two groups of international organizations narrowed considerably,
and the dialogue between them became more intense than ever. This
left–right dialogue stemmed, to a large extent, from the more nuanced
vision of globalization adopted by each side. As the Director-General
of the International Labour Office (ILO) noted in 2005, all came to
accept that globalization was “neither the answer to every problem
nor the cause of every evil.”^57 While UN agencies increasingly agreed
that an integrated world economy offered “great opportunities” for
poor countries,^58 the Bretton Woods institutions acknowledged for
their part that globalization also engendered losers and that, in some
instances, it “reinforced the strong ones and weakened those that
were already weak.”^59
In September 2000, the new development consensus was solemnly
endorsed, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Mill-
ennium Declaration, a statement that recognized that the “benefits”
of globalization were “very unevenly shared,” and committed the inter-
national community to reduce world poverty by half before 2015.^60
Other “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) included achieving
universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing
child mortality, improving maternal health, halting the spread of
infectious diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and deve-
loping a global partnership for development. For the first time, a
coherent set of quantified and time-bound targets was established for
development policies. The importance of the MDGs was reiterated at
the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development in 2002 as
well as at the UN World Summit in 2005. The Monterrey Declaration
pp. 57–90; and Mahbub ul Haq, Richard Jolly, Paul Streeten, and Khadija Haq
(eds.),The UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions: New Challenges for the57 Twenty-First Century, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Juan Somavia, “Address by the Director-General of the International Labour
Office to the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social
58 Council,” New York, June 29, 2005, p. 2.
Kofi A. Annan,“We the Peoples:” The Role of the United Nations in the 21st
Century, New York, United Nations, 2000, p. 6 (www.un.org/millennium/sg/
59 report).
Pascal Lamy, “Humanising Globalization,” address by the Director-General of
the World Trade Organization, Santiago, January 30, 2006, p. 1. (www.wto.
org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl16_e.htm).
(^60) United Nations General Assembly, “United Nations Millennium Declaration,”
UN Resolution A/RES/55/2, New York, September 18, 2000 (www.un.org/
millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm).
182 Left and Right in Global Politics