal and institutional infrastructure and human resources capacity, should meet national policy objectives. It should also be effective, affordable and easily accessible to all stakeholders, including individuals and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
(d) The IP system should maintain a balance between the interests of the holders of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and those of the public at large. While being mindful of national policy objectives, it should also be consistent with international IP laws and international agreements.
(e) WIPO's global protection systems and services (i.e., the PCT, Madrid, Hague and Lisbon systems) as well as the services of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, should continue to be effective, of high quality, and geared to meeting the needs of users, including innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, particularly SMEs, and academic institutions.
(f) As the specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for IP, WIPO's activities include leadership initiatives in that field with a view to increasing cooperation with other UN bodies and heightening awareness among them as well as among the general public and policy-makers, of the role of IP within the framework of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
(g) WIPO's cooperation with governments and the private sector should be reinforced to enhance technical assistance in favor of developing countries and countries in transition to a market economy. This includes the necessary support in capacity building and the development of appropriate infrastructures, as well as the strengthening of human resources.
(h) Modernization of program, budget and accounting practices will ensure greater openness, transparency and efficiency in the management and implementation of activities.
Strategic Goals
11. In transforming WIPO's vision into reality, strategic goals are set out as follows:
(a) Promotion of an IP culture; on the one hand, to encourage creators and innovators to obtain, use and license IP rights and assets, and, on the other hand, to seek greater respect by the public for IP rights and assets. This will include making resources and expertise available to assist Member States in their own efforts to develop an IP culture through cooperation with governments, intergovernmental organizations and partners in private sectors.
(b) Development of balanced international IP laws which are: responsive to emerging needs; effective in encouraging innovation and creation; and sufficiently flexible to accommodate national policy objectives.
(c) Provision of consistent and customized assistance to Member States in developing national/regional IP systems, including legal infrastructure, institutional framework and human resources.
(d) Enhancement of global protection systems to make them more easily accessible and affordable to all stakeholders, in particular.
(e) Further streamlining of the management and administrative processes within WIPO to intensify efforts to achieve greater efficiency as well as the initiation of improved monitoring and evaluation systems to examine the achievement of expected results.
Operational Principles for the Implementation of Programs
12. In each program area, specific priority-setting guidelines will be provided, based on the following operational principles:
- Program priorities will be established according to WIPO's strategic goals and the needs identified by Member States, as well as WIPO's expertise in delivering such program activities;
- Each program will be designed to ensure sufficient flexibility to respond to the evolving needs of Member States.
- Program activities should be cost-effective and with concrete deliverables;
- Programs will be individually tailored, wherever possible, in consultation with Member States, so as to promote sustainability of the results;
- Cooperation with other institutions will be encouraged, as much as possible, to achieve the greatest cost effectiveness.
Indicators for Program Evaluation
13. Performance indicators included in the draft Program and Budget for the 2004-2005 biennium in respect of all program activities (document WO/PBC/7/2) take into consideration one or more of the following broad indicators, which will be utilized in evaluating the success of WIPO's programs. These concern the impact of the activity on:
- IP policy of Member States;
- integration of IP policy into the cultural-socio-economic policies of Member States;
- enhancement and development, in quantity and quality, of IP rights and assets obtained by nationals in Member States;
- the number of accessions or ratifications, the geographical coverage and the effective use of treaties administered by WIPO;
- number and range of users of WIPO's global protection systems;
- status and functions of IP-related institutions (effective IP offices and copyright collective management societies, competent courts and customs offices for IP enforcement, etc.);
- number of people who benefited under WIPO programs, including government officials, innovators, academic researchers, IP practitioners, etc.
Strategic Deliverables
14. As briefly outlined in the speech made by the Director General on his re-appointment by Member States in May 2003 (document A/38/3), WIPO's activities will be grouped into five areas, each with specific deliverables, as indicated below.
(a) Modernization of Management
- Enhancement of program and budget process and efficient implementation of program activities;
- Consolidation and leveraging of IT-based tools;
- Enhanced efficiency in PCT, Madrid and Hague systems operations.
(b) IP Outreach and Support
- Better understanding of the cultural and social dimension of IP-related issues;
- Development of tools/guidelines to assist in building greater public awareness and understanding of IP and its role and more wide-spread respect for IPRs;
- Enhanced use of IP by SMEs.
(c) Cooperation for Development
- Strengthening of IP's role in the development of national policy (supported with analyses of the economic impact of IP);
- Strengthening of national human resource capabilities, including training of IP professionals (e.g., training of trainers);
- Deployment of online tools for small IP Offices via WIPONET;
- Further development of customized regional/national action plans;
- Continuing assistance in IP Office automation.
(d) IP Issues and Progressive Development and Codification of International IP Law
- Better accessibility to the patent system through the WIPO Patent Agenda, including ongoing work on the draft Substantive Patent Law Treaty;
- Further development of harmonized principles and procedural and substantive aspects of the law of trademarks and industrial designs;
- Responses to new technologies, particularly the implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT);
- Continuation of consultations on broadcasting rights and of negotiations to establish an international instrument for the protection of audiovisual performers;
- Continuation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore with a view to strengthening the framework of protection;
- Use, where necessary, of "soft-law" solutions for certain issues.
(e) Global IP Protection Systems and Services
- Progressive reform of the PCT and implementation of the results;
- Expansion of the Madrid and Hague systems;
- Expansion of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center's services to include a wider range of IP disputes.
15. The draft program and budget for the 2004-2005 biennium (document WO/PBC/7/2) proposes, in detail, activities which are expected to contribute to the realization of such deliverables and the process to be taken to implement them. Political imagination, goodwill and collaboration among Member States, the private sector and the Secretariat are key elements in the success of WIPO's mission and realization of its vision.
International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA)
On Dec. 8, 1953, President Eisenhower, speaking to the UN General Assembly, called for the creation of a world organization to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In 1954 interested nations began to work on a preliminary constitution for the Agency which was submitted to a conference convened in New York in September 1956. To it all member states of the United Nations and of the Specialized Agencies were invited; 81 attended and after considering many proposals for amendment approved unanimously the Statute of the IAEA on Oct. 26, 1956. In the period allowed for signature, 80 governments signed. The Statute was to come into force upon the deposit of ratifications by 18 states including at least three from the following: Canada, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A preparatory commission was set up to make arrangements for the first General Conference. Vienna was chosen as the Agency's headquarters. The Statute entered into force on July 29, 1957.
The object of the Agency is "to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world." To this end it may serve as an intermediary in securing services or supplying materials, equipment, or facilities; it may have its own materials and develop its own services, equipment, and facilities; it may foster the exchange of information and encourage the training of experts; it may develop safeguards to ensure that its program is not used for other than peaceful purposes and may formulate standards to safeguard health and property. The Agency may thus have its own program for research and production. It may serve as a world bank of basic nuclear fuels with storage facilities so arranged as to prevent extensive stockpiling in any one area of the world. It may have its own inspectors with access to all persons, places, and data involved in agency-assisted projects.
The Agency has a General Conference and a Board of Governors. The General Conference is composed of all members, each with one vote, and meets in regular annual sessions. The Board is selected by a somewhat complicated formula based on the division of the world into eight geographical areas. It will include the five members who are most advanced in the technology of atomic energy, and the most advanced member from each of the areas not already represented among the five; two members chosen by the outgoing Board from a designated list of producers of source materials, and one so chosen representing a supplier of technical assistance; and ten members elected by the General Conference, five each year for a two-year term, with the requirement that each of the regions except North America must be represented in this group. The Board so constituted includes at present 23 members, each with one vote. It controls its own time of meeting. Decisions in both bodies are by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting in regard to certain designated matters, and by a majority of those present and voting in all other matters including additions to the former category. New members of the Agency may be admitted by the General Conference on the recommendation of the Board of Governors if they are believed able and willing to carry out the obligations of membership. A permanent staff of qualified personnel necessary to fulfill the objectives and functions of the Agency is headed by a Director-General appointed by the Board with the approval of the General Conference for a term of four years.
The first General Conference met in Vienna Oct. 1-23, 1957. W. Sterling Cole of the United States was named the first Director-General. A member of the United States Congress for 23 years, he had been on the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy since its establishment. He was a member of the delegation of the United States to the conference which adopted the Statute. The United States has made 5,000 kg of fissionable material available to the Agency with an additional promise to match contributions of other countries until July 1960. Russian attempts to obtain some status for the Communist governments of China and East Germany failed.
International Atomic Energy Agency
Following nearly four years of effort and planning, the International Atomic Energy Agency became a reality on July 29, when the required number of ratification documents had been deposited in Washington. The first annual meeting of the Agency's General Conference convened in Vienna on October 1, and among its priority decisions it approved a draft agreement governing the Agency's relationship with the United Nations. On November 14, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously approved this relationship agreement.
The IAEA, under the aegis of the United Nations, is responsible for international activities concerned with the peaceful uses of atomic energy, without prejudice to the rights and responsibilities of the United Nations in this field under the Charter. The IAEA undertakes to conduct its activities in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter to promote peace and international co-operation, and in conformity with United Nations policies furthering the establishment of safeguarded worldwide disarmament. The agreement specifies that the Agency will keep the United Nations informed of its activities by annual reports to the General Assembly and, as appropriate, reports to the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. The UN Secretary-General will report, as appropriate, on the common activities of the United Nations and the Agency. Each organization is to make available to the other such information and special studies as may be requested. The United Nations-IAEA agreement provides that the Agency may propose items for consideration by the United Nations, and that the United Nations may propose items for consideration by the Agency. Agency and United Nations Secretariat staffs will maintain a close working relationship in accordance with arrangements to be agreed upon.
International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or World Bank, specialized United Nations agency established at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. A related institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was created at the same time. The chief objectives of the bank, as stated in the articles of agreement, are “to assist in the reconstruction and development of territories of members by facilitating the investment of capital for productive purposes and to promote private foreign investment by means of guarantees or participation in loans[and to supplement private investment by providing, on suitable conditions, finance for productive purposes out of its own capital…”
The bank grants loans only to member nations, for the purpose of financing specific projects. Before a nation can secure a loan, advisers and experts representing the bank must determine that the prospective borrower can meet conditions stipulated by the bank. Most of these conditions are designed to ensure that loans will be used productively and that they will be repaid. The bank requires that the borrower be unable to secure a loan for the particular project from any other source on reasonable terms and that the prospective project be technically feasible and economically sound. To ensure repayment, member governments must guarantee loans made to private concerns within their territories. After the loan has been made, the bank requires periodic reports both from the borrower and from its own observers on the use of the loan and on the progress of the project.
In the early period of the World Bank's existence, loans were granted chiefly to European countries and were used for the reconstruction of industries damaged or destroyed during World War II. Since the late 1960s, however, most loans have been granted to economically developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the 1980s the bank gave particular attention to projects that could directly benefit the poorest people in developing nations by helping them to raise their productivity and to gain access to such necessities as safe water and waste-disposal facilities, health care, family-planning assistance, nutrition, education, and housing. Direct involvement of the poorest people in economic activity was being promoted by providing loans for agriculture and rural development, small-scale enterprises, and urban development. The bank also was expanding its assistance to energy development and ecological concerns.
Sources of Funds
Subscriptions to, or purchase of, capital shares are worth SDR 100,000 (about $120,000) each. The minimum number of shares that a member nation must purchase varies according to the relative strength of its national economy. Not all the funds subscribed are immediately available to the bank; only about 8.5 percent of the capital subscription of each member nation actually is paid into the bank (a total of $7.3 billion in mid-1987). The remainder is to be deposited only if, and to the extent that, the bank calls for the money in order to pay its own obligations to creditors. There has never been a need to call in capital. The bank's working funds are derived from sales of its interest-bearing bonds and notes in capital markets of the world, from repayment of earlier loans, and from profits on its own operations. It has earned profits every year since 1947.
All powers of the bank are vested in a board of governors, comprising one governor appointed by each member nation. The board meets at least once annually. The governors delegate most of their powers to 24 executive directors, who meet regularly at the central headquarters of the bank in Washington, D.C. Five of the executive directors are appointed by the five member states that hold the largest number of capital shares in the bank. The remaining 19 directors are elected by the governors from the other member nations and serve 2-year terms. The executive directors are headed by the president of the World Bank, whom they elect for a 5-year term, and who must be neither a governor nor a director. The bank currently has 183 members.
Affiliates
The bank has two affiliates: the International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956; and the International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960. Membership in the bank is a prerequisite for membership in either the IFC or the IDA. All three institutions share the same president and boards of governors and executive directors.
IDA is the bank's concessionary lending affiliate, designed to provide development finance for those countries that do not qualify for loans at market-based interest rates. IDA soft loans, or “credits,” are longer term than those of the bank and bear no interest; only an annual service charge of 0.75 percent is made. The IDA depends for its funds on subscriptions from its most prosperous members and on transfers of income from the bank. The IDA had 161 members in 2001.
All three institutions are legally and financially separate, but the bank and IDA share the same staff; IFC, with 174 members, has its own operating and legal staff, but uses administrative and other services of the bank. Membership in the International Monetary Fund is a prerequisite for membership in the World Bank and its affiliates.
The International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
The International Monetary Fund was established by international treaty in 1945 to help promote the health of the world economy. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it is governed by its almost global membership of 184 countries. The IMF is the central institution of the international monetary system—the system of international payments and exchange rates among national currencies that enables business to take place between countries.It aims to prevent crises in the system by encouraging countries to adopt sound economic policies; it is also—as its name suggests—a fund that can be tapped by members needing temporary financing to address balance of payments problems.
The IMF works for global prosperity by promoting
- the balanced expansion of world trade,
- stability of exchange rates,
- avoidance of competitive devaluations, and orderly correction of balance of payments problems
The IMF's statutory purposes include promoting the balanced expansion of world trade, the stability of exchange rates, the avoidance of competitive currency devaluations, and the orderly correction of a country's balance of payments problems. To serve these purposes, the IMF:
- monitors economic and financial developments and policies, in member countries and at the global level, and gives policy advice to its members based on its more than fifty years of experience.
- lends to member countries with balance of payments problems, not just to provide temporary financing but to support adjustment and reform policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems.
- provides the governments and central banks of its member countries with technical assistance and training in its areas of expertise.
As the only international agency whose mandated activities involve active dialogue with virtually every country on economic policies, the IMF is the principal forum for discussing not only national economic policies in a global context, but also issues important to the stability of the international monetary and financial system. These include countries' choice of exchange rate arrangements, the avoidance of destabilizing international capital flows, and the design of internationally recognized standards and codes for policies and institutions.
By working to strengthen the international financial system and to accelerate progress toward reducing poverty, as well as promoting sound economic policies among all its member countries, the IMF is helping to make globalization work for the benefit of all.
The Origins of the IMF
The IMF was conceived in July 1944 at an international conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, U.S.A., when delegates from 44 governments agreed on a framework for economic cooperation partly designed to avoid a repetition of the disastrous economic policies that had contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
During that decade, as economic activity in the major industrial countries weakened, countries attempted to defend their economies by increasing restrictions on imports; but this just worsened the downward spiral in world trade, output, and employment. To conserve dwindling reserves of gold and foreign exchange, some countries curtailed their citizens' freedom to buy abroad, some devalued their currencies, and some introduced complicated restrictions on their citizens' freedom to hold foreign exchange. These fixes, however, also proved self-defeating, and no country was able to maintain its competitive edge for long. Such "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies devastated the international economy; world trade declined sharply, as did employment and living standards in many countries.
As World War II came to a close, the leading allied countries considered various plans to restore order to international monetary relations, and at the Bretton Woods conference the IMF emerged. The country representatives drew up the charter (or Articles of Agreement) of an international institution to oversee the international monetary system and to promote both the elimination of exchange restrictions relating to trade in goods and services, and the stability of exchange rates.The IMF came into existence in December 1945, when the first 29 countries signed its Articles of Agreement.
The statutory purposes of the IMF today are the same as when they were formulated in 1944 Since then, the world has experienced unprecedented growth in real incomes. And although the benefits of growth have not flowed equally to all—either within or among nations—most countries have seen increases in prosperity that contrast starkly with the interwar period, in particular. Part of the explanation lies in improvements in the conduct of economic policy, including policies that have encouraged the growth of international trade and helped smooth the economic cycle of boom and bust. The IMF is proud to have contributed to these developments.
In the decades since World War II, apart from rising prosperity, the world economy and monetary system have undergone other major changes-changes that have increased the importance and relevance of the purposes served by the IMF, but that have also required the IMF to adapt and reform. Rapid advances in technology and communications have contributed to the increasing international integration of markets and to closer linkages among national economies. As a result, financial crises, when they erupt, now tend to spread more rapidly among countries.
The IMF's purposes have also become more important simply because of the expansion of its membership. The number of IMF member countries has more than quadrupled from the 44 states involved in its establishment, reflecting in particular the attainment of political independence by many developing countries and more recently the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
The IMF's Purposes
The purposes of the International Monetary Fund are:
- To promote international monetary cooperation through a permanent institution which provides the machinery for consultation and collaboration on international monetary problems.
- To facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income and to the development of the productive resources of all members as primary objectives of economic policy.
- To promote exchange stability, to maintain orderly exchange arrangements among members, and to avoid competitive exchange depreciation.
- To assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments in respect of current transactions between members and in the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions which hamper the growth of world trade.
- To give confidence to members by making the general resources of the Fund temporarily available to them under adequate safeguards, thus providing them with opportunity to correct maladjustments in their balance of payments without resorting to measures destructive of national or international prosperity.
- In accordance with the above, to shorten the duration and lessen the degree of disequilibrium in the international balances of payments of members.
IMF members have been free to choose any form of exchange arrangement they wish (except pegging their currency to gold): some now allow their currency to float freely, some peg their currency to another currency or a group of currencies, some have adopted the currency of another country as their own, and some participate in currency blocs.
At the same time as the IMF was created, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), more commonly known as the World Bank, was set up to promote long-term economic development, including through the financing of infrastructure projects, such as road-building and improving water supply.
The IMF and the World Bank Group—which includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Development Association (IDA)—complement each other's work. While the IMF's focus is chiefly on macroeconomic performance, and on macroeconomic and financial sector policies, the World Bank is concerned mainly with longer-term development and poverty reduction issues. Its activities include lending to developing countries and countries in transition to finance infrastructure projects, the reform of particular sectors of the economy, and broader structural reforms. The IMF, in contrast, provides financing not for particular sectors or projects but for general support of a country's balance of payments and international reserves while the country takes policy action to address its difficulties.
When the IMF and World Bank were established, an organization to promote world trade liberalization was also contemplated, but it was not until 1995 that the World Trade Organization was set up. In the intervening years, trade issues were tackled through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Decisions at the IMF
The IMF is accountable to its member countries, and this accountability is essential to its effectiveness. The day-today work of the IMF is carried out by an Executive Board, representing the IMF's 184 members, and an internationally recruited staff under the leadership of a Managing Director and three Deputy Managing Directors—each member of this management team being drawn from a different region of the world. The powers of the Executive Board to conduct the business of the IMF are delegated to it by the Board of Governors, which is where ultimate oversight rests.
The Board of Governors, on which all member countries are represented, is the highest authority governing the IMF. It usually meets once a year, at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Each member country appoints a Governor—usually the country's minister of finance or the governor of its central bank—and an Alternate Governor. The Board of Governors decides on major policy issues but has delegated day-to-day decision-making to the Executive Board.
Key policy issues relating to the international monetary system are considered twice-yearly in a committee of Governors called the International Monetary and Financial Committee, or IMFC (until September 1999 known as the Interim Committee). A joint committee of the Boards of Governors of the IMF and World Bank called the Development Committee advises and reports to the Governors on development policy and other matters of concern to developing countries.
The Executive Board consists of 24 Executive Directors, with the Managing Director as chairman. The Executive Board usually meets three times a week, in full-day sessions, and more often if needed, at the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The IMF's five largest shareholders —the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—along with China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, have their own seats on the Board. The other 16 Executive Directors are elected for two-year terms by groups of countries, known as constituencies.
The Executive Board selects the Managing Director, who besides serving as the chairman of the Board, is the chief of the IMF staff and conducts the business of the IMF under the direction of the Executive Board. Appointed for a renewable five-year term, the Managing Director is assisted by a First Deputy Managing Director and two other Deputy Managing Directors.
IMF employees are international civil servants whose responsibility is to the IMF, not to national authorities. The organization has about 2,800 employees recruited from 141 countries. About two-thirds of its professional staff are economists. The IMF's 26 departments and offices are headed by directors, who report to the Managing Director. Most staff work in Washington, although about 90 resident representatives are posted in member countries to help advise on economic policy. The IMF maintains offices in Paris and Tokyo for liaison with other international and regional institutions, and with organizations of civil society; it also has offices in New York and Geneva, mainly for liaison with other institutions in the UN system.
Where Does the IMF Get Its Money?
The IMF's resources come mainly from the quota (or capital) subscriptions that countries pay when they join the IMF, or following periodic reviews in which quotas are increased. Countries pay 25 percent of their quota subscriptions in Special Drawing Rights or major currencies, such as U.S. dollars or Japanese yen; the IMF can call on the remainder, payable in the member's own currency, to be made available for lending as needed. Quotas determine not only a country's subscription payments, but also the amount of financing that it can receive from the IMF, and its share in SDR allocations. Quotas also are the main determinant of countries' voting power in the IMF.
Quotas are intended broadly to reflect members' relative size in the world economy: the larger a country's economy in terms of output, and the larger and more variable its trade, the higher its quota tends to be. The United States of America, the world's largest economy, contributes most to the IMF, 17.5 percent of total quotas; Palau, the world's smallest, contributes 0.001 percent.
If necessary, the IMF may borrow to supplement the resources available from its quotas. The IMF has two sets of standing arrangements to borrow if needed to cope with any threat to the international monetary system:
- the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), set up in 1962, which has 11 participants (the governments or central banks of the Group of Ten industrialized countries and Switzerland)
- the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), introduced in 1997, with 25 participating countries and institutions. Under the two arrangements combined, the IMF has up to SDR 34 billion (about $50 billion) available to borrow
Countries that joined the IMF between 1945 and 1971 agreed to keep their exchange rates (in effect, the value of their currencies in terms of the U.S. dollar, and in the case of the United States, the value of the U.S. dollar in terms of gold) pegged at rates that could be adjusted, but only to correct a "fundamental disequilibrium" in the balance of payments and with the IMF's concurrence. This so-called Bretton Woods system of exchange rates prevailed until 1971 when the U.S. government suspended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar (and dollar reserves held by other governments) into gold.
Since then, IMF members have been free to choose any form of exchange arrangement they wish (except pegging their currency to gold): some now allow their currency to float freely, some peg their currency to another currency or a group of currencies, some have adopted the currency of another country as their own, and some participate in currency blocs.
The IMF and the World Bank Group—which includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Development Association (IDA)—complement each other's work. While the IMF's focus is chiefly on macroeconomic performance, and on macroeconomic and financial sector policies, the World Bank is concerned mainly with longer-term development and poverty reduction issues. Its activities include lending to developing countries and countries in transition to finance infrastructure projects, the reform of particular sectors of the economy, and broader structural reforms. The IMF, in contrast, provides financing not for particular sectors or projects but for general support of a country's balance of payments and international reserves while the country takes policy action to address its difficulties.
When the IMF and World Bank were established, an organization to promote world trade liberalization was also contemplated, but it was not until 1995 that the World Trade Organization was set up. In the intervening years, trade issues were tackled through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
What Is an IMF-Supported Program?
When a country approaches the IMF for financing, it may be in a state of economic crisis or near-crisis, with its currency under attack in foreign exchange markets and its international reserves depleted, economic activity stagnant or falling, and bankruptcies increasing. To return the country's external payments position to health and to restore the conditions for sustainable economic growth, some combination of economic adjustment and official and/or private financing will be needed.
The IMF provides the country's authorities with advice on the economic policies that may be expected to address the problems most effectively. For the IMF also to provide financing, it must agree with the authorities on a program of policies aimed at meeting specific, quantified goals regarding external viability, monetary and financial stability, and sustainable growth. Details of the program are spelled out in a "letter of intent" from the government to the Managing Director of the IMF.
A program supported by IMF financing is designed by the national authorities in close cooperation with IMF staff, and is tailored to the special needs and circumstances of the country. This is essential for the program's effectiveness and for the government to win national support for the program. Such support—or "local ownership"—of the program is critical to its success.
Each program is also designed flexibly, so that, during its implementation, it may be reassessed and revised if circumstances change. Many programs are, in fact, revised during implementation.
Technical Assistance and Training
The IMF is probably best known for its policy advice and its policy-based lending to countries in times of economic crisis. But the IMF also shares its expertise with member countries on a regular basis by providing technical assistance and training in a wide range of areas, such as central banking, monetary and exchange rate policy, tax policy and administration, and official statistics. The objective is to help strengthen the design and implementation of members' economic policies, including by strengthening skills in the institutions responsible, such as finance ministries and central banks. Technical assistance complements the IMF's policy advice and financial assistance to member countries and accounts for some 20 percent of the IMF's administrative costs.
The IMF provides technical assistance and training mainly in four areas:
- strengthening monetary and financial sectors through advice on banking system regulation, supervision, and restructuring, foreign exchange management and operations, clearing and settlement systems for payments, and the structure and development of central banks;
- supporting strong fiscal policies and management through advice on tax and customs policies and administration, budget formulation, expenditure management, design of social safety nets, and the management of internal and external debt;
- compiling, managing, and disseminating statistical data and improving data quality; and
- drafting and reviewing economic and financial legislation.
The IMF offers training courses for government and central bank officials of member countries at its headquarters in Washington and at regional training centers in Brasília, Singapore, Tunis, and Vienna. In the field, it provides technical assistance through visits by IMF staff, supplemented by hired consultants and experts. Supplementary financing for IMF technical assistance and training is provided by the national governments of such countries as Japan and Switzerland, and international agencies such as the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank.
Strengthening the International Monetary and Financial System Globalization has created new challenges for the IMF. Two of the most important, and most difficult, are how to strengthen the global financial system—so that it becomes less prone to financial crises and more able to cope with crises when they occur—and how to advance the fight against poverty in low-income countries (see next chapter).
Globalization has yielded great benefits for many countries and people around the world. Integration into the world economy is an essential part of any strategy to enable countries to achieve higher living standards. But globalization, by increasing the volume and speed of international capital flows, has also increased the risk of financial crises. And at the same time, the risk has arisen that low-income countries, which have not yet benefited substantially from globalization, will fall further behind as living standards rise elsewhere.
Building A Stronger Global Financial System
The financial crises in emerging markets in the mid- and late 1990s were a reminder of the risks associated with globalization -even for economies that have benefited immensely from the process and that, in many respects, are well managed. The economies hit in the 1997-98 Asian crisis, in particular, had gained enormously over several decades from international trade, foreign direct investment, and access to increasingly integrated international financial markets. The crises exposed not only policy weaknesses in the crisis countries themselves, but also flaws in the international financial system, driving home two facts of life:
- Investors may retreat quickly and massively if they sense shortcomings in domestic economic policies. Once investors-domestic or foreign-lose confidence, capital inflows can dry up, and large net outflows can precipitate a financial crisis.
- A crisis in one country or region can rapidly spill over into other economies.
To reduce the risk of future financial crises and to promote the speedy resolution of those that do occur, the IMF has been working with its member governments, and with other international organizations, regulatory bodies, and the private sector, to strengthen the international monetary and financial system.
Reforms under way span the following areas:
Strengthening financial sectors
A major reason why a country may be vulnerable to economic crisis is weakness in its financial system, with institutions that are illiquid or insolvent, or liable to become so as a result of adverse developments. To make the system more robust, banks and other financial institutions may need to improve their internal controls, including their assessment and management of risk. The authorities may also need to bring their supervision and regulation of the financial sector up to international standards.
The IMF and the World Bank in 1999 began joint assessments of member countries' financial sectors to help identify actual and potential weaknesses. IMF and World Bank teams, generally with the assistance of experts from central banks and financial regulatory agencies, have been assessing the strength of financial systems in a number of member countries. These assessments are presented to the country as a guide to the measures needed.
IMF staff are also working with national governments and other international institutions to:
- strengthen the legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks for banks,
- review minimum capital requirements for banks and financial institutions,
- develop a core set of international accounting standards,
- finalize a set of core principles for good corporate governance,
- avoid exchange rate regimes that are vulnerable to attack, and
- ensure a freer flow of timely financial data to markets.
Internationally accepted standards and codes of good practice
Countries can reassure the international community about their policies and practices by following internationally accepted standards and codes of good practice. For countries that do not do so, international standards and codes serve as a guide for strengthening their systems. The IMF has worked to develop and refine voluntary standards in areas of its responsibility, in some cases cooperating with other international organizations, such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the World Bank. These include standards related to a country's statistical practices; codes of good practice in fiscal, monetary, and financial policies; and guidelines on strengthening the financial sector—such as banking system supervision and regulatory standards.
Complementing the work of the IMF have been the efforts of the BIS, World Bank, and other standard-setting agencies, which have been working on international standards in such areas as accounting and auditing, bankruptcy, corporate governance, securities market regulation, and payment and settlement systems.
To help countries assess their own compliance, IMF staff, in conjunction with the respective governments, began in 1999 to prepare experimental country reports on countries' observance of standards and codes, focusing mainly on areas of direct operational concern to the IMF. Several countries have chosen to publish these reports.
Encouraging openness and publication of data
The publication of up-to-date and reliable data—as well as information about countries' economic and financial policies, practices, and decision- making—is needed to help investors make informed judgments and for markets to operate efficiently and smoothly. In the wake of the Mexican crisis of 1994-95, the IMF in 1996 developed a special data dissemination standard (SDDS) to guide countries that have, or that might seek, access to international capital markets in the dissemination of economic and financial data to the public. Subscribing countries agree to publish detailed national economic and financial data, including data on international reserves and external debt, on an announced schedule. A general data dissemination system (GDDS) was established in 1997 to guide countries that are not yet in a position to subscribe to the SDDS and need to improve their statistical systems.
IMF transparency and accountability
Improved provision of information to the markets and the broader public is a central element of the reform of the international financial system. It is also a cornerstone of the recent and continuing reform of the IMF itself.
Transparency, on the part of IMF member countries and the IMF, helps foster better economic performance in several ways. Greater openness by member countries encourages more widespread and better informed analysis of their policies by the public; enhances the accountability of policymakers and the credibility of policies; and informs financial markets so that they can function in a more orderly and efficient manner. Greater openness and clarity by the IMF about its own policies, and the advice it gives members, contribute to a more informed policy debate and to a better understanding of the IMF's role and operations. By exposing its advice to public scrutiny and debate, the IMF can also help raise the level of its analysis.
Since the mid-1990s, the IMF has vastly increased the volume of information it publishes—on its own activities and policies, and on those of its member countries—particularly on its website. Public Information Notices, for example, which were released at the conclusion of Article IV consultations with about 80 percent of member countries in 1999-2000, summarize the Executive Board discussion and provide background to the consultation. Letters of intent are also released by the governments concerned in about 80 percent of program cases. In April 1999, the Executive Board initiated a pilot project for the voluntary release of Article IV staff reports, and about 60 countries agreed to such release over the following 18 months. In November 2000, the pilot was replaced by a publication policy providing for voluntary release (that is, subject to the agreement of the country concerned) of both Article IV consultation papers and papers on members' use of IMF resources. In July 2004, the policy was revised to introduce the presumption that these papers would be released on a voluntary basis.
The accountability of the IMF, to its member governments and to the broader public, has been enhanced in recent years through external evaluations by outside experts of its policies and activities. Published external evaluations include assessments of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (which was replaced in 1999 by the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility), its surveillance of members' economies, and IMF economic research activities. An Independent Evaluation Office was established in 2001, and released three evaluation reports during 2002-03.
While increasing the transparency of the IMF, the Executive Board is also keenly aware of the need to preserve the IMF's role as a confidential advisor to its members, which continues to be an essential part of its role.
Involving the private sector in crisis prevention and resolution
By far the greater part of international financial flows are private flows. This points to the importance of the role that the private sector can play in helping to prevent and resolve financial crises. Crises may be prevented, and the volatility of private flows reduced, by improved risk assessment and closer and more frequent dialogue between countries and private investors. Such dialogue can also foster greater private sector involvement in the resolution of crises when they do occur, including through the restructuring of private debt.
Both creditors and debtors can benefit from such dialogue. And the involvement of the private sector in crisis prevention and resolution should also help to limit "moral hazard"—that is, the possibility that the private sector may be attracted to engage in risky lending if it is confident that potential losses will be limited by official rescue operations, including by the IMF. The IMF itself is also strengthening its dialogue with market participants, for example through the establishment of the Capital Markets Consultative Group, which met for the first time in September 2000. The Group provides a forum for regular communication between international capital market participants and IMF management and senior staff on matters of common interest, including world economic and market developments and measures to strengthen the global financial system. But the Group does not discuss confidential matters related to particular countries.
When crises do occur, IMF-supported programs are expected to be able, in most cases, to restore stability through their mix of official financing, policy adjustments, and associated gains in confidence among private investors. In certain cases, however, such actions as coordinated debt restructuring by private creditors may be needed. IMF members have agreed on some principles to guide the involvement of the private sector in crisis resolution. These principles, however, require further development, and they will need to be applied flexibly in individual country cases.
Collaborating with other institutions
The IMF collaborates actively with the World Bank, the regional development banks, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations agencies, and other international bodies. Each of these institutions has its area of specialization and its particular contribution to make to the world economy. The IMF's collaboration with the World Bank on poverty reduction is especially close because the Bank rather than the IMF has the expertise to help countries improve their social policies (see next section).
Other areas in which the IMF and World Bank are working closely include assessments of member countries' financial sectors aimed at pinpointing systemic vulnerabilities, combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the development of standards and codes, and improving the quality, availability, and coverage of data on external debt.
The IMF is also a member of the Financial Stability Forum, which brings together national authorities responsible for financial stability in significant international financial centers, international regulatory and supervisory bodies, committees of central bank experts, and international financial institutions.
A New Approach to Reducing Poverty in Low-Income Countries The IMF is a monetary, not a development, institution, but it has an important role to play in reducing poverty in its member countries: sustainable economic growth, which is essential for cutting poverty, requires sound macroeconomic policies, and these are at the heart of the IMF's mandate.
For many years, the IMF has helped low-income countries implement economic policies that foster growth and raise living standards through its advice, its technical assistance, and its financial support. Between 1986 and 1999, 56 countries with populations totaling 3.2 billion drew on low-interest loans under the Structural Adjustment Facility (SAF) (1986-87) and its successor, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) (1987-89) (see page 27), designed to help the IMF's poorest members in their efforts to achieve stronger economic growth and a sustained improvement in their balance of payments.
These facilities made significant contributions to the development effort in low-income countries, but despite substantial assistance from the IMF and the broad donor community, many of these countries did not achieve the gains needed for lasting poverty reduction.
This prompted an intense reexamination of development and debt strategies in recent years by governments, international organizations, and others. It was agreed that more needed to be done.
At the 1999 joint annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, Ministers from member countries endorsed a new approach. They decided to make country- generated poverty reduction strategies the basis of all IMF and World Bank concessional lending and debt relief. This embodied a more country-driven approach to policy programs than in the past.
The New Approach: a focus on serving the poor
Focused poverty reduction strategies can ensure that the needs of the poor get first priority in the public policy debate, especially when there is broad participation—including elements of civil society—in formulating the strategy. Moreover, poverty reduction strategies can put countries "in the driver's seat" of their own development, with a clearly articulated vision for their future and a systematic plan to achieve their goals. Underlying the new approach are a number of principles, which have guided the development of poverty reduction strategies.These include:
- A comprehensive approach to development and a broad view of poverty are essential.
- Faster economic growth is critical for sustained poverty reduction, and greater participation by the poor can increase a country's growth potential.
- Country "ownership" of the goals, strategy, and direction of development and poverty reduction is vital.
- The development community must work together closely.
- The focus should be clearly on results.
A transformation of the magnitude being sought entails changing institutions so that they are accountable to all, including the poor, and building each country's capacity to respond to the needs of its citizens. Results will come only if there is a long-term commitment by governments and their partners. To help achieve this, participating countries draw up a master plan embodied in a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). This overall plan for reducing poverty makes it easier for the international community-including the IMF-to provide the most effective support possible.
The Roles of the IMF and World Bank
The World Bank and IMF make support available to governments in the development of their strategies, but without directing the outcome. World Bank and IMF management realize that this requires a shift in the organizational cultures and attitude both in these organizations and in partner institutions. This shift is taking place. By coordinating early and maintaining open lines of communication with country authorities—particularly by providing available diagnostic information—the World Bank and IMF can ensure that they help countries in a timely and comprehensive way.
Each institution must focus on its areas of expertise. Thus, World Bank staff take the lead in advising on the social policies involved in poverty reduction, including the necessary diagnostic work. The IMF advises governments in the areas of its traditional mandate, including promoting prudent macroeconomic policies. In areas where the World Bank and the IMF both have expertise—such as fiscal management, budget execution, budget transparency, and tax and customs administration—they coordinate closely.
Because the PRSP provides the context for IMF and World Bank concessional lending and debt relief, the strategies are critical for the two institutions. Participating countries send the final strategy to the Executive Boards of both the IMF and World Bank for endorsement. The Executive Boards of both institutions also receive a World Bank-IMF staff assessment, with an analysis of the strategy and a recommendation on endorsement. The strategies need not be fully in accordance with staff recommendations to be endorsed. This process assures the Executive Boards—and the international community—that the strategies, while perhaps attracting broad domestic support, also address difficult or divisive issues in an effective way.
Formulating Poverty Reduction Strategies
The objective of drawing up a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is to strengthen basic principles of country ownership, comprehensive development, and broad public participation. While there is no template for this, there are a number of core elements that are likely to be common to all strategies.
Diagnosing obstacles to poverty reduction and growth: A poverty reduction strategy could begin by using existing data to describe who the poor are and where they live, and by identifying areas where data need to be strengthened. Building on this description, the poverty reduction strategy could analyze the macroeconomic, social, and institutional impediments to faster growth and poverty reduction.
Policies and objectives: In light of a deeper understanding of poverty and its causes, the PRSP can then identify medium- and long-term targets for the country's poverty reduction strategy and set out the macroeconomic, structural, and social policies to achieve them.
Tracking progress :To understand better the link between policies and outcomes, a poverty reduction strategy should include a framework for monitoring progress and mechanisms to share this information with a country's development partners.
External assistance: A strategy can also improve the effectiveness and efficiency of external assistance by identifying the amount of financial and technical support required to implement the strategy. It could also assess the potential poverty impact of both higher and lower assistance commitments, including actual savings from debt relief.
Participatory process: A strategy may describe the format, frequency, and location of consultations; a summary of the main issues raised and the views of participants; an account of the impact of consultations on design of the strategy; and a discussion of the role of civil society in future monitoring and implementation
Reducing Debt Burdens
In 1996, the World Bank and the IMF unveiled the HIPC Initiative to reduce the debt burdens of the world's poorest countries. This initiative was viewed as a means of helping the countries concerned achieve economic growth and reduce poverty.
While a number of countries qualified for the initiative—and debt relief in nominal terms totaling more than $6 billion had been committed to seven countries by September 1999—concern grew that the initiative did not go far enough, or fast enough.
Consequently, when the new approach to poverty reduction was introduced in 1999, the initiative was enhanced to provide:
- broader and deeper debt relief, through lower debt targets. For example, the number of countries eligible for debt relief under the enhanced HIPC Initiative is 38, compared with 29 formerly.
- faster debt relief, through financing at an earlier stage of the policy program to free up resources for poverty-reducing spending, such as on health and education.
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of the United Nations
Dr Khalil Hussein
Professor at faculty of law at Lebanese university
Director of studies at Lebanese Parliament
Coordination of Specialized Agencies.
The Charter authorizes the Economic and Social Council, established by inter-governmental agreement and having wide international responsibilities, to "coordinate the activities of specialized agencies."
By special agreement many of these agencies have been brought into relationship with the United Nations.These agreements provide for reciprocal representation of the United Nations and each specialized agency; proposal of agenda items; membership in the specialized agency; exchange of information and documents; assistance to the Security and Trusteeship Councils; personnel arrangements; budgetary and financial arrangements; financing of special services; relations to the International Court of Justice; Public Information; Liaison.
A standing committee of administrative officers, consisting of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the corresponding officers of the specialized agencies that have been brought into relationship with the United Nations, was instituted by an Economic and Social Council resolution of September 21, 1946, to insure the fullest and most effective implementation of the agreements entered into between the United Nations and the specialized agencies.
International Labour Organization
(ILO)
The International Labour Organization was created in 1919, at the end of the First World War, at the time of the Peace Conference which convened first in Paris, then at Versailles. The need for such an organization had been advocated in the nineteenth century by two industrialists, Robert Owen (1771-1853) of Wales and Daniel Legrand (1783-1859) of France.
After having been put to the test within the International Association for Labour Legislation, founded in Basel in 1901, their ideas were incorporated into the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, adopted by the Peace Conference in April of 1919.
The initial motivation was humanitarian. The condition of workers, more and more numerous and exploited with no consideration for their health, their family lives and their advancement, was less and less acceptable. This preoccupation appears clearly in the Preamble of the Constitution of the ILO, where it is stated, "conditions of labour exist involving ... injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people. "
The second motivation was political. Without an improvement in their condition, the workers, whose numbers were ever increasing as a result of industrialization, would create social unrest, even revolution. The Preamble notes that injustice produces "unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled."
The third motivation was economic. Because of its inevitable effect on the cost of production, any industry or country adopting social reform would find itself at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its competitors. The Preamble states that "the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries."
Another reason for the creation of the International Labour Organization was added by the participants of the Peace Conference, linked to the end of the war to which workers had contributed significantly both on the battlefield and in industry. This idea appears at the very beginning of the Constitution: "universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice."
The ILO Constitution was written between January and April, 1919, by the Labour Commission set up by the Peace Conference. The Commission was composed of representatives from nine countries, Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, under the chairmanship of Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL). It resulted in a tripartite organization, the only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies. The ILO Constitution became Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles
Structure of the ILO
The ILO accomplishes its work through three main bodies, all of which encompass the unique feature of the Organization: its tripartite structure (government, employers, workers).
- International Labour Conference: The member States of the ILO meet at the International Labour Conference in June of each year, in Geneva. Each member State is represented by two government delegates, an employer delegate and a worker delegate. They are accompanied by technical advisors. It is generally the Cabinet Ministers responsible for labour affairs in their own countries who head the delegations, take the floor and present their governments' points of view.
- Employer and worker delegates can express themselves and vote according to instructions received from their organizations. They sometimes vote against each other or even against their government representatives.
The Conference plays a very important role. It establishes and adopts international labour standards. It acts as a forum where social and labour questions of importance to the entire world are discussed. The Conference also adopts the budget of the Organization and elects the Governing Body.
- The Governing Body is the executive council of the ILO and meets three times a year in Geneva. It takes decisions on ILO's policy. It establishes the programme and the budget which it then submits to the Conference for adoption. It also elects the Director-General.
It is composed of 28 government members, 14 employer members and 14 worker members. Ten of the government seats are permanently held by States of chief industrial importance. Representatives of other member countries are elected at the Conference every three years, taking into account geographical distribution. The employers and workers elect their own representatives respectively.
3. The International Labour Office is the permanent secretariat of the International Labour Organization and focal point for the overall activities that it prepares under the scrutiny of the Governing Body and under the leadership of a Director-General, who is elected for a five-year renewable term. The Office employs some 1,900 officials of over 110 nationalities at the Geneva headquarters and in 40 field offices around the world. In addition, some 600 experts undertake missions in all regions of the world under the programme of technical cooperation. The Office also constitutes a research and documentation centre and a printing house issuing a broad range of specialized studies, reports and periodicals
The Strategic Objectives of the ILO
"In an uncertain world, an organization must have a clear sense of its objectives and strategies. Tactics and specific activities may have to be adjusted quickly to meet changing circumstances, but this should be done with a clear sense of purpose. The organizing theme for the period 2002-05 is putting the decent work agenda into practice."
- Promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work.
- Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income.
- Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all.
- Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue.
- Cross-cutting activities.
World Health Organization
(WHO)
World Health Organization (WHO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters in Geneva. WHO was established in 1948. According to its constitution it is “the directing and coordinating authority on international health work” and is responsible for helping all peoples to attain “the highest possible levels of health.”
The services of the agency may be either advisory or technical. Advisory services include aid in training medical personnel and in disseminating knowledge of diseases such as influenza, malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, venereal diseases, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); maternal and child health; nutrition; population planning; and environmental sanitation. The agency maintains health-demonstration areas for sustained application of modern techniques to improve general health conditions and to combat specific diseases interfering with agricultural productivity and overall economic development. The technical services include biological standardization and unification of pharmacopoeias, collection and dissemination of epidemiological information, special international research projects on parasitic and viral diseases, and publication of a series of technical and scientific works.
The central structure of WHO includes the policymaking body called the World Health Assembly, which consists of delegates of all member nations and meets yearly; an executive board of 31 individuals elected by the assembly; and a secretariat, consisting of a director-general and a technical and administrative staff. The agency maintains regional organizations for Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean area, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the western Pacific area.
The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from all 192 Member States. Its main function is to determine the policies of the Organization. The Health Assembly appoints the Director-General, supervises the financial policies of the Organization, and reviews and approves the Proposed programme budget. It similarly considers reports of the Executive Board, which it instructs in regard to matters upon which further action, study, investigation or report may be required.
The Executive Board is composed of 32 members technically qualified in the field of health. Members are elected for three-year terms. The main Board meeting, at which the agenda for the forthcoming Health Assembly is agreed upon and resolutions for forwarding to the Health Assembly are adopted, is held in January, with a second shorter meeting in May, immediately after the Health Assembly, for more administrative matters. The main functions of the Board are to give effect to the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly, to advise it and generally to facilitate its work.
The Secretariat of WHO is staffed by some 3500 health and other experts and support staff on fixed-term appointments, working at headquarters, in the six regional offices, and in countries.
The Organization is headed by the Director-General, who is appointed by the Health Assembly on the nomination of the Executive Board. The current Director-General is LEE Jong-wook.
Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO)
international agency established by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1966 to help developing nations build strong economies by creating a solid industrial base. The organization offers technical assistance, fosters international industrial partnerships, and funds projects that aid the efforts of emerging nations to achieve long-term prosperity. UNIDO projects include initiatives to privatize ownership of businesses in developing nations and to assist efforts by former Communist countries in Eastern Europe to reduce industrial pollution. UNIDO has headquarters in New York City and Geneva, Switzerland. It receives contributions from 168 member nations.
Like many other international aid and development organizations, UNIDO experienced pressure to reform its operations in the 1990s. From 1993 to 1996, UNIDO cut its staff from 1250 employees to 800. The organization reduced its budget from $131 million in 1995 to $90 million in 1996. Most of the cuts occurred in administration, rather than in field programs. As a consequence of the reform effort, UNIDO now places special emphasis on the world’s very poorest nations, especially those in Africa. It also focuses on industries related to agriculture, food, clothing, and shelter.
Despite UNIDO’s reform efforts, the United States withdrew from the organization at the end of 1996, citing federal cutbacks in foreign aid expenditures and a lack of commitment to the agency from some members of the U.S. Congress. In 1996, Britain and Australia also announced plans to withdraw from UNIDO. Critics in the United States and Britain concede that UNIDO has made substantial progress in meeting the reform goals of member nations. The decision of both countries to withdraw from the organization instead reflects domestic political considerations and the desire to send a message to the UN about the need for further reform of its operations. Critics also argue that at least two other UN organizations—the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) — focus on development in impoverished nations. Because the United States and Britain contributed one-third of the organization’s budget, their withdrawals have raised questions about UNIDO’s ability to survive.
Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO)
United Nations (FAO), is a specialized United Nations agency whose main goal is to afford freedom from hunger on a world scale. According to its constitution, the specific objectives are “raising levels of nutrition and standards of living ...and securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products ....”
The FAO originated at a conference called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hot Springs, Virginia, in May 1943. The 34 nations represented established the UN Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. In October 1945 the first session of the FAO was held in Québec.
Structure
At present the organization has 161 members; it is headed by a director general. Each member nation has one vote in the general conference, the policymaking body that convenes once every two years to approve programs, budgets, and rules of procedure, as well as to make recommendations on agricultural questions. The 49-member FAO council meets between conference sessions to monitor the world food situation and suggest necessary action. The council's committees deal with problems on agriculture, commodities, forestry, and fisheries. The third organ, the secretariat, is responsible for implementing FAO programs. Main headquarters is in Rome.
Activities
Functions of the FAO include collecting, analyzing, and distributing information about nutrition, food, and agriculture; fostering conservation of natural resources; and promoting both adequate national and international agricultural-credit policies and international agricultural-commodity arrangements. Among its projects are the development of basic soil and water resources; the international exchange of new types of plants; the control of animal and plant diseases; and the provision to needy member nations of technical assistance in such fields as nutrition, food preservation, irrigation, soil conservation, and reforestation. In recent years, the FAO has worked to develop new plant mutations by using radioactive materials, to aid developing nations in cultivating fast-growing varieties of crops such as rice and wheat, and to establish monitoring networks to warn of possible food shortages (such as the current potential for widespread starvation in Africa).
In 1974 the FAO helped organize the World Food Conference, held in Rome, which considered the critical problem of maintaining adequate food supplies. On the recommendation of the conference, the FAO expanded its information-gathering services to facilitate improved worldwide food security.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), specialized United Nations agency, formally established in December 1977. The agreement creating IFAD was an outgrowth of the World Food Conference held in Rome in 1974. IFAD's major function is to lend money to help developing nations improve their food production, reduce malnutrition, and provide agricultural employment. Resources are channeled to the poorest rural populations. In 2001 the fund had 162 members. It is directed by a governing council, on which all members are represented, and administered by an 18-member executive board. IFAD headquarters is in Rome.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. The Conference was organized in response to the food crises of the early 1970s that primarily affected the Sahelian countries of Africa. The Conference resolved that "an International Fund for Agricultural Development should be established immediately to finance agricultural development projects primarily for food production in the developing countries". One of the most important insights emerging from the Conference was that the causes of food insecurity and famine were not so much failures in food production, but structural problems relating to poverty and to the fact that the majority of the developing world’s poor populations were concentrated in rural areas.
IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poorest people – 900 million women, children and men – live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods.
Working with rural poor people, governments, donors, non-governmental organizations and many other partners, IFAD focuses on country-specific solutions, which can involve increasing rural poor peoples’ access to financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources.
IFAD Strategic
IFAD’s activities are guided by the Strategi Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Their Poverty. The framework’s three strategic objectives are to:
- strengthen the capacity of the rural poor and their organizations
- improve equitable access to productive natural resources and technologies
- increase access by the poor to financial services and markets
Underlying these strategic objectives is IFAD’s belief that rural poor people must be empowered to lead their own development if poverty is to be eradicated. Poor people must be able to develop and strengthen their own organizations, so they can advance their own interests and dismantle the obstacles that prevent many of them from creating better lives for themselves. They must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, and they need to strengthen their bargaining power in the marketplace.
All of IFAD’s decisions – on regional, country and thematic strategies, poverty reduction strategies, policy dialogue and development partners – are made with these principles and objectives in mind. As reflected in the strategic framework, IFAD is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve the proportion of hungry and extremely poor people by 2015.
Working in partnership to eradicate rural poverty
Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD works with governments to develop and finance programmes and projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves.
There are close to 200 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totaling US$ 6.5 billion. IFAD has invested almost US$ 3 billion in these initiatives. At full development, these programmes will help more than 100 million rural poor women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$ 8.5 billion in 676 projects and programmes that have reached more than 250 million poor rural people.
But this represents only part of the total investment in IFAD projects and programmes. In the past 26 years, a further US$ 15.2 billion in cofinancing was contributed by partners. Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries have contributed more than US$ 8.4 billion, while another US$ 6.8 billion has been contributed by external cofinanciers, including from bilateral and multilateral donors. This represents a total investment of about US$ 23.7 billion, and means that for every dollar IFAD invested, it was able to mobilize almost two dollars in additional resources.
IFAD tackles poverty not only as a lender, but also as an advocate for rural poor people. Its multilateral base provides a natural global platform to discuss important policy issues that influence the lives of rural poor people, as well as to draw attention to the centrality of rural development to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
IFAD Membership
Membership in IFAD is open to any state that is a member of the United Nations or its specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Governing Council is IFAD’s highest decision-making authority, with 164 Member States represented by Governors, Alternate Governors and any other designated advisers. The Council meets annually. The Executive Board, responsible for overseeing the general operations of IFAD and approving loans and grants, is composed of 18 members and 18 alternate members. The President, who serves for a four-year term (renewable once), is IFAD’s chief executive officer and chair of the Executive Board. The current President of IFAD is Mr Lennart Båge, who is serving his first four-year term.
International Telecommunication Union
(ITU)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), specialized United Nations agency, originally formed in Paris in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union. In 1934 the ITU was established to succeed all previous agencies in the telecommunications field, and in 1947 it became affiliated with the UN. The ITU has no permanent constitution, but its existence is renewed periodically by agreement among the members.
The objectives of the ITU are to maintain and extend international cooperation for the improvement and rational use of telecommunications of all kinds; to promote the development and efficient operation of technical facilities in order to improve telecommunication services, increase their usefulness, and make them generally available to the public; and to coordinate the actions of nations so they may attain these goals. Special concerns include the problems and opportunities arising from space telecommunications and the improvement of telecommunications in developing member nations.
The ITU is composed of 162 member states and has its headquarters in Geneva. The principal organ of the union is the plenipotentiary conference, which normally meets once every five years. The conference elects a 41-member administrative council that meets once a year to approve the ITU budget and to coordinate the work of the other organs of the union. These organs are the General Secretariat, the International Frequency Registration Board, the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, and the International Radio Consultative Committee. World and regional administrative conferences are held occasionally to deal with technical questions.
Purposes
Every time someone, somewhere, picks up a telephone and dials a number, answers a call on a mobile phone, sends a fax or receives an e-mail, takes a plane or a ship, listens to the radio, watches a favourite television programme or helps a small child master the latest radio-controlled toy, they benefit from the work of the International Telecommunication Union.
The Union was established last century as an impartial, international organization within which governments and the private sector could work together to coordinate the operation of telecommunication networks and services and advance the development of communications technology. Whilst the organization remains relatively unknown to the general public, ITU’s work over more than one hundred years has helped create a global communications network which now integrates a huge range of technologies, yet remains one of the most reliable man-made systems ever developed.
As the use of telecommunication technology and radioc ommunication - based systems spreads to encompass an ever-wider range of activities, the vital work carried out by ITU is taking on growing importance in the day-to-day lives of people all around the world.
The Union’s standardization activities, which have already helped foster the growth of new technologies such as mobile telephony and the Internet, are now being put to use in defining the building blocks of the emerging global information infrastructure, and designing advanced multimedia systems which deftly handle a mix of voice, data, audio and video signals.
Meanwhile, ITU’s continuing role in managing the radio-frequency spectrum ensures that radio-based systems like cellular phones and pagers, aircraft and maritime navigation systems, scientific research stations, satellite communication systems and radio and television broadcasting all continue to function smoothly and provide reliable wireless services to the world’s inhabitants.
Finally, ITU’s increasingly important role as a catalyst for forging development partnerships between government and private industry is helping bring about rapid improvements in telecommunication infrastructure in the world’s under-developed economies.
Whether in telecommunication development, standards-setting or spectrum sharing, ITU’s consensus-building approach helps governments and the telecommunication industry confront and deal with a broad range of issues which would be difficult to resolve bilaterally.
The result is real-life, workable agreements which benefit not only the telecommunication industry as a whole but, ultimately, telecommunication users everywhere.
Under the Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union, the purposes of ITU are:
- To maintain and extend international cooperation between all its Member States for the improvement and rational use of telecommunications of all kinds
- To promote and enhance participation of entities and organizations in the activities of the Union, and to foster fruitful cooperation and partnership between them and Member States for the fulfilment of the overall objectives embodied in the purposes of the Union
- To promote and offer technical assistance to developing countries in the field of telecommunications, and also to promote the mobilization of the material, human and financial resources needed to improve access to telecommunications services in such countries
- To promote the development of technical facilities and their most efficient operation, with a view to improving the efficiency of telecommunication services, increasing their usefulness and making them, so far as possible, generally available to the public
- To promote the extension of the benefits of new telecommunication technologies to all the world’s inhabitants
- To promote the use of telecommunication services with the objective of facilitating peaceful relations
- To harmonize the actions of Member States and promote fruitful and constructive cooperation and partnership between Member States and Sector Members in the attainment of those ends
- To promote, at the international level, the adoption of a broader approach to the issues of telecommunications in the global information economy and society, by cooperating with other world and regional intergovernmental organizations and those non-governmental organizations concerned with telecommunications.
the Universal Postal Union's
(UPU)
The postal service forms part of the daily life of people all over the world. Even in the digital age, the Post remains, for millions of people, the most accessible means of communication and message delivery available.
The postal services of the Universal Postal Union's 190 member countries form the largest physical distribution network in the world. More than six million postal employees work in over 700 000 postal outlets to ensure that some 430 billion mail items are processed and delivered each year to all corners of the world.
Keeping pace with the changing communications market, Posts are increasingly using new communication and information technologies to move beyond what is traditionally regarded as their core postal business They are meeting higher customer expectations with an expanded range of products and value-added services.
Established in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) with its Headquarters in the Swiss capital Bern, is the second oldest international organisation after the International Telecommunications Union.
With 190 member countries, the UPU is the primary forum for cooperation between postal services and helps to ensure a truly universal network of up-to-date products and services. In this way, the organisation fulfils an advisory, mediating and liaison role, and renders technical assistance where needed. It sets the rules for international mail exchanges and makes recommendations to stimulate growth in mail volumes and to improve the quality of service for customers.
However, as a non-political organisation, it does not interfere in matters that fall within the domestic domain of national postal services. For example, Posts set their own postage rates, decide which and how many postage stamps to issue, and how to manage their postal operations and staff.
By virtue of its mission to develop social, cultural and commercial communication between people through the efficient operation of the postal service, the UPU is called upon to play an important leadership role in promoting the continued revitalisation of postal services.
The UPU today and tomorrow
The same forces affecting the world's Posts - globalization, growing customer expectations, increased competition and progress in communications technologies - have also caused the UPU to review its own mission and role. Although its fundamental mission of developing social, cultural and commercial communication among the people of the world has remained remarkably constant throughout its history, the UPU has seen the need to reshape its structures in order better meet the needs and expectations of its members.
The UPU will continue to work toward the goal of ensuring that all people have affordable and reliable access to postal services. One of its future roles will be to develop and monitor standards for the provision of universal postal service, including such features as access to service, efficiency, customer satisfaction, security and reasonable pricing.
The UPU will also continue to provide technical assistance, training and consultant services in order to improve the quality of the postal service and help implement new systems in developing countries.
The future role of the UPU will be one that is more inclusive of external stakeholders, ensuring that the changing needs of postal customers are addressed effectively. The UPU will therefore increasingly provide a global forum for its members and external partners. In this way, it will remain a vital force in the continued development of postal services.
UPU Mission statement
The mission of the Universal Postal Union is to foster the sustainable development of quality universal, efficient accessible postal services in order to facilitate communication among the people of the world by:
- Guaranteeing the free circulation of postal items through an interconnected single postal territory
- Promoting the adoption of fair and common standards and the application of technology
- Cooperation and interaction among stakeholders
- Facilitating the effective provision of technical cooperation
- Ensuring that the changing needs of customers are addressed
The International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO)
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), specialized technical agency of the United Nations, created as a permanent body on April 4, 1947, for the purpose of promoting the safe and orderly development of civil aviation throughout the world. The agency sets international standards and regulations necessary for the safety, efficiency, and regularity of air transport. The ICAO also serves as a medium for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its member nations, and it provides technical assistance to countries who need help maintaining civil aviation facilities or meeting the global standards set by the ICAO. The ICAO also produces technical publications and special studies.
The agency has been instrumental in improving meteorological services, air traffic control, air-to-ground communications, search and rescue operations, and other measures for safe international flight. It also has done much to simplify customs and immigration procedures and public health regulations related to international air travel. The fight against airplane hijacking and other terrorist attacks and the effects of aircraft noise on the environment also have been of special concern to the ICAO.
The ICAO is composed of 180 member nations that meet once every three years at an assembly. Its executive body in the interim is a council consisting of representatives from 33 member nations who are elected by the assembly on the basis of their relative importance in international air transport and of geographical distribution. The ICAO has its own secretariat, headed by a secretary general appointed by the council, and several permanent technical committees. The agency headquarters is in Montréal.
International Maritime Organization
(IMO)
The International Maritime Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for measures to improve the safety and security of international shipping and to prevent marine pollution from ships. It also is involved in legal matters, including liability and compensation issues and the facilitation of international maritime traffic. It was established by means of a Convention adopted under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva on 17 March 1948 and met for the first time in January 1959. It currently has 164 Member States. IMO's governing body is the Assembly which is made up of all 164 Member States and meets normally once every two years. It adopts the budget for the next biennium together with technical resolutions and recommendations prepared by subsidiary bodies during the previous two years. The Council acts as governing body in between Assembly sessions. It prepares the budget and work programme for the Assembly. The main technical work is carried out by the Maritime Safety, Marine Environment Protection, Legal, Technical Co-operation and Facilitation Committees and a number of sub-committee.
What does IMO do?
When IMO first began operations its chief concern was to develop international treaties and other legislation concerning safety and marine pollution prevention.
By the late 1970s, however, this work had been largely completed, though a number of important instruments were adopted in more recent years. IMO is now concentrating on keeping legislation up to date and ensuring that it is ratified by as many countries as possible. This has been so successful that many Conventions now apply to more than 98% of world merchant shipping tonnage. Currently the emphasis is on trying to ensure that these conventions and other treaties are properly implemented by the countries that have accepted them. The texts of conventions, codes and other instruments adopted by IMO can be found in the section dealing with Publications.
Structure
The Organization consists of an Assembly, a Council and four main Committees: the Maritime Safety Committee; the Marine Environment Protection Committee; the Legal Committee; and the Technical Co-operation Committee. There is also a Facilitation Committee and a number of Sub-Committees support the work of the main technical committees.
Assembly
This is the highest Governing Body of the Organization. It consists of all Member States and it meets once every two years in regular sessions, but may also meet in an extraordinary session if necessary. The Assembly is responsible for approving the work programme, voting the budget and determining the financial arrangements of the Organization. The Assembly also elects the Council.
Council
The Council is elected by the Assembly for two-year terms beginning after each regular session of the Assembly.The Council is the Executive Organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the Organization. Between sessions of the Assembly the Council performs all the functions of the Assembly, except the function of making recommendations to Governments on maritime safety and pollution prevention which is reserved for the Assembly by Article 15(j) of the Convention.
Other functions of the Council are to:
- co-ordinate the activities of the organs of the Organization;
- consider the draft work programme and budget estimates of the Organization and submit them to the Assembly;
- receive reports and proposals of the Committees and other organs and submit them to the Assembly and Member States, with comments and recommendations as appropriate;
- appoint the Secretary-General, subject to the approval of the Assembly;
- enter into agreements or arrangements concerning the relationship of the Organization with other organizations, subject to approval by the Assembly.
Council members
The IMO Convention provides that in electing the Members of the Council the Assembly shall observe the following criteria:
- ten shall be States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services;
- ten shall be other States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade; and
- twenty shall be States not elected under (a) or (b) above which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world.
The Members of the Council elected by the 23rd Assembly for 2004 and 2005 are as follows:
Maritime Safety Committee (MSC)
The MSC is the highest technical body of the Organization. It consists of all Member States. The functions of the Maritime Safety Committee are to “consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with aids to navigation, construction and equipment of vessels, manning from a safety standpoint, rules for the prevention of collisions, handling of dangerous cargoes, maritime safety procedures and requirements, hydrographic information, log-books and navigational records, marine casualty investigations, salvage and rescue and any other matters directly affecting maritime safety”.
The Committee is also required to provide machinery for performing any duties assigned to it by the IMO Convention or any duty within its cope of work which may be assigned to it by or under any international instrument and accepted by the Organization. It also has the responsibility for considering and submitting recommendations and guidelines on safety for possible adoption by the Assembly.
The “expanded MSC” adopts amendments to conventions such as SOLAS and includes all Member States as well as those countries which are Party to conventions such as SOLAS even if they are not IMO Member States.
The Marine Environment Protection Committee
(MEPC)
The MEPC, which consists of all Member States, is empowered to consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with prevention and control of pollution from ships. In particular it is concerned with the adoption and amendment of conventions and other regulations and measures to ensure their enforcement.The MEPC was first established as a subsidiary body of the Assembly and raised to full constitutional status in 1985.
Sub-Committees
The MSC and MEPC are assisted in their work by nine sub-committees which are also open to all Member States. They deal with the following subjects:
Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG),Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers(DSC),Fire Protection (FP),Radio-communications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR),Safety of Navigation (NAV), Ship Design and Equipment (DE), Stability and Load Lines and Fishing Vessels Safety (SLF),Standards of Training and Watch keeping(STW), Flag State Implementation (FSI).
Legal Committee
The Legal Committee is empowered to deal with any legal matters within the scope of the Organization. The Committee consists of all Member States of IMO.
It was established in 1967 as a subsidiary body to deal with legal questions which arose in the aftermath of the Torrey Canyon disaster.The Legal Committee is also empowered to perform any duties within its scope which may be assigned by or under any other international instrument and accepted by the Organization.
Technical Co-operation Committee
The Technical Co-operation Committee is required to consider any matter within the scope of the Organization concerned with the implementation of technical co-operation projects for which the Organization acts as the executing or co-operating agency and any other matters related to the Organization’s activities in the technical co-operation field.
The Technical Co-operation Committee consists of all Member States of IMO, was established in 1969 as a subsidiary body of the Council, and was institutionalized by means of an amendment to the IMO Convention which entered into force in 1984.
Facilitation Committee
The Facilitation Committee is a subsidiary body of the Council. It was established in May 1972 and deals with IMO’s work in eliminating unnecessary formalities and “red tape” in international shipping. Participation in the Facilitation Committee is open to all Member States of IMO.
The 1991 amendments to the IMO Convention, when they come into force, will institutionalise the Facilitation Committee, putting it on the same standing as the other Committees. However, these amendments have not yet received enough acceptances to come into force.
Secretariat
The Secretariat of IMO consists of the Secretary-General and nearly 300 personnel based at the headquarters of the Organization in London.
Regional Co-ordination
IMO has appointed three regional co-ordinators in Africa.
The World Meteorological Organization
(WMO)
The UN system’s authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources.
The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 187 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873. Established in 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.
Since its establishment, WMO has played a unique and powerful role in contributing to the welfare of humanity. Under WMO leadership and within the framework of WMO programmes, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services have contributed substantially to the protection of life and property against natural disasters, to safeguarding the environment and to enhancing the economic and social well-being of all sectors of society in areas such as food security, water resources and transport. It has a unique role within the UN system it facilitates the free and unrestricted exchange of data and information, products and services in real- or near-real time on matters relating to safety and security of society, economic well being and the prevention of the environment.
As weather and climate know no national boundaries, international cooperation at a global scale is essential for the development of meteorology and operational hydrology as well as to reap the benefits from their applications. WMO provides the framework for such international cooperation.
WMO is playing a leading role in international efforts to monitor and protect the environment through its Programmes, such as the World Weather Watch Programme, World Climate Programme, the Atmospheric Research and Environment Programme, and the Hydrology and Water Resources Programme. For instance, in collaboration with the UN agencies and the NMHSs of Members, WMO continues to support the implementation of relevant conventions such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Vienna Convention on the Protection of Ozone Layer and its Protocols and Amendments. WMO is instrumental in providing advice and assessments to governments on matters relating to the above Conventions. These activities contribute towards ensuring the sustainable development and well-being of nations.
In the specific case of weather natural disasters which account for nearly three-quarters of all are such events, WMO’s programmes provide the vital information for the advance warnings that save many lives and reduce damage to property and the environment. Human induced disasters chemistry, nuclear and forest fire . Numerous studies have shown that, apart from the incalculable benefit to human well-being, every dollar invested in meteorological and hydrological services produces an economic return many times greater, often ten times or more.
The vision of the WMO for the Sixth Long-term Plan (2004-2011) is to provide world leadership in expertise and international cooperation in weather, climate, hydrology and water resources, and related environmental issues, and thereby to contribute to the safety and well being of people throughout the world and to the economic benefit of all nations.
WMO Purposes To facilitate world-wide cooperation in the establishment of networks of stations for the making of meteorological as well as hydrological and other geophysical observations related to meteorology, and to promote the establishment and maintenance of centres charged with the provision of meteorological and related services;
- To promote the establishment and maintenance of systems for the rapid exchange of meteorological and related information;- To promote the standardization of meteorological and related observations and to ensure the uniform publication of observations and statistics;
-To further the application of meteorology to aviation, shipping, water problems, agriculture and other human activities;
- To promote activities in operational hydrology and to further close co-operation between Meteorological and Hydrological Services;
- To encourage research and training in meteorology and, as appropriate, in related fields and to assist in coordinating the international aspects of such research and training
WMO Structure
The World Meteorological Congress, the supreme body of the Organization, brings together the delegates of Members once every four years to determine general policies for the fulfilment of the purposes of the Organization, to approve long-term plans, to authorize maxi-mum expenditures for the following financial period, to adopt Technical Regulations relating to international meteorological and operational hydrological practice, to elect the President and Vice-Presidents of the Organization and members of the Executive Council and to appoint the Secretary-General.
The Executive Council, the executive body of the Organization and is responsible to Congress for the coordination of the programmes of the organization and of the utilization of its budgetary resources in accordance with the decision of Congress. composed of 37 directors of National Meteorological or Hydrometeorological Services, meets at least once a year to review the activities of the Organization and to implement the programmes approved by Congress.
The six regional associations (Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South-West Pacific and Europe), composed of Members, coordinate meteorological and related activities within their respective Regions.
The eight technical commissions, composed of experts designated by Members, study matters within their specific areas of competence (technical commissions have been established for basic systems, instruments and methods of observation, atmospheric sciences, aeronautical meteorology, agricultural meteorology, oceanography and marine meteorology jointly with IOC of UNESCO, hydrology, and climatology).
The Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, serves as the administrative, documentation and information centre of the Organization. It prepares, edits, produces and distributes the publications of the Organization, carries out the duties specified in the Convention and other Basic Documents and provides secretariat support to the work of the constituent bodies of WMO described above.
United Nations Educational Scientific &
Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), agency of the United Nations established in 1946 to encourage collaboration among nations in the areas of education, science, culture, and communication. Through such cooperative endeavors, UNESCO hopes to encourage universal respect for justice, laws, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. The organization’s founding statement declares that “peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.”
More than 180 nations belong to UNESCO. The agency has its headquarters in Paris, France, and operates educational, scientific, and cultural programs and exchanges from 60 field offices worldwide. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include international science programs; literacy, technical, and teacher-training programs; regional and cultural history projects; and international cooperation agreements to secure the world’s cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights.
Withdrawlal of the United States and the United Kingdom
In 1984 the United States withdrew from UNESCO. the United Kingdom left the organization in 1985. Together, these two nations accounted for 30 percent of the UNESCO budget. Their decisions to withdraw resulted from concerns about corruption and waste within the agency and a perception of anti-Western bias in its statements and activities.
Criticism of UNESCO in the early 1980s centered on the autocratic management style of the agency’s general director, Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow of Senegal. Excessive spending on consultants, social functions, and projects of dubious merit characterized M’Bow’s tenure. M’Bow also shifted resources from field offices into the Paris headquarters. By 1984 six employees worked in the Paris office for every worker in the field, and 80 percent of the agency’s budget supported administrative expenses in Paris.
At the same time, controversy surrounded UNESCO’s willingness to support efforts by non-Western governments to establish a New World Information and Communications Order (NWICO). Advocates of the NWICO argued that journalists from Western, industrialized nations both dominated and distorted press coverage in developing nations. NWICO reform proposals included requirements that journalists be licensed by national governments and that balance in news coverage be guaranteed. The U.S. government, along with many American journalists, opposed the NWICO. They argued these proposals would result in government control of the press and would destroy international standards of press freedom.
Reform efforts
In the years since the United States and the United Kingdom withdrew from UNESCO the agency has tried to lure these countries back by reforming its operations. In 1987 Spanish biochemist Federico Mayor succeeded M’Bow as director general. Since then, UNESCO has slashed payroll levels by nearly 50 percent and implemented new procedures to control spending and to evaluate programs and personnel. UNESCO has refocused on educational and scientific field projects. The agency has also abandoned its efforts to create a new information order linked to government control of the press. Although the United States and the United Kingdom have not committed to rejoining UNESCO, the prospects for their return have improved significantly since the late 1980s.
A unifying theme
UNESCO contributing to peace and human development in an era of globalization through education, the sciences, culture and communication.
Three main strategic thrusts
- Developing and promoting universal principles and norms, based on shared values, in order to meet emerging challenges in education, science, culture and communication and to protect and strengthen the “common public good” ;
- Promoting pluralism, through recognition and safeguarding of diversity together with the observance of human rights;
- Promoting empowerment and participation in the emerging knowledge society through equitable access, capacity-building and sharing of knowledge.
Twelve strategic objectives
Education
- Promoting education as a fundamental right in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
- Improving the quality of education through the diversification of contents and methods and the promotion of universally shared values ;
- Promoting experimentation, innovation and the diffusion and sharing of information and best practices as well as policy dialogue in education. Sciences
- Promoting principles and ethical norms to guide scientific and technological development and social transformation ;
- Improving human security by better management of the environment and social change
- Enhancing scientific, technical and human capacities to participate in the emerging.
knowledge societies
Culture
- Promoting the drafting and implementation of standard-setting instruments in the cultural field ;
- Safeguarding cultural diversity and encouraging dialogue among cultures and civilizations ;
- Enhancing the linkages between culture and development, through capacity-building and sharing of knowledge.
Communication and Information
- Promoting the free flow of ideas and universal access to information ;
- Promoting the expression of pluralism and cultural diversity in the media and world information networks ;
- Access for all to information and communication technologies, especially in the public domain.
World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO)
Introduction
1. Every fourth year, the Director General is required to present a "plan for the medium term" covering four years following the biennial period for which he presents, at the same time, a draft program and budget. The last such plan was presented to Member States in 1999.
2. The current document presents a Medium-term Plan for WIPO programs and activities highlighting the vision and strategic direction of WIPO for the four-year period from 2006 to 2009 following the 2004-2005 biennium.
Vision
3. The main objectives of the Medium-term Plan, as expressed in the past remain constant: maintenance and further development of the respect for intellectual property throughout the world. This means that any erosion of the existing protection should be prevented, and that both the acquisition of the protection and, once acquired, its enforcement, should be simpler, cheaper and more secure.
4. The objectives mentioned above are mandated by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, Article 3 of which clearly states:
'(i) to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international organization,
'(ii) to ensure administrative cooperation among the Unions.'
5. The 21st Century is a century of many challenges- including bridging the widening knowledge divide, the reduction of poverty, and the attainment of prosperity for all. The success of a country in meeting these challenges will depend upon its ability to develop, utilize and protect its national creativity and innovation. An effective intellectual property (IP) system allied to pro-active policy-making and focused strategic planning, will help such a nation promote and protect its intellectual assets, driving economic growth and wealth creation.
6. In this context, there is a widely recognized need to enhance and develop the objectives stated in the WIPO Convention in order to enable the Organization to better assist Member States in meeting the challenges of the changing world.
7. Thus, WIPO's objective for the new century is the promotion of the effective protection and use of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation with and among Member States and all other stakeholders. This is to be achieved by creating an environment and infrastructure conducive to an enhanced understanding of the contribution of IP to human life through economic, social and cultural development, and, in particular, by assisting developing countries in their capacity building for greater access to, and use of, the IP system. WIPO seeks to continually enhance its role as the leading international organization, and the UN specialized agency, responsible for initiatives in respect of effective international cooperation in the area of IP.
8. It is recalled that, in September 1999, Member States noted with satisfaction the content of document A/34/3 "Vision and Strategic Direction of WIPO," which contained a Medium-term Plan for the period from 2002 to 2005. It is further recalled that the plan listed several priority areas identified by the Organization as being of key importance in responding to the challenges facing Member States. They included demystification, empowerment, collective leadership, synergies, promotion of creative and innovative activity, progressive development and codification of international IP law, global protection systems and services and the global cooperation system. In order to strengthen its effectiveness in responding to the needs of Member States in these and other areas, WIPO has modernized its infrastructure and improved its management, and has also, over the last four years, introduced several new initiatives to deal with the dynamic and rapid evolution of the IP-related environment. Much progress has been made, for example, the demystification campaign, in particular, has heightened understanding among leaders and policy-makers worldwide of the importance of IP as a policy tool for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries.
9. Against this backdrop and to consolidate what has been achieved, it is proposed that the next medium-term plan, for 2006 to 2009, should continue to reflect "the central role of IP as an important tool for social development, economic growth and wealth creation" (document A/38/3). It will also seek to enhance global understanding of IP as "the foundation of human existence and co-existence," [which] "is foreign to no culture and native to all nations" (document A/38/3). Therefore, WIPO's major objective can be said to be making IP "closer to people recognizing the diversity of cultures, origins and systems"
Policy Framework
10. To realize the above, a policy framework will be established on the basis of the principles developed during the current Medium-term Plan. These are:
(a) IP is an important factor in fostering creativity and invention, which are the driving forces in a knowledge-based economy.
(b) Every country should be encouraged to develop an IP culture appropriate to its needs, including a focused national IP strategy, the most suitable national IP system, and the fostering of a nation-wide perception of IP (both at the policy planning and grass-roots levels) as a powerful tool for economic, social and cultural development.
(c) The IP system, including its legal and institutional infrastructure and human resources capacity, should meet national policy objectives. It should also be effective, affordable and easily accessible to all stakeholders, including individuals and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
(d) The IP system should maintain a balance between the interests of the holders of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and those of the public at large. While being mindful of national policy objectives, it should also be consistent with international IP laws and international agreements.
(e) WIPO's global protection systems and services (i.e., the PCT, Madrid, Hague and Lisbon systems) as well as the services of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, should continue to be effective, of high quality, and geared to meeting the needs of users, including innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, particularly SMEs, and academic institutions.
(f) As the specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for IP, WIPO's activities include leadership initiatives in that field with a view to increasing cooperation with other UN bodies and heightening awareness among them as well as among the general public and policy-makers, of the role of IP within the framework of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
(g) WIPO's cooperation with governments and the private sector should be reinforced to enhance technical assistance in favor of developing countries and countries in transition to a market economy. This includes the necessary support in capacity building and the development of appropriate infrastructures, as well as the strengthening of human resources.
(h) Modernization of program, budget and accounting practices will ensure greater openness, transparency and efficiency in the management and implementation of activities.
Strategic Goals
11. In transforming WIPO's vision into reality, strategic goals are set out as follows:
(a) Promotion of an IP culture; on the one hand, to encourage creators and innovators to obtain, use and license IP rights and assets, and, on the other hand, to seek greater respect by the public for IP rights and assets. This will include making resources and expertise available to assist Member States in their own efforts to develop an IP culture through cooperation with governments, intergovernmental organizations and partners in private sectors.
(b) Development of balanced international IP laws which are: responsive to emerging needs; effective in encouraging innovation and creation; and sufficiently flexible to accommodate national policy objectives.
(c) Provision of consistent and customized assistance to Member States in developing national/regional IP systems, including legal infrastructure, institutional framework and human resources.
(d) Enhancement of global protection systems to make them more easily accessible and affordable to all stakeholders, in particular.
(e) Further streamlining of the management and administrative processes within WIPO to intensify efforts to achieve greater efficiency as well as the initiation of improved monitoring and evaluation systems to examine the achievement of expected results.
Operational Principles for the Implementation of Programs
12. In each program area, specific priority-setting guidelines will be provided, based on the following operational principles:
- Program priorities will be established according to WIPO's strategic goals and the needs identified by Member States, as well as WIPO's expertise in delivering such program activities;
- Each program will be designed to ensure sufficient flexibility to respond to the evolving needs of Member States.
- Program activities should be cost-effective and with concrete deliverables;
- Programs will be individually tailored, wherever possible, in consultation with Member States, so as to promote sustainability of the results;
- Cooperation with other institutions will be encouraged, as much as possible, to achieve the greatest cost effectiveness.
Indicators for Program Evaluation
13. Performance indicators included in the draft Program and Budget for the 2004-2005 biennium in respect of all program activities (document WO/PBC/7/2) take into consideration one or more of the following broad indicators, which will be utilized in evaluating the success of WIPO's programs. These concern the impact of the activity on:
- IP policy of Member States;
- integration of IP policy into the cultural-socio-economic policies of Member States;
- enhancement and development, in quantity and quality, of IP rights and assets obtained by nationals in Member States;
- the number of accessions or ratifications, the geographical coverage and the effective use of treaties administered by WIPO;
- number and range of users of WIPO's global protection systems;
- status and functions of IP-related institutions (effective IP offices and copyright collective management societies, competent courts and customs offices for IP enforcement, etc.);
- number of people who benefited under WIPO programs, including government officials, innovators, academic researchers, IP practitioners, etc.
Strategic Deliverables
14. As briefly outlined in the speech made by the Director General on his re-appointment by Member States in May 2003 (document A/38/3), WIPO's activities will be grouped into five areas, each with specific deliverables, as indicated below.
(a) Modernization of Management
- Enhancement of program and budget process and efficient implementation of program activities;
- Consolidation and leveraging of IT-based tools;
- Enhanced efficiency in PCT, Madrid and Hague systems operations.
(b) IP Outreach and Support
- Better understanding of the cultural and social dimension of IP-related issues;
- Development of tools/guidelines to assist in building greater public awareness and understanding of IP and its role and more wide-spread respect for IPRs;
- Enhanced use of IP by SMEs.
(c) Cooperation for Development
- Strengthening of IP's role in the development of national policy (supported with analyses of the economic impact of IP);
- Strengthening of national human resource capabilities, including training of IP professionals (e.g., training of trainers);
- Deployment of online tools for small IP Offices via WIPONET;
- Further development of customized regional/national action plans;
- Continuing assistance in IP Office automation.
(d) IP Issues and Progressive Development and Codification of International IP Law
- Better accessibility to the patent system through the WIPO Patent Agenda, including ongoing work on the draft Substantive Patent Law Treaty;
- Further development of harmonized principles and procedural and substantive aspects of the law of trademarks and industrial designs;
- Responses to new technologies, particularly the implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT);
- Continuation of consultations on broadcasting rights and of negotiations to establish an international instrument for the protection of audiovisual performers;
- Continuation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore with a view to strengthening the framework of protection;
- Use, where necessary, of "soft-law" solutions for certain issues.
(e) Global IP Protection Systems and Services
- Progressive reform of the PCT and implementation of the results;
- Expansion of the Madrid and Hague systems;
- Expansion of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center's services to include a wider range of IP disputes.
15. The draft program and budget for the 2004-2005 biennium (document WO/PBC/7/2) proposes, in detail, activities which are expected to contribute to the realization of such deliverables and the process to be taken to implement them. Political imagination, goodwill and collaboration among Member States, the private sector and the Secretariat are key elements in the success of WIPO's mission and realization of its vision.
International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA)
On Dec. 8, 1953, President Eisenhower, speaking to the UN General Assembly, called for the creation of a world organization to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In 1954 interested nations began to work on a preliminary constitution for the Agency which was submitted to a conference convened in New York in September 1956. To it all member states of the United Nations and of the Specialized Agencies were invited; 81 attended and after considering many proposals for amendment approved unanimously the Statute of the IAEA on Oct. 26, 1956. In the period allowed for signature, 80 governments signed. The Statute was to come into force upon the deposit of ratifications by 18 states including at least three from the following: Canada, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A preparatory commission was set up to make arrangements for the first General Conference. Vienna was chosen as the Agency's headquarters. The Statute entered into force on July 29, 1957.
The object of the Agency is "to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world." To this end it may serve as an intermediary in securing services or supplying materials, equipment, or facilities; it may have its own materials and develop its own services, equipment, and facilities; it may foster the exchange of information and encourage the training of experts; it may develop safeguards to ensure that its program is not used for other than peaceful purposes and may formulate standards to safeguard health and property. The Agency may thus have its own program for research and production. It may serve as a world bank of basic nuclear fuels with storage facilities so arranged as to prevent extensive stockpiling in any one area of the world. It may have its own inspectors with access to all persons, places, and data involved in agency-assisted projects.
The Agency has a General Conference and a Board of Governors. The General Conference is composed of all members, each with one vote, and meets in regular annual sessions. The Board is selected by a somewhat complicated formula based on the division of the world into eight geographical areas. It will include the five members who are most advanced in the technology of atomic energy, and the most advanced member from each of the areas not already represented among the five; two members chosen by the outgoing Board from a designated list of producers of source materials, and one so chosen representing a supplier of technical assistance; and ten members elected by the General Conference, five each year for a two-year term, with the requirement that each of the regions except North America must be represented in this group. The Board so constituted includes at present 23 members, each with one vote. It controls its own time of meeting. Decisions in both bodies are by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting in regard to certain designated matters, and by a majority of those present and voting in all other matters including additions to the former category. New members of the Agency may be admitted by the General Conference on the recommendation of the Board of Governors if they are believed able and willing to carry out the obligations of membership. A permanent staff of qualified personnel necessary to fulfill the objectives and functions of the Agency is headed by a Director-General appointed by the Board with the approval of the General Conference for a term of four years.
The first General Conference met in Vienna Oct. 1-23, 1957. W. Sterling Cole of the United States was named the first Director-General. A member of the United States Congress for 23 years, he had been on the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy since its establishment. He was a member of the delegation of the United States to the conference which adopted the Statute. The United States has made 5,000 kg of fissionable material available to the Agency with an additional promise to match contributions of other countries until July 1960. Russian attempts to obtain some status for the Communist governments of China and East Germany failed.
International Atomic Energy Agency
Following nearly four years of effort and planning, the International Atomic Energy Agency became a reality on July 29, when the required number of ratification documents had been deposited in Washington. The first annual meeting of the Agency's General Conference convened in Vienna on October 1, and among its priority decisions it approved a draft agreement governing the Agency's relationship with the United Nations. On November 14, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously approved this relationship agreement.
The IAEA, under the aegis of the United Nations, is responsible for international activities concerned with the peaceful uses of atomic energy, without prejudice to the rights and responsibilities of the United Nations in this field under the Charter. The IAEA undertakes to conduct its activities in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter to promote peace and international co-operation, and in conformity with United Nations policies furthering the establishment of safeguarded worldwide disarmament. The agreement specifies that the Agency will keep the United Nations informed of its activities by annual reports to the General Assembly and, as appropriate, reports to the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. The UN Secretary-General will report, as appropriate, on the common activities of the United Nations and the Agency. Each organization is to make available to the other such information and special studies as may be requested. The United Nations-IAEA agreement provides that the Agency may propose items for consideration by the United Nations, and that the United Nations may propose items for consideration by the Agency. Agency and United Nations Secretariat staffs will maintain a close working relationship in accordance with arrangements to be agreed upon.
International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or World Bank, specialized United Nations agency established at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. A related institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was created at the same time. The chief objectives of the bank, as stated in the articles of agreement, are “to assist in the reconstruction and development of territories of members by facilitating the investment of capital for productive purposes and to promote private foreign investment by means of guarantees or participation in loans[and to supplement private investment by providing, on suitable conditions, finance for productive purposes out of its own capital…”
The bank grants loans only to member nations, for the purpose of financing specific projects. Before a nation can secure a loan, advisers and experts representing the bank must determine that the prospective borrower can meet conditions stipulated by the bank. Most of these conditions are designed to ensure that loans will be used productively and that they will be repaid. The bank requires that the borrower be unable to secure a loan for the particular project from any other source on reasonable terms and that the prospective project be technically feasible and economically sound. To ensure repayment, member governments must guarantee loans made to private concerns within their territories. After the loan has been made, the bank requires periodic reports both from the borrower and from its own observers on the use of the loan and on the progress of the project.
In the early period of the World Bank's existence, loans were granted chiefly to European countries and were used for the reconstruction of industries damaged or destroyed during World War II. Since the late 1960s, however, most loans have been granted to economically developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the 1980s the bank gave particular attention to projects that could directly benefit the poorest people in developing nations by helping them to raise their productivity and to gain access to such necessities as safe water and waste-disposal facilities, health care, family-planning assistance, nutrition, education, and housing. Direct involvement of the poorest people in economic activity was being promoted by providing loans for agriculture and rural development, small-scale enterprises, and urban development. The bank also was expanding its assistance to energy development and ecological concerns.
Sources of Funds
Subscriptions to, or purchase of, capital shares are worth SDR 100,000 (about $120,000) each. The minimum number of shares that a member nation must purchase varies according to the relative strength of its national economy. Not all the funds subscribed are immediately available to the bank; only about 8.5 percent of the capital subscription of each member nation actually is paid into the bank (a total of $7.3 billion in mid-1987). The remainder is to be deposited only if, and to the extent that, the bank calls for the money in order to pay its own obligations to creditors. There has never been a need to call in capital. The bank's working funds are derived from sales of its interest-bearing bonds and notes in capital markets of the world, from repayment of earlier loans, and from profits on its own operations. It has earned profits every year since 1947.
All powers of the bank are vested in a board of governors, comprising one governor appointed by each member nation. The board meets at least once annually. The governors delegate most of their powers to 24 executive directors, who meet regularly at the central headquarters of the bank in Washington, D.C. Five of the executive directors are appointed by the five member states that hold the largest number of capital shares in the bank. The remaining 19 directors are elected by the governors from the other member nations and serve 2-year terms. The executive directors are headed by the president of the World Bank, whom they elect for a 5-year term, and who must be neither a governor nor a director. The bank currently has 183 members.
Affiliates
The bank has two affiliates: the International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956; and the International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960. Membership in the bank is a prerequisite for membership in either the IFC or the IDA. All three institutions share the same president and boards of governors and executive directors.
IDA is the bank's concessionary lending affiliate, designed to provide development finance for those countries that do not qualify for loans at market-based interest rates. IDA soft loans, or “credits,” are longer term than those of the bank and bear no interest; only an annual service charge of 0.75 percent is made. The IDA depends for its funds on subscriptions from its most prosperous members and on transfers of income from the bank. The IDA had 161 members in 2001.
All three institutions are legally and financially separate, but the bank and IDA share the same staff; IFC, with 174 members, has its own operating and legal staff, but uses administrative and other services of the bank. Membership in the International Monetary Fund is a prerequisite for membership in the World Bank and its affiliates.
The International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
The International Monetary Fund was established by international treaty in 1945 to help promote the health of the world economy. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it is governed by its almost global membership of 184 countries. The IMF is the central institution of the international monetary system—the system of international payments and exchange rates among national currencies that enables business to take place between countries.It aims to prevent crises in the system by encouraging countries to adopt sound economic policies; it is also—as its name suggests—a fund that can be tapped by members needing temporary financing to address balance of payments problems.
The IMF works for global prosperity by promoting
- the balanced expansion of world trade,
- stability of exchange rates,
- avoidance of competitive devaluations, and orderly correction of balance of payments problems
The IMF's statutory purposes include promoting the balanced expansion of world trade, the stability of exchange rates, the avoidance of competitive currency devaluations, and the orderly correction of a country's balance of payments problems. To serve these purposes, the IMF:
- monitors economic and financial developments and policies, in member countries and at the global level, and gives policy advice to its members based on its more than fifty years of experience.
- lends to member countries with balance of payments problems, not just to provide temporary financing but to support adjustment and reform policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems.
- provides the governments and central banks of its member countries with technical assistance and training in its areas of expertise.
As the only international agency whose mandated activities involve active dialogue with virtually every country on economic policies, the IMF is the principal forum for discussing not only national economic policies in a global context, but also issues important to the stability of the international monetary and financial system. These include countries' choice of exchange rate arrangements, the avoidance of destabilizing international capital flows, and the design of internationally recognized standards and codes for policies and institutions.
By working to strengthen the international financial system and to accelerate progress toward reducing poverty, as well as promoting sound economic policies among all its member countries, the IMF is helping to make globalization work for the benefit of all.
The Origins of the IMF
The IMF was conceived in July 1944 at an international conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, U.S.A., when delegates from 44 governments agreed on a framework for economic cooperation partly designed to avoid a repetition of the disastrous economic policies that had contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
During that decade, as economic activity in the major industrial countries weakened, countries attempted to defend their economies by increasing restrictions on imports; but this just worsened the downward spiral in world trade, output, and employment. To conserve dwindling reserves of gold and foreign exchange, some countries curtailed their citizens' freedom to buy abroad, some devalued their currencies, and some introduced complicated restrictions on their citizens' freedom to hold foreign exchange. These fixes, however, also proved self-defeating, and no country was able to maintain its competitive edge for long. Such "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies devastated the international economy; world trade declined sharply, as did employment and living standards in many countries.
As World War II came to a close, the leading allied countries considered various plans to restore order to international monetary relations, and at the Bretton Woods conference the IMF emerged. The country representatives drew up the charter (or Articles of Agreement) of an international institution to oversee the international monetary system and to promote both the elimination of exchange restrictions relating to trade in goods and services, and the stability of exchange rates.The IMF came into existence in December 1945, when the first 29 countries signed its Articles of Agreement.
The statutory purposes of the IMF today are the same as when they were formulated in 1944 Since then, the world has experienced unprecedented growth in real incomes. And although the benefits of growth have not flowed equally to all—either within or among nations—most countries have seen increases in prosperity that contrast starkly with the interwar period, in particular. Part of the explanation lies in improvements in the conduct of economic policy, including policies that have encouraged the growth of international trade and helped smooth the economic cycle of boom and bust. The IMF is proud to have contributed to these developments.
In the decades since World War II, apart from rising prosperity, the world economy and monetary system have undergone other major changes-changes that have increased the importance and relevance of the purposes served by the IMF, but that have also required the IMF to adapt and reform. Rapid advances in technology and communications have contributed to the increasing international integration of markets and to closer linkages among national economies. As a result, financial crises, when they erupt, now tend to spread more rapidly among countries.
The IMF's purposes have also become more important simply because of the expansion of its membership. The number of IMF member countries has more than quadrupled from the 44 states involved in its establishment, reflecting in particular the attainment of political independence by many developing countries and more recently the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
The IMF's Purposes
The purposes of the International Monetary Fund are:
- To promote international monetary cooperation through a permanent institution which provides the machinery for consultation and collaboration on international monetary problems.
- To facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income and to the development of the productive resources of all members as primary objectives of economic policy.
- To promote exchange stability, to maintain orderly exchange arrangements among members, and to avoid competitive exchange depreciation.
- To assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments in respect of current transactions between members and in the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions which hamper the growth of world trade.
- To give confidence to members by making the general resources of the Fund temporarily available to them under adequate safeguards, thus providing them with opportunity to correct maladjustments in their balance of payments without resorting to measures destructive of national or international prosperity.
- In accordance with the above, to shorten the duration and lessen the degree of disequilibrium in the international balances of payments of members.
IMF members have been free to choose any form of exchange arrangement they wish (except pegging their currency to gold): some now allow their currency to float freely, some peg their currency to another currency or a group of currencies, some have adopted the currency of another country as their own, and some participate in currency blocs.
At the same time as the IMF was created, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), more commonly known as the World Bank, was set up to promote long-term economic development, including through the financing of infrastructure projects, such as road-building and improving water supply.
The IMF and the World Bank Group—which includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Development Association (IDA)—complement each other's work. While the IMF's focus is chiefly on macroeconomic performance, and on macroeconomic and financial sector policies, the World Bank is concerned mainly with longer-term development and poverty reduction issues. Its activities include lending to developing countries and countries in transition to finance infrastructure projects, the reform of particular sectors of the economy, and broader structural reforms. The IMF, in contrast, provides financing not for particular sectors or projects but for general support of a country's balance of payments and international reserves while the country takes policy action to address its difficulties.
When the IMF and World Bank were established, an organization to promote world trade liberalization was also contemplated, but it was not until 1995 that the World Trade Organization was set up. In the intervening years, trade issues were tackled through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Decisions at the IMF
The IMF is accountable to its member countries, and this accountability is essential to its effectiveness. The day-today work of the IMF is carried out by an Executive Board, representing the IMF's 184 members, and an internationally recruited staff under the leadership of a Managing Director and three Deputy Managing Directors—each member of this management team being drawn from a different region of the world. The powers of the Executive Board to conduct the business of the IMF are delegated to it by the Board of Governors, which is where ultimate oversight rests.
The Board of Governors, on which all member countries are represented, is the highest authority governing the IMF. It usually meets once a year, at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Each member country appoints a Governor—usually the country's minister of finance or the governor of its central bank—and an Alternate Governor. The Board of Governors decides on major policy issues but has delegated day-to-day decision-making to the Executive Board.
Key policy issues relating to the international monetary system are considered twice-yearly in a committee of Governors called the International Monetary and Financial Committee, or IMFC (until September 1999 known as the Interim Committee). A joint committee of the Boards of Governors of the IMF and World Bank called the Development Committee advises and reports to the Governors on development policy and other matters of concern to developing countries.
The Executive Board consists of 24 Executive Directors, with the Managing Director as chairman. The Executive Board usually meets three times a week, in full-day sessions, and more often if needed, at the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The IMF's five largest shareholders —the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—along with China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, have their own seats on the Board. The other 16 Executive Directors are elected for two-year terms by groups of countries, known as constituencies.
The Executive Board selects the Managing Director, who besides serving as the chairman of the Board, is the chief of the IMF staff and conducts the business of the IMF under the direction of the Executive Board. Appointed for a renewable five-year term, the Managing Director is assisted by a First Deputy Managing Director and two other Deputy Managing Directors.
IMF employees are international civil servants whose responsibility is to the IMF, not to national authorities. The organization has about 2,800 employees recruited from 141 countries. About two-thirds of its professional staff are economists. The IMF's 26 departments and offices are headed by directors, who report to the Managing Director. Most staff work in Washington, although about 90 resident representatives are posted in member countries to help advise on economic policy. The IMF maintains offices in Paris and Tokyo for liaison with other international and regional institutions, and with organizations of civil society; it also has offices in New York and Geneva, mainly for liaison with other institutions in the UN system.
Where Does the IMF Get Its Money?
The IMF's resources come mainly from the quota (or capital) subscriptions that countries pay when they join the IMF, or following periodic reviews in which quotas are increased. Countries pay 25 percent of their quota subscriptions in Special Drawing Rights or major currencies, such as U.S. dollars or Japanese yen; the IMF can call on the remainder, payable in the member's own currency, to be made available for lending as needed. Quotas determine not only a country's subscription payments, but also the amount of financing that it can receive from the IMF, and its share in SDR allocations. Quotas also are the main determinant of countries' voting power in the IMF.
Quotas are intended broadly to reflect members' relative size in the world economy: the larger a country's economy in terms of output, and the larger and more variable its trade, the higher its quota tends to be. The United States of America, the world's largest economy, contributes most to the IMF, 17.5 percent of total quotas; Palau, the world's smallest, contributes 0.001 percent.
If necessary, the IMF may borrow to supplement the resources available from its quotas. The IMF has two sets of standing arrangements to borrow if needed to cope with any threat to the international monetary system:
- the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), set up in 1962, which has 11 participants (the governments or central banks of the Group of Ten industrialized countries and Switzerland)
- the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), introduced in 1997, with 25 participating countries and institutions. Under the two arrangements combined, the IMF has up to SDR 34 billion (about $50 billion) available to borrow
Countries that joined the IMF between 1945 and 1971 agreed to keep their exchange rates (in effect, the value of their currencies in terms of the U.S. dollar, and in the case of the United States, the value of the U.S. dollar in terms of gold) pegged at rates that could be adjusted, but only to correct a "fundamental disequilibrium" in the balance of payments and with the IMF's concurrence. This so-called Bretton Woods system of exchange rates prevailed until 1971 when the U.S. government suspended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar (and dollar reserves held by other governments) into gold.
Since then, IMF members have been free to choose any form of exchange arrangement they wish (except pegging their currency to gold): some now allow their currency to float freely, some peg their currency to another currency or a group of currencies, some have adopted the currency of another country as their own, and some participate in currency blocs.
The IMF and the World Bank Group—which includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Development Association (IDA)—complement each other's work. While the IMF's focus is chiefly on macroeconomic performance, and on macroeconomic and financial sector policies, the World Bank is concerned mainly with longer-term development and poverty reduction issues. Its activities include lending to developing countries and countries in transition to finance infrastructure projects, the reform of particular sectors of the economy, and broader structural reforms. The IMF, in contrast, provides financing not for particular sectors or projects but for general support of a country's balance of payments and international reserves while the country takes policy action to address its difficulties.
When the IMF and World Bank were established, an organization to promote world trade liberalization was also contemplated, but it was not until 1995 that the World Trade Organization was set up. In the intervening years, trade issues were tackled through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
What Is an IMF-Supported Program?
When a country approaches the IMF for financing, it may be in a state of economic crisis or near-crisis, with its currency under attack in foreign exchange markets and its international reserves depleted, economic activity stagnant or falling, and bankruptcies increasing. To return the country's external payments position to health and to restore the conditions for sustainable economic growth, some combination of economic adjustment and official and/or private financing will be needed.
The IMF provides the country's authorities with advice on the economic policies that may be expected to address the problems most effectively. For the IMF also to provide financing, it must agree with the authorities on a program of policies aimed at meeting specific, quantified goals regarding external viability, monetary and financial stability, and sustainable growth. Details of the program are spelled out in a "letter of intent" from the government to the Managing Director of the IMF.
A program supported by IMF financing is designed by the national authorities in close cooperation with IMF staff, and is tailored to the special needs and circumstances of the country. This is essential for the program's effectiveness and for the government to win national support for the program. Such support—or "local ownership"—of the program is critical to its success.
Each program is also designed flexibly, so that, during its implementation, it may be reassessed and revised if circumstances change. Many programs are, in fact, revised during implementation.
Technical Assistance and Training
The IMF is probably best known for its policy advice and its policy-based lending to countries in times of economic crisis. But the IMF also shares its expertise with member countries on a regular basis by providing technical assistance and training in a wide range of areas, such as central banking, monetary and exchange rate policy, tax policy and administration, and official statistics. The objective is to help strengthen the design and implementation of members' economic policies, including by strengthening skills in the institutions responsible, such as finance ministries and central banks. Technical assistance complements the IMF's policy advice and financial assistance to member countries and accounts for some 20 percent of the IMF's administrative costs.
The IMF provides technical assistance and training mainly in four areas:
- strengthening monetary and financial sectors through advice on banking system regulation, supervision, and restructuring, foreign exchange management and operations, clearing and settlement systems for payments, and the structure and development of central banks;
- supporting strong fiscal policies and management through advice on tax and customs policies and administration, budget formulation, expenditure management, design of social safety nets, and the management of internal and external debt;
- compiling, managing, and disseminating statistical data and improving data quality; and
- drafting and reviewing economic and financial legislation.
The IMF offers training courses for government and central bank officials of member countries at its headquarters in Washington and at regional training centers in Brasília, Singapore, Tunis, and Vienna. In the field, it provides technical assistance through visits by IMF staff, supplemented by hired consultants and experts. Supplementary financing for IMF technical assistance and training is provided by the national governments of such countries as Japan and Switzerland, and international agencies such as the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank.
Strengthening the International Monetary and Financial System Globalization has created new challenges for the IMF. Two of the most important, and most difficult, are how to strengthen the global financial system—so that it becomes less prone to financial crises and more able to cope with crises when they occur—and how to advance the fight against poverty in low-income countries (see next chapter).
Globalization has yielded great benefits for many countries and people around the world. Integration into the world economy is an essential part of any strategy to enable countries to achieve higher living standards. But globalization, by increasing the volume and speed of international capital flows, has also increased the risk of financial crises. And at the same time, the risk has arisen that low-income countries, which have not yet benefited substantially from globalization, will fall further behind as living standards rise elsewhere.
Building A Stronger Global Financial System
The financial crises in emerging markets in the mid- and late 1990s were a reminder of the risks associated with globalization -even for economies that have benefited immensely from the process and that, in many respects, are well managed. The economies hit in the 1997-98 Asian crisis, in particular, had gained enormously over several decades from international trade, foreign direct investment, and access to increasingly integrated international financial markets. The crises exposed not only policy weaknesses in the crisis countries themselves, but also flaws in the international financial system, driving home two facts of life:
- Investors may retreat quickly and massively if they sense shortcomings in domestic economic policies. Once investors-domestic or foreign-lose confidence, capital inflows can dry up, and large net outflows can precipitate a financial crisis.
- A crisis in one country or region can rapidly spill over into other economies.
To reduce the risk of future financial crises and to promote the speedy resolution of those that do occur, the IMF has been working with its member governments, and with other international organizations, regulatory bodies, and the private sector, to strengthen the international monetary and financial system.
Reforms under way span the following areas:
Strengthening financial sectors
A major reason why a country may be vulnerable to economic crisis is weakness in its financial system, with institutions that are illiquid or insolvent, or liable to become so as a result of adverse developments. To make the system more robust, banks and other financial institutions may need to improve their internal controls, including their assessment and management of risk. The authorities may also need to bring their supervision and regulation of the financial sector up to international standards.
The IMF and the World Bank in 1999 began joint assessments of member countries' financial sectors to help identify actual and potential weaknesses. IMF and World Bank teams, generally with the assistance of experts from central banks and financial regulatory agencies, have been assessing the strength of financial systems in a number of member countries. These assessments are presented to the country as a guide to the measures needed.
IMF staff are also working with national governments and other international institutions to:
- strengthen the legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks for banks,
- review minimum capital requirements for banks and financial institutions,
- develop a core set of international accounting standards,
- finalize a set of core principles for good corporate governance,
- avoid exchange rate regimes that are vulnerable to attack, and
- ensure a freer flow of timely financial data to markets.
Internationally accepted standards and codes of good practice
Countries can reassure the international community about their policies and practices by following internationally accepted standards and codes of good practice. For countries that do not do so, international standards and codes serve as a guide for strengthening their systems. The IMF has worked to develop and refine voluntary standards in areas of its responsibility, in some cases cooperating with other international organizations, such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the World Bank. These include standards related to a country's statistical practices; codes of good practice in fiscal, monetary, and financial policies; and guidelines on strengthening the financial sector—such as banking system supervision and regulatory standards.
Complementing the work of the IMF have been the efforts of the BIS, World Bank, and other standard-setting agencies, which have been working on international standards in such areas as accounting and auditing, bankruptcy, corporate governance, securities market regulation, and payment and settlement systems.
To help countries assess their own compliance, IMF staff, in conjunction with the respective governments, began in 1999 to prepare experimental country reports on countries' observance of standards and codes, focusing mainly on areas of direct operational concern to the IMF. Several countries have chosen to publish these reports.
Encouraging openness and publication of data
The publication of up-to-date and reliable data—as well as information about countries' economic and financial policies, practices, and decision- making—is needed to help investors make informed judgments and for markets to operate efficiently and smoothly. In the wake of the Mexican crisis of 1994-95, the IMF in 1996 developed a special data dissemination standard (SDDS) to guide countries that have, or that might seek, access to international capital markets in the dissemination of economic and financial data to the public. Subscribing countries agree to publish detailed national economic and financial data, including data on international reserves and external debt, on an announced schedule. A general data dissemination system (GDDS) was established in 1997 to guide countries that are not yet in a position to subscribe to the SDDS and need to improve their statistical systems.
IMF transparency and accountability
Improved provision of information to the markets and the broader public is a central element of the reform of the international financial system. It is also a cornerstone of the recent and continuing reform of the IMF itself.
Transparency, on the part of IMF member countries and the IMF, helps foster better economic performance in several ways. Greater openness by member countries encourages more widespread and better informed analysis of their policies by the public; enhances the accountability of policymakers and the credibility of policies; and informs financial markets so that they can function in a more orderly and efficient manner. Greater openness and clarity by the IMF about its own policies, and the advice it gives members, contribute to a more informed policy debate and to a better understanding of the IMF's role and operations. By exposing its advice to public scrutiny and debate, the IMF can also help raise the level of its analysis.
Since the mid-1990s, the IMF has vastly increased the volume of information it publishes—on its own activities and policies, and on those of its member countries—particularly on its website. Public Information Notices, for example, which were released at the conclusion of Article IV consultations with about 80 percent of member countries in 1999-2000, summarize the Executive Board discussion and provide background to the consultation. Letters of intent are also released by the governments concerned in about 80 percent of program cases. In April 1999, the Executive Board initiated a pilot project for the voluntary release of Article IV staff reports, and about 60 countries agreed to such release over the following 18 months. In November 2000, the pilot was replaced by a publication policy providing for voluntary release (that is, subject to the agreement of the country concerned) of both Article IV consultation papers and papers on members' use of IMF resources. In July 2004, the policy was revised to introduce the presumption that these papers would be released on a voluntary basis.
The accountability of the IMF, to its member governments and to the broader public, has been enhanced in recent years through external evaluations by outside experts of its policies and activities. Published external evaluations include assessments of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (which was replaced in 1999 by the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility), its surveillance of members' economies, and IMF economic research activities. An Independent Evaluation Office was established in 2001, and released three evaluation reports during 2002-03.
While increasing the transparency of the IMF, the Executive Board is also keenly aware of the need to preserve the IMF's role as a confidential advisor to its members, which continues to be an essential part of its role.
Involving the private sector in crisis prevention and resolution
By far the greater part of international financial flows are private flows. This points to the importance of the role that the private sector can play in helping to prevent and resolve financial crises. Crises may be prevented, and the volatility of private flows reduced, by improved risk assessment and closer and more frequent dialogue between countries and private investors. Such dialogue can also foster greater private sector involvement in the resolution of crises when they do occur, including through the restructuring of private debt.
Both creditors and debtors can benefit from such dialogue. And the involvement of the private sector in crisis prevention and resolution should also help to limit "moral hazard"—that is, the possibility that the private sector may be attracted to engage in risky lending if it is confident that potential losses will be limited by official rescue operations, including by the IMF. The IMF itself is also strengthening its dialogue with market participants, for example through the establishment of the Capital Markets Consultative Group, which met for the first time in September 2000. The Group provides a forum for regular communication between international capital market participants and IMF management and senior staff on matters of common interest, including world economic and market developments and measures to strengthen the global financial system. But the Group does not discuss confidential matters related to particular countries.
When crises do occur, IMF-supported programs are expected to be able, in most cases, to restore stability through their mix of official financing, policy adjustments, and associated gains in confidence among private investors. In certain cases, however, such actions as coordinated debt restructuring by private creditors may be needed. IMF members have agreed on some principles to guide the involvement of the private sector in crisis resolution. These principles, however, require further development, and they will need to be applied flexibly in individual country cases.
Collaborating with other institutions
The IMF collaborates actively with the World Bank, the regional development banks, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations agencies, and other international bodies. Each of these institutions has its area of specialization and its particular contribution to make to the world economy. The IMF's collaboration with the World Bank on poverty reduction is especially close because the Bank rather than the IMF has the expertise to help countries improve their social policies (see next section).
Other areas in which the IMF and World Bank are working closely include assessments of member countries' financial sectors aimed at pinpointing systemic vulnerabilities, combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the development of standards and codes, and improving the quality, availability, and coverage of data on external debt.
The IMF is also a member of the Financial Stability Forum, which brings together national authorities responsible for financial stability in significant international financial centers, international regulatory and supervisory bodies, committees of central bank experts, and international financial institutions.
A New Approach to Reducing Poverty in Low-Income Countries The IMF is a monetary, not a development, institution, but it has an important role to play in reducing poverty in its member countries: sustainable economic growth, which is essential for cutting poverty, requires sound macroeconomic policies, and these are at the heart of the IMF's mandate.
For many years, the IMF has helped low-income countries implement economic policies that foster growth and raise living standards through its advice, its technical assistance, and its financial support. Between 1986 and 1999, 56 countries with populations totaling 3.2 billion drew on low-interest loans under the Structural Adjustment Facility (SAF) (1986-87) and its successor, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) (1987-89) (see page 27), designed to help the IMF's poorest members in their efforts to achieve stronger economic growth and a sustained improvement in their balance of payments.
These facilities made significant contributions to the development effort in low-income countries, but despite substantial assistance from the IMF and the broad donor community, many of these countries did not achieve the gains needed for lasting poverty reduction.
This prompted an intense reexamination of development and debt strategies in recent years by governments, international organizations, and others. It was agreed that more needed to be done.
At the 1999 joint annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, Ministers from member countries endorsed a new approach. They decided to make country- generated poverty reduction strategies the basis of all IMF and World Bank concessional lending and debt relief. This embodied a more country-driven approach to policy programs than in the past.
The New Approach: a focus on serving the poor
Focused poverty reduction strategies can ensure that the needs of the poor get first priority in the public policy debate, especially when there is broad participation—including elements of civil society—in formulating the strategy. Moreover, poverty reduction strategies can put countries "in the driver's seat" of their own development, with a clearly articulated vision for their future and a systematic plan to achieve their goals. Underlying the new approach are a number of principles, which have guided the development of poverty reduction strategies.These include:
- A comprehensive approach to development and a broad view of poverty are essential.
- Faster economic growth is critical for sustained poverty reduction, and greater participation by the poor can increase a country's growth potential.
- Country "ownership" of the goals, strategy, and direction of development and poverty reduction is vital.
- The development community must work together closely.
- The focus should be clearly on results.
A transformation of the magnitude being sought entails changing institutions so that they are accountable to all, including the poor, and building each country's capacity to respond to the needs of its citizens. Results will come only if there is a long-term commitment by governments and their partners. To help achieve this, participating countries draw up a master plan embodied in a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). This overall plan for reducing poverty makes it easier for the international community-including the IMF-to provide the most effective support possible.
The Roles of the IMF and World Bank
The World Bank and IMF make support available to governments in the development of their strategies, but without directing the outcome. World Bank and IMF management realize that this requires a shift in the organizational cultures and attitude both in these organizations and in partner institutions. This shift is taking place. By coordinating early and maintaining open lines of communication with country authorities—particularly by providing available diagnostic information—the World Bank and IMF can ensure that they help countries in a timely and comprehensive way.
Each institution must focus on its areas of expertise. Thus, World Bank staff take the lead in advising on the social policies involved in poverty reduction, including the necessary diagnostic work. The IMF advises governments in the areas of its traditional mandate, including promoting prudent macroeconomic policies. In areas where the World Bank and the IMF both have expertise—such as fiscal management, budget execution, budget transparency, and tax and customs administration—they coordinate closely.
Because the PRSP provides the context for IMF and World Bank concessional lending and debt relief, the strategies are critical for the two institutions. Participating countries send the final strategy to the Executive Boards of both the IMF and World Bank for endorsement. The Executive Boards of both institutions also receive a World Bank-IMF staff assessment, with an analysis of the strategy and a recommendation on endorsement. The strategies need not be fully in accordance with staff recommendations to be endorsed. This process assures the Executive Boards—and the international community—that the strategies, while perhaps attracting broad domestic support, also address difficult or divisive issues in an effective way.
Formulating Poverty Reduction Strategies
The objective of drawing up a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is to strengthen basic principles of country ownership, comprehensive development, and broad public participation. While there is no template for this, there are a number of core elements that are likely to be common to all strategies.
Diagnosing obstacles to poverty reduction and growth: A poverty reduction strategy could begin by using existing data to describe who the poor are and where they live, and by identifying areas where data need to be strengthened. Building on this description, the poverty reduction strategy could analyze the macroeconomic, social, and institutional impediments to faster growth and poverty reduction.
Policies and objectives: In light of a deeper understanding of poverty and its causes, the PRSP can then identify medium- and long-term targets for the country's poverty reduction strategy and set out the macroeconomic, structural, and social policies to achieve them.
Tracking progress :To understand better the link between policies and outcomes, a poverty reduction strategy should include a framework for monitoring progress and mechanisms to share this information with a country's development partners.
External assistance: A strategy can also improve the effectiveness and efficiency of external assistance by identifying the amount of financial and technical support required to implement the strategy. It could also assess the potential poverty impact of both higher and lower assistance commitments, including actual savings from debt relief.
Participatory process: A strategy may describe the format, frequency, and location of consultations; a summary of the main issues raised and the views of participants; an account of the impact of consultations on design of the strategy; and a discussion of the role of civil society in future monitoring and implementation
Reducing Debt Burdens
In 1996, the World Bank and the IMF unveiled the HIPC Initiative to reduce the debt burdens of the world's poorest countries. This initiative was viewed as a means of helping the countries concerned achieve economic growth and reduce poverty.
While a number of countries qualified for the initiative—and debt relief in nominal terms totaling more than $6 billion had been committed to seven countries by September 1999—concern grew that the initiative did not go far enough, or fast enough.
Consequently, when the new approach to poverty reduction was introduced in 1999, the initiative was enhanced to provide:
- broader and deeper debt relief, through lower debt targets. For example, the number of countries eligible for debt relief under the enhanced HIPC Initiative is 38, compared with 29 formerly.
- faster debt relief, through financing at an earlier stage of the policy program to free up resources for poverty-reducing spending, such as on health and education.
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