Ann Florini - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ann Florini

Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, Jul 16, 2018

The advent of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals has refocused global attention on the roles ... more The advent of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals has refocused global attention on the roles of business and other nonstate actors in achieving global goals. Often, business involvement takes the form of collaborations with the more traditional actors-governments and non-governmental organizations. Although such partnerships for development have been seen before, the scale and expectations are new. This paper explores how and why these cross-sector collaborations are evolving, and what steps can or should be taken to ensure that partnerships create public and private value. The arguments are illustrated with reference to cases of market-driven partnerships for agriculture in Southeast Asia that are intended to engage marginalized smallholder farmers in global value chains in agriculture. The aims of these cross-sector collaborations coincide with several targets of the Sustainable Development Goals such as poverty alleviation, decreasing environmental impact, and achieving food security. This is a hard case for mechanisms intended to protect public interests, given that the target beneficiaries (low-income smallholder farmers and the environment) are unable to speak effectively for themselves. We find that structures and processes to align interests

Columbia University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2007

Issues in Science and Technology, 1999

These are, in many ways, halcyon days for global business. In a vast ideological shift in the lat... more These are, in many ways, halcyon days for global business. In a vast ideological shift in the late 20th century, markets rather than governments came to be seen as the road to prosperity. Governments that once nationalized foreign firms now seek out the investment, technology, and managerial expertise such companies can bring. The halls of the United Nations used to ring with calls for international regulation of those dreaded evil-doers, the multinational corporations. Now the UN instead implores business to join with it in a voluntary Global Compact to ensure respect for internationally agreed environmental, labor, and human rights standards. And business has truly gone global. Surging transportation and communications technologies in the past few decades have encouraged firms the world over to cross borders, and revitalized industries in Europe and Japan have offered new competition to U.S. firms. At the beginning of the 1990s, some 35,000 parent multinational corporations had roughly 170,000 foreign affiliates. By the end of the decade, 60,000 parent companies had more than 500,000 foreign affiliates, accounting for a quarter of global output in the late 1990s. As transnationals reorganize the production of goods and services, production itself is becoming global in structure.

Transparency is on the rise, touted as the solution to such disparate problems as financial volat... more Transparency is on the rise, touted as the solution to such disparate problems as financial volatility, environmental degradation, money laundering, and corruption. But transparency faces much opposition, particularly from those under scrutiny. Such actors often have strong incentives to avoid providing information. To explain the growing demand for transparency and to assess its prospects for success requires attention to matters of politics-that is, power. Power is often needed to induce disclosures or restructure incentives. And the information thus revealed can shift power from the former holders of secrets to the newly informed. This paper explores the politics of transparency-why it is emerging, and what are the advantages and difficulties inherent in relying on transparency to address global issues.

Global Environmental Politics, May 1, 2008

issue seven sgd18 www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg perspectives social innovation labs innovation in poverty a... more issue seven sgd18 www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg perspectives social innovation labs innovation in poverty alleviation on the wild side Administration Building,

Space Policy, Nov 1, 1986

Journal of Civil Society, Sep 1, 2011