MAKING GLOBAL TRADE WORK for People
UN Development Programme
by Kamal Malhotra et al

Background Note by Peter Riggs, Rockefeller Brothers Fund: In the months following the WTO Ministerial in Seattle, the United Nations Development Program’s “Trade and Sustainable Human Development" project began work with several foundations on a project to assess the multilateral trading system from a human development perspective. Attached here is the Executive Summary of “Making Global Trade Work for People,” the project’s final report. The report was formally launched at the end of January, 2003.

The two and a half-year project included nine formal consultations around the world with governments, civil society organizations and the G77. UNDP and its foundation partners also commissioned three background papers from Dani Rodrik (The Global Governance of Trade As If Development Really Mattered”), a team at Third World Network led by Martin Khor (“The Multilateral Trading System: A Development Perspective”) and Nilufer Cagatay (“Trade, Gender, and Poverty”). These excellent papers are available on UNDP’s website www.undp.org/mainundp/propoor/publications.htm. The lead author of the book and coordinator of the project is Kamal Malhotra, now Senior Advisor on Inclusive Globalization at the Bureau of Development Policy, at UNDP.

“Making Global Trade Work for People” has generated enormous attention around the world. While the report contains the standard disclaimer that “the responsibility for opinions in this book rests solely with its authors,” UNDP’s willingness to add its name and prestige to this report is heartening to those concerned with sustainable human development. Mr. Malhotra and members of his team have been on the road constantly in the months since the report was issued, giving presentations to parliamentary bodies, regional economic organizations, civil society gatherings, and meetings hosted by the United Nations. Further discussions of the book and its finding will take place in Washington in the coming months: check the FNTG website for updates and announcements.

Link to summary of Making Global Trade Work For People

[The responsibility for opinions in this book rests solely with its authors.
Publication does not constitute an endorsement by the United Nations
Development Programme or the institutions of the United Nations system or
the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller
Foundation, or Wallace Global Fund.]