UNESCO Social and Human Sciences
 
You are in the MOST Phase I website (1994-2003).
The MOST Phase II website is available at: www.unesco.org/shs/most.
 

 
  Globalisation and Governance in the UN system
 

The UN System

The MOST Programme

| Phasing of activities (1998-1999) | Strategy for 2000-2002| 
| Consolidation of results and transfer to decision-making|
   
 
   
    Trade liberalisation and the dwindling of duty restrictions are certainly nothing new. This movement, which had been stopped at the beginning of the 19th century and keenly encouraged after World War II, has been steered in recent years. Indeed, international trade is being raised each year by 9 %, and exports increase three times faster than the global GNP. Moreover, this movement has been extended to other fields like finance, services and people. Globalisation today is thus not only an economic but also a political, cultural and social phenomenon, and it entails consequences in all those fields. Actually, transnational business ventures, dynamic technological innovations, international communication networks and environmental concerns tend to cross more and more over national borders. As a result, almost every society is forming a part of an increasingly interdependent world. Discussing governance structures and mechanisms turns out to be a priority for the United Nations system in general.

 
   But globalisation also gives rise to fear in many countries. In many parts of the world, people notice that this movement, which seems to be very powerful and sometimes uncontrollable, calls the pertinence of their nation-states into question. In Seattle (1999), many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have thus expressed their opposition to global standardization, which is seen as a potential loss of identity. Moreover, globalisation is being accused of deepening the gap between the rich and the poor. Indeed, less than 0.5 % of the global population possesses more than 50 % of the world wealth, while almost 1.5 billion people try to subsist with less than 1 dollar for a day.
 
   However that may be, it is assumed that problems such as poverty, pollution, biosafety or drug trafficking henceforth cross national borders and should for that reason be solved at a global level. Nation-states are no longer able to face these issues on their own. Today, many other actors are in a position to participate in this ambitious regulation. Besides nation-states, international organisations, NGOs, informal networks and even multinational corporations want to be involved in the management of global issues. In particular, civil society organisations (CSOs), which are mainly composed of NGOs and voluntary associations, seem to be among the most efficient actors of regulation since its bodies are represented and also undertake action at a very local level. Although this multiplicity of actors might pose problem and raises anyway the central question of legitimacy, a combined action of the State, CSOs and the private sector could prove to be effective, if well harmonised.
 
  This attempt at managing conflicting interests and global issues is nowadays often called governance. The hopes of regulating globalisation are thus no longer set on a hypothetical world government, but rather on global governance. All actors, including governmental and non-governmental forces, elected and non-elected bodies, as well as formal and informal institutions, might thus be required to play an important part in different fields of governance, such as participatory development, reinforcement of civil society organisations (CSOs), democratisation, public sector management and human rights.
 
 
   In the UN System
 

  Relationships among civil society, the United Nations, and global governance are deeply changing nowadays. Globalisation and governance are key thematic areas for the UN in general. The growing activism of civil society can represent a threat to, but mainly an opportunity for, the UN.
  
  On the demand-side of governance, civil society organisations in relation to the UN fall in three general and somewhat overlapping clusters:

  • those NGOs focused primarily on advocacy, policy, and UN headquarters;
  • those Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) concerned chiefly with working in the field and with implementation questions;
  • and other groups, such as the media, the private sector, and the intellectual community, of interest to the Secretary-General and others, seeking partners for the UN but not organized along typical NGO lines.
       
          There are several challenges that the rise of civil society activism will pose to the nature and character of the United Nations in the twenty-first century. We could recall the following :
  • How should democratic principles apply to UN decision-making structures? What is the democratic content of the legal principle of sovereign equality and of consensus and one nation/one vote rules in an era in which transnational and non-state actors are playing a growing role in addressing global and regional problems? Who will governments represent and what should be expected of them?
  • How do transnational movements fit into institutions designed along inter-governmental lines? Is there a fundamental mismatch between the nature of issues and the shape of the table, rules, and procedures?
  • Can a UN agenda and a transnational political culture be sustained apart from national and intergovernmental politics? Who will change whose values over time?
  • Ultimately, will the success, even viability, of the UN enterprise depend on the erosion or the reassertion of the power and stature of national governments?
  • Must the UN choose between dependence on civil society or on member states? Is this a zero-sum game or can we think of win-win situations ?
   
    In the MOST Programme
   

 

  Under "globalisation and governance", MOST has buttressed the understanding of globalisation’s many processes through a range of activities. These include books, policy and discussion papers, project information brochures and symposium reports. Networks and programmes that ensure the linkages between knowledge-producers and research-users have been established. They cover: the impact of globalisation on rural societies in the Arab world; environmental and economic coping strategies in the Northern circumpolar region; economic and social transformations connected with the international drug problem; institutional modernisation of social policies in Latin America; socio‑cultural values in the framework of regional integration processes (MERCOSUR countries); sustainability and development policies; and individual and collective risks in countries undergoing profound social transformations.

   Since June 1997, several MOST networks have produced international comparative reports based on the analysis of primary and secondary data concerning the impact of global economic and environmental phenomena at the national/local levels. The networks seek to identify which tools and strategies may help counteract marginalisation and underdevelopment in a globalising world economy. In so doing, they have enhanced the role played by social sciences in devising policies for sustainable human development. They have also increased awareness among researchers of the importance of linkages between the science community and decision‑makers. The nature of the research must be clearly distinguished from traditional academic research, the extension of results to those studying and designing policy compels the outputs of the MOST programme; thus, scaling the global is of great relevance in MOST research agenda.
 

 

  Phasing of activities (1998-1999)

 
  For 1998-1999, the steps taken for implementing activities under this theme emphasise the production of new scientific knowledge and its conversion for public use by public decision-makers and mass media professionals. Three main areas of intervention were chosen: national coping strategies to fight against drug-trafficking; sustainability; and social governance within globalisation and integration processes.
 
  In the first case, the compiling and processing of largely unpublished data on drug trafficking in different countries has generated new knowledge. Because drug trafficking is a recent development in many regions, such areas often lack basic knowledge about the subject. Countries like the United States or the Andean countries, are exceptions. A better theoretical understanding of the conditions governing the development of drugs, their trafficking and the economic and social transformations connected with them is needed. Through its national Liaison Committees, MOST will foster direct action among government officials, science journalists and representatives of civil society.
 
  In the second case, the network has developed a theoretical framework for using sustainability as a paradigm in social science research. The main concern of this German-funded project has been to initiate and then intensify, on an international scale, a problem-oriented debate on the concept of sustainable development within the various social sciences. Training materials for educators and civil servants have also been developed by MOST and the French NGO, Solagral.
   
  In the third case, MOST has focused its activities on the need to understand the process of dialogue and integration at the level of societies and cultures. Each nation and each social group within it necessarily approaches other societies with a pre-established set of traditions, cultural values, and views. These influence the way the way that integration and interaction proceed. Development of this facet of theme three will allow MOST to produce (1) tools for evaluating social modes of regulation of integrating/integrated spaces, (2) integrated assessments of the increasing participation of social actors in decision-making, principally in the fields of institutional modernisation, social participation in integration processes, migration and frontier policies, cultural and linguistic policies, as well as educational policies (review of geography/history manuals according to changing integration realities).

 

 

Strategy for 2000-2002

 
  Economic and environmental processes are thought to connect individuals to large-scale systems as part of complex dialectics of change at both the local and global poles. Certainly local and global processes are important, but so are processes that are regional or national in character. In as much as all these processes shape the circumstance of our daily lives, the exercise is not one of awarding empirical or theoretical priority to one level over another. Rather, we should recognise all levels that are relevant to socio-spatial change.
 
  What has the MOST Programme to offer? In the project Coping locally and regionally with global economic and environmental transformations", the nature of the MOST’s research must be clearly distinguished from traditional academic research. The MOST Programme is totally guided by the underlying idea that research output must be useful to those who make and manage policy. Thus, scaling the global is highly pertinent to the MOST research agenda. Restructuring goes from the national scale upwards to supra-national and/or global scales, and also downwards to the individual body, the local, and the urban or regional configurations. In particular, concepts such as “local" and "global" are often merely hypothetical, discursive vehicles which are used to order political, social and economic processes according to particular spatial criteria.
 

 

Consolidation of results and transfer to decision-making

 
  A series of documents and training materials is currently being developed to ensure that those in various spheres of decision-making can be sensitised to the issues MOST networks have been working on. Books and discussion papers (as well as articles in journals by the researchers themselves) have been published. They are mainly addressed to the scientific community.
 
  Other tools, such as policy papers, pedagogical booklets and brochures, and documentaries are in preparation. Our goal is to reach a broader community. For instance, as a product of our activities (both the Circumpolar Coping Processes Project and the German-funded Sustainability Project), but also as our contribution to the implementation of Agenda 21 chapters 8 and 36, MOST has published a series of leaflets on main issues related to the promotion of sustainable development in a globalising economy. MOST’s objective is to make ideas, tools, and resources available to all those concerned with local impact of global environmental and economic change, whether they be educators, elected officials, local NGOs/CBOs, or city employees.
   
  In the period 2000/2002, MOST networks will follow a two-fold strategy: first, they will continue to concentrate on issues related to the understanding of globalisation and governance; second, activities under this theme three will also focus on local development strategies and local governance mechanisms.