Saner, R; Yiu, L; “Participation of Civil Society Organisations in the United Nations and in the Aid Effectiveness Discourse and Related Standard-Setting Negotiations”, in Göymen, K; Lewis, R (eds), “Public Policymaking in a Globalized World”; Istanbul Policy Center, Istanbul; (2015); pp 149-185.

This paper consists of two parts. The first part analyses the involvement of non-state actors in the United Nations (UN) and its agencies. The engagement of non-state actors, particularly of the international non-governmental organisations (I-NGOs) and the various national civil society organisations (CSOs) dates back to the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and the analyses show a growing participation of NGOs from developed and developing countries. The second part describes the role and participation of the I-NGOs in the deliberations and negotiations on global public policymaking and standard setting negotiations of aid effectiveness.

Greening the World Trade Organization
by Raymond Saner
Environmental and Climate Change Economics

The research programme on “Climate Change and Sustainable Development” addresses the two inter-related issues of climate change and sustainable development and a corollary of key topics in the field of environmental economics. The programme builds upon over twenty years of successful FEEM research in the field. In the specific area of climate change, FEEM has achieved a leading position in the international research community, as a result of the in-house development and application of several methodologies for the economic analysis of climate and energy policies. FEEM models address world-wide vulnerability to changes in climatic conditions, and investigate the economics of mitigation and adaptation to these changes. In the specific area of sustainable development, FEEM research covers a variety of issues: sustainable management of natural resources, the economics of natural hazards and extreme events, and the use of indicators to measure sustainability and growth beyond GDP. FEEM can also rely on a strong research team of applied economists who investigate the economic performance of various environmental and climate policy instruments. The twofold goal of this research programme is to contribute to science while guiding policies and informing the public debate.

Raymond Saner and Lichia Yiu, 2017, Matlin S. & Kickbusch, I. (eds.) “Pathways to Global Health: Case Studies in Global Health Diplomacy (Volume 2)”, Global Health Diplomacy, vol. 5, p.171-210.

The goal of this chapter is to describe and analyse the multi-stakeholder negotiation process which unfolded during the negotiation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco (FCTC), including the influencing and negotiation behaviour of the different stakeholder groups and how their disputes resulted in the completion of the FCTC, the initiation of negotiations and agreement on a protocol for FCTC Article 15 (the illicit trade in tobacco products), and the unfinished negotiations towards a protocol for FCTC Article 13 (tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship).

Conventional definitions of diplomacy previously reserved for state actors increasingly apply to non-state actors such as non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, and international organisations. Development policy and intervention in the form of development aid has been reserved in the past to interactions between state actors such donor countries (developed countries) and beneficiary countries (developing or transition countries). While non-governmental organisations have always been active in the field of development aid as providers of services, they have not openly become political actors in the development policy field until recently.