This year marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), one of a troika of Kennedy-era development institutions (the others being USAID and the Peace Corps) faced with the challenge of transforming themselves to meet the needs of the 21st Century.
In light of this milestone, CGD hosted OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria for a talk titled 21st-Century Multilateralism: The OECD in a G-20 World.
The 2008 global financial crisis and the rise of the G-20 as the world's premier economic policy forum has created new challenges and opportunities for all multilaterals. The OECD, which now includes 34 member nations, has served as the key multilateral institution for market-based solutions to complex global problems, through its worldwide economic analysis, and its identification, promotion and monitoring of best practices on a global scale.
Angel Gurria, a former finance minister and foreign minister of Mexico and current CGD board member, recently was elected to his second term as OECD Secretary General. As the first leader of the OECD from a major developing economy, he is uniquely positioned to guide the organization's transition and the creation of a new role in the rapidly changing global economic environment.