Globalization is good — for most of the world

 

Please note: This is a draft version. Changes are needed to make this section conform with the rest of World Viewing. Thanks for your patience.

Globalization is shorthand for “the increased international mobility of goods, people, contracts and thoughts.”1 Sustainable development calls for more attention to equity in the processes that make up globalization. Each speaker in this section has a different take on how fairness in globalization can be improved.

The UN Charter calls for economic and social development through globalization. A lot of valuable data on development is gathered by UN programs, but as numbers and tables it is inaccessible to most people. The Gapminder project has built a powerful new tool for visualizing human development. Just as Google Earth made satellite photography accessible to a wide audience, Gapminder uses new media tools to make statistics easily approachable.

There are strong arguments for encouraging development through trade. Countries that gain access to international markets see increased literacy, lower child labor, and lower fertility.2 A study of development data from 1970-1989 showed that nations with open trade policies did better than those with trade barriers, and that developing nations with open economies grew faster than developed nations.3

Those who argue for open borders often point to the successes of South Korea and Taiwan. Both countries transformed their economies by actively encouraging foreign investment. Similarly, Mauritius is notable for being the first sub-Saharan African country to do away with trade barriers. Mauritius now boasts the second highest per capita income in Africa. Their economy is steadily growing without any help from oil exports.4

Globalization has created unprecedented prosperity for participating nations. The percentage of people living in extreme poverty ($1 or $2 per day) is steadily decreasing.5 Not everyone has been able to take part though. The G-econ project’s ‘economic globe’ shows that many regions, including whole nations, have not seen their economies boosted by globalization. In the words of Jeffrey Sachs, “They are not victims of globalization, they have merely been bypassed by globalization.”

For the countries that have been left out of globalization, what are the remaining barriers to economic development? Corruption is a common answer, but it glosses over underlying issues according to Sachs. The poorest people on the planet live in marginal environments, and they live farthest from international trade routes. Regions that are torn by epidemics and hunger face problems that demand individual solutions.

The Millennium Development Goals are designed to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. Each developing country has been asked to design a national strategy ambitious enough to meet its needs. The gap in funding is to be met by the OECD countries. The 22 donor countries have confirmed the long-standing funding target of 0.7%, but 8 countries have not set a timetable to reach that target.

Development agencies are the most visible mechanism for eliminating poverty, yet their decision-making often lacks transparency. They operate under very difficult conditions, and some basic reforms would lend more confidence to their work. A supplement on the IMF, BIS, and World Bank gives more detail.

The title of this section is a play on Johan Norberg’s documentary Globalization is Good. Norberg points out the detrimental effects of western protectionism in the form of agriculture subsidies. At present however the largest trade barriers are between developing countries.6 The least developed countries need to cooperate with each other to they integrate with the global economy.

An important task for the future will be to design better indicators of social well-being. The Human Development Index created by the UN is the most comprehensive effort to date. Projects like Gapminder and NationMaster hint at other indicators that could be incorporated. A good review of work to date on social indicators is available from The Trudeau Centre.

According to Bill Clinton, “It is not sufficient to build a peaceful free world, but it is absolutely necessary”.7 In this quote Clinton is referring to free trade, which on its own does not lead to development. Knowledge transfer is another key process in globalization, which the next section Leapfrogging picks up on.

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Skip to Investing where it counts for a look at the role of finance in sustainable development from small to large scales.

Skip to part two for content on ecological sustainability.

 

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References

 

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