Abstract:
Four-fifths of the UN’s work relates to development and international support in health, agriculture, employment, population, and statistics; with coordination of international systems for reporting on weather, air traffic control, patents, disease and crop production. Because of its global outreach, the UN has been a pioneer and leading influence on thinking and ideas about economic and social development. This chapter reviews milestones in the role of the United Nations, including a comparison of its approach vis-a-vis the initial Bretton Woods agreement (which set up procedures and institutions to regulate the international monetary system).
