| Summary/Abstract |
The most visible success of the UN system has been to foster a multilateral structure of international governance that has proved resilient since World War II. However, this structure has failed to provide a financing mechanism to help developing countries achieve the structural transformations required for broad-based economic growth. Indeed, the Global South has also had many chances to reorder the international financing system but has failed thus far to do so. The global distribution of power remains with the USA and the West; even rising China plays by the contract-enforcement rules of the North in terms of global economic governance. Another critical reason why financing has not been readily available, despite the magnitude of capital flows between developed and developing economies, is that it comes with conditions that induce little ‘effort’ to result in capability development. Policies should be devised to overcome this weakness but they are unlikely within a multilateral framework. However, if the USA and China agree to work together on alternative multilateral systems promoted by the Global South, the potential for positive change increases.
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