Environment and Sustainable Development - United Nations ...

• democracy and civil society – the importance of
democracy, in terms of both procedures and substance,
and the significance of civil society in achieving domestic
good governance and in underpinning peaceful
international relations;
• leadership – capacity development in nurturing
leadership qualities in the area of good governance; and
• policy and institutional frameworks – the tenets of
governance (institutional, policy, infrastructural and
normative) that underpin sustainable human development
and the international financial architecture.
This Naxi lady is showing photographs given to her family in the early 1930s
by Dr. Joseph Rock. They had escaped the Cultural Revolution’s destructive
madness by being walled up in the farmhouse, Yunnan, China.
(Photograph: Jack D. Ives, Senior Adviser, UNU Environment and Sustainable
Development Programme)
Geostrategic Culture and Culture of
Solidarity
Two main paradigms account for the motivations and
actions of states in international politics: geostrategic (or
national interest) considerations, and considerations of
solidarity (oriented towards basic needs and human rights).
This project tries to bring systematic understanding of
what is meant by geostrategic and solidarity
considerations, analyse their bearing in a number of current
security crises, and assesses the future of their relationship.
Project meetings were held in Tokyo (February) and Perth
(August), and authors are now drafting final versions of
their chapters for the book that will emanate from this
project.
GOVERNANCE
Governance refers to the formation and stewardship of the
formal and informal rules that regulate the public realm,
the arena in which state as well as civil society actors
interact to make decisions. It describes the modalities,
values and institutions that we employ to organize human
life at all levels. UNU work on governance focuses
particularly on:
• human rights and ethics – the significant issue of respect
for human rights in international governance as
embedded in institutions, instruments and regimes, and
its integral role in building and maintaining stable,
peaceful societies;
This section of the report concentrates on issues of global
governance. It highlights the findings of work on
promotion of democracy, international legitimacy,
structures of governance, effects of globalization,
unintended effects of corporate activity, and regional
integration.
In January 2002, UNU and the Delegation of the
European Commission in Japan continued the EU-UNU
Tokyo Global Forum series, which began in 2001, on the
theme of “Governance Across Regions: National, Regional
and Global.” The conference engaged a variety of issues
related to governance, including the contested norm of
transnational justice, international standards of economic
governance, comparisons of regional governance, and the
challenges of embracing democracy in developing
countries. Paradoxically, at a time when participation and
openness are the benchmarks of good governance at the
domestic level, there are criticisms that more and more of
the decisions that affect our lives are being moved beyond
the national realm into organizations that do not appear to
meet the same standards. In response, speakers agreed that
there are parallels between domestic and international
forms of governance: expectations of transparency,
accountability, representation, efficient delivery and
effective performance are increasingly demanded of
governance at all levels.
The UN and Promotion of Democracy
It is widely accepted that domestic governance is
intrinsically related to security within and between states,
as well as to a broad range of human rights and welfare
needs. Good governance, observed UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, “is perhaps the single most important factor in
eradicating poverty and promoting development.” Today, a
broad movement of both direct and indirect democracy
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