The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel: The Evolution of Global Health Diplomacy

The May 2010 adoption of the World Health Organization Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel created a global architecture, including ethical norms and institutional and legal arrangements, to guide international cooperation and serve as a platform for continuing dialogue on the critical problem of health worker migration. Highlighting the contribution of non-binding instruments to global health governance, this article describes the Code negotiation process from its early stages to the formal adoption of the final text of the Code. Detailed are the vigorous negotiations amongst key stakeholders, including the active role of non-governmental organizations. The article emphasizes the importance of political leadership, appropriate sequencing, and support for capacity building of developing countries’ negotiating skills to successful global health negotiations. It also reflects on how the dynamics of the Code negotiation process evidence an evolution in global health negotiations amongst the WHO Secretariat, civil society, and WHO Member States

A közpolitikákra ható EU-integrációs mechanizmusok – a hulladékgazdálkodás példáján = EU integration mechanisms affecting public policies in the case of waste management

Az Európai Uniónak a tagállami közpolitikákra irányuló integrációs tevékenysége, kormányzási stílusa az elmúlt másfél évtizedben jelentős tanulási folyamaton ment keresztül. A jogi eszközök használata mellett előtérbe kerültek a koordináció úgynevezett nyílt eszközei, amelyek a kötelező alkalmazkodás mellett – azt kiegészítve – a tapasztalatcserén alapuló ösztönzést is érvényesítik. A környezetvédelem európai mintáinak terjesztése során az Unió sokat tanult a korábbi bővítések tapasztalataiból, és a jogharmonizáció mellett komoly erőforrásokat is rendelt az újonnan csatlakozó országok jogalkalmazási kapacitásának fejlesztéséhez. Az alkalmazkodási folyamat nem egyenletesen érvényesült a szóban forgó közpolitika vala-mennyi dimenziójában. Míg az eszközök - különösen a jogi eszközök - tekintetében a hazai hulladék-gazdálkodás alaposan hozzáidomult az uniós mintákhoz, addig e részpolitika céljai sok esetben csak szavakban alkalmazkodtak az EU által követendőnek tekintett célokhoz. Ez azt jelenti, hogy a kormányzást erősebben vezérelték az infrastrukturális és az anyagi adottságok és a kormányzati hagyományok, mint a deklarált célok. Eközben a kormányzat környezetvédelmi intézményrendszerének fejlődése olyan pályán haladt, amely nagy valószínűséggel az ország európai integrációja nélkül is hasonlóképpen valósult volna meg. Ez alól kivételt éppen azok az intézményi magatartásminták képeznek, amelyek a többszintű kormányzásra vonatkoznak. Nevezetesen azok a széles eszköztárat megmozgató törekvések, amelyek össze kívánják hangolni a kormányzat különböző szintjei, a gazdasági ágazatok és a civil szféra érdekeit, nagy részben az uniós szabályokra és finanszírozási feltételekre reagálva alakultak ki. . . The European Union’s integration activity and style of governance directed at the public policy of member states has undergone a major learning process over the last fifteen years. Apart from using legal means, so-called open methods of coordination have come to the fore, which, besides – indeed complementing – compulsory adaptation, have asserted incentives based on the exchange of experiences. In the course of the spread of the European pattern of environmental protection, the EU has learnt a great deal from its earlier enlargements, and in addition to legal harmonisation it has allocated substantial resources for the development of the capacity for the enforcement of the Acquis Communautaire in the new acceding countries. The adaptational process has not been evenly effective in every dimension of the public policy in question. While waste management in Hungary has thoroughly fallen into line with the EU patterns as regards tools – especially legal tools –, the declared objectives of this policy area in many cases only pay lip service to the objectives recommended by the EU . This means that governance has been guided by the infrastructural and material conditions, moreover by governmental traditions more forcefully than by the declared objectives. During the last 15 years the government’s environmental institution building has proceeded along a course which in all probability would have been followed in a similar manner without Hungary’s integration into Europe. An exception to this is exactly the institutional behaviour patterns which concern multi-level governance. That is to say, those efforts to mobilise a wide range of tools that seek to harmonise the interests of different levels of government, economic sectors and civil society have to a large extent developed in reaction to EU regulations and financing conditions

Review of the environmental and organisational implications of cloud computing: final report.

Cloud computing – where elastic computing resources are delivered over the Internet by external service providers – is generating significant interest within HE and FE. In the cloud computing business model, organisations or individuals contract with a cloud computing service provider on a pay-per-use basis to access data centres, application software or web services from any location. This provides an elasticity of provision which the customer can scale up or down to meet demand. This form of utility computing potentially opens up a new paradigm in the provision of IT to support administrative and educational functions within HE and FE. Further, the economies of scale and increasingly energy efficient data centre technologies which underpin cloud services means that cloud solutions may also have a positive impact on carbon footprints. In response to the growing interest in cloud computing within UK HE and FE, JISC commissioned the University of Strathclyde to undertake a Review of the Environmental and Organisational Implications of Cloud Computing in Higher and Further Education [19]

An Assessment of the Commission’s 2011 Schengen Governance Package: Preventing abuse by EU member states of freedom of movement? CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 47, 26 March 2012

The Schengen system has been at the centre of sharp controversy throughout 2011 and the early months of 2012 arising from attempts by several member state governments to challenge the right to the free movement of persons and the abolition of internal border checks. The speech delivered by Nicolas Sarkozy early this month (March 2012), as part of the French presidential campaign, in which he threatened to suspend France’s participation in Schengen illustrates this phenomenon. This paper examines the European Commission’s response to the Schengen controversies, namely the Schengen Goverance Package published in September 2011 and currently under negotiation in Council and the European Parliament. It assesses the scope and added value of the Package’s two new legislative proposals (a new Schengen evaluation mechanism and revised rules for restating internal border checks) by looking at the origins and features of the debate surrounding liberty of circulation in the Schengen area. The paper addresses the following questions: first, are these new rules necessary and appropriate to effectively respond to unlawful security derogations and restrictions to liberty of circulation? Second, would their adoption provide an effective response to current and future political tensions and national governments’ policies against free movement, such as those evidenced in 2011 and 2012 and for them to expand to other member states? And finally, is the Schengen Governance Package well designed to safeguard the free movement of persons, or is it rather oriented towards further strengthening the security apparatus of Schengen

Water Rights and Water Allocation: Issues and Challenges for Asia

The primary audience for this report is management and staff working in water resources agencies in Asia, particularly those in river basin organizations (RBOs) in their various forms. The roles and responsibilities of RBOs vary considerably and are evolving as pressureson water resources are becoming more severe. Although this report seeks to share knowledge about the fundamentals and application of waterrights and allocation, it attempts to do so with a practical focus

WASH coalition building guidelines

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) is an international membership organisation that has worked, since 1990, to achieve sustainable water supply and sanitation for all people, through enhancing collaboration among sector agencies and professionals. As part of its activities within two of its programme areas – Networking & Knowledge Management, and Advocacy & Communications – WSSCC encourages the development of national water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Coalitions. The role of WASH Coalitions ranges from information sharing to the advocacy of specific policy changes, but they universally address a felt need for improved systematic communication, collaboration and joint action among the sector players in a certain country. As a vehicle for awareness raising and advocacy, most national WASH Coalitions have developed national WASH Campaigns. A special role is given to the National Coordinators, who are expected to maintain the links with the WSSCC Secretariat, exercise quality control and practise a degree of coordination and facilitation of the coalition. However, coalitions, like partnerships, are complicated organisms and some of the existing WASH Coalitions have had only limited impact and varying degrees of success. This is partly due to the complexity of building a successful coalition that responds to the specific needs of the country in which it is created, and partly due to the undefined or open mandate of the WASH Coalitions, resulting in a lack of clarity about what they are intended to do