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81. Canada Needs Standards to Support Big Data Analytics

Author:
Michel Girard
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Standards can bring clarity on definitions, systems architecture, data ownership, grading, pooling, storage, disposal and set the bar regarding privacy and aggregation requirements. They are a necessary precondition for interoperability and commoditization to occur throughout value chains and across sectors. Canada has virtually no institutional capacity to develop standards in the information and communication technology sector. This policy brief proposes the creation of a standards collaborative that would be entrusted with the development of a standards road map to support big data analytics.
Topic:
Governance, News Analysis, and Data
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

82. The Content of a WTO Climate Waiver

Author:
James Bacchus
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Neither the trade regime nor the climate regime has so far displayed any willingness to confront the coming clash between climate ambitions and trade rules. To minimize the economic and political risks of such a collision, the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) should adopt a WTO climate waiver. To further carbon pricing and to facilitate the necessary green transition in the global economy, the core of a WTO climate waiver should be a waiver from the applicable trade rules for national measures that: discriminate on the basis of carbon and other greenhouse gases used or emitted in making a product; fit the definition of a climate response measure as defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and do not discriminate in a manner that constitutes a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade. A WTO climate waiver should also include support for trade restrictions by carbon markets and climate clubs, trade disciplines on fossil fuel subsidies, and green subsidies that support innovative outcomes rather than particular technologies. Along with a climate waiver, WTO members should also confirm that carbon taxes qualify as border tax adjustments under trade rules. The adoption of a WTO climate waiver is a central and critical part of the overall reimagining of international trade law that is needed to fulfill the stated WTO goal of engaging in trade and other economic endeavours consistently with the objectives of sustainable development.
Topic:
Climate Change, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, and Green Technology
Political Geography:
Global Focus

83. Participation of Non-party Stakeholders under the UNFCCC: Options for Future Engagement

Author:
Freedom-Kai Phillips
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Participation of “non-party stakeholders” in the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was affirmed in the decision adopting the Paris Agreement and flagged in the preamble of the agreement itself. This paper discusses the current approaches to stakeholder participation under the UNFCCC and explains concerns regarding the existing model.
Topic:
Climate Change, United Nations, and Green Technology
Political Geography:
Global Focus

84. Toward an Effective Indigenous Knowledge Protection Regime: Case Study of South Africa

Author:
Margo A. Bagley
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
South Africa has a rich tradition of Indigenous knowledge covering uses of the country’s abundant natural resources. South Africa’s development of a multi-faceted framework for cultural and genetic resource protection in relation to Indigenous knowledge is a promising source of fruitful insights on the challenges and benefits of implementing such protections. As the first in a series of case studies featuring various models of traditional knowledge implementation in domestic legislation, this paper provides an overview of how South Africa is approaching the protection of traditional or Indigenous knowledge. A central aim of this series is to provide objective evidence and insight into national experiences that could serve to inform and support effective policy development in the field, without endorsing any particular national approach.
Topic:
Nationalism, Natural Disasters, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

85. Reshaping Trade through Women's Economic Empowerment

Author:
Oonagh Fitzgerald and et al
Publication Date:
06-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
At the December 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, 118 WTO members joined forces to launch the Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. The members undertook to work together to develop best practices on how to apply gender-based analysis to domestic economic policy and international trade policy to encourage female entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, remove barriers to women’s participation in trade, and develop useful gender statistics and research. The Centre for International Governance Innovation undertook this essay series to raise awareness about this initiative and contribute to increasing understanding of how the declaration might contribute to economic empowerment of women.
Topic:
Gender Issues and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

86. Data Governance in the Digital Age

Author:
CIGI
Publication Date:
05-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Data has been hailed by some as “the new oil,” an analogy that captures the excitement and high expectations surrounding the data-driven economy. The success of the world’s most valuable companies (Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft) is now underpinned by a sophisticated capacity to collect, organize, control and commercialize stores of data and intellectual property. Big data and its application in artificial intelligence, for example, promises to transform the way we live and work — and will generate considerable wealth in the process. But data’s transformative nature also raises important questions around how the benefits are shared, privacy, public security, openness and democracy, and the institutions that will govern the data revolution. The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal has exposed the vulnerability of democracies to data strategies deployed on platforms such as Facebook to influence the outcomes of the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential race. Any national data strategy will have to address both the economic and non-economic dimensions of harnessing big data. Balances will have to be struck between numerous goals. The essays in this collection, first published online in spring 2018, by leading scholars and practitioners, are grouped into five blocks: the rationale of a data strategy; the role of a data strategy for Canadian industries; balancing privacy and commercial values; domestic policy for data governance; and international policy considerations. An epilogue concludes with some key questions to consider around data governance in the digital age.
Topic:
International Affairs and Basic Data
Political Geography:
Global Focus

87. Transforming the Global Refugee System: Solidarity, Humanity and Accountability

Author:
CIGI
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The World Refugee Council (WRC) was created to build on the momentum generated by UN meetings in New York in September 2016, which saw the unanimous adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, and to develop bold approaches to transform the current refugee system, focusing on the issues of accountability, responsibility sharing and governance, and finance. The WRC offers this interim report, and other discussion and research papers, to raise awareness of these issues and to stimulate ideas for reform that will transform lives.
Topic:
International Organization and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

88. Governing Cyber Security in Canada, Australia and the United States

Author:
Stephanie Maclellan and Christian Leuprecht
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
By virtue of the constitutional division of powers into federal and provincial jurisdictions, the governance of the provision of cyber security in Canada — and in comparable federal systems with constitutionally distinct levels of government, such as the United States and Australia — raises a host of policy-making challenges. This special report’s authors ponder the division of authority and responsibility — for cyber, in general, and cyber security, in particular — between public and private actors and different levels of government. Drawing on expertise and insights from business, law, policy and academia, they posit normative models of cyber security governance and gauge the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Their contributions illuminate some preliminary lessons for policy makers striving to improve governance outcomes across the cyber domain in Canada.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

89. The North American Arctic: Energizing Regional Collaboration and Governance

Author:
John Higginbotham and Jennifer Spence
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The opening of the Arctic Ocean and the forces of globalization it will unleash pose both pressing challenges and exciting opportunities for the largest and most autonomous of the Arctic regions, the North American Arctic (NAA) — Greenland, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Alaska. However, a broad pan-Arctic cooperation is not always the best approach to address these issues; neither are international interests always well aligned with the priorities of Northerners.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
North America

90. UNDRIP Implementation Braiding International, Domestic and Indigenous Laws

Author:
CIGI
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
In Canada, implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is an opportunity to explore and reconceive the relationship between international law, Indigenous peoples’ own laws and Canada’s constitutional narratives. In May 2016, Indigenous and Northern A airs Minister Carolyn Bennett addressed the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations and o cially endorsed UNDRIP1 — without the quali cations attached by the previous government, which held the declaration to be aspirational and not legally binding. While this announcement did not change the legal relevance of UNDRIP in Canada, it does express the political will to begin implementation and signals that Canada may be on a path toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. us, the announcement also raised legal and policy questions about how the federal government intends to adopt and implement this soft law instrument.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Canada