*{Making the Global System Work Better [http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavigator.nsf/Content/Making+the+Global+System+Work+Better?open&topic_id=300250000&theme_id=300] 29.01.2001 Annual Meeting 2001} A Task Force convened by the World Economic Forum to assess the functioning of the global system has decided to launch the Global Governance Report. The report will spotlight the gap between the vast scale of global problems and the inadequate mechanisms available to deal with them. Every year, the report will rate the efforts of governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-state actors to address global problems ranging from poverty to disease to environmental degradation to armed conflict. The report will encourage much-needed action on issues that pose serious threats to human well being. Dire poverty blights the lives of nearly half the world’s population. Environmental degradation is becoming so severe as to undermine the capacity of the planet to sustain human civilization. New and resurgent infectious diseases increasingly have no cure thanks to the widespread emergence of resistance to antibiotics. Growing inequality, economic instability, armed conflict and the threat of terrorism imperils nations. Governments have repeatedly promised to end these scourges in a host of treaties and declarations signed over the past few decades. It is now time to take governments at their word and hold them accountable for achieving the goals they have proclaimed. Moises Naim, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy Magazine, USA, said that the initiative to produce the report came out of the recognition that it is difficult to get collective action in the international arena. Global institutions, he said, are weak and are not capable of implementing policies on a global scale. At the same time, as globalization becomes a reality, it is difficult for countries to act individually. Examples where coordinated international action is needed are in areas such as combating drugs, international terrorism and the environment. National governments and global institutions have made several commitments to act on these issues, but they are quickly forgotten. The Task Force, Naim said would start tracking commitments made by governments and global institutions, and report every year. Ann Florini, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA, said that on the issue of global governance, it is currently impossible to know the gap between rhetoric and reality. While it is easy to get information on social indicators, no institution is collating the initiatives that have been taken and the success or failure of such efforts. She emphasized that the report would not restrict itself to national governments and civil society alone but would also examine the role of civil society and the private sector. In fact, on some issues such as climate control, the private sector is more influential than national governments in pushing ahead with implementation. Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer, Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, USA, said that transnational efforts to discuss issues of global interest are not a new phenomenon. Such global efforts can be traced back to the establishment of the League of Nations and coordinated efforts by trade unions and church groups. For NGOs, the important lesson of globalization has been to think locally and act globally. This is because seemingly localized issues such as the environment, landmines and debt are heavily influenced by global processes. Naidoo believes that global institutions, which were established in the aftermath of the last World War have become dysfunctional because they have not been able to adapt fast enough to an ever-changing world. One recent example is the failure of international financial institutions such as the IMF in building a new international financial architecture. Naidoo said that there was much talk and little action in the international community for building a new architecture after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. *{Contributors: Defterios John K. Florini Ann Naidoo Kumi Naim Moisés Sanger David E.}