Abstract
This chapter explores how Pacific Island Countries and Pacific regional organizations have engaged with United Nations’ global policy networks and global summitry. It outlines the major summits convened since 1972 and notes the extent of Pacific participation in their preparation, in their programs, and in the dissemination and implementation of their outcomes. Successful engagement with global policy networks and summitry depends on the ability of a country to fund attendance, to adequately prepare, to meaningfully participate, and to effectively follow-through domestically. Using this criterion, the Pacific Island Countries have participated most effectively, and had most impact on policy outcomes, in the policy spheres of most significance to them: oceans, fisheries, The Law of the Sea; climate change, sea level rise, and global warming. Where high transaction costs and scarcity of human resources and expertise have limited the scope of participation, Pacific Island Countries have drawn on collaboration with Pacific regional institutions as well as such niche networks as the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
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The Beijing Platform for Action’s 12 critical platforms for action: Women and Poverty; Education and Training of Women; Women and Health; Violence against Women; Women and Armed Conflict; Women and the Economy; Women in Power and Decision-making; Institutional Mechanism for the Advancement of Women; Human Rights of Women’ Women and the Media; Women and the Environment; and The Girl-child.
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Hassall, G. (2023). Global Policy Networks and Global Summitry. In: The United Nations and the Pacific Islands. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34155-7_9
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