The United Nations And Civil Society

This book contends that civil society must mobilize its capacities to bring a new will to national and international politics and oblige governments to act. It starts by demonstrating the need for institutional change at the UN and then shows how, both in the past and the present, leading individuals and nongovernmental organizations, using their knowledge base and their organizational networks, have lead the fight for international organizations. After a summary of major UN reform proposals over the years, the book concludes by identifying leading global ""reformers"" and elaborating a detailed plan for a global reform movement to spearhead the modernization of the UN system.

The UN is able to recognize key global challenges, but beset by difficulties in trying to resolve them. In this, it represents the current global political balance, but is also the only international institution that could move it forward. Civil society can be a catalyst for this kind of change. In this book, Nora McKeon provides a comprehensive analysis of UN engagement with civil society. The book pays particular attention to food and agriculture, which now lie at the heart of global governance issues. McKeon shows that politically meaningful space for civil society can be introduced into UN policy dialogue. The United Nations and Civil Society also makes the case that it is only by engaging with organizations which legitimately speak for the 'poor' targeted by the Millennium Development Goals that the UN can promote equitable, sustainable development and build global democracy from the ground up. This book has strong ramifications for global governance, civil society and the contemporary debate over the future of food.

"The UN is able to recognize key global challenges but is beset by difficulties in trying to resolve them. It represents the current global political balance but is also the only international institution that can move it forward." "Civil society can be a catalyst for this kind of change. In this book, Nora McKeon provides a comprehensive analysis of UN engagement with civil society. The book pays particular attention to food and agriculture, which now lie at the heart of global governance issues. McKeon shows that politically meaningful space for civil society can be introduced into UN policy dialogue. The United Nations and Civil Society also makes the case that it is only by engaging with organizations which legitimately speak for the 'poor' that the UN can promote equitable, sustainable development and build global democracy from the ground up." "This book has strong ramifications for global governance, civil society and social movements, as well as for the contemporary debate over the future of food."--Jacket.

Comprises a collection of papers which examine the role of civil society organizations and the UN systen in the global debates and struggles over equity, sustainability and justice.

In recent years, non-governmental organizations and other members of civil society have had an ever greater impact on the international agenda. While States establish formal political positions and have the legal and legitimate authority to negotiate, sign and ratify treaties, the ability of organizations and institutions which are independent of a government (NGOs, religious groups, foundations, charities, etc.) to influence these processes is growing. Four delegates from Australia, Costa Rica, Japan, and Mexico, and who worked at the United Nations, share their personal views on the impact civil society stakeholders have had in matters relating to disarmament and arms control.

This book explores UN bureaucracy and the development dysfunction it sows in four 'most different' African countries: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Tanzania. Wilson's original purpose for researching this book was to uncover new solutions to some of the United Nations' most vexing implementation problems. Yet, as research unfolded, it became clear that the reasons for those problems lay tangled up in bureaucratic and philosophical quagmires of a much more fundamental nature. The United Nations and Democracy in Africa is the documentation not only of these bureaucratic and philosophical absurdities that find expression through development practice, but also the journey of the author from ardent defender of the UN to profound sceptic.

This book explores the nature and problems of global governance as we enter the next millennium. It focuses on the United Nations, the most ambitious experiment to date in multilateral management of world society. Leading scholars, policy-makers, and representatives of non-governmental organizations examine the economic, security, and civil political dimensions of governance, exploring the impact of changing global conditions on national, regional, and international institutions and processes of governance. They use the experience of the United Nations system to illuminate the nature and viability of sovereign and non-sovereign forms of governance in an era of rapid political, economic, cultural, strategic, and ecological change.

Critical Choices.