Accountability Standards at International Agricultural Research Centers

Abstract

Many scholars are more and more asking whether indeed IOs are agents of public goods or that they were founded and developed to gain autonomy and compete with traditional nation‐state sources of social power. While this is an important question to keep in mind, for this presentation, I am going to focus on the employment relationship between IOs and their staff. Specifically, on the tension between workplace rights such as “due process” and autonomy. IOs claim autonomy; that is the power to govern those internal affairs independent of external reviewers. In the shadow of that autonomy, I ask how do IOs safeguard workplace equality rights such as the right to “due process”? IOs promise fair and equitable treatment. Is their independent governance legitimate? That is, does it have the core elements that protect the legal position of the staff? Do their administrative law mechanisms that are on paper match those in practice?