Global Governance,neoliberalism and national responses: The case of Bangladesh’s ready‐made garment (RMG) sector

This article on the ready‐made garment (RMG) sector of Bangladesh shows how over‐reliance on foreign capital for development financing and deregulated investment—a hallmark of neoliberal economic arrangements—undermines the incorporation of SDGs’ and INGOs’ equity principles, contributing to biased policy responses yielding unequal outcomes. The article cautions that while countries prioritize economic growth over social and environmental nourishment and continue to adopt neoliberal economic policies to promote economic growth, inequity is unavoidable, if not inevitable. Thus, the way forward may be to shift the focus of ‘development’ from the economy to society, to building ‘good societies’ where institutions and strategies, including those that contribute to economic growth, are organized such that these complement not compromise the evolution of such societies.     

国际法治视野内国际非政府组织问责内涵解读

问责是指问责对象为了实现某种目的以恰当的方式向问责主体进行负责的过程。国际非政府组织作为国际法治的参与者和促进者,为了实现参与和促进国际法治的目的,必须要向各利益相关者进行负责。由于目前国际法治呈现的多元性和国际法之治等特点,国际非政府组织的问责也要相应的呈现出独特的内涵。国际非政府组织的问责不仅是处于不断发展中的概念,而且问责对象、问责主体、问责内容、问责方式和问责目的都被赋予了独特的内涵,除此之外,因其独特内涵,国际法治视野内国际非政府组织问责的实现将是一个长期、困难和复杂的过程。     

The World Bank,INGOs, and Civil Society: Converging Agendas? The Case of Universal Basic Education in Niger

This paper explores, through a case study of the World Bank's pursuit of universal basic education, the gulf between the Bank's dialogue with international civil society elites and its treatment of grassroots civil society in its development practice. It argues that the World Bank is pursuing a conscious program to build a global elite governance system similar to Bank vice-president J. F. Rischard's concept of global issues networks, in which experts from business, government, and civil society will set globally binding social and economic policies. There is a risk of co-optation of international NGOs into this autocratic global managerial system.     

国际非政府组织(INGOs)参与全球治理的动因与功能分析

随着全球化的迅速发展,带来了诸多的全球性问题.由于国家利益的冲突,这些全球性问题的解决已经不可能由单个国家政府,或者是由基于国家间利益而结合起来的一些政府间国际组织来解决.近几年来,各种各样的国际非政府组织的出现及其对国际事务的广泛参与,使其成为国际社会中的新兴行为体,同时,在全球治理过程中,国际非政府组织也对全球性问题的解决发挥了自己独特的功能和作用,成为国际社会中不可或缺的重要因素.     

Gendered Dimensions of the HIV Pandemic: A Cross‐National Investigation of Women's International Nongovernmental Organizations,Contraceptive Use,and HIV Prevalence in Less‐Developed Nations

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic has a profound impact on women as a result of social and biological vulnerabilities to the infection. In this article, we explore the influence of democracy, women's international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and contraceptive use on female HIV rates, using indirect‐effect modeling techniques to properly test the interrelationships among key variables. Structural equation models reveal that democracy and women's INGOs work to reduce female HIV rates indirectly, by promoting the use of contraceptives among women in less‐developed nations. Despite these promising findings, the analyses also reveal that INGOs are negatively associated with sociohealth dimensions of female empowerment, which thus serves to promote HIV rates. The results suggest that interventions undertaken by INGOs may not be as successful as government programs in addressing inequalities in health and social resources for women in poor nations.     

国际非政府组织与非传统安全

由于非传统安全主要关注非国家的非军事、非政治领域的问题,一直面临着"谁来维护非传统安全"的主体缺失困境。国家虽是国际社会的首要行为体,但并不适合作为非传统安全的首要维护主体。政府间国际组织也无法避免类似问题。在这种情况下,国际非政府组织作为一种基于公民自愿的跨国组合,以其公益性、软性治理等特征,体现出其作为非传统安全"天然促进者"的角色,但其在能力、效力、合法性方面的缺陷显而易见,未能充分担任起促进非传统安全的主体角色,不能因此否定国家在维护非传统安全方面所起的作用。只有通过安全治理框架,协同发挥非政府组织与国家、政府间国际组织的作用,才能更好地维护非传统安全。     

The upside‐down roots of a transnational advocacy network: applying an ‘organizational ecology’ approach to the anti‐GMO network

In this article, I examine a transnational advocacy network opposed to the introduction of genetically modified crops and supportive of organic agriculture in India. I argue that this network illustrates some of the consequences of ‘upward oriented linkages’, in which professional NGO brokers focus on constructing relationships with other professional or elite partner bodies such as donor organizations, global retailers and the English language media. The ‘upside‐down’ tree that results has roots pointing upwards to global partners and to domestic elite actors but is less responsive, and less tightly bound, to mass organizations and to its purported non‐elite constituency of marginal farmers. I make this case through a methodological approach I term ‘organizational ecology’ in which I explore the idea of NGO based advocacy organizations as filling ‘niches’ in the larger political ecology of rural India and within this ‘ecology’ forming symbiotic connections to other organizations.