Structures of International Governance - Coursework Example

Introduction Governance brings in the concept of setting up a government that is comprised of management and leadership duties. Power, expectations and performance are normally critically defined under the concept of governance. Governance can be found in profit, non-profit, local or international organisations. International governance comes in when all countries come together to set up an administration which ensures that agreed upon rules and regulations are adhered by all countries globally. International governance has a major contribution in the globalisation concept. Globalisation is simply spreading of particular philosophies, ideas, technology and governance all over the world. All countries become one unit and they are all governed by the same set of rules. The concept of international governance came in to fight poverty, war among countries, environmental degradation and to set up equal opportunities for everyone in all countries. The call to fight particular deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer has made many countries to come together to ensure that a cure is established to save lives. Approaches to international government One of the major works of international governance is in the protection of the environment and its resources. The pollution rates have become very rampant and they are now posing as a risk to human life thus there has been a great need for all countries to form regulations as to how they are going to prevent further pollution and preserve the environment and resources for the future generation. For this reason many organisations have been set up to see if the countries are implementing some of the rules and regulations of conserving the environment. For instance the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Environmental Organisation (WEO) are organisations set to ensure that the respective countries that sign the treaty to preserve the environment are implementing the changes. Such organisations are entitled in doing research to tell which countries have succeeded in implementing the changes, the shortcomings of the implementations and where the strategies are proving to be difficult. From such researches they are able to see if the implementation is worthwhile or not. Moreover, the organisations can assist countries that have problems in implementing the changes by lending them money to fund the projects by buying the respective machines and educating its general public on environmental issues (Barbara, 2002). When countries come together to set environmental laws, they put the interest of the people first. The problem is that not all countries are ready to take up the changes because the implementations mean that they have to budget more and sometimes stop the production of some goods. These posses as a great limitation for any country that wants to join the organisation because it has to go hand in hand with the regulations. If they set that the production of a particular good has to stop because of its implications to the environment, then as a member one has to abide by the law (Barbara, 2002). When environmental property rights are defined while trying to preserve the environment, one country is left better of while the other is worse of. For instance when the law was set to stop the use of Aloe Vera in producing soaps, lotions and other goods, many companies suffered but the people who gained are the current generation became its depletion was prevented and now it can be used to produce the particular goods that are also needed right now. The set rules and regulations in preserving the environment are made to protect vulnerable countries. There are negative externalities that come when one country’s production of a particular good pollutes the environment of another country. It brings about health problems and even changes the climatic conditions of another country. The international laws in respect to the environment can help the two countries come to an agreement. They can either ensure that the country reduces production or implements the particular technology that can prevent pollution of the environment. The laws can also ban the production of the goods to preserve the environment. For the environment to be preserved there has been the call for countries who are members of the abovementioned organisations to produce bio-degradable goods. Polythene bags are now being banned because they have proved to be the biggest environmental pollutants. The problem is that it is very hard for developing countries which are part of the organisations to implement such regulations because the production of bio-degradable goods is too expensive. This means that they have to tax their residents of their countries more to implement the on the production of such goods thus increasing the levels of poverty (Kratochwil, 2006). The international governance has the responsibility of ensuring that global poverty is eradicated. For this purpose all countries that are members of the United Nations are expected to adapt to the millennium development goals. They were mainly set to fight poverty levels in the developing countries thus enhancing global development. The millennium development goals are to be met by 2015 by every country that signed to the implementations of the goals. In fighting poverty, the goals are also meant to reduce the rates at which individuals are suffering from deadly diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS. The main goals of reducing the spread of such infections are by educating the general public on the preventive measures. Since the implementations are very expensive, then the developing countries have received funds to ensure that awareness of such diseases is spread to all people (Karsten, 2000). The biggest challenge of ensuring that the projects are implemented is corruption in the government sector that deals with the funds. These issue posses as a great limitation for such international structures to pursue their goals. The funds are usually not used for their intended purpose but are used for individual gains thus the spread of the diseases increases. The organisations have strict rules on how countries utilise their funds thus there must be accounts on how the funds are utilised. Moreover, the organisation has an already set budget on how the money will be used thus if the money if finished before any project is completed, then it means that the country has to account for it. If countries refuse to account for the money then next time they are not funded at all. This makes countries to be very slow in responding to such international governance procedures because they feel like their own local governance is being undermined. The sense of pride of a country is usually put down thus very proud countries opt not to join the international governance (Held et al., 2002). The other issue in the millennium development goals is to ensure that education among the women and the girl child has increased. The goal is a great challenge to the cultural beliefs of very many countries thus they opt not to join in the governance procedures because their cultures are usually threatened. Since the goals aim at enriching the African countries which are still in the development stages, the objective of the goals is at a risk of it not being adapted. This is because the cultures in such countries undermine women and they do not believe in educating women. To fight such resistance, the international governance bodies set up small enterprises, the non-governmental organisations, to ensure that the people on the grassroots level are aware of the goals. The organisations have gone to the extended of taking young girls and women to their rehabilitation centres thus educate them and make them to be responsible citizens in their respective countries. By educating women, the child mortality rates are reduced because they are now aware of the pre-natal and post-natal care (Brian, 2001). The international governance is also responsible in setting up conditions of how to increase economic levels of countries toenhance global development. This goal is in both the millennium goals and other international projects like in the Canadian organisation Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The organisation is involved in research and giving out recommendations on particular polices in the international bodies. It is not a profit making or taking organisation. It also holds conferences to discuss on the various policies that are being implemented by different member countries. It is also involved in publishing papers and books on the policies that have worked well and those that have proved to be a failure and also educate people on the current policy recommendations. The economic goals of the international bodies include increase of productivity within the developing countries. This is by ensuring that there are technological transfers from the developed to the developing countries. The transfer of technology assists the countries in producing at a faster rate and the goods produced are also very durable and highly conducive for human consumption. Moreover, the production costs are very low thus makes the goods cheaper and affordable to the general public. This increase in the use of technology is a way to ensure that poverty is reduced within such countries. The biggest limit to this implementation is that the developing countries do not have the necessary amounts of funds to use such technologies. In addition, they do not have the necessary educational knowledge on the respective technology. The fact that the developing countries will adapt on particular technologies and render very many people unemployed, the countries prefer not to join such treaties. This is because the technology is mostly capital intensive and not labour intensive as the developing countries are rich in labour. The strict focus on countries to use capital intensive technologies bring down the developing countries thus they opt to step out of the international governance (Jan-Erik, 2006). The countries that set up the international governance laws are the developed countries. The laws they make are mainly according to their countries’ situations and not other developing countries. The developing countries have always complained that they are not well represented in such organisations. This makes them not to have a voice to explain themselves and the projects they think will work best for their countries. For this reason, many developing countries have refused to join up in some of the international governance schemes. Sometimes the governance schemes have been accused of setting up laws that will benefit them only. For instance, the trade policies of using the import substitution method, killed many infant factories in the developing countries as they were not able to fully cope with the new technologies. This gave the goods of the developing countries more market as people opted to purchase their goods which were cheaper and more durable. Once the developing countries realised that the project was not successful thus the international bodies brought another strategy of the export oriented products. Countries were to stop exporting raw materials and to adopt exportation of manufactured goods. The goods had to meet certain technological standards that most developing countries had not attained yet; this made their goods to be less competitive as they were considered to be of a less value due to the use of poor technology. Such limitations in the trade policies have been a great limitation to some countries joining in the international governance bodies (Sorensen, 2004). The international governance has set rules to prevent the misuse of human rights all over the world. It has an international law court in the United Kingdom to prosecute anyone who helps in cases of genocide within the country during any war. For instance, the Rwanda genocide, people who were involved in the act have been caught and are now prosecuted for that act. Proper investigations are usually done before a person is prosecuted. It has laws against child trafficking, child labour, children being used in wars and child prostitution. Child trafficking and prostitution especially in the tourism sector has become very rampant. The international organisations have seen the need to come up with laws to prevent such occurrences. The laws do not permit child sex tourism, trafficking and prostitution. It does not permit any acts of prostitution that promote any kind of abuse. Child sex tourism is a very big form of abuse. It mainly deals with child trafficking that is highly illegal. Child trafficking involves abducting children from a country and taking them to another country for money. Such children are used for prostitution and drug trafficking. The cases of child abuse have increased globally and it has become a great concern for very many countries to eradicate not only child sex tourism but also any kind of child abuse. As discussed earlier, governments have seen the need to come together to discourage any kind of child abuse because children need care and security from any economic, social, political and cultural exploitation. They are very vulnerable and thus they need protection from any kind of danger. Moreover the fight for children to have education is another issue in the international organisations. It is noted that the future is determined by how the children will be brought up thus the call for children to be protected and be given the best to ensure that they have proper lives in the future (Hubert, 2004). Conclusion It should be noted that the international governance bodies are very important as they are responsible in setting peace within and among countries. For this reason, they need not to be done away with even though they have their own limitations. Instead, more recommendations need t made to make the organisations to be more effective. This includes giving every country the chance to have equal opportunities in setting up the necessary rules and regulations. Moreover, proper attention should be given to those countries that are not really considered in making the necessary recommendations. References Barbara E., 2002. Deregulation of global governance: rethinking international organisation. Pp.10-25. Brian G., 2001. Globalisation and governance: the experiences of the two centuries. Pp. 9-15. Held, David and McGrew, Anthony, 2002.Governing Globalization: Power, Authority and Global Governance, Cambridge: Polity. Hubert S., 2004. Global governance and the states: local enterprises in the global economy. Pp.27-34. Jan-Erik L., 2006. Governance in international organisations: globalisation and politics. Pp. 54-67. Karsten R., 2000. International politics: Privet organisations in global governance. Pp. 120-134. Kratochwil, Friedrich and Mansfield, Edward, 2006. International Organisation and Global Governance. Sorensen, G., 2004. The Transformation of the State: Beyond the Myth of Retreat, London: Palgrave. Read More