The Global Governance Innovation Platform is a three-year initiative to help United Nations Member States design new multilateral mechanisms that can help address pressing global challenges. This initiative identifies, explores and visualizes innovative governance practices that can serve as templates for new multilateral institutions and platforms or inspire reforms to existing ones.
The project asks and answers the question: "What can be borrowed, replicated or scaled from existing governance models to address complex transnational challenges?"
Specifically, the project sets out to:
- Analyse past and present innovations in global governance.
- Identify innovative institutions and governance mechanisms that support collective action.
- Explore innovative governance models at both the global (supranational) and local (subnational) levels.
- Spotlight influential analogs that have shaped or could shape institutional design.
- Apply past innovations in modelling solutions to complex, global challenges.
- Increase the supply of governance analogs to broaden options for policymakers and experts.
The initiative’s efforts to examine how institutions have facilitated and sustained collaboration and collective action will help identify best practices for rebuilding trust and motivating different actors to invest in global solutions. Why governance innovations are needed at this critical time and how we can innovate for the future was the main topic of conversation at the project's inception workshop in London (see video below).
Additional benefits for the multilateral system include: stronger transmission channels for sharing governance innovations; a more diverse pool of governance approaches; enhanced dialogue across diverse constituencies; support for innovators responding to chronic underdevelopment and planetary risks; and support for States experiencing capacity constraints in multilateral negotiations.
The centrepiece of the initiative will be an interactive digital platform featuring data visualizations, case studies and historical analysis. Designed for Member States and stakeholders facing difficult governance trade-offs, the platform will be dynamic and incorporate insights from ongoing institution-building efforts.
A targeted training programme will also be developed in partnership with the United Nations System Staff College to equip the next generation of diplomats and policymakers with the tools to design effective multilateral mechanisms. Workshops and convenings will be organized to test findings, refine institutional design concepts and facilitate dialogue on governance innovation.
By centralizing this knowledge and making it more accessible to relevant expert communities, the Governance Innovation Platform will build trust, foster understanding and enhance cooperation. It will provide UN Member States with a practical toolbox for designing and reforming multilateral institutions—ensuring that effective governance models do not remain the domain of a few experts but become shared resources that inspire other innovators.
