Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how the social and cultural dimensions of financing for development issues are addressed in the UN and related civil society activities. It touches on the possibilities and problems associated with broadening the accepted economic development discourse and the potential it creates for the emergence of new paradigms for change.

Paper long abstract:

The international hegemonic discourse around financing for development and the economic crisis is generally considered to lie squarely in the domain of economics or sometimes more broadly of political economy. This categorization channels and delimits both the questions posed and solutions considered. Increasingly, however, there is recognition of the need for a more holistic approach and this has the potential to reconfigure aspects of the international decision-making landscape.

Based on involvement with the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, the presentation discusses the spaces in which, and processes whereby, social and cultural issues around financing for development issues are introduced at the UN and in related NGO and civil society arenas. It explores how critical intersecting issues of human rights, women's issues, and more generally social development policy are raised, thereby destabilizing economic development discourse. Efforts, for example, are made to bring attention to the ground realities of people's lives in order to influence economic policy and the conditions under which people live. Engagement and activism in the UN arena highlight both the possibilities and problems related to this exploration and expansion into social and cultural domains. A fuller understanding of the processes and institutional mechanisms of engagement can shed some light on the potential for meaningful change.