Global Finance Initiative

Sanjeev Khagram, iScale's Lead Steward, was recently lead writer of a United Nation's report on how the global economic crisis is affecting the poor and working poor. The report, "Voices of the Vulnerable," was formally launched by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on 17 September 2009 at the G-20. See www.voicesofthevulnerable.net for the report itself [English PDF version] and other supporting materials as well as a New York Times article on the report and the Secretary-General's announcement.

Phase 1 March 2009 report.

The Global Finance Initiative (GFI) began in January 2008 - before the current crisis hit - as an investigation into strategies for integrating social-environmental concerns into the global finance system. As an "action learning" project, it undertakes its investigation through actions that begin developing the necessary strategy. This includes mapping, interviews, stakeholder meetings and formation of a stakeholder stewardship team.

Webcrawl maps demonstrate the virtual linkages between organizations in the global finance system. View a larger version of this map.

The first part of the project investigated the emergence over the past five years of a new phenomenon in global finance: cross-sector initiatives like the UNEP-Finance Initiative and a global network of social investors that bring together people from business, government and civil society. This culminated in a meeting in London in August, 2008 and the formation of a Stewardship Team comprising people working with these different sectors. The second part of the project mapped the global public policy (GPP) system, relationships between stakeholders in global finance, and the relationships between the stakeholders and the GPP finance system. This culminated with a second stakeholder meeting at Harvard in January, 2009 that identified actions that could shift the global finance system to reflect the interdependence between realizing "stability" and "sustainability" (integration of social-environmental impact concerns). The March 2009 report with action plan is attached below.

For more information go to the GFI Share Space