Building global solidarity starts by fixing local inequalities
Chapter 'Institutions’- 2023 Global Solidarity Report
Sarah Cliffe, Executive Director, New York University Center on International Cooperation
[This essay was originally published in the Global Solidarity Report 2023]
Faced with new wars, economic instability, natural disasters, and pandemics, advocating more global solidarity can seem naive. Yet the plans for the United Nations were drawn up in the midst of crisis, as bombs continued to rain down in Europe and Asia, and millions were displaced.
As in 1944, global solidarity and collective international action today need to be based on both an inspiring vision and pragmatic in- terests. Conflict, pandemics, and international economic coordination were all concerns of the founders of the post-World War II multilateral system—and climate change is a classic global public good that they would have recognized. So the vision underpinning global solidarity has evolved rather than fundamentally changed, being at its heart to “protect future generations from the scourge of war and planetary threats.”
We cannot reform and update the multilateral system to be fit for these purposes without cooperation, and we cannot expect global cooperation without shared benefits.
A first step can be in identifying narrow areas of common interest. A recent example is the Black Sea Grain Initiative: despite the Russian withdrawal, the initiative has helped save mil- lions from starvation—either it will continue, or others can be modelled on it. Such initiatives provide the “guardrails” that minimise economic and social harms from rising geopolitical con- testation—they can be adopted in other areas, such as keeping supply chains for medical technologies open even between countries that are at odds politically.
Broader solidarity, however, will require aligning interests, reversing rising inequality within countries in order to address rising inequality and tensions between countries. The Global South is puzzled why “rich countries” do not put more financing on the table for global public goods. And indeed my organization has argued strongly that a much larger global financing pact is needed to address today’s threats.45 Yet the reality is that most people in “rich countries” do not feel rich: working and lower middle-class people have seen their real incomes decline, even as those at the top of their societies adopt more lavish lifestyles, and a casual tolerance of corruption. Voters in the Global North need to see less inequality at home in order to support more generosity, equity, and accountability for the past abroad, just as countries in the Global South need to ensure that their own elites contribute their fair share. This is about practical policies but also about the communication and culture of political leadership.
Only by fostering the solidarity we need at all levels—from local to national to regional—are we likely to see governments whose short- term values and interests coincide with the longer-term action we need to preserve peace and a livable planet for our kids.