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| NGLS Publications |
UN
System Engagement with NGOs, Civil Society, The Private Sector, and Other
Actors
- A
Compendium
A publication produced by NGLS, with the support of
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
This Compendium makes an important contribution towards explaining the
broad system of United Nations Offices, Agencies, Programmes and Funds,
and Specialized Agencies as well as UN Treaty Bodies. In addition, it
provides information about the opportunities and procedures for the participation
of non-governmental players in United Nations processes.
Go
Between (Newsletter)
This is NGLS's highly-regarded flagship newsletter that provides system-wide
information on the activities of the United Nations in development and
human rights etc, on UN-NGO cooperation, and on NGO activities on key
issues on the UN agenda. It is published six times each year and distributed
in hard copy to some 6,000 NGOs and 1,000 members of the international
community worldwide.
NGLS
Roundup Series
This series of publications, around 12 editions per year, monitors and
reports in-depth on UN events, activities and issues including follow-up
to the UN world conferences in the respective Commissions of ECOSOC.
The
Crisis in Global Governance
A Report from the NGLS Consultation with Civil Society
Guide
to the UN System for NGOs
This is a directory that, in one or two pages per organisation, provides
basic information on the work of the entire UN system including contact
points for NGOs. It is updated every two years or so.
The
NGLS Handbook
This publication, updated every two years or so, provides in-depth profiles
of the UN agencies, programme and funds working for economic and social
development. In addition to information on each agency and its work programme,
the Handbook also describes how they cooperate with NGOs.
Development
Dossier
This series of publications allows independent development thinkers and
activists to analyse and discuss major issues on the international development
agenda. NGLS publishes at least one Development Dossier per year.
Voices
from Africa
This series of publications, with one edition published every 12-18 months,
is conceived as a vehicle to enable African NGOs and development activists
to present their experiences, views and proposals to the international
community regarding Africa's development "problematique". Each
edition is constructed around a broad theme.
Implementing
Agenda 21:
NGO Experiences from around the World
This collection of NGO contributions highlights dimensions of Agenda 21
implementation at the local level that might not otherwise be captured
by international dialogue. Articles describe NGO projects and other actvities
focused on UNCED follow up, and how UNCED's new approach to sustainable
development affected thinking, programmes and strategies.
Environment
& Development Files
This series of briefings and information updates, which was created during
preparations for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), is produced for NGOs and others interested in international
policy dialogue and negotiations on sustainable development issues. A
sub-set of the E&D File entilted Sustainable Development Treaty Series
provides detailed summaries of existing treaties on sustainable development
and the processes leading up to their signing.
Intergovernmental
Negotiations and Decision Making at the United Nations: A Guide
This publication explains the governance and decision-making fora and
processes of the UN system. Section One explains the principal UN organs
of intergovernmental decision making; the negotiating blocs of Member
States at the UN; the various types of documentation; and the nature of
UN decisions and the weight they carry internationally. Section Two provides
practical knowledge, advice and guidance to non-governmental representatives
who wish to engage with the UN system, ranging from accreditation to the
preparatory process, to engaging in follow-up activities after a meeting.
Civil
Society Observer
Civil Society Observer is a bi-monthly package of documentation of various
kinds from all political persuasions to keep you informed of developments
related to NGOs and civil society.
Other NGLS Reports
NGLS Report of UN NGO Focal Points Meeting 2003 - 2004
We selected the following for you...
| Title | Philosophical and Spiritual Perspectives on Decent Work | |
| Author | International Labour Office, Geneva - Edited by : Dominique Peccoud | |
|
Description |
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| Title | The New Imperial Order - Indigenous Responses to Globalization |
Editor: 7 Cynthia Street London N1 9JF Tel: +44 (0)2078374014 Fax: +44 (0)2078333960 Publication
date: |
| Author | Makere Stewart-Harawira | |
|
Description |
The
New Imperial Order discusses the political economy of world order
and the basic ideological and ontological grounds upon which the emergent
global order is based. Starting from a Maori perspective it examines
the development of international law and the world order of nation
states. In engaging with these issues across macro and micro levels,
the international arena, the national state and forms of regionalism
are identified as sites for the reshaping of the global politico/economic
order and the emergence of Empire. Overarching these problematics
is the emergence of a new form of global domination in which the connecting
roles of militarism and the economy, and the increase in technologies
of surveillance and control have acquired overt significance.
More about the Author : Makere Stewart-Harawira is an Assistant Professor in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta where she teaches in the Indigenous Peoples Graduate Education programme. She previously taught in the School of Education at the University of Auckland and in the Graduate Programme of Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, a Maori tribal University in Whakatane, New Zealand. Makere's current research interests are indigenous ontologies, global citizenship, and new formations of global governance. Makere is of Maori and Scots descent. Her tribal affiliation is Waitaha. |
| Title | Human and Environmental Security An Agenda for Change |
Editor: Publication
date: |
| Author | Felix Dodds | |
|
Description |
Security
has tended to be seen as based on military force, yet this illusion
is crumbling, literally and figuratively, before our eyes in the conflict
zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and equatorial Africa. It is now clear
that real human security, defined by the Commission on Human Security
as 'protecting vital freedoms', can only be achieved if the full range
of issues that underpin human security - including environmental integrity
- are addressed. This ground-breaking book, authored by prominent
international decision-makers, tackles the global human security problem
across the range of core issues. The authors identify the causes of
insecurity, articulate the linkages between the different elements
of human security and outline an agenda for engaging stakeholders
from across the globe in building the foundations of genuine and lasting
human security for all nations and all people.
Introduction
: Celso Amorim (Brazilian Foreign Minister) |
| Title | Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Informal Labor Markets in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia and South Africa |
|
| Author | Tony Avirgan, L. Josh Bivens & Sarah Gammage, eds. | |
|
Description |
The
worldwide growth of informal employment - jobs that usually offer
no benefits, contracts or other social or economic protections - is
producing poor working conditions, low pay and a lack of basic labor
standards for many workers. A new book by the Global Policy Network
(GPN) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) extensively studies
this informal economy in five countries, detailing new worker and
job trends worldwide and the international impact of this phenomenon.
Good Jobs, Bad
Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia,
and South Africa – edited by GPN coordinator Tony Avirgan,
EPI economist L. Josh Bivens and GPN economist Sarah Gammage –
breaks new ground in researching this type of economy. “The implications of the informal economy are huge. It’s not just about pay, but also about labor standards and how many workers are frozen out of the networks needed to move up the job ladder and improve their quality of life,” said co-editor Avirgan. The book finds that despite different dynamics in each of the five countries, informal employment tends to produce lower pay and more work hours, and to compound inequalities along race, gender and education background, compared to formal employment, where there is more unionization, benefits, and general security. In El Salvador, for example, 62% of all informal workers earn less than the minimum monthly wage. While in South Africa, 85% of informal workers are blacks and other minorities. Moreover, several common findings emerge from these detailed studies. First, the informal economy tends to be concentrated in agriculture, manufacturing, retail trade, construction, and transportation. Second, informal employment is not caused solely by a lack of good workers, but rather largely driven by a lack of good jobs. The studies find a fair number of educated workers have to take informal jobs. Third, the studies show that the informal sector is growing more rapidly than the formal sector, raising concern because informal employment, though often necessary, is insufficient for real opportunities. Some of the
book’s interesting findings by country include: Good Jobs also
suggests ways these and other countries can improve the lives of
informal sector workers, including active labor market policies
that involve training, direct job creation or subsidies, and improved
job matching targeted to groups such as the less educated, youth
and minorities. Table of contents Introduction Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 5 Conclusion |
|
| Author information |
Tony Avirgan: Tony Avirgan joined the Economic Policy Institute as a Global Policy Network Coordinator in 2000. Formerly he was a communications coordinator of The Development GAP, a non-governmental organization striving to give Southern marginalized groups a voice in economic policy making. Over the course of his career he co-produced and shot several documentary films, and worked as a freelance writer, reporter and film-maker based in Tanzania, covering African liberation struggles and Costa Rica, covering Latin America and the Caribbean. He also worked as editor of Mesoamerica, a monthly publication of political, economic, and environmental news of Central America and Panama. L. Josh Bivens: Josh Bivens joined the Economic Policy Institute in 2002. He was an assistant professor of economics at Roosevelt University in Chicago for the previous year and has worked for the Congressional Research Service and as an independent consultant. His work focuses on international trade, labor markets, and macroeconomics. He earned his doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York City. Sarah Gammage: Sarah Gammage, a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute, works primarily with the Global Policy Network. Her research includes examining the effects of macroeconomic policy and globalization on women in Latin America; exploring the impact of migration, internal displacement, and refugee status on the intergenerational transmission of poverty; and analyzing the implications of trade agreements for gender and social policy in developing countries. Over the last 10 years, she has worked with a number of development organizations including the United Nations Development Programme, the International Center for Research on Women, Women's EDGE, and the International Institute for Environment and Development. She is the board chair of the Ecumenical Program in Central America and serves on the Latin American Committee of the American Friends Service Committee. |
Editor: Econmic Policy Institute |
|
Publication
date:
2005 |
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Order
from:
Econmic Policy Institute |
| Title | World Bank, IMF and Human Rights |
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| Author | Willem van Genugten, Paul Hunt and Susan Mathews | |
|
Description |
This book discusses the legal status of the World Bank and the IMF, in relation to human rights obligations and to issues in the political and economic field closely related tot that. At the end of the second world war the Untited Nations ‘re-invented’ the human rights and this led tot the adoption of many human rights instruments. The question is to what extent international organizations like the World Bank and the IMF are bound to live up to these human rights obligations. Alfredo Sfeir-Younis states in the first chapter that economists, economics and economic institutions will open up their doors to the human rights-based model whem the strength of a political consensus is such that the foundations of values will also change. Mainstreaming human rights into economic development is not a matter of economics but of political economy. Sigrun I.. Skogly adresses the debates of international accountability for human rights in light of the legal setting in which we find the World Bank and the IMF. Skogly discusses briefly the legal foundations and sources for human rights obligations of the two institutions, followed by a more detailed analysis of the content of the human rights obligations.The final section of the analysis will focus on what the institutions’ human rights obligations may amount to and the distinction between institutions’ obligations, states’ obligations and possibly shared obligations. Koen de Freyter gives a review of constitutional documents followed by an analysis of current operational policies. The final section deals with the question of wether any external responsibility arises from World Bank self-regulation on human rights. The conclusion returns to the strenghts and weaknesses of self-regulation. Paul Hunt discusses de relations between the UN committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Financial Institutions by looking at two particular dimensions of the relationship. Camilo Pérez Bustillo provides an introductory, critical overview of the characteristics and current status of World Bank policy and practises regarding the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Bas de Gaay Fortman reassesses poverty from a human rights perspective. Furthermore he analyzes current strategies for poverty reduction. Finally implications of a rights approach will be examined, first in general and then in regard to the International Financial Institutions in particular.In the final chapter Leif Jensen and Padma M. Karunaratne analyse the World Bank Institute by the question: ‘how do Bank programms and the thinking of staff stack up against the Bank’s overarching vision and strategy for poverty reduction?’. | |
| Author information |
Willem van Genugten is Professor of International Law at Tilburg University and Professor of Human Rights at Nijmegen University, both in The Netherlands Paul Hunt is
Professor in the Law Department at the University of Essex (England), Susan Mathews
is a human rights lawyer from India, presently doing her Ph.D at
|
Editor:
Wolf Legal Publishers |
|
Publication
date:
2003 |
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Order
from:
Wolf Legal Publishers |
| Title | Civil Society |
|
| Author | Michael Edwards | |
|
Description |
Is civil society the big idea for the 21st century? Or will the idea of civil society - confused, conflated and co-opted by elites - prove another false horizon in the search for a better world? By illuminating the uses and abuses of different theories and traditions in clear and engaging prose, this book will help readers of all persuasions to answer this question for themselves.Drawing inspiration and examples from history and contemporary experience, Islam and Christianity, South and North, and activists and academics, this book gives voice to a rich and diverse account of civil society in its many different guises. In moving systematically through theories of associational life, the good society and the public sphere, exploring the neglected connections that exist between them, and clarifying their implications for policy and practice, Michael Edwards provides a comprehensive, accessible and often humorous overview of one of the most important debates of our times.This book will be essential reading for students of politics, public policy, development studies and international relations. It will also be read by all those interested in the role of civil society in the media, policy-making and NGO communities. | |
| Author information | Michael Edwards is Director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Program. |
Editor:
Polity Press |
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Publication
date:
November 2003 |
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Order
from:
Polity Press |
