The United Nations University (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare through collaborative research and education.
The University for Peace (UPEACE) is an international university and intergovernmental organization established as a treaty organisation by the United Nations General Assembly in 1980. The university offers postgraduate, doctoral, and executive programmes related to the study of peace and conflict, environment and development, and international law.
The United Nations University Institute in Macau, formerly the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology and then United Nations University Institute on Computing and Society, is a United Nations University global think tank conducting research and training on digital technologies for sustainable development, encouraging data-driven and evidence-based actions and policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. UNU-Macau is located in Macau, China.
Pierre Sané is the founder and president of the Imagine Africa Institute. He was UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences from May 2001 to June 2010. He was Secretary General of Amnesty International from October 1992 to April 2001.
Regional Integration is a process in which neighboring countries enter into an agreement in order to upgrade cooperation through common institutions and rules. The objectives of the agreement could range from economic to political to environmental, although it has typically taken the form of a political economy initiative where commercial interests are the focus for achieving broader socio-political and security objectives, as defined by national governments. Regional integration has been organized either via supranational institutional structures or through intergovernmental decision-making, or a combination of both.
Functionalism is a theory of international relations that arose during the interwar period principally from the strong concern about the obsolescence of the state as a form of social organization. Rather than the self-interest of nation states that realists see as a motivating factor, functionalists focus on common interests and needs shared by states in a process of global integration triggered by the erosion of state sovereignty and the increasing weight of knowledge and hence of scientists and experts in the process of policy-making. Its roots can be traced back to the liberal and idealist traditions that started with Immanuel Kant and goes as far as Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" speech.
Multi-level governance is a term used to describe the way power is spread vertically between many levels of government and horizontally across multiple quasi-government and non-governmental organizations and actors. This situation develops because many countries have multiple levels of government including local, regional, state, national or federal, and many other organisations with interests in policy decisions and outcomes. International governance also operates based on multi-level governance principles. Multi-level governance can be distinguished from multi-level government which is when different levels of government share or transfer responsibility amongst each other. Whereas multi-level governance analyses the relationship of different state levels and interaction with different types of actors.'
The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) 2005–2014 was an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative of the United Nations. The Decade was delivered by UNESCO as lead agency, and gave rise to Regional Centres of Expertise (RCE) networks, and the GUPES universities' partnership. The launch of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development started a global movement to reorient education to address the challenges of sustainable development. It was the first UN Decade to establish a global monitoring and evaluation process and expert group. Building on the achievement of the Decade, stated in the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on ESD, UNESCO endorsed the Global Action Programme on ESD (GAP) in the 37th session of its General Conference. Acknowledged by UN general assembly Resolution A/RES/69/211 and launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD in 2014, the GAP aims to scale-up actions and good practices. UNESCO has a major role, along with its partners, in bringing about key achievements to ensure the principles of ESD are promoted through formal, non-formal and informal education.
Gender mainstreaming is the public policy concept of assessing the implications for people of different genders of a planned policy action, including legislation and programmes. Mainstreaming offers a pluralistic approach that enhances diversity among people of different genders.
The United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) is a research and training institute of the United Nations University with most of its staff being employed at Maastricht University, based in Maastricht in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.
Luc Soete is a Belgian economist. He is a Professor and the Dean of the Brussels School of Governance. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Sussex Business School and of the Advisory Board of the UNU Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) in Bruges, Belgium. He is a former Rector Magnificus and professor of International Economic Relations at the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, and former director of UNU-MERIT, a joint research institute of the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. Luc Soete is a member of the Dutch scientific advisory body (AWTI) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2010. He serves on the Board of Supervisors of the Delft University of Technology.
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) is part of the United Nations University (UNU). UNU-WIDER, the first research and training centre to be established by the UNU, is an international academic organization set up with the aim of promoting peace and progress by bringing together leading scholars from around the world to tackle pressing global problems.
The United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP) was an institute of the United Nations University (UNU), which provides a bridge between the UN and the international academic and policy-making communities. UNU-ISP was based at UNU headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, with an Operating Unit located in Germany.
Bob Deacon was a prominent social policy academic and policy advisor credited by Kaasch and Stubbs with responsibility for the introduction of the term global social policy.
The Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) is a research centre of the University of Pretoria. It was launched at the International Studies Association annual conference on 6 April 2013 and then in South Africa on 20 May 2013 by the University of Pretoria, with a keynote lecture by political scientist and activist Susan George.
The United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), established in 2012, is one of the 13 institutes that make up the United Nations University (UNU) — a global think tank and postgraduate teaching organisation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Bradnee Chambers was an expert on international environmental governance, law and politics. In March 2013 he was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), a main United Nations multilateral conservation treaty He was also the acting Executive Secretary of the Gorilla Agreement and the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) both administered under the UN Environment Programme. These agreements form the global framework for conservation of wild animals migrating between countries. The agreements cover an immense scope of wildlife including whales, dolphins, sharks, elephants, big cats, bats, monarch butterflies, saiga antelope, waterbirds, and migratory fish.
Reza Ardakanian is an Iranian professor, politician and former Minister of Energy of Iran, a position he had held from 29 October 2017 to 25 August 2021. He was previously deputy energy minister in the 1980s and 1990s and has been involved with UN-Water.
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) is a United Nations (UN) agency responsible for acting as the UN’s "Think Tank on Water". The organization is a research and training institute of the United Nations University (UNU), the academic arm of the United Nations, with a mandate to address water security and access issues internationally. UNU-INWEH was created in 1996 in response to an emerging concern about the growing global water crisis and its harmful impact on human and environmental health and sustainable development.
Timothy M. Shaw is an England-born Canadian political scientist whose research interests include International Political Economy, Global South, development studies and regionalism in Africa and the Caribbean. He is Associate Research Fellow at United Nations University, and Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University, University of Ottawa and University of Massachusetts Boston. Shaw was Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London where he remains Professor Emeritus.
