Multistakeholderism in global education, health and food governance
New analysis in 2023 helped expose the threat of multistakeholderism in relation to major global concerns, including health, education and food. A chapter by TNI in the annual Global Health Watch documented the rise and future of multistakeholderism in and beyond the global health sphere, while a new report, Multistakeholderism in global education governance, assessed the link between multistakeholder policymaking and the privatisation of education. Following publication of the latter report, TNI co-organised a two-day international seminar in São Paulo, Brazil, attended by academics, CSOs and trade unions, to discuss the threats that privatisation, digitalisation and current global governance systems pose for access to education.
Our struggle against corporate capture of global food governance continued in 2023. We provided financial and technical support to African partners in the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism (CSIPM) at the UN Committee on World Food Security for their research on the corporate capture of global food governance spaces. Their subsequent report, which was launched at a side event during the 51st session of the UN Committee on World Food Security, demanded policies to reclaim food sovereignty and the rejection of the multistakeholderism of the United Nations Food Systems Summit. In an online public event co-organised by the CSIPM and the People’s Working Group on Multistakeholderism, TNI described the background to the topic of Multilateralism vs Multistakeholderism – The case of food. The programme featured an impressive line-up, including the Chair of the G77 in New York, ambassadors to the UN, a representative of the Brazilian Presidency, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, academics, peasant organisations and civil society representatives. Panellists discussed the future governance architecture of the UN with a debate on the food domain.
Defending multilateralism in the UN Summit of the Future
Multistakeholderism reared its ugly head during preparations for the UN Summit of the Future (SOTF), to be held in 2024. In response, TNI co-organised a two-day online strategy workshop with civil society representatives involved in the SOTF process and engaged in advocacy towards key actors in the G77. Our analysis caught the attention of the Chair of the G77, who asked TNI to advise the group on textual matters with respect to the scope and elements of SOTF. To that end, TNI organised two briefings on the impacts of multistakeholderism on global governance and the implications for developing countries, first for G77 ambassadors to the UN in New York, and then again in Geneva for all the UN hubs of the G77 group. The latter was attended by about 55 delegates, including heads of missions, and was chaired by Cuba’s permanent representative to the UN.
Together with the South Centre, TNI co-published Multistakeholderism: Is it good for developing countries?. Among other things, the report described how multistakeholderism erodes the sovereignty of states, shifts decision-making power out of multilateral spaces, and reduces accountability and trust in the UN system. Our analysis provided the basis for meetings with delegates to the UN from Argentina, Brazil, Namibia and Bolivia, as well as presentations at a public forum, co-organised in New York with the South Centre, Corporate Accountability and ESCR-Net, entitled Multistakeholderism and the UN 2.0 Challenges and Alternatives for Developing Countries. The Forum was attended by delegates from Pakistan, Cuba and South Africa. In another presentation, to members of the Conference of Non-Government Organisations in Consultation with the UN (CoNGO), we underscored the importance of civil society involvement in the UN.
Our efforts contributed to a major victory for multilateralism in 2023. Thanks to opposition by G77 governments and civil society, references to multistakeholderism in the proposed agenda of the Summit of the Future were removed. The 2024 Summit, which is tasked with adopting an action-oriented Pact for the Future and is likely to address governance of the global commons – including oceans, the atmosphere, outer space, Antarctica and the sea bed – will now be a multilateral space.
‘The South Centre, the intergovernmental organisation for developing countries, has closely collaborated with the Transnational Institute in different projects focused on the social and economic transformation of the South. These initiatives have allowed us to increase our interaction with civil society organisations and people in developing countries while promoting South Intellect and capacities for progress and development among people from the South.’
– Daniel Uribe, The South Centre
