National Negotiations Research Articles

Supply chains (Scope 3) toward sustainable food systems: An analysis of food & beverage processing corporate greenhouse gas emissions disclosure

To align business activities with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5°, companies may disclose and set targets to mitigate their emissions. The global food system contributes up to 37% of total annual emissions. Major food & beverage processing companies heavily contribute to food system emissions through their supply chains. Despite this, sector-specific analysis of the status and quality of scope 3 emissions for food & beverage processing companies is lacking. Using 2018 CDP data to build a sample of 153 companies, the authors describe the state of voluntary disclosure, particularly for scope 3, for food & beverage processing companies. Further, the paper investigated the effect of emissions performance, national environmental policy, international negotiation group, and primary activity on scope 3 disclosure. It also examined the effect of primary activity, scope 3 disclosure, and national environmental policy and international negotiation group on direct- and energy-related emissions performance. The authors found scope 3 disclosure in the food & beverage processing sector was incomplete and inconsistent. The 2018 Environmental Performance Index score and the international negotiating group of a company's headquarter country were significant predictors of scope 3 disclosure by category. Firm size (by revenue) was the only significant predictor of direct and energy-related (scopes 1 and 2) emissions, but was not correlated with improved emissions performance. The authors concluded with a set of recommendations to improve the availability and transparency of scope 3 emissions data, and invited further research into sector-specific scope 3 disclosure, performance, effect of firm size and climate policy at the national and international levels. • Scope 3 disclosures by F&B processing companies lacked completeness and consistency. • Annual revenue predicted scope 1 & 2 emissions, larger firms were not more efficient. • Proposed ranking index for qualitative comments on relevant scope 3 category disclosures. • EPI score and UNFCCC alliance of firm home country explain scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity. • EPI score and UNFCCC alliances of firm home country explain completeness of scope 3 disclosure.

Analysing the Politics of Nigeria's 2019 National Minimum Wage: Towards a Public Policy.

This paper analyses the politics that characterised the Nigeria 2019 national minimum wage negotiations and implementation, which so far is the most prolonged in Nigeria’s history. Workers' welfare is the responsibility of governments across the world through fixing and regulation of the national minimum wage. But in Nigeria, this has been problematic, and the entire process is characterised by industrial actions undertaken to compel the government to commit to wage negotiations and implementation. The paper argues that the absence of functional standing machinery with a focus on labour economics, deciding the condition and time for a minimum wage review is seen as the main bane in government–labour frequent face-off in Nigeria, which has negatively impacted on harmonious industrial relations. Writing from the analytical point of view, the paper finds that industrial actions have become one action too many because of government's political approach to labour demands. Deciphered in the foregoing is that the current system of government–labour negotiation for new national minimum wage cannot guarantee workers’ welfare in Nigeria. Thus, for the Nigeria government to address this perennial minimum wage problem and be seen as fulfilling its obligation to the International Labour Organisation, it must urgently put in place an acceptable mechanism for fixing and regulating the national minimum wage in Nigeria to cushion the effect of the hike in petroleum products on which the national economy largely depends.

Transformational opportunities for an equitable ocean commons

A frontier mentality has been a defining aspect of human history. Often this sentiment is optimistically framed in the language of aspirations and opportunities. But it can also be accompanied by unsavory narratives of over-exploitation, inequity, and conflict (1). If any place on Earth can be considered a final frontier, it is perhaps the ocean’s “areas beyond national jurisdiction” (ABNJ), which are both distant (generally starting some 370 km from coastlines) and vast (covering nearly 40% of the planet’s surface). It is also the subject of ongoing United Nations negotiations for a treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity found in areas beyond national jurisdiction (typically shortened to BBNJ, https://www.un.org/bbnj/). However, if current trajectories of expansion of human activities in the ocean continue, we are at the crossroad of deciding whether this rapidly receding frontier will bring the economic and social benefits that drive progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Agenda or further cement global inequities (2). To preserve the global ocean commons, we need to explicitly focus not just on scientific questions worthy of investigation but also on building up the capacity of emerging and future researchers. Image credit: Shutterstock/LeQuangNhut. Humanity has never benefited more from the ocean, but 60% of USD 1.8 trillion revenues of the eight main ocean-based sectors were accrued by just 100 corporations (3). Almost half of these are oil and gas companies headquartered in 13 countries, emphasizing the distance between today’s ocean economy and aspirations of a sustainable and equitable “blue economy” (4). Over the past 50 years, this concentration has been accompanied by accelerating growth in the diversity and scale of claims on the ocean’s food, material, and space, not only in coastal areas, but increasingly in international waters [the Blue Acceleration (5)]. For instance, industrial fishing fleets … [↵][1] 1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: joachim.claudet{at}cnrs.fr. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Himalayan BRI: an infrastructural conjuncture and shifting development in Nepal

ABSTRACT In Nepal, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) contributed to the articulation of a post-2015 conjuncture involving a new constitution, earthquake reconstruction, an Indian blockade and disenchantment with Western non-governmental organization developmentalism. This conjuncture permitted the emergence of new domestic possibilities, regional configurations of power, Himalayan geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics, and developmental trajectories involving an infrastructural turn. Considered a frontier zone since the Sugauli Treaty, Nepal has mobilized its own historical, geographical and political conditions, and articulated the BRI as a historical opportunity to liberate itself from India’s market monopoly and domestic political and economic influence by generating a new national discourse in favour of a sovereign, autonomous and self-reliant development path that is already shaping national policymaking, state restructuring, political mobilizations, regional negotiations and Nepal Himalaya landscapes. As such it challenges the conventional opposition between globalized capitalist and imperialist exploitation and national sovereignty.

Online language use and identity of Ukrainian diaspora in Germany

This article studies the language use and identity of Ukrainian communities in Germany on the websites and in online social media. Since 2014, the conflict in the East of Ukraine has led to a remarkably large and intense flow of Ukrainian migrants to Western Europe and Germany in particular giving rise to longstanding issues of identity formation and language use both within Ukraine and inside Ukrainian diaspora communities around the globe. This article will examine Ukrainian diaspora in Germany on the subject of language ideologies, practices and identity shaping by analyzing its linguistic online activity. To do so, our analysis will draw on a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, including studies of descriptive reporting of diaspora’s online discussions, its language practices and attitudes, and studies of discursive constructions of nationhood, which explore language indexing in relation to national identity negotiation.

The climate consistency goal and the transformation of global finance

Controversy remains over the climate consistency of finance flows despite its centrality in the Paris Agreement (Article 2.1(c)). Two main interpretations dispute the goal’s reach, threatening its transformational potential. If left unresolved, the controversy may also mask trade-offs, allowing for unintentional harm to countries already vulnerable to climate change. Here we build on four methods to show that Art. 2.1(c) comprises a new meaning of ‘finance’ under the United Nations negotiations. In contrast to climate finance provision to developing countries (Art. 9), the climate consistency of finance flows represents a purpose that relies on support and action to transform the global financial system. Implementation of Art. 2.1(c) requires engagement by governments and non-state actors, including the financial sector. While solutions for Art. 2.1(c) will need to be adequate for countries’ contexts, accounting of trade-offs should ensure some level of convergence towards a global, timely and equitable progress towards climate consistency of finance flows. Finance flows consistent with low-emission pathways and resilient development are central to the Paris Agreement, yet confusion remains about Article 2.1(c). Clarity is needed, particularly of its relationship with climate finance, to differentiate responsibility and enable suitable monitoring.

Trends of Negotiated Targeted Anticancer Medicines Use in China: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

In order to relieve the financial burden of the patients in China, the Ministry of Health (MoH) conducted the first national price negotiation and successfully negotiated three expensive medicines including 2 targeted anticancer medicines (TAMs), icotinib and gefitinib. However, little evidence was available to demonstrate the impact of the national negotiation on TAMs use. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the implementation of the national price negotiation policy in China on TAMs use. We used interrupted time series (ITS) design to examine the changes in the daily cost, the monthly hospital purchasing volume and spending of icotinib and gefitinib with pharmaceutical procurement data from 594 tertiary hospitals in 29 provinces of mainland China between January 2015 and July 2017. The period between May and July 2016 was applied to assess the impact of policy. The daily cost of icotinib and gefitinib decreased by 50.08% (P<.001) and 53.89% (P<.001) 12 months after the national negotiation, respectively. In terms of volume, the negotiation was associated with increases in the trend of the monthly hospital purchasing volume of icotinib and gefitinib by 4.87 thousand defined daily doses (DDDs) (P<.001) and 6.89 thousand DDDs (P<.001). However, the monthly hospital purchasing spending of icotinib and gefitinib decreased rapidly by US$0.51 million (P<.010) and US$0.82 million (P<.050) following policy implementation, respectively. The first national negotiation had successfully cut off the price of two negotiated TAMs and promoted TAMs use in China. In the future, government should conduct further price negotiations and include more medicines with clinical benefits into reimbursement schemes to alleviate patients' financial burden and promote their access to essential treatment.

Building Peace in the Shadow of War: Women-to-Women Diplomacy as Alternative Peacebuilding Practice in Myanmar

ABSTRACT Conventional assumptions locating peacebuilding temporally after violence have largely prevented exploration of how peacebuilding is practiced amidst conditions of ongoing violence. This article addresses this gap by analysing how Myanmar women’s activists have devised strategies in pursuit of peace, amidst ongoing armed conflict, from the 1990s and onwards. The findings demonstrate that women’s inter-ethnic cooperation contributed to transform conflict divides long before the initiation of formal national peace negotiations in 2011. Further, theorizing these peacebuilding practices, the article provides new insights into the dynamics of women’s peace activism of relevance beyond the case of Myanmar.

Marine Genetic Resources in Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions: Strategy for a Successful Harnessing of Blue Biotechnology in Africa

Marine environments provide valuable economic, social and cultural resources useful to sustain life on earth. The genetic material of the living organisms found in them is an important input for blue biotechnology. The exploitation of these marine genetic resources can contribute to the sustainable development of all continents, including in Africa. It also participates in global balances, particularly of climate and biodiversity. International negotiations at the United Nations’ level have been taking place for over 15 years, at the demand of developing countries to build an international regime, a way to ensure that all countries benefit from the economic returns deriving from living organisms. These negotiations have proved to be extremely difficult due to the lack of consensus on which principles, between the freedom of research on the high seas and the common heritage of humanity, should guide such governance. Following a long-standing social construction in international human rights and biodiversity law, benefit-sharing has emerged as the appropriate formula to ensure equity in the exploitation of marine genetic resources among countries. This formula appears as relevant as only a few States, among which there is no developing country, are technically and financially capable of accessing marine genetic resources and developing them for exploitation. This paper is based on the assumption that potential monetary and non-monetary benefits arising out of the exploitation of marine genetic resources can contribute to sustainable development in Africa. As such, it suggests a strategic approach for African countries to get the most of international negotiations on this issue by providing their negotiators with a stockpile of arguments relevant to the issues at stake (namely, the regulation of access to marine genetic resources and the regulation of the sharing of benefits arising out of their exploitation). It also moves beyond the paradigmatic framing of benefit-sharing for developing countries, which goes from the un-verified hypothesis of the inadequacy of patents as intellectual property rights, to rather underline their high value if African countries expect to accrue more important resources for the development of blue biotechnology on the continent. This research has been funded by the African Natural Resources Centre of the African Development Bank which mandates is to build practical knowledge for African countries by assisting them in maximizing development outcomes derived from natural resources. It will be of interest to African negotiators involved in the biological biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction international negotiations, and to scholars, students and other parties interested in environmental diplomacy pertaining to ocean life.

Engaging feminist pedagogies to support equality bargaining in academia

ABSTRACT Despite decades of Equal Opportunity legislation, gender inequality persists in Australian universities. This is largely due to the shaping of universities by new market principles, discourses of individualisation that render the asymmetry of gender relations invisible, and privileging masculine epistemologies. Concurrently, industrial relations have been decentralised, and individual universities negotiate staff pay and working conditions through local Enterprise Bargaining (EB). Whilst EB mitigates the development of a national gender-equity framework for universities, trade unions operating through inequality regimes rarely prioritised gender equity even when they did lead national negotiations. Therefore, within a context of complex inequalities in higher education and trade unions, this paper explores how feminist pedagogies can facilitate equality bargaining and gender equality in academia. It also suggests that equality bargaining is especially important during (current) times of austerity when the removal of gender-equality support structures within trade unions generally occur.

Can locally developed me-too drugs aid price negotiation? An example of cancer therapies from China

Rapid growth in pharmaceutical expenditures and high prices have greatly hampered access to medicines, especially targeted anticancer medicines. Confronted with such difficulties, the Chinese government has put more effort into supporting local research and development of cancer medicines, resulting in locally developed me-too drugs. Since 2016, the government has implemented a central reimbursement-linked drug price negotiation policy aimed at reducing the prices of expensive medicines. Locally developed me-too drugs marketed at lower prices may inject price competition and help negotiate reduced prices of similar internationally-developed products. As an example, we selected 3 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) developed for the therapy of advanced non-small cell lung cancer harboring mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Descriptive analysis was applied to data from the Chinese Medical Economic Information database to describe the impact on the price and utilization of three TKIs after the introduction of icotinib, a locally developed me-too TKI and two national negotiations regarding the price of EGFR-TKIs in China. After two national negotiations, the daily costs of all three EGFR-TKIs were reduced to around $30. From the first quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2016, the market share of the purchasing volume of icotinib, China's locally developed TKI, increased from 13% to 40%, while the market shares of two internationally developed TKIs decreased from 35% to 15% and from 52% to 45%, for erlotinib and gefitinib, respectively. The prices of EGFR-TKIs decreased and China's locally developed TKI accounted for a considerable proportion of market share. Locally developed me-too drugs aid price negotiation by injecting price competition and helping negotiate reduced prices of similar internationally-developed products. Through efforts to develop me-too drugs, combined with national drug price negotiation and reimbursement policies, developing countries might improve access to more affordable targeted cancer therapies.

Case Study of Icotinib on The Impact of Domestic Innovative Drugs Timely Covered by Medical Insurance

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of timely inclusion of medical insurance on the use of high-quality domestic innovative drugs, using the domestic innovative drug, icotinib, as an example. METHODS Province X and province Z with large difference on the timing to include icotinib in medical insurance were selected as sample provinces to compare and analyze the price, volume and expenditure changes of three targeted drugs (gefitinib, erlotinib and icotinib) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), using the sample hospital procurement data covering two provinces from 2013 to 2018 in the China Medical Economic Information Network (CMEI) database. RESULTS In two sample provinces, icotinib's daily cost had been the lowest among three sample drug's for a long time. Province Z has included icotinib in the basic health insurance since 2013. After that, the market shares of icotinib's volume and expenditure had increased rapidly from 0, and remained at about 85% for a long period of time, occupying the dominant position in province Z's market. However, province X has not included icotinib until 2016. The highest market share of icotinib's volume was only 8% in province X's market. There was little difference of sample drugs' daily cost between two provinces. After the national health insurance negotiation, the daily cost of sample drugs decreased significantly, with an overall decrease between 60% to 79%. By the second half of 2018, the daily cost of sample drugs was almost the same. CONCLUSION Timely inclusion of high-quality domestic innovative drugs in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement can greatly promote the use of high-quality domestic innovative drugs. Compared with foreign drugs with same indications, high-quality domestic innovative drugs can save money for patients, which will greatly benefit them.

Maritime Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) from the French Perspective

Sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea became a key topic for the negotiations since the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. Ocean change is now the most significant threat facing humanity, especially those living in coastal areas. The possible and already observed loss of territory, and thus sovereignty of the submerged states, is not the only legal consequence of ocean change happening now, in the 21st century. Another factor is the downsizing of Exclusive Economic Zones, which implies political tensions between the neighboring countries, both sovereign and dependent territories of the former colonial powers. France is present in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean via its overseas collectivities. Thus, instead of being at the 45th position in the world’s ranking of the ocean powers, the Republic of France comes in the second position, straight after the United States of America. This high and indeed precious position, both geostrategically and economically, affects its views toward the United Nations negotiations process on biological diversity beyond national jurisdiction.

PNS62 Keeping up with the Rest of the World or Setting a New PACE: China’S Expansion into Evidence-Based Health Technology Assessment in Healthcare Policy-Making

Despite the absence of institutionalising Health Technology Assessment (HTA), the Chinese government has set up clear goals to strengthen the national pharmacoeconomic evaluation capabilities and capacity so that a standardised HTA process can be integrated in drug pricing and reimbursement policy-making. This study aims to discuss the opportunities and challenges posed by the evolution of HTA in China and explore tangible solutions to succeed when the need for robust clinical and pharmacoeconomic evidence increases. Literature and policy documents were reviewed. Expert opinions via quantitative survey (n=60) and semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews (n=10) were utilised to explore the recent evolution of HTA in China, during which payers were probed on details of policy trends, evidence requirements, and ways for global manufacturers to stay ahead of the curve. China has made significant progress in integrating HTA in the pricing and reimbursement policy-making processes, which can be seen in recent National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL) and National Essential Drug List (NEDL) updates. Payers have highlighted the importance of developing robust clinical & economic evidence package to support national listing and price negotiation of high cost, high value drugs. Specifically, four types of evidence should be clearly demonstrated, namely clinical necessity, incremental clinical value vs. standard of care, robust pharmacoeconomic evaluation (cost-effectiveness and budget impact) and drug international reference prices/global sales information. In addition, in order to enable swift access of much needed innovative assets, the government is also actively exploring the possibility of ad-hoc review of an innovative drug upon company proactive submission. When it comes to pricing and reimbursement decisions, China is rapidly moving from an expert consensus-based evaluation framework to an evidence-based framework. Robustness in demonstrating clinical necessity, clinical and economic value are likely have a great impact on both likelihood and speed of access in China.

“Lip-Sync for Your Life” (Abroad)

The article aims to critically explore and understand the ways both RuPaul’s star persona and its program, RuPaul’s Drag Race, are distributed in Italy, circulate across, and impact on the Italian television industry and media culture, it also aims to show how many forms of national mediation, professional negotiation and audience reception deeply modify, and re-shape the TV product. To tackle the manifold facets of this case, four aspects will be analyzed: (trans)national distribution; adaptation and dubbing; global/local stardom; reception and cultural impact. Over a decade, the Italian edition and distribution of the show have changed, together with the national media landscape and its audiences.

Launch Delay of New Drugs in China and Effect on Patients’ Health

PurposeAlthough the launch delay of new drugs in China has been a deep concern during the past few years, research on this topic is scarce. The effect of recent regulatory efforts, such as initiating fast review channels to improve access to medical innovations, remains unclear. In this work, we measure the launch delay in China and study whether the fast channels contribute to shorter delays. We also offer an examination of the effect of launch delay on patients’ health. MethodsWe examined the launch delays of 40 new drugs engaged in the 3 national price negotiations in China. Launch delay was defined as the differences between the approval dates of the United States or the European Union and that of China and was measured according to approved indications of every specific drug. Thirty-four health impact models comparing the new drugs and their corresponding comparator therapies were populated with open data from published studies to assess the loss of health attributable to launch delay. The time horizon for each model was the specified delay time. FindingsA total of 40 new drugs with 54 approvals were studied. The median delay was 44.40 months (range, 7.30–196.24 months). For the 20 approvals granted with the fast channels, the median delay was 38.14 months, which was shorter than the 68.25 months of those 34 approvals on the track of standard procedure (P = 0.0276). Moreover, among the 34 health models for 27 new drugs, the largest loss of health was 5.76 life-years and 4.14 quality-adjusted life-years per potential patient, whereas the least loss was 0.006 life-years per head and 0.0035 quality-adjusted life-years per head, respectively. ImplicationsAccess to new drugs is delayed significantly in China, which may undermine patient benefit by causing loss of life-years and quality of life. The fast review procedures in China have appeared to mitigate the launch delay.

Labour market policy under the new European economic governance: France in the focus of the new European labour market policy

The article examined the influence of the European crisis politics on French labour market regulation. The European crisis management has resulted in institutionalised interventionism, that restraint the European Union member states’ ability to regulate her national labour markets. France was less affected by the crisis but it was also in the focus of the European interventionism. On the basis of the labour market reforms ‘Loi Macron’ and ‘Loi El Khomri’, the article investigates what role the European institutions play and how big was the influence of the European Union in the national negotiation process.

Threats, Drivers, and Conservation Imperative of Agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity underpins food, nutrition and livelihood security, ecosystem and environmental health, and climate change resilience but it is under threat of extinction. This paper highlights threats of agrobiodiversity, its drivers and conservation imperatives. Review shows prior to the green revolution, several crops and varieties were found in situ and on-farm but the number has declined since then. Extinction is contributing to decline in crop productivity and resilience and consequently the long-term sustainability of human wellbeing. Extinction is attributable to various natural and man-made factors. Various international and national level efforts are underway but not adequate to curb the loss. Therefore, further efforts are required to conserve and utilize agrobiodiversity, which will require concerted efforts in exploring agrobiodiversity, identifying drivers of loss and bolstering conservation efforts. This can be done through implementation of biodiversity-friendly legislations, actions and incentive mechanisms adhering to relevant global and national level policies, negotiations and conventions.

The effect of technology spillover on CO2 emissions embodied in China-Australia trade

CO2 emissions embodied in international trade have drawn wide attention in the academia and national climate negotiations. In this study, we estimate the embodied CO2 emissions in the trade between China and Australia using long time series disaggregated sectoral data based on missions embodied in bilateral trade (EEBT) method, and analyse the major driving forces for these emissions changes based on structural decomposition analysis (SDA) method. The results show that export volume contributed to these embodied CO2 emissions increase, while emission intensity could offset these CO2 emissions increase. We further predict embodied CO2 emission in Sino-Australia trade under different scenarios and the results indicate that technology spillover can significantly reduce embodied CO2 emissions in trade. Electricity, transportation and cement industries have significant potential to reduce carbon emissions. In addition, we evaluate future carbon reduction potential till 2030. The results in this study can inform decision-makers for Australia and China to formulate energy conservation and emission reduction policies.

Reconsidering the humanitarian space: Complex interdependence between humanitarian and peace negotiations in Syria

ABSTRACT Humanitarian agencies working in violent conflicts often insist on separating humanitarian negotiations from political mediation efforts. However, many academics and practitioners also wonder if humanitarian negotiations can really be apolitical and disentangled from peace negotiations. Using the case study of Syria, this article analyzes the interactions between humanitarian negotiations and international peace negotiations. By considering various actors involved in Syria and the different arenas of negotiations (mainly the Astana talks and the United Nations negotiations led by the Special Envoy), it demonstrates that humanitarian and peace negotiations are governed by a complex interdependence. A dual process of politicization of humanitarian action and “humanitarization” of political negotiations is at work, in a Syrian context characterized by a fragmented and controversial humanitarian space. This article is based on unique data from participant observation during four international meetings bringing together humanitarian practitioners from different organizations and political actors.