Implementation Of Global Policies Research Articles

Actors, alterations, and authorities: three observations of global policy and its transnational administration

Abstract This Special Issue and its seven contributions seek to shift the gaze of public policy scholarship toward the authorities, legitimacies, and influences of transnational actors on the creation and implementation of global policy and its transnational administration. It is, in large part, both a demonstration of the analytical and explanatory value of accounting for the influence of non-state actors on global issues as well as a normative reflection on what this means for already tenuous connections between publics and those that make decisions on their behalf in global forums. This Issue breaks with heterodox public policy approaches that center on the capabilities of states and international organizations to determine and to deliver global public policy and outcomes. Instead, we widen our gaze to capture the influence of transnational actors such as global commissions, transnational public–private partnerships, philanthropic foundations, non-government organization networks, domestic associations with global influence, quasi-judicial authorities, and global citizen activists. The articles discuss the impact of transnational actors on the policy and administrative spaces of global actors and states alike. By dispensing with the notion that the state and state-created international organizations are the primary locus for public policy and public administration scholarship, the included papers conclude with the implications for scholarship on transnational actor authorities and legitimacies.

From Vulnerability to Empowerment: Critical Reflections on Canada’s Engagement with Refugee Policy

The making and implementation of global policy are prominent areas of activity for the global refugee regime, with a specific focus on policy relating to the categories of vulnerable refugees. Recent collective efforts globally have highlighted the importance of meaningfully including refugees themselves; and a discursive shift away from the language of vulnerability towards that of empowerment in policy making, and humanitarian assistance. Despite this, efforts to implement these commitments have largely been unsuccessful, raising questions about how refugees are engaged in these processes, and in what ways the label of vulnerable continues to influence the making and implementation of global refugee policy. Using the case of Canada’s engagement with the global refugee regime, and with refugee women in particular, this article argues that the continued framing of refugee women as vulnerable has impeded progress, and that for transformative policy to be realized, refugee women must be seen as actors with capacity to participate, and must be included in all processes of policy making, implementation and evaluation. A feminist geopolitical framework is presented as a way to decenter states and institutions in favor of centering the individual embodied experiences of refugee women in global refugee policy making. By doing so, empowerment can be realized in policy and practice.

SDG Implementation at the Local Level: Lessons From Responses to the Coronavirus Crisis in Three Cities in the Global South

A body of work is starting to emerge that seeks to build on the challenges and lessons of the current global coronavirus crisis for long term sustainability planning and development. This perspective article argues that central to such reflections should be an acknowledgement of the intense territorial impact of the crisis, especially in the places where most of the world’s population is increasingly living: cities. We review existing frameworks for SDG implementation in the cities of Bengaluru (India), Medellin (Colombia) and Cape Town (South Africa) and use this as the backdrop for an analysis of local responses to the pandemic. We build on this analysis to reflect on three main avenues for SDG implementation going forward: multi-level governance, the science-policy interface and citizen and society engagement. We argue that strengthening these structures and collaborations will be central to more sustainable, long-term inclusive and evidence-based decision-making processes and global policy implementation in cities in a post COVID-19 world.

Effect of transnational climate networks on climate experiments: the Nilüfer Municipality, a case from Turkey

Climate change is a serious environmental problem, to be solved only with global participation. However, implementation of global policies is associated closely with national, regional and local processes. For this reason, it is critically important to strengthen our understanding of the diversity of experiments because such urban climate change initiatives may affect the expectations and demands that will be placed on future projects. Moreover, to reveal the effect of the factors, such as participation in transnational networks, on the experiments at local level is also critically important in contextually different settings. From this point of view, the present study aims to present experimentation in addressing climate change in the case of the Nilufer Municipality in northwestern Turkey and to examine the effect of joining an international network, as a key factor that may support urban climate experiments. The research is designed as a case study built on both primary and secondary sources. The Nilufer Municipality is selected as the case area as it is the only signatory of Mayors Adapt and one of sixteen signatories of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) among the 1397 municipalities within the Turkish Republic. Finally, this case study shows that although local governments have not been involved in the climate change policies at the national level in the Turkish context, the Nilufer Municipality was able to develop its own experiments by being part of a transnational network, especially after signing the Covenant of Mayors in 2014. This finding leads us to the conclusion that supranational organizations can have significant impact on the climate experiments initiation of local governments that are important actors in the implementation of policies to address climate change as a global problem.

The impact of smoke-free legislation on fetal, infant and child health: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

IntroductionSecond-hand smoke (SHS) exposure is estimated to kill 600 000 people worldwide annually. The WHO recommends that smoke-free indoor public environments are enforced through national legislation. Such regulations have been...

National ownership in the implementation of global climate policy in Uganda

This article explores the history, from a developing country perspective, of how external interventions to implement global policies on the Climate Convention and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have been integrated into national development policy frameworks in the period 1990–2005. The main question asked is to what extent external interventions have formed part of a country-driven approach in Uganda. The conflicting national and global priorities concerning the need for adaptation to the impacts of climate change versus the need for global mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are explored first. Against this background, Uganda's policy response to climate change is reviewed. National climate policies are found not to exist, and the implementation of global policies is not integrated into national policy frameworks, partly due to conflicting national and global priorities. Given limited national awareness and the fact that climate policy is marginal compared to other national interests in Uganda, the experiences with donor support for the implementation of global climate policy nationally are analysed. This article demonstrates that neither national policies nor national management of donor support have secured a country-driven approach to external interventions in Uganda.