Report of the Global Redesign Initiative (2010)
THE TIME HAS COME FOR A NEW STAKEHOLDER PARADIGM OF INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE ANALOGOUS TO THAT EMBODIED IN THE STAKEHOLDER THEORY OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ON WHICH THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ITSELF WAS FOUNDED. The 1945 UN Charter explicitly identifies people, or society at large, as the ultimate stakeholder of international governance, notwithstanding the role sovereign states play as the central actors in the international system.The state-based core of the system needs to be adapted to a more complex, bottom-up world in which NON-GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS HAVE BECOME A MORE SIGNIFICANT FORCE. But what is also required is a corresponding sense of ownership in the health of the international system by these very non-state stakeholders, which until now have tended, with the notable exception of certain NGOs, to leave such matters entirely to their national governments.
Most importantly, these institutions should cultivate among their leaders before they become leaders a keener awareness of how the achievement of their objectives can be heavily influenced by conditions in various areas of the international system. Those who educate and SELECT LEADERS OF POLITICAL, BUSINESS, ACADEMIC, RELIGIOUS, MEDIA AND OTHER SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, particularly graduate education programmes and boards of directors and human resources departments, have the greatest responsibility in this respect. Their curricula and senior talent development and promotion policies must reflect that they are cultivating not only leaders of functional organizations but also stewards of the international system and the contribution of their professional disciplines thereto.
People around the globe increasingly perceive their interconnectedness and seek ways to express themselves about it OUTSIDE OF FORMAL NATIONAL POLITICAL STRUCTURES.
But the Global Redesign proposals suggest that efforts today to strengthen international cooperation will increasingly need to have a wider focus and apply multiple tools: creating new international law and institutions; upgrading the mandate and capacity of existing international institutions; INTEGRATING NON-GOVERNMENTAL EXPERTISE INTO THE FORMULATION OF POLICY FRAMEWORKS, BE THEY FORMAL (LEGAL) OR INFORMAL (VOLUNTARY OR PUBLIC-PRIVATE); and integrating non-governmental resources into policy implementation.
There is a further opportunity to achieve a step change in global environmental governance by focusing not on the traditional agenda (UN structure, new legal frameworks) but on a new agenda to build the kind of practical, often public-private, mechanisms that can accelerate the transformation of energy and industrial systems EVEN IN THE ABSENCE OF AGREEMENT ON NEW MULTILATERAL LEGAL OBLIGATIONS. Various Global Agenda Councils, Industry Partner communities and YGL Task Forces have independently put forward significant proposals to build enabling institutions, install information systems, mobilize major coalitions and, in some cases, EXTEND INTERNATIONAL LAW.
In June 2008 and again in September 2009, the Forum’s cross-industry Gleneagles Dialogue and Low-Carbon Prosperity Task Force outlined the elements of a complementary, bottom-up strategy to build enabling architecture in several crucial areas, including low-carbon investment in developing countries, diffusion of energy efficient products and industrial processes, accelerated development of smart grid and carbon capture and storage technologies, IMPLEMENTATION OF LARGE-SCALE DEFORESTATION and land use initiatives in developing countries, and establishment of consistent, carbon-related corporate and consumer product metrics.
Report CONTENTS:
By John DeGioia
Proposals
Global Agenda Council on Education Systems 57...
