New York, NY (BBN)- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met on Friday with five eminent economists and the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on UN efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The 90-minute informal meeting at UN Headquarters in New York focused on prospects for the world economy, and how the present financial crisis will affect emerging economies and those of the least developed countries (LDCs), a UN spokesperson told reporters.
The UN chief, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis and the economists also discussed financing for development, the international reserve system, trade, the regulatory role that multilateral institutions can play and reforms of the existing institutions, according to a UN press statement.
The participating economists were Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University; Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University; Dani Rodrik of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; Nancy Birdsall, President of the Centre for Global Development, a think tank; and Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia.
The UN spokesperson said the 15 November meeting of world leaders in Washington, convened by United States President George W. Bush and to be attended by Mr. Ban, was also discussed at today’s talks, as was the upcoming conference in Doha at the end of next month that will review progress on financing for development.
The financial crisis will be further discussed on Friday at the regular meeting of the Chief Executives Board (CEB), which will be attended by the heads of the various UN specialized agencies and by the chiefs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), otherwise known as the Bretton Woods institutions.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-24October08-4:14 PM (BST)