Capacity Building in a Pluralist World: A Transgovernance View presentation conducted by Louis Meuleman 16 October 2012, The Capacity Development Labs 15-17 October 2012, Bratislava, Slovakia

1. Capacity Building in a Pluralist World:
A Transgovernance View
Louis Meuleman
16 October 2012
The Capacity Development Labs
15-17 October 2012, Bratislava, Slovakia

2. Content
1.The context of sustainable development
2.Capacity building in a pluralist and uncertain world
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3. Why capacity builing? -> To help initiate and support (local)
development projects in a context of sustainable development
20 Years after Rio 1992, our Existing arrangements
societies are still unsustainable for collective decisions
(climate change, resource fail to produce
inefficiency, hunger, draughts, floods, sustainable policies
social inequality, economic instability)
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4. Why is governance so important? -> It is about how ideas can
be realised:
Governance = a collection of normative insights on the
organisation of influence, steering, power, and checks and
balances in human societies
Governance includes different styles of governing,
characterised by hierarchical, network or market sets of
values and norms
Hierarchical governance
Network governance Market governance
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5. The context of sustainable development (1)
State - Non-state relations:
Classical view UN
CSO
National
Govts.
Media Sci. (Subnational
Bus.
Authorities)
CSO Media
Local Authorities
Sci.
CSO
Bus. Bus. CSO
Media Bus.
CSO Sci.
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6. The context of sustainable development
State - Non-state relations:
Classical view
-Top down
-Command and control
-Rules and regulations
-Subordinates
-> hierarchical governance
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7. The context of sustainable development
State - Non-state relations: CSO
More realistic view
Bus.
Media
CSO
Bus.
UN Sci.
Sci. National
Govts.
(Subnational
Media
Authorities)
Our societies are
-Complex Local Authorities Sci.
-Pluralist CSO
Bus. Media
Rio+20: LA + CSO + BUS become the key ‘change agents’
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8. The context of sustainable development
State - Non-state relations
Conclusion:
•There are massive differences in how state & non-state actors relate
to each other
•History, culture and traditions play an important role in shaping the
differences
-> ‘Best practices’ are rare, ‘good practices’ can be used
as inspiration
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9. The context of sustainable development
Different problem types require different tools:
“If you only have a
hammer, you tend to
see every problem
as a nail”
Abraham Maslow
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10. The context of sustainable development
Different problem types require different tools:
Crises, disasters
Hierarchical governance
Network governance Market governance
Complex, unstructured, Routine issues,
‘Wicked’, multi-actor issues Non-sensitive issues
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11. The context of sustainable development
Different problem types require different tools:
Many sustainable development challenges are ‘wicked problems’ (Rittel/Webber 1973
They share a resistance to resolution
Examples: Poverty is
linked with education,
nutrition with poverty,
the economy with
nutrition, and so on.
Some problems are even ’super wicked problems’ (Levin et al. 2010)(e.g.
climate change), because:
• Time is running out.
• No central authority.
• Those seeking to solve the problem are also causing it.
• Policies discount the future irrationally.
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12. The context of sustainable development
Different problem types require different tools:
Roberts (2000) identified the following strategies to cope with wicked problems:
• Authoritative (hierarchical governance)
‘Tame’ wicked problems making a few people responsible: reduces problem
complexity, as many competing points of view are eliminated at the start.
Disadvantage: no appreciation of all the perspectives needed to tackle the
problem.
• Competitive (market governance)
Put opposing view against each other. Advantage: different solutions can be
weighed up against each other and the best one chosen. Disadvantage:
creating a confrontational environment in which knowledge sharing is
discouraged. -> no incentive to come up with the best possible solution.
• Collaborative (network governance)
Engage all stakeholders in order to find the best possible solution for all
stakeholders. -> meetings & agreed common, approach. Time-consuming.
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13. The context of sustainable development
The cultural dimension
• Sustainable development = a vague and normative concept
• This leaves room for cultural diversity: SD can mean something
different in different cultures and traditions -> compatibiity, not
assimilation
• Cultural diversity should be both an objective (like biodiversity) and a
means to achieve sustainable development
• Rio”is CBDR cultural diversity or protectionism?
More: Cultural diversity and sustainability governance
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n11um6819580144h/
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14. Capacity building in a pluralist & uncertain world
• Metagovernance = to design and
manage suitable combinations of the
three styles of governance: making them
synergetic instead of undermining
Christopoulos et al 2012:
•Metagovernance is essential for
sustainable development
because of its coordination
potential and its help to
restructuring dysfunctional
Meta-
governance practices;
governance
•UNDP can become a strong
initiator for metagovernance (e.g.
providing venue & space)
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15. Capacity building in a pluralist & uncertain world
• Metagovernance requires a specic
capacity:
The metagovernor’s qualifications: ambition/drive to reflect on
what is the situational best
style mixture;
Willingness learning attitude, reflexivity.
Discretion using the discretionary space
up to its limits (Lipsky 1980)
Capability capable of taking
multiple perspectives;
bird’s eye view:
‘yellow’ in Graves 1965
- ‘S-5’ in Laske 2006
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16. Capacity building in a pluralist & uncertain world
• Metagovernance requires to understand how our societies function
• Therefore we need to introduce knowledge from various social sciences
• Transgovernance is a ‘basket’ of 6 combined concepts/theories:
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17. Capacity building in a pluralist & uncertain world
Transgovernance implies, among others, that we are conscious:
a. Of the growing tensions between top-down and participatory forms of
democracy, science and media (knowledge democracy)
b. That social systems (and ecosystems) are reflexive: as soon as you
‘touch’ them they change…
c. That a pluralist world requires ‘and’ , not ‘or’ decisions (second
modernity theory): add, not replace
d. That change does not come from the centers but from borders, where
people are multiple included in networks (configurations)
e. That we need no one-size-fits-all governance, but metagovernance
f. That ‘great transformations’ start from the bottom, mostly not from the
top (‘niches/regimes/landscapes’)
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18. What kind of training needed?
1. Training in the use of tools for analysing the policy environment
e.g. understanding governance styles and their normative assumptions,
stakeholder analysis, strength analysis, argumentation analysis, interests
analysis, network analysis
2. Training in the Mutual Gains negotiation method: type of collaboration
- Look beyond the standpoints to find the real interests
- Don’t simplify too soon – broadening the issue may result in better win-
win package deals
See e.g. training by Sustainability Challenge Foundation
http://www.scfoundation.org/
3. Training in meta/transgovernance perspectives; invite also speakers
with a seldom-heard view (historians, cultural anthropologists,
organisational psychologists, behavioural economists (‘nudges’!) etc.)
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19. Recommendations
• Sustainable development is a must-do for the environment, for
innovative business and for fair social conditions
• There is no contradition between SD and Development policy (or
MDGs/SDGs
• Both should work on pluralist, tailor-made solutions; SD
practitioners can learn from Development practitioners that the
social dimension (neglected in SD/GE) is key to finding real
solutions.
• Capacity building for SD is about learning to deal with complexity
(but not everything is complex -> filtering out the simple
solutions; transitions start small but also need a stimulating
environment)
• Monit.&evaluation: from numbers+text to narratives+nummbers
(annex)
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20. More information
Louis Meuleman (Ed.)(2012) Transgovernance: Advancing Sustainability
Governance
Open Access book, free downloadable at the publisher's website:
http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/political+science/book/978-3-642-
28008-5
See also the TransGov final report: Roeland J. in 't Veld
(2011) Transgovernance: The Quest for Governance of Sustainable
Development
Freed download at http://www.iass-
potsdam.de/sites/default/files/transgovernance_-_the_quest_-
_nov_2011.pdf
More publications: www.ps4sd.eu
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21. Thank you for your attention!
Capacity Building Louis Meuleman
in a Pluralist World: 16 October 2012
A Transgovernance View The Capacity Development Labs
15-17 October 2012, Bratislava, Slovakia