A new UNU-CPR project – the Global Governance Innovation Platform – will identify, explore and visualize innovative governance practices, serving as templates for new multilateral institutions and platforms.
This multi-year initiative will examine the institutions that have facilitated and sustained multilateral collaboration; understand how they encourage collective action; and explore how their models can help rebuild trust and motivate different actors to invest in global solutions and collaborative global governance. It seeks to address a widening gap between the desire – and need – for governance innovation and the information that is available to support this transformation.
Governance models, analytical insights and visual tools will be accessible through an open, interactive website, developed in partnership with Northeastern University. This resource will also highlight the actors that have successfully navigated seemingly intractable problems, offering insights into how past breakthroughs were achieved. Expert interviews, case studies, workshops and participatory modelling will refine and socialize these insights.
A targeted training programme in partnership with the United Nations System Staff College will also be rolled out to equip the next generation of diplomats and policymakers with the tools to design effective multilateral mechanisms.
A connected yet fragmented world
The Platform is being launched at a time when the multilateral system is facing several pressing challenges: conflict, trade disruptions, worsening climate impacts and the unprecedented risks of AI advancements, among others. These crises are overlapping and mutually reinforcing, with countries in the Global South most severely impacted.
Recent multilateral fora at the UN and beyond have called for urgent reform. Last year, for instance, UN Member States adopted the "Pact for the Future" – an ambitious and comprehensive framework to strengthen international cooperation and revitalize multilateralism. However, global governance reforms have tended to be slow and incremental, due to political and economic constraints.
Meet the team
The initiative is led by a core team consisting of Dr. David Passarelli, Director of UNU-CPR, and Senior Researchers in Multilateralism and Global Governance at UNU-CPR, Dr. Michael Franczak and Dr. Caroline Dunton.
Several Senior Research Fellows and Associate Researchers will also support the initiative: Professor Maria Ivanova, Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University; Professor Carmen Hull, Assistant Professor of Information Design and Data Visualization at Northeastern University; and UNU-CPR Research Associates Aleksis Oreschnikoff, Dr. Adam McCauley and Jason Hartwig.
Together, these experts will strengthen UNU-CPR’s capacity to explore, design and communicate innovative governance solutions through the Platform. By centralizing this knowledge and making it more accessible to relevant expert communities, the Platform will build trust, foster understanding and enhance cooperation, motivating different actors to invest in global solutions.
