Reports and Publications

GAN-Net Newsletter November 2004

GAN-Net Newsletter August 2004

GAN-Net Newsletter January 2004

GAN-Net Newsletter September 2003

GAN-Net Newsletter February 2003

The Global Compact as a Global Action Network
The Compact is the leading example of the United Nations-initiated GAN. This is a chapter from the book Learning to Talk: Corporate citizenship and development of the UN Global Compact, published in June 2004 by Greenleaf Publishing (www.greenleaf-publishing.com). It looks at the Compact and its development challenges.

Download [132 KB PDF]

NGO Strategies to Engage Business: Trends, critical issues and next steps
Oxfam America, CIVICUS and GAN-Net joined in a project to investigate the value of developing a global civil society space for NGOs interested in influencing the role of corporations. This is the project research report.

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Report of the January 2004 meeting of NGOs on Corporate Engagement.
This is the project meeting report. Download [144 KB PDF]

Global Action Networks and the Evolution of Global Public Policy Systems. Presented at the 2004 International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management.
Download [296 KB PDF] January 2004
By: Steve Waddell and Verna Allee

In the midst of boisterous protests about the negative impacts of economic globalization, more complex multi-stakeholder approaches to global public policy have arisen. This paper looks at a particular multi-stakeholder approach, Global Action Networks (GANs), as complex systems in terms of "effectiveness" challenges.

Global Action Networks: A Global Invention Helping Business Make Globalisation Work for All. Journal of Corporate Citizenship 12: 27-42
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By: Steve Waddell

This article describes the defining GAN characteristics, four types of GANs and why GANs are important for business.

Connecting the Global and Local: An Action Research Project with the Global Reporting Initiative. A presentation given at the June 2003 meeting of the International Association of Business and Society
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By: Steve Waddell

This describes the process of establishing a methodology for GRI to develop activity in South Africa.

Global Action Networks: Building global public policy systems of accountability. AccountAbility Quarterly May 2003.
Download [164 KB PDF]
By Steve Waddell.

This article describes the challenge of making GANs effective in terms of the four gaps: participation, ethics/values, operations and communications.

The Access Initiative January 2003: A Report on Development Issues at Two Years of Age.
Download [200 KB PDF]
By Steve Waddell.

The Access Initiative (TAI: www.accessinitiative.org) is a global coalition of public interest groups collaborating to promote national-level implementation of commitments to access to information, participation, and justice in environmental decision-making. This is the fourth in a series of reports that has followed TAI's development to provide TAI with development advice and develop knowledge with respect to five key challenges that GANs face.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Network Development: South Africa.
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By Steve Waddell and Verna Allee.

GRI (www.globalreporting.org) is a global business-civil society-intermediary organization network that is developing a generally accepted framework for sustainability reporting. This report analyzes South Africa in relationship to GRI issues and current networks to define a GRI development strategy.

GRI Local Network Development Methodology
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Most GANs aim to have regional or national sub-networks. A draft methodology for developing such a network for GRI was developed based upon organizing a South African network. This methodology will be further developed through application at a second GRI site later in 2003.

Global Domain Preliminary Analyses

Preliminary reports and maps are available for four global problem/opportunity domains. See: climate change, food security, sustainable development, and trade.

Global Public Policy Networks: Contested spaces where the human spirit can triumph.
Download as a PDF 520KB

This is the draft report of a year of investigation into GANs. It focused upon the concept of effectiveness and GRIs, based upon analysis of the Global Reporting Initiative, the International Federation of Alternative Trade, the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development.

Case Studies

Three case studies of GAN are available:

Climate Action Network: This is a mass-organized global network of civil society organizations that has been working for over 10 years to address issues of global warming. http://www.climatenetwork.org/

Download Full Case Study as a PDF 132KB
Global Reporting Initiative: Originally developed as a project of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), GRI is establishing a global triple bottom line (environmental-economic-social) reporting framework for business impact. http://www.globalreporting.com/

Download Full Case Study as a PDF 152KB
International Federation of Alternative Trade: The Federation is a network of producers and "alternative" trading organizations (ATOs) who are creating an "alternative" way of doing business that is beneficial and fair. http://catgen.com/ifat/

Download Full Case Study as a PDF 196KB