Global Sustainability Governance
Offered By: KU Leuven University via edX
Course Description
Overview
Addressing global challenges such as climate change, the decline of biodiversity and the violation of human rights is high on the agenda of international organizations, universities, non-governmental organizations and companies and stands at the core of the concept of sustainable development. The key importance of sustainable development has also been recognized in the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, which also underlines the tradeoffs between global sustainability goals. Many global governance instruments have been developed and aim to tackle these challenges. In particular, international trade plays an important role both as perpetrator of global sustainability challenges and as a tool to address them.
This program provides an in-depth introduction into the Sustainable Development Goals and the key institutions established to address global sustainability challenges. Through 3 courses, you will learn what the key sustainability challenges are, how they can be addressed, which trade-offs exist in addressing sustainability challenges, which challenges emerge with the implementation of policies to address sustainability challenges and how to analyze the effectiveness of the many global governance instruments that are available to tackle global challenges, with a specific focus on international trade policy instruments.
You will acquire knowledge on these topics, get access to cutting edge reports and other sources such as webinars and hear from leading academics and practitioners. In total, the professional certificate gathers the insights from more than 25 experts. Academic experts come from a wide range of disciplines relevant to addressing sustainability challenges including law, political science, economics and bio-engineering. You will also learn from practitioners and policy-makers from the local to the global level.
The program is designed to empower critical and results-driven thinking that can be applied in the different types of organizations.
This professional certificate will give you a leading edge if you want to pursue a career in sustainable development either as a civil servant or policy advisor in national and international organizations, a campaigner for an NGO, a researcher engaged in sustainability research for a think tank or university or a business professional in the area of corporate social responsibility.
The program was developed by the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, a leading international and interdisciplinary research centre of the University of Leuven. The Centre conducts fundamental academic research but is also involved in sustainability research for a wide range of institutions including UN agencies, European Union institutions, national governments and private actors. It brings together renowned faculty and shares its knowledge through different channels including academic papers, webinars, roundtables and conferences.
Syllabus
Course 1: The UN Sustainable Development Goals: an Interdisciplinary Academic Introduction
An interdisciplinary introduction to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)which looks at all SDGs, their progress and challenges.
Course 2: Introduction to Global Governance
Critical introduction to the concept, importance and analysis of global governance. In particular, this course provides an overview of the main actors involved in global governance and how these actors manage current key global challenges.
Course 3: Sustainable Trade
Critical interdisciplinary introduction on how to make international trade and global value chains more sustainable from the Global South to the Global North, with a focus on the contribution of voluntary sustainability standards.
Courses
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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which were adopted in 2015, will determine the course of the global social, ecological and economic agenda until 2030.
Information about the different SDGs is abundantly available but a comprehensive framework that brings them all together coherently is often lacking. This course provides a general and accessible academic introduction to SDGs in all its facets.
A highly interdisciplinary team of experts will offer their insight into the intricacies of the matter, while practitioners in the domain of the SDGs are closely engaged in the discussion.
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International trade is a strong engine for poverty reduction, employment creation, innovation, and many other benefits. The important role of international trade for development is also recognized in the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. According to this Agenda, societies around the world need to achieve 17 goals and above 150 sustainability targets by 2030.
However, trade can also significantly contribute to sustainability challenges, such as climate change, deforestation, human rights abuses, and many other issues.
Against this backdrop, several initiatives have been developed to make international trade more sustainable.
In this MOOC, you will learn more about what international trade is, how it has grown and evolved, and how it is structured around Global Value Chains. You will gain insight into what sustainable development is and how international trade affects it, but also how trade can contribute to achieving sustainability goals. You will acquire knowledge about the different trade instruments that can be used to improve sustainability.
In particular, this MOOC will focus on the role of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), the systems behind the labels that we encounter on products we buy daily, such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, or the Forest Stewardship Council. VSS have become important market-based tools to make international trade more sustainable. In this MOOC, you will learn more about what VSS are, how they emerged, and how they work. You will also learn to think about the effectiveness of VSS both in terms of their adoption and in terms of impact. You will gain insight into where and how VSS are adopted across different units of analysis, and what motivates or hinders different actors to adopt them. You will also understand how VSS aims to generate impact on different sustainability dimensions, and how research can be conducted to evaluate VSS impact. You will then learn about the current evidence that is available on VSS impact, and reflect on the main challenges in assessing VSS impact. You will also become aware of the interactions between VSS and public policy, and will critically reflect on their future as instruments for trade governance.
Learn more about sustainable trade through videos from academic experts, interactive exercises and discussions, online readings, webinars, and interviews with professionals in the field.
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Many of the most pressing challenges we are experiencing today are global. Consider climate change, supply chains, or cybersecurity for example – these challenges, like many others, don’t stop or start at the borders of any particular country.
Dealing with global challenges such as these is often complicated and involves a great number of different actors and approaches – we use the concept of global governance to describe the collective activities taking place to manage these challenges.
While the concept of global governance can be difficult to grasp due to the plurality of actors and processes involved, this MOOC will help you gain a full understanding of this phenomenon as well as see how it works in practice.
Throughout the MOOC, you will uncover the key actors engaged in global governance from national governments and regional organizations like the European Union to private actors such as businesses and citizens.
Along the way, you will also learn how approaches to global governance have shifted in recent years as traditional, international law models have given way to a variety of bottom-up and informal processes.
Then you will see how these concepts and ideas apply in real governance contexts such as the governance of global pandemics, sustainable trade, outer space, and human rights.
Finally, you will also learn how global governance is analyzed and theorized, exploring the distinction between “hard” and “soft” law or the concepts of regime architecture and complexity.
Whether you are interested in understanding or solving global problems as a policymaker, a business entrepreneur, or a citizen – this MOOC will provide the necessary foundation for understanding, analyzing and identifying how global governance shapes the world.
Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. Grant agreement number 822654.
Taught by
Charles Roger, Jacint Jordana, Michael Zürn, Julia Kreienkamp, David Coen, Tom Pegram, Angel Saz, Charline Depoorter, Janne Bemelmans, Eva Boonaert, Maja Tampe, Dominic Coppens, Santiago Fernandez de Cordoba, Katja Biedenkopf, André Decoster, Hilde Heynen, Bart Kerremans, Miet Maertens, Axel Marx, Bart Muys, Constanza Parra, Kolja Raube, Luc Sels, Ilse Smets, Karel Van Acker, Chris Van Geet, Kurt Willems, Kari Otteburn, Philip De Man and Jan Wouters
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