ystem of International Institutions – a platform supported by a group that included Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the former French President; Federico Mayor, former UNESCO head; Samir Amin of Forum du Tiers Monde; Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General Civicus; Sara Longwe, African Women’s Development and Communication Network; and Hassen Lorgat, of SANGOCO (The South African NGO Coalition) and Transparency SA.

The push is also a call for the establishment of mechanisms to enable the world’s citizens and civil society organisations to achieve direct representation and participation in global decision-making processes. Longwe told a WSF gathering that the current UN system is run by "corporate fundamentalists" and is under male domination. She added that recent changes were a mere "mopping up" operation in the face of past errors rather than genuine reforms.

Longwe told IPS TerraViva after her intervention that forums such as the WSF are the right venue after being "isolated" in pushing the reform agenda.

"This is the right place to talk about reforms," Mitterrand remarked to IPS TerraViva.

As a sign that international institutions lack democratic governance, Lorgat denounced the fact that the heads of some key institutions are basically appointed by established powers – noting the role of the United States in choosing the head of the Word Bank.

The group also aims to have global multilateral institutions - like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation - integrated within the United Nations. The group stressed the need for "a stronger and more democratic" United Nations to put an end to social imbalances.

The campaign to reform the system of international institutions, which began in 2006 and is to last until 2009, already has the support of, among others, writer Noam Chomsky, Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, former UN High Commission for Human Rights Mary Robinson; former President of Portugal Mario Soares and former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali.

Reforms at the UN system have so far been confined to re-structuring of the United Nations secretariat in New York and continuing changes in UN agencies, but have shied away from drastic measures such as giving a formal role in decision making to civil society groups or integrating World Bank and similar international institutions into a more democratically governed United Nations System.

Naidoo, secretary general of CIVICUS and well-known South African global justice activist, called for an end to "the system of global economic apartheid".

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he said, were part of the same international system with similar voting structures weighted in favour of rich countries.

"Africa does not want anything special. What it wants is what ordinary people everywhere want - whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America and even Europe - an end to the system of global economic apartheid."