Stimson Report Proposes New Global Economic Governance Architecture

The Stimson Center has published the second edition of its annual report on human security. The report explores how to strike a better balance between the security of nations and the security of peoples and presents ideas for policy and institutional reform, “charting a course for a more equal, just, representative, and ecologically viable global economy.”

Titled, ‘Global Governance Innovation Report 2024: Advancing Human Security through a New Global Economic Governance Architecture,’ the report defines human security as “the protection of the vital core of all human lives, including fundamental freedoms, from critical and pervasive threats through a mutually supportive system of just, environmentally sustainable, and technologically adept governance.”

Calling attention to languishing SDG progress, acute poverty, conflicts, and negative human rights trends, the report warns that six of nine planetary boundaries – climate change, biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, novel entities, and biogeochemical flows – have already been crossed, adding to the multiple threats human security is facing.

The report’s findings and its policy and institutional reform recommendations aim to encourage more ambition in the negotiations shaping the Summit of the Future (SoF) in September by further refining the concepts and proposals introduced in the Bridgetown Initiative for the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture, the UN Secretary-General’s ‘Our Common Agenda’ report and ‘Reforms to the International Financial Architecture’ policy brief, and the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (HLAB) report.

The report’s recommendations include:

Rethinking global economic coordination and development promotion by convening a biennial UN-G20+ summit on the global economy, innovating the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) for debt relief and global public goods financing, and increasing multilateral development banks’ (MDBs) lending capabilities;
Defining new frontiers in global trade governance, including AI-cybertech and future generations, by making the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) fit for future purpose and leveraging global trade support from an international AI agency; and
Drawing on ImPact coalitions from the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference and ensuring Summit of the Future follow-through.

The Stimson Center and the Global Governance Innovation Network – a collaborative project of the Stimson Center, Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS), Plataforma CIPÓ, Leiden University, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development, Global Institute for Strategic Research, and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water – launched the report on 18 June 2024. [Publication: Global Governance Innovation Report 2024: Advancing Human Security through a New Global Economic Governance Architecture] [Publication Landing Page] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Global Governance Innovation Report 2023]