No. 17 - October 2010

Global Public Policy Institute Newsletter

Greetings!

Welcome to the October 2010 issue of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) newsletter.

GPPi´s humanitarian program has completed two evaluations for the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. In the first (Cluster Evaluation Phase II), GPPi together with Group URD assesses the operational effectiveness and main outcomes of the Cluster Approach, the primary humanitarian coordination mechanism. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon incorporated the evaluation’s main conclusions in his 2010 report on humanitarian assistance. In the second evaluation (Inter-Agency Real-Time Evaluation of the disaster response to the Haiti Earthquake), GPPi – also with URD – analyzed the disaster response to the Haiti Earthquake. They present key findings, recommendations and lessons learned for immediate implementation in Haiti and for future large‐scale disasters.

In addition, GPPi’s recent work on global energy governance has appeared in academic journals and the international media. Of particular interest have been the project OPEC at 50 and the book Global Energy Governance: The New Rules of the Game (published in January 2010). The journal International Affairs calling the latter “an exceptionally well-researched, well-argued and well-structured volume.”

Our newsletter appears three times a year to keep you informed about the institute, to post our newest publications, and to share interesting recent news on global public policy-making. For more information, please visit our homepage at www.gppi.net.

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2. New and Active Projects

Research

OPEC at 50
The role of producer cooperation in global energy governance

Uniting on Food Assistance
Promoting evidence-based transatlantic dialogue and convergence

Humanitarian Assistance: Truly Universal?
Mutual respect and common interests as entry points for cooperation with non-Western humanitarian donors

Common Goals – Different Approaches?
Strengthening transatlantic cooperation on global energy issues

Joint Stakeholders in Global Energy Governance?
Prospects for joint global problem-solving between the EU and China

Learning in EU Peace Operations?
EU civilian crisis management and organizational learning

Learning to Build Peace?
The United Nations, peace operations and organizational learning

EU Foreign Policy Towards China
The institutional politics of cooperation

Global Climate Governance and the Making of China's Climate Change Policy
Actors, interests and policy-formulation

The New Protectorates
International administration and the dilemmas of governance

Consulting

Real-Time Evaluation of UNICEF’s Response to the Sa’ada Conflict in Northern Yemen

Inter-Agency Real-Time Evaluation of the Disaster Response to the Haiti Earthquake

Global Review of Cause-Related Marketing Alliances

Networking United Nations Private Sector Focal Points

Debate

Global Governance 2020

Transatlantic Energy Governance Dialogues

Global Atlanticists

Topic 1

Millennium Development Goals

1. The Save-the-World Clock
By: Elizabeth Dickinson, Foreign Policy, Sept. 20, 2010
Summary: Global leaders promised a decade ago to end poverty by 2015. With just five years left, the U.N. General Assembly – including an estimated 140 heads of state – meet this week to assess progress. How much good has been done? Here's a hint: not enough.

2. Development: Crumbs of comfort
By: Alan Beattie, Financial Times, Sept. 15 2010
Summary: This article offers a sober look at aid generally and the Millennium Development Goals specifically. Beattie writes that rather than preparing for a five-year push to achieve the MDGs, the gathering will see not only much of the developing world falling short on most of the targets but the aid business itself fighting for increasingly scarce public money and under pressure to deliver.

3. Who Are the MDG Trailblazers? A New MDG Progress Index - Working Paper 222
By: Benjamin Leo and Julia Barmeier, Center for Global Development, Aug. 23
Summary: In this working paper, the authors introduce an MDG Progress Index to assess how on or off track countries are toward MDG targets.

Topic 2

Humanitarian response to Pakistan floods

1. Has Aid for Pakistan Flood Crisis Been Enough?
By: PBS NewsHour, video and transcript, Sept. 6, 2010
During the recent flood crisis in Pakistan, Jeffery Brown of PBS NewsHour spoke to philanthropy and humanitarian experts about the extent and effectiveness of the aid delivered, particularly compared to that to Haiti. The experts included Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and Steve Hollingworth, chief operating officer and executive vice president of global operations for the humanitarian organization CARE.

2. Don't Pretend the EU is the Red Cross
By: Richard Gowan, European Council on Foreign Relations, Sep 6, 2010
Summary: This year, Pakistan's floods, Haiti's earthquake and Russia's fires have stirred up debate about how the EU delivers crisis aid, with calls to reform European responses. Improving the EU's and the international community's delivery of humanitarian aid poses technical challenges, but European leaders must also recognize that emergency response is rarely just a technical issue. Handling complex emergencies requires more than humanitarian aid. It demands military hardware and civilian state-builders, such as the police officers and advisers.

3. Pakistani Flood Relief Must Start with Fighting Corruption
By: Ahmed Rashid, Washington Post, Sept. 6, 2010
Summary: Pakistanis, says Rashid, are scandalized and embarrassed that their politicians, bureaucrats and generals have fostered so much corruption for so long that nobody trusts them to deal fairly with the victims of this summer's historic floods. Yet actions in the Pakistan relief effort indicate that the skeptics are right.