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Cross Sectoral Deliberation | | Public Engagement

CROSS SECTORAL DELIBERATIONS

Historically, decision-making pertaining to critical public policy issues has excluded a number of essential stakeholders from the dialogue, deliberation, and rule-making process. As a result, the governance and management of global, regional, and national systems have produced a variety of inequitable, unjust, and unsustainable practices. In order to rectify these challenges, a more inclusive, democratic, and transparent process that includes a representative cross-section of the world’s stakeholders must be institutionalized within the global governance system. Over the last decade, new processes and methods have been developed in a variety of different settings that demonstrate more effective ways to include cross-sectoral input for more beneficial and equitable governance.

The cornerstone of the Commission is the incorporation of the processes and methodologies that embody a multi-stakeholder ethic and practice in all aspects of its dialogue, deliberation, and collaborative action. By emphasizing balanced representation of stakeholders, the Commission seeks to create a multi-stakeholder microcosm in activities pursued by the Commission. In an effort to add to the sophistication in design and implementation of cross-sectoral deliberations and practices, the Forum is working to develop methodologies to bring leading practitioners, active in the global governance domain, together in a consultative process.

The issue underlying cross sectoral deliberation is that of establishing democracy at a global level. Currently democracy is defined as nation states sending their representatives to international institutions to debate and make decisions, with civil society and business excluded except for the lobbying they do. The prevailing norm is that only governments make decisions. This notion is limited and increasingly an impediment to effective global action.

As the forces of globalisation compel increasing integration and interdependence, governance, particularly at the global level, will evolve into a much more complex matrix of mutual deliberation and decision making between a range of state and non state actors directly involved in the issue. This will require increased sophistication in how we design and implement cross-sectoral deliberations and practices.

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