Report of High-Level Policy Forum on Global Governance

Report of High-Level Policy Forum on Global Governance

August 29, 2013

Entitled “Reconfiguring Global Governance – Effectiveness, Inclusiveness, and China’s Global Role”,  this report captures the essence of the first High Level Policy for Forum on Global Governance which saw UNDP convene over 100 academics and policy practitioners from five different continents in Beijing to discuss the present state of international governance in December 2012.

The report identifies three main challenges to global governance: the altered geography of global power caused by the economic rise of emerging nations such as China; the proliferation of globally-shared issues such as climate change and financial instability; and a need to ensure the legitimacy and accountability of global public goods. It provides in-depth analysis of these issues and the context in which we find them, and takes a detailed look at China’s growing role in international affairs.

In particular, the report emphasises that in an increasingly global society, more acceptance needs to be given to global governance institutions as being the bodies capable of coordinating multilateral responses to issues that cut across national boundaries and sovereignties, but affect all nations equally. For example, a more robust Economic and Social Council would strengthen the UN’s ability to coordinate global economic governance at a time when financial stability is of great concern.

As well as providing a faithful account of the groundbreaking discussions at the Forum, the report also includes expanded insights from a selection of the experts who attended the forum, written specially for this report. These provide a detailed explanation of some of the Forum’s key outputs and offer the reader a more comprehensive understanding of the report’s findings.