Global Public Goods By Margret Thalwitz, Director, Global Programs & Partnerships (GPP)

Slide 1: What are Global Public Goods? Global Public Goods are commodities, services or resources with shared benefits. They possess two characteristics: They produce benefits that are impossible to prevent everyone from enjoying Consumption by one individual does not detract from that of another. An example of a global public good is clean air. Source: Development Committee Paper Poverty reduction and Global Public Goods, September 2000

Slide 2: What are Global Public Goods? International public goods, global and regional, address issues that: are deemed to be important to the international community, to both developed and developing countries; typically cannot, or will not, be adequately addressed by individual countries or entities acting alone, and, in such cases; are best addressed collectively on a multilateral basis. Source: International Task Force on GPGs

Slide 3: Why do we need to care? Its about Globalization. BeforeAfter HIV Infections Worldwide 0 (1960)40 m (2005) Carbon Dioxide Concentrations 300 ppm (1992)380 ppm (2005) Refugees Worldwide5.7 m (1978)19.2 m (2005) Avian FluNegligible (2005)? (2010) Note: Adapted from Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21 st Century, Ed. Inge Kaul et al.

Slide 4: GPGs are under-delivered Institutional arrangements are unclear; Cross-border externalities can discourage provision of GPGs; Policy making is typically at national level; International cooperation is difficult to negotiate and implement.

Slide 5: Institutions delivering GPGs Countries The United Nations Multilateral development agencies, including the World Bank Regional Institutions

Slide 6: Financing for GPGs Cross-border spillovers can create a financing gap; To shore up GPG financing, part of Official Development Assistance (ODA) is committed to GPGs (up to 25% by some estimates); In key areas, rich nations finance provision of GPGs E.g. Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB, and Malaria and Global Environment Fund However, concerns are raised about resources flowing from activities reserved for poor countries to activities that benefit all countries including rich ones.

Slide 7: International Cooperation State-centric policy making and GPG deficit necessitate international cooperation; Cooperation can be in the form of international laws, agreements, and protocols; Such cooperation can be difficult to obtain and its objectives even harder to implement.

Slide 8: Conclusion Global Public Goods are important to all of us; They are currently under-delivered; A GPG deficit can have serious consequences; There are legitimate reasons why such a deficit exists; International cooperation with a focus on appropriate resource allocation and institutional arrangements will be critical.