About

The Global Governance Innovation Network brings world class scholarship together with international policy-making to address fundamental global governance challenges, threats, and opportunities. Research through the network focuses on the development of institutional, policy, legal, operational, and normative improvements in the global governance architecture.

GGIN is a collaborative project of the Stimson Center, Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), Plataforma CIPÓ, Leiden University, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy & Development, Global Institute for Strategic Research, and Council on Energy, Environment, and Water.

Building on the UN75 Global Governance Forum (16-18 September 2020), follow-through to the UN75 Political Declaration, and preparations for the 22-23 September 2024 Summit of the Future and beyond, the Stimson Center, Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), Plataforma CIPÓ, Leiden University, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy & Development, Global Institute for Strategic Research, and Council on Energy, Environment, and Water are partnering on a Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN), bringing world class scholarship together with international policy-making to address fundamental global governance challenges, threats, and opportunities.

Through policy research on the underlying causes and dynamics of the “anti-multilateralist” turn in many countries and development of institutional, policy, legal, operational, and normative improvements in the global governance architecture (as well as other possible responses to the crisis), the GGIN will convene and amplify the voices of a new generation of scholars, policy researchers, and practitioners from the Global South and North, alongside established experts and UN Mission Representatives. Specifically, the network focuses on analyzing and responding to gaps within and across the following global governance thematic areas:

1. Enhancing Post-COVID Recovery and Global Economic & Social Governance
2. Rethinking the UN’s Approach to Peace, Security & Humanitarian Action
3. Strengthening Rules-Based Governance, Human Rights & Inclusive Governance
4. Innovating Climate Governance: The Paris Agreement & Beyond

Given the strength of scholars and policy analysts to adopt interdisciplinary approaches and work at multiple levels of governance, the Global Governance Innovation Network gives special attention to: (a.) addressing cross-cutting themes (e.g., gender, youth, poverty, financing, technology, and ensuring more inclusive and accountable global institutions), (b.) strengthening linkages between global, regional, and sub-regional governance actors, and (c.) putting-forth ambitious ideas that can be discussed initially in the UN75 follow-through “Our Common Agenda” context of 2021-23, and be brought to fruition in 2024 (Summit of the Future) or, in some instances, 2045 (UN100). The network also encourages evaluation of successes and failures that collective action through the UN system has brought to date, and considerations of such performance against future need.

The network’s “theory of change” is rooted in an understanding that greater results can be achieved when: (1) individual states and non-state actors, provided with evidence-based on solid research and analysis, recognize that their priority issues or institutional reforms can benefit from an inclusive, global “smart coalition” that facilitates positive systemic changes; (2) greater opportunities arise for “package deals” and linkages between innovative proposals across distinct sectors and institutional settings; and (3) momentum for reform is generated and sustained by early wins on less contested issues that lay the groundwork for progress on harder questions.

Knowledge products encouraged and amplified by the GGIN seek to influence the discourse and decision-making of both powerful “insiders,” including the leaders of major governments and the UN Secretary-General, and prominent representatives from civil society, the media, and the business community. For effective global governance to take shape, bringing these different communities together is critical.

Drawing on expertise, partnership networks, and international stature from initiatives such as The Elders, Club de Madrid, the earlier Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance, and the Coalition for the UN We Need, the network’s core activities are:

GGIN Policy Brief and Reports

• Policy Briefs (5-10 pp.) highlight diverse authors’ writing on topics that stimulate debate and influence Summit of the Future preparations and follow-through and wider policy discussions on innovating future global governance, including well-thought-out strategies for change.
• Reports (30-100 pp.) present a deep-dive analysis and elaboration on proposed institutional, policy, legal, operational and normative advances in global governance.

GGIN Online Community of Practice

Through periodic e-consultations, a robust social media presence, and an interactive online knowledge platform, the GGIN has also forged an online community of practice. Its main aim is to facilitate a regular dialogue between scholars, policy researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners committed to understanding and addressing major gaps in global governance. These regular interactions are designed, in turn, to build a shared sense of community and appreciation for diverse perspectives on the future of global governance and its interplay with regional governance bodies.

Global and Regional Policy Dialogues

In-person, virtual, and hybrid global and regional policy dialogues convene established public intellectuals, former statespersons, and seasoned policy-makers (e.g., UN Permanent Representatives) and practitioners (e.g., from the UN’s higher echelons), alongside a new generation of analysts, policy researchers, and practitioners from the Global South and North, to address—through academically rigorous and thematically focused Track 1.5 policy exchanges—fundamental challenges, threats, and opportunities in both better understanding and enhancing how the world is governed.

The Stimson Center, Academic Council on the United Nations System, Plataforma CIPÓ, Leiden University, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy & Development, Global Institute for Strategic Research, and Council on Energy, Environment, and Water serve as Co-Sponsoring Institutions of the Global Governance Innovation Network. They are joined by Partner Institutions from around the world (comprised of interested think tanks, universities, and other non-governmental organizations, each registered as Institutional Members of the Academic Council on the UN System) engaged in UN and broader global governance scholarship and policy research.

ABOUT THE CONSORTIUM

Founded in 1989, the Stimson Center, based in Washington, D.C., promotes international security and shared prosperity through applied research and independent analysis, global engagement, and policy innovation. Stimson’s Global Governance, Justice & Security Program aims to advance more capable global and regional institutions to better cope with existing and emerging global challenges, and to create new opportunities through effective multilateral action, including with the global business community and civil society.

Since 1987, the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) has served as the premier global professional association of educational and research institutions, individual scholars, and practitioners in the work and study of the United Nations, multilateral cooperation, and global governance.

Plataforma CIPÓ is a women-led institute based in Brazil and dedicated to issues of climate, governance, and peace, especially in the Latin American and Caribbean context. CIPÓ has a core staff spread across four biomes and working on initiatives combining research, advocacy, and network-building. 

Founded in 1575, Leiden University, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. Located in The Hague, the international city of peace and justice, Leiden University’s Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs focuses on 21st-century issues through a combined perspective of public administration, political science, law, sociology, and economics. This interdisciplinary approach gives the Faculty’s research and teaching its cross-border character and policy-oriented outlook.

Founded in 1993 by Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy & Development (SCDDD), based in Abuja, is an authoritative non-governmental organization committed to research, advocacy, training, and policy analysis in the areas of conflict prevention, management, democratization and sustainable development in Nigeria, Africa, and the world.

The Global Institute for Strategic Research (GISR), based in Doha at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, is an independent and interdisciplinary think concerned with the global challenges of governance, advancement—defined as progress, prosperity, and development—and peace (GAP). GISR seeks to document trends, understand processes, unpack power relations, analyze root causes, and explore policy solutions.

The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), based in New Delhi, is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit policy research institution, devoted to research on all matters affecting the use, reuse, and misuse of resources.