Reframing Global Environmental Governance: Results of a CIGI/CIS Collaboration
There are serious questions about the ability or willingness of states, individually and collectively, to respond to the most pressing environmental challenges. The erosion of confidence in and the dominance of a state-centric governance model has simultaneously resulted from and provoked significant innovation. Corporations, social and environmental organizations, private-public partnerships, substate governments, and even local communities have already begun to conceive and implement governance initiatives to address global environmental problems. This paper reflects upon these innovative institutional dynamics and assesses their prospects to produce effective, legitimate, and equitable outcomes. It concludes with a series of questions to guide future analysis and to better understand the prospects for improving the practice of global environmental governance.
The World Summit on Food Security and the People's Forum: Same Problem, Different Takes
Even though more than 1 billion people worldwide are undernourished, little progress was made at The World Summit on Food Security to reduce world hunger. A parallel civil society summit called the the People's Forum met at the same time to discuss food security. Jennifer Clapp, CIGI Chair in Global Environmental Governance, remarks on the striking differences between the two gatherings.
The Global Food Crisis
The global food crisis is a stark reminder of how fragile the global food system is. In this edited volume, authors examine the most recent food price volatility and the resulting governance challenges and opportunities. The authors make several recommendations, including increased public investment in small-farm agriculture, reform to food aid and agricultural trade rules, and enhanced international agricultural policy making.
Environmental Sustainability and the Financial Crisis: Linkages and Policy Recommendations
As the global economic crisis and nascent recovery continue to unfold, it is important not to lose sight of the environment amid fiscal stimulus efforts and economic reorientation. Economic prosperity cannot be pursued at the expense of environmental sustainability. Long-term economic prosperity requires a strong and healthy ecosystem at its base. This publication highlights unique challenges and opportunities for policy makers in the face of the current economic crisis.
The G8's Global Food Security Initiative
The G8 Leaders announced a US$20 billion pledge to boost world food security at their recent summit in L’Aquila. The pledge, greater by US$5 billion than originally anticipated, is a welcome one given that world hunger is on the rise. Indeed, the FAO recently announced that the number of undernourished people on this planet has now surpassed 1 billion. Never before have so many people gone hungry.
Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance
This book examines how transnational corporations exercise power over global food and agriculture governance and what the consequences are for the sustainability of the global food system.
International Governance Responses to the Global Food Crisis
The year 2008 saw the price of food rise dramatically around the world, creating significant challenges for food security and the livelihoods of poor people around the globe. On December 4-5, 2008, The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) convened a workshop of experts as part of the project, "Agriculture, Food, and Environment in the New Global Context." Participants explored the roots of the crisis and recommended reforms to the food aid regime, agricultural governance and trade policies towards developing countries.
Developing Countries and the WTO Agriculture Negotiations
The Doha "Development" Round of trade negotiations at the WTO has featured agricultural trade liberalization as one of its key aims. But developing countries were frustrated with both the process and the content of the agricultural agreement negotiations early on in the Round. This prompted these countries, through a number of developing country groupings such as the G20 and others, to call for changes in the talks to ensure that developing country voices and concerns were heard. Though developing countries were in many ways successful in registering their concerns in the latter half of the negotiations and have maintained a fairly high degree of cohesion across the Global South, it remains unclear whether this cohesion will last as the uneven impacts of agricultural trade liberalization become apparent.