Business as Unusual: Partnerships in Global Governance

Project objectives

As part of the long-standing cooperation between GPPi and the Hertie School of Governance, the executive education seminar 2007 on "Business as Unusual: Partnerships in Global Governance" took stock of partnerships in which international organizations, state agencies, NGOs and businesses work together to address pressing global problems and promote sustainable development. Participants analysed the principles and performances of partnerships and developed strategies for shaping global public policy making.

The 2007 seminar took place in Berlin from 27-29 August 2007 and was led by GPPi's Wolfgang Reinicke and Thorsten Benner. The intense three-day program brought together participants from the public, business and not-for-profit sectors in a cross-sectoral learning forum. The course employed a wide variety of teaching methods ranging from lectures and case study teaching to small-group work. The main topics of the seminar included:

• Global Public-Private Partnerships
• Changing Environment of Global Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Governance approaches to sustainable development: The World Commission on Dams
• Extractive Industries and Good Governance: The oil and diamond sectors
• Money laundering and fighting terrorist financing: the case of the Financial Action Task Force

Speakers included Birgit Errath (Global Compact Office), Jan Martin Witte (GPPi) and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Cambridge). The keynote address on "leadership for good governance" was given by Peter Eigen, the founder of Transparency International.

To see the program for the 2007 seminar, please click here. 

Previous seminars

The 2007 seminar builds on the success of the 2004-2006 executive seminars on global public policy which brought together participants from a wide range of organizations such as, the Federal Foreign Office, Human Rights Watch, the European Commission, the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, among others.

Seminar co-directors Wolfgang Reinicke and Thorsten Benner were joined during many of the sessions by academics and practitioners to share their expertise. Among these were John G. Ruggie (Harvard University and UN Special Representative on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises), Klaus Leisinger (Novartis Foundation and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the Global Compact) and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Cambridge and Fellow, Global Public Policy Institute). The program also included evening lectures featuring speakers such as Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.