New York, NY (BBN)- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will meet with a group of eminent economists Thursday as part of his evaluation of the impact of the global financial crisis on United Nations efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Five economists will participate in the meeting in New York, which will also consider the effects of the financial crisis on climate change, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters on Wednesday.
The economists are Joseph Stieglitz 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.
Earlier this week General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto announced he has appointed Professor Stiglitz, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, to chair a high-level task force to review the global financial system.
The composition and terms of reference of the task force, which will examine such major bodies as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are expected to be unveiled next month.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-23October08-10:18 AM (BST)