Global Economic Governance and Human Development


Book Description

Traditional understandings of economic development in low- and mid-income countries have largely been influenced by the economic narrative of Western Official Development Assistance (ODA). Within this framework, compliance with macroeconomic orthodoxy and early integration in Global Economic Governance (GEG) regimes are presented as enabling conditions to reach enhanced and sustainable levels of economic growth and social betterment. Yet, this narrative often fails to answer fundamental questions surrounding relational dynamics between the economies of ODA beneficiary countries and the GEG regimes they are asked to join. Bringing together contributions by Government officials, academics and development practitioners, this edited volume explores quantitative and qualitative approaches to socio-economic analysis in low- and mid-income countries, highlighting the conditions under which international economic policies and institutions can foster – or hinder – their socio-economic growth. In particular, contributions address the impact of both West and China-inspired international economic regimes on value-adding capacity, trade, investments, job creation and social development, thus advancing the debate on what policy and legal provisions should low- and mid-income countries adopt in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs deriving from joining international economic regimes. A comprehensive investigation of both sides of the Global Economic Governance and Human Development relationship; this book will interest scholars, practitioners and graduate students working in the areas of international relations, international political economy, global governance, international economics, development studies and human security.







Human Development and Global Institutions


Book Description

This book provides a timely and accessible introduction to the foundational ideas associated with the human development school of thought. It examines its conceptual evolution during the post-colonial era, and discusses how various institutions of the UN system have tried to engage with this issue, both in terms of intellectual and technical advance, and operationally. Showing that human development has had a profound impact on shaping the policy agenda and programming priorities of global institutions, it argues that human development has helped to preserve the continued vitality of major multilateral development programs, funds, and agencies. It also details how human development faces new risks and threats, caused by political, economic, social, and environmental forces which are highlighted in a series of engaging case studies on trade, water, energy, the environment, democracy, human rights, and peacebuilding. The book also makes the case for why human development remains relevant in an increasingly globalized world, while asking whether global institutions will be able to sustain political and moral support from their member states and powerful non-state actors. It argues that fresh new perspectives on human development are now urgently needed to fill critical gaps across borders and entire regions. A positive, forward-looking agenda for the future of global governance would have to engage with new issues such as the Sustainable Development Goals, energy transitions, resource scarcity, and expansion of democratic governance within and between nations. Redefining the overall nature and specific characteristics of what constitutes human progress in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world, this book serves as a primer for scholars and graduate students of international relations and development. It is also relevant to scholars of economics, political science, history, sociology, and women’s studies.




Global Governance, Development And Human Security


Book Description

In this innovative new book, Caroline Thomas argues that the global development and security agendas are merging. No longer is the language of security confined within the straitjacket of the state and associated national security concerns. The spotlight is shifting to the legitimate security concerns of human beings. The book examines how development is promoted by global governance institutions and how this has impacted on human security in the 1990s. Thomas focuses on the effects of trade, finance, and investment liberalisation on deepening inequality. She explores different approaches for addressing the deepening inequality which threatens the economy at all levels, from the household, to the community, to the global. The book investigates reformist and transformist visions of the future and the contrasting policies tabled for their achievements. Thomas argues that ultimately human security requires a different developmental strategy.




A Decade of Human Security


Book Description

Human security has been advanced as an alternative to traditional state-based conceptualizations of security, yet controversies about the use and abuse of the concept remain. Investigating innovations in the advancement of the human security agenda over the past decade, this book identifies themes and processes around which consensus for future policy action might be built. It considers the ongoing debates regarding the human security agenda, explores prospects and projects for the advancement of human security, addresses issues of human security as emerging forms of new multilateralisms and examines claims that human security is being undermined by US unilateralisms. This comprehensive volume explores the theoretical debate surrounding human security and details the implications for practical application. It will prove ideal for students of international relations, security studies and development studies.










Global Governance


Book Description

Friends and foes of international cooperation puzzle about how to explain order, stability, and predictability in a world without a central authority. How is the world governed in the absence of a world government? This probing yet accessible book examines "global governance" or the sum of the informal and formal values, norms, procedures, and institutions that help states, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, and transnational corporations identify, understand, and address trans-boundary problems. The chasm between the magnitude of a growing number of global threats - climate change, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, financial instabilities, pandemics, to name a few - and the feeble contemporary political structures for international problem-solving provide compelling reasons to read this book. Fitful, tactical, and short-term local responses exist for a growing number of threats and challenges that require sustained, strategic, and longer-run global perspectives and action. Can the framework of global governance help us to better understand the reasons behind this fundamental disconnect as well as possible ways to attenuate its worst aspects? Thomas G. Weiss replies with a guardedly sanguine "yes".




Global Poverty


Book Description

Around 1.4 billion people presently live in extreme poverty, and yet despite this vast scale, the issue of global poverty had a relatively low international profile until the end of the 20th century. In this important new work, Hulme charts the rise of global poverty as a priority global issue, and its subsequent marginalisation as old themes edged it aside (trade policy and peace-making in regions of geo-political importance) and new issues were added (terrorism, global climate change and access to natural resources). Providing a concise and detailed overview of both the history and the current debates that surround this key issue, the book: outlines how the notion of global poverty eradication has evolved evaluates the institutional landscape and its ability to attack global poverty analyses the conceptual and technical frameworks that lie behind the contemporary understanding of global poverty (including human development, dollar a day poverty and results-based management) explores the roles that major institutions have played in promoting and/or obstructing the advancement of actions to reduce poverty discusses the emerging issues that are re-shaping thinking, and the future prospects for global poverty eradication The first book to tackle the issue of global poverty through the lens of global institutions; this volume provides an important resource for all students and scholars of international relations, development studies and international political economy.




Human Rights in Global Health


Book Description

Institutions matter for the advancement of human rights in global health. Given the dramatic development of human rights under international law and the parallel proliferation of global institutions for public health, there arises an imperative to understand the implementation of human rights through global health governance. This volume examines the evolving relationship between human rights, global governance, and public health, studying an expansive set of health challenges through a multi-sectoral array of global organizations. To analyze the structural determinants of rights-based governance, the organizations in this volume include those international bureaucracies that implement human rights in ways that influence public health in a globalizing world. This volume brings together leading health and human rights scholars and practitioners from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations system. They explore the foundations of human rights as a normative framework for global health governance, the mandate of the World Health Organization to pursue a human rights-based approach to health, the role of inter-governmental organizations across a range of health-related human rights, the influence of rights-based economic governance on public health, and the focus on global health among institutions of human rights governance. Contributing chapters each map the distinct human rights efforts within a specific institution of global governance for health. Through the comparative institutional analysis in this volume, the contributing authors examine institutional dynamics to operationalize human rights in organizational policies, programs, and practices and assess institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit human rights mainstreaming for global health advancement.