Transcript of Video Statement

The United Nations Development Programme is pleased to bring an important new book to your attention. In 'Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21^st Century', UNDP has gathered a group of renowned scholars to examine the new demands of a rapidly globalizing world.  Starting from the observation that many of today's global problems are the result of national issues that spill over across borders, the authors identify a common theme in recent international crises – the underprovision of global public goods. In other words, as global interdependence has deepened since the end of the cold war, international cooperation, unfortunately, has not kept pace.

 The consequences of this finding go far beyond mere theory.  Solutions to many of the gravest challenges on the international agenda today – from financial stability, to peace, to environmental sustainability, to improvements in health, greater equity, and access to knowledge and technology. All of these things depend on a more effective and fulsome provision of public goods at the global level.

 So this book offers a practical and pragmatic approach to making cooperation more fair and more effective in each of these areas. I hope you will find it a rewarding source of new ideas as we work together to strengthen development cooperation in the new century.

James Gustave Speth
Administrator
United Nations Development Programme