The Practitioner Challenges

The Governance Commons' Practitioner Portal is organized around a series of challenges, which we believe must be surmounted before we can overcome current difficulties with governance processes.

• Challenge #1: Improving Security
  Good governance requires basic security--it is very difficult for people to engage in peaceful problem-solving when their security is constantly under threat. Therefore, the Commons supports efforts to promote security in three key areas:

  • Challenge #1a: Limiting Violence and Intimidation by strengthening the ability of police and military forces to protect the public from inter- and intra-state violence, while, at the same time, not taking unfair advantage of their powerful positions within a society.
     
  • Challenge #1b: Protecting Individual and Group Rights from illegitimate uses of state power and from structural violence through effective national and international judicial, political, and social mechanisms.  
     
  • Challenge #1c: Providing Basic Human Needs by promoting sustainable economies capable of limiting both the humanitarian tragedies of hopeless poverty and the security threats which can arise when people become truly desperate. Under Construction -- Library Resources Available
     

• Challenge #2: Promoting Cooperative Relationships
  For governance to work, inevitable and, in many ways, constructive intergroup competition must be tempered by a willingness to work together to advance mutual interests. This is why the Commons supports relationship-building efforts in three areas:

  • Challenge #2a: Broadening the Sense of Community by overcoming hateful divisions and histories of unrightable wrongs that often prevent communities from recognizing their common interests. In short, we seek to reframe relationships from "us versus them" to "we."  Under Construction -- Library Resources Available
     
  • Challenge #2b: Fostering a Sense of Fairness by encouraging the development of a moral basis for balancing individual freedom and the pursuit of self-interest with reasonable obligations to others and to future generations.  Under Construction -- Not Yet Available
     
  • Challenge #2c:Encouraging Agreement-based Problem Solving  through public- and private-sector approaches that focus on identifying and then pursuing mutually beneficial solutions.  Under Construction -- Not Yet Available
     

• Challenge #3: Assuring Efficiency and Effectiveness
  Good governance requires more than security and willingness to work together. It requires governance processes that allow the many sectors of society to effectively work together in three critical areas:

  • Challenge #3a: Dealing Wisely with Technical Issues by mobilizing the available scientific expertise to effectively identify and assess options for dealing with complex contemporary problems.  Under Construction -- Not Yet Available
     
  • Challenge #3b: Making Politics Work through institutions that are capable of making tough but equitable decisions in complex political environments and in cases where consensus is impossible.  Under Construction -- Library Resources Available
     
  • Challenge #3c: Fostering Legitimate Governance through transparent and accountable processes that build public trust by demonstrating that the processes are, in fact, worthy of the public's trust. 
     

What's New

LTA: Legitimacy, Accountability and Transparency Toolkits

The toolkits available here are designed to help civil society organizations promote governance legitimacy, accountability, and transparency and combat corruptions at local and national levels.

UNU-WIDER : Promoting Entrepreneurial Capacity
This project aims at a greater understanding of the ways in which entrepreneurial capacity can be harnessed for overall economic development.

Conducting Conflict Assessments: Guidance Notes
This booklet provides guidance for conflict analysis, the improved assessment of conflict risks associated with development or humanitarian assistance; and the development of options for more conflict sensitive policies and programs."

Multi-Track Diplomacy in the 21st Century
This article reviews eight serious challenges to worldwide security in the 21st century and demonstrates how multi-track diplomacy can be used to address those challenges more successfully than military or more traditional diplomatic approaches.

The Strongest Power of All
This article documents how nonviolent direct action can overcome violent oppression, and gives guideliness about what it takes to be effective.

Women as Agents of Change: Advancing the Role of Women in Politics and Civil Society
This article highlights the importance of including women in government, civil society, and peace processes around the globe.