United Nations and Development

Main Topic: Coordinator Comments

There are a number of different United Nations institutions concerned with development, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is under the authority of the Secretary-General and several autonomous specialized agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

Despite decades of work by these institutions, the data show that the rich continue to get richer and the poor continue to get poorer, both within and across countries.

According the the 2005 Human Development Report put out by UNDP, only 9 countries (4% of the world’s population) have reduced the wealth gap between rich and poor, whilst 80% of the world’s population have recorded an increase in wealth inequality. The report states that 'the richest 50 individuals in the world have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. The 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day – 40% of the world’s population – receive only 5% of global income, while 54% of global income goes to the richest 10% of the world’s population.'

According to a study in 2017, the cause for the growing gap is the enormous amount of illegal secret transfers by the major corporations of the world that enable them to avoid taxation in the poor countries.

The newest attempt by the United Nations to address this growing problem is the Millennium Development Goals.