UN CHIEF SAYS INEQUALITY STARTS AT THE TOP

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday (Sunday, July 19, 2020 in Manila) accused world powers of ignoring inequality in global institutions, but said the coronavirus pandemic has created a “generational opportunity” to build a more equal, sustainable world, Michelle Nichols reported for Reuters.

Delivering the annual lecture for the Nelson Mandela Foundation via the internet, Guterres pushed for a so-called New Global Deal to ensure power, wealth and opportunity are shared more broadly and fairly at the international level.

“The nations that came out on top more than seven decades ago have refused to contemplate the reforms needed to change power relations in international institutions,” Guterres said. “The composition and voting rights in the United Nations Security Council and the boards of the Bretton Woods system are a case in point.”

“Inequality starts at the top: in global institutions. Addressing inequality must start by reforming them,” he added. The Bretton Woods system includes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). He said the pandemic has revealed, like an x-ray, “fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built.”