Migration and Social Policy Cluster
The scale, visibility and impact of international migration has increased sharply in recent decades. This is felt globally, regionally and locally and poses complex social and political challenges, as it impacts the lives of migrants, the countries of origin, countries of 'transit' or temporary residence, countries where people settle or resettle permanently, as well as the communities to which they return. There is a strong call for better management of migration processes, in all its forms, and for more international and regional cooperation in the framework of migration management, such as the Global Compact.
However, given the great diversity and complexity of the phenomenon, the often-irreconcilable interests of the different stakeholders involved and the high sensitivity and politicisation of the issue, progress in this area remains limited, with several policies even proving counterproductive.
UNU-CRIS carries out interdisciplinary and in-depth research into the nature, causes and consequences of migration and migration governance, with special attention to the most vulnerable categories of migrants and to the role of regions in migration governance.
This cluster also has a broader interest in the regional dimensions of social policies. It explores the potential of internationalizing social policies and the (potential) contribution of regional organizations to formulating and implementing social policies.
Economic Interactions Cluster
The scale, visibility and impact of international migration has increased sharply in recent decades. This is felt globally, regionally and locally and poses complex social and political challenges, as it impacts the lives of migrants, the countries of origin, countries of 'transit' or temporary residence, countries where people settle or resettle permanently, as well as the communities to which they return. There is a strong call for better management of migration processes, in all its forms, and for more international and regional cooperation in the framework of migration management, such as the Global Compact.
However, given the great diversity and complexity of the phenomenon, the often-irreconcilable interests of the different stakeholders involved and the high sensitivity and politicisation of the issue, progress in this area remains limited, with several policies even proving counterproductive.
UNU-CRIS carries out interdisciplinary and in-depth research into the nature, causes and consequences of migration and migration governance, with special attention to the most vulnerable categories of migrants and to the role of regions in migration governance.
This cluster also has a broader interest in the regional dimensions of social policies. It explores the potential of internationalizing social policies and the (potential) contribution of regional organizations to formulating and implementing social policies.
Digital Governance Cluster
New sources of multipolarity are emerging in the world: once the haven of states, new actors are emerging that are rapidly ‘taking control’ of the core functions of our digitalised public lives. This growth of new actors comes to the fore at a moment when key supporters of the global order are rethinking their approach to the multilateral system and are even making efforts to reassert national sovereignty.
However, the monopoly of the state in global governance is being fundamentally questioned, if not challenged, by the digital transformation. The rapid pace of technological diffusion and innovation upends existing forms of governance and necessitates the development of novel approaches. We see growth of regional poles, where regional powers respond to pressures of globalisation by resorting to traditional mechanisms of power and diplomacy in the digital sphere. We also see the emergence of ‘policy poles’, with different combinations of private and public actors vying for attention in specific policy fields in the global marketplace of ideas.
Digital technologies contribute to this set of profound challenges to the authority and legitimacy of the multilateral world order. Does technology break down barriers to participate in decision-making? Can governance of global technologies be entrusted to private actors alone or is there a way to ‘cascade’ global governance through regions and localities? Such questions address the difficulties in leveraging new technologies to enable effective participation in sub- and transnational institutions and the growing need for continued stakeholder engagement in global, regional and local governance.
UNU-CRIS conducts cutting-edge academic and policy-relevant research on the ongoing digital transformation of society. It critically examines the evolution of multistakeholder and democratic processes that relate not only to the governance of technology, but also how these processes use technologies in other policy spheres. It focuses, thereby, on the (potential) role of regional organizations in digital governance.
Nature, Climate and Health Cluster
Globalisation, demographic and technological expansion, and the resulting transactions between the economic, social, and ecological aspects, directly and indirectly influence the prospects of achieving sustainable development. The interconnected problems confronting states and communities today include the multifaceted impacts of climate change, water and food insecurity, managing trade-offs toward ecological balance and socioeconomic commitments while achieving development targets and ensuring the health and well-being of populations.
The health of our planet and its inhabitants are being pressed to its limits. The ticking clock of climate change grows louder by the day, and the nature and scope of the change required to avert a catastrophic situation are daunting and, perhaps more than any other challenge, require collective, cross-border, and decisive action. Moreover, the multifaceted impacts of climate and water crises require priority action in order to meet the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While there remains a sharp disconnect between science and action, the steps taken to address these issues are often critiqued as not enough to address the escalating rise in global temperatures and or to mitigate the diverse impacts of climate extreme scenarios such as floods, storms, forest fires. The task at hand is threefold: meet the requirements of the present without compromising or hindering future generations; develop innovative and transformative pathways for the future that rights the climate wrongs underpinning global society today; and to ensure the resilience of communities and states to water risks and conflicts, including focused attention on psychosocial wellbeing. In general, how we govern our environment and natural resources, and how we organise efforts to achieve sustainable development, will be key to overcoming these challenges.
While our planet suffers, so do we, as recent reports point out that more than a billion people are currently affected by adverse mental health issues, with the wide-ranging impacts of climate change and disasters increasingly acknowledged as related to such conditions. Challenges of nature and the mind are equally met by challenges of biology, as the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated. In an interconnected and globalised world, where the droplets from a sneeze on one side of the earth can quickly be felt on the other, disease and pathogens do not know, and certainly do not respect, borders of any kind. The fight to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control has clearly illustrated the regional and global dimensions of human health. While the need for synchronisation, coordination, and collaboration between the local, sub-national, national, supranational (regional), and global levels of health governance and policymaking across all sectors is pertinent, in addition, the policymakers, public agencies, and resource managers across all sectors, and particularly in transboundary regions, must recognise the need to improve the spectrum of economic growth within the mandate of ecological and social well-being and concentrate on the efforts to enhance the human-nature relationship.
An in-depth investigation of interactions in the nature, climate, and health nexus remains crucial to understanding the social, cultural, political, and financial implications of these crises. Communities, states, and regions writhe on fulfilling the food, energy, water, and human security mandates.
The Nature, Climate, and Health Cluster aims to examine how shared solutions to sustainability challenges should be best managed to balance environmental obligations and socioeconomic commitments, which governance structures, at which level, are needed to implement these best practices, and what is, or could be, the role of regional organizations in environmental governance. Noting that the challenges we face are cross-border and regional or even global, the activities and projects in this cluster will address aspects such as deforestation in the Amazon to the damming of the Nile, the energy transition in the Middle East to the melting ice of the Arctic. In other words, this cluster has a particular interest in the governance challenges of natural resources, in particular shared water systems that are located across borders. In addition, we will investigate the roles that regions can play in maintaining and ensuring global health, including: regulating trans-border human mobility and goods flows, understanding the water, climate change and health nexus, managing sanitary situations in border cities, securing cross-border flows of medicines, health appliances, and services, coordinating the cross-border sharing of health infrastructures in crises, pooling financial resources for investments in priority research in health, exchanging best practices, harmonising policy-interventions, and addressing health situations of migrants and refugees. The health component will also take note of the evolving “One Health” framework that calls for an inclusive and integrated approach to environmental and human health, including psychological, mental, and physical health.
