IGNOU MSW 004 Solved Assignment 2022-23

Globalisation and its effects, which have traditionally been seen as an economic phenomenon associated with the development of the global market, have started to influence all aspects of community life, from culture to crime, and from finance to religion. This has entailed new problems and challenges for society.

These challenges are implicit in the various political, institutional, cultural and economic options, which this report suggests employing in order to counter the negative effects of globalisation. One such idea, of a more human approach to change and organisation, is embodied in the concept of sustainable human development. Together with “solidarity economy” and other new patterns of consumption and production, it could offer a genuine freedom of choice which would help democratise the economy, based on citizen commitment to greater social responsibility, cohesion and justice.

The report also examines the new emerging forms of political participation and world governance, which would engender greater involvement of citizens in decision-making and enable human communities to manage their interdependence and their integration into the global society in a peaceful and sustainable manner.

The rapporteur underlines that the restructuring of the global economy to make it socially, economically and ecologically sustainable presents the greatest investment opportunity in human history.

I.       Draft resolution

1.       Globalisation and its effects have caused anxiety worldwide about the direction that society is taking. Traditionally seen as an economic phenomenon linked with the appearance, development and consolidation of the global market, it has become connected with areas previously regarded as bearing little relevance to economic development.

2.       Today globalisation may be said to be covering the expansion, deepening and acceleration at planetary level of the reciprocal connections between all aspects of community life, from culture to crime, and from finance to religion. The world is turning into a single social space, shaped by complex economic and technological forces.

3.       New problems and challenges for society have emerged. Events occurring, decisions taken and measures introduced in one part of the world can have profound effects on the lives of individuals or communities in another. The impact of these changes is so immeasurable that governments and individuals can do little to contest or resist them.

4.       Globalisation is characterised by four major trends: increased flows of commodities and persons, expansion and diversification of financial activities; development of communication, networks, knowledge and relationships; and increasing disparities.

5. The Assembly is concerned about the growing disparities between developed and other societies, and within societies themselves, leading to a high degree of economic stratification between rich and poor, at regional, national and global levels. Unfortunately, this difference is not shrinking, it is growing.

6.       The Assembly regrets that the reaction and opposition to globalisation are sometimes manifest in violent outbursts causing considerable human and material damage.

7.       The Assembly is convinced that the world order should not be based on business management dominated by purely financial considerations, where living organisms can be patented and pollution rights bought and sold, and where human relations are based primarily on the principle of free trade. The world needs an alternative definition of wealth and how it should be measured, it needs sustainable human development to take pre-eminence.

8.       The concept of sustainable development was first given prominence at the Rio “Earth Summit” of 1992, following which the notion of sustainable development rapidly gained wide currency and encouraged a greater awareness of the major environmental problems and international disparities. It marked a decisive stage by recognising the existence of challenges and problems that were common to the entire planet and all of humankind, and by seeking to identify cases where joint responsibility could be established. It thereby considerably widened the scope of global problems to include such matters as the environment, health, trade and poverty. It also highlighted the links between globalisation, planet-wide risks and shared responsibilities that created a need for concerted action by the international community.

9.       However, in recent years two opposing but equally restrictive tendencies have emerged in the understanding of the concept of sustainable development: for some, it has become the subject of an excessively economic bias, being often used as a justification for faster growth on the grounds that this will help to reduce poverty and achieve ecological sustainability, all the same serving the purpose of promoting the opening up of markets, financial deregulation, privatisation of natural resources and biopiracy. For others, sustainable development has undergone a form of ecological over-simplification in which the concept is restricted to environmental sustainability.

10.       These trends always need to be counter-balanced by a form of sustainable development that focuses on human beings, and is both more comprehensive and more radical.

11.       Sustainable human development may be defined as the capacity of all human communities, including the most deprived, to meet their fundamental needs – for accommodation, drinking water, food, satisfactory health and hygiene, participation in decision-making, social cohesion, a social fabric, cultural and spiritual expression, etc. This entails the adaptation of technologies and lifestyles to the social, economic and environmental potential of each region, internalising costs and establishing systems that are compatible with the biosphere.

12.       Such an approach makes sustainable human development a multifaceted process. It seeks a balance between the ecological, economic and social spheres, while also taking account of political (participation and democratisation), ethical (responsibility, solidarity, social justice and sufficiency) and cultural (local diversity and artistic expression) considerations.

13.       Sustainable human development also calls for a fundamental re-evaluation of our basic principles and lifestyles, and of the way our societies function, particularly regarding production and consumption. This implies significant changes to attitudes and behaviour, in which an awareness of living in a common space, individual responsibility for actions, learning to see long-term perspectives and partnership between players in different regions of the world, including governments, international institutions, business and the civil society, will take precedence over material factors.

14.       The Assembly believes that the recent expansion of “solidarity economy” offers an instructive illustration of a new development model and a new form of economic activity. It includes all aspects of production, distribution and consumption that help to democratise the economy, based on citizen commitment to a greater social responsibility, cohesion and justice.

15.       The Assembly notes the increasing role of dual delegation (to those who have expert knowledge and to representatives) and the professionalisation of politics through it. Participatory democracy requires further “proximity” responsibility and a wider involvement of the population in decision-making. This could be promoted through appropriate bodies, set up in some countries, such as the citizens’ juries, citizens’ forums or “consensus conferences”.

16.       The Assembly recognises that, in order to cope with the challenges of globalisation, a global governance is needed which would be capable of perceiving the complexity and interdependence of the issues to be addressed and seek to resolve them through a comprehensive approach involving all the players concerned. It should involve the array of representation systems, institutions, procedures, social bodies and information systems which would enable human communities to manage their different forms of interdependence and their integration into the biosphere in a peaceful and sustainable manner.

17.       The Assembly deems it essential that environment should lie at the heart of the debate on the renewal of world governance. Multilateral agreements today have had little impact and are very disparate, each one covering a specific area. Environmental issues should automatically be addressed from a global perspective and solutions be found involving a wide range of partners and countries. In this respect, the establishment of a single international environmental institution in charge of following up the implementation of international protocols and their coherence, an idea formulated but not maintained at the Johannesburg Summit, should be envisaged.

18.       The Assembly is convinced that sustainable human development can lead to a form of social organisation that offers everyone genuine freedom of choice between alternative forms of consumption, work, saving and use of their time, each of which is compatible with their human and natural environments.

19.       It also believes that the restructuring of the global economy to make it socially, ecologically and economically sustainable, presents the greatest investment opportunity in human history.

20.       In the light of these elements, the Assembly recommends the member states to:

a.       put human beings at the centre of all development policy;

b.       implement socio-economic policies which are compatible with life and welfare, i.e. a system which gradually reduces the net perverse effects of subsidies and introduces taxation that reflects social and ecological values;

c.       promote new patterns of consumption and production, as defined at the Johannesburg Summit, which would help democratise the economy, based on citizen commitment to greater social responsibility, cohesion and justice;

d.       support international trade in such a way that it is consistent with the required changes and with consideration of the need to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in the whole world;

e.       ensure that environmental law is no longer subject to commercial law, as is often the case at present, particularly by setting up an arbitration procedure for disputes with both environmental and economic components; reassert the political will to implement environmental regulations, notably against economic interests;

f.       support the proposition formulated at the Johannesburg summit as regards the setting up of a single international environment institution within the structures of the United Nations;

g.       encourage new forms of participation in civil society by involving both citizens and non-citizens in the policy-making process, promoting dialogue at national and regional level and within communities themselves;

h.       encourage the involvement of the opponents to globalisation in the policy-making process via peaceful means in an effort to counter the violence which some anti-globalisation protests have led to;

      i.       promote global governance that would enable human communities to manage their different forms of interdependence and their integration into the biosphere in a peaceful and sustainable manner.