What is Global Governance and how we can achieve it? This was the main question discussed at the plenary session of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.
Aart de Geus, the Chairman of the largest private operating non-profit foundation in Germany, Bertelsmann Stiftung, shared a concern, voiced by many policy makers: “We live in one Earth, but we use it like we have 1.5 and in few years we might have 0.1”.
The numbers are clear and action needs to be taken. But what would be the most appropriate method? For de Geus, there is a need to create a new global agenda and reformulate the Millennium Development Goals. “It is true that smaller population lives in real poverty, but there is an increasing inequality that needs to be addressed.”
Defining Global Governance
Dr Hans-Joachim Preuss, Manging Director of GIZ, the German federal enterprise for sustainable development, describes global governance in three dimensions. The first is the authority, which is the ability to enforce norms, rules and regulations on an international level. The second dimension is the capacity, which describes to what extend the global governance is able to answer to the needs of the people. The last one is legitimacy: how stakeholders can access superior levels.
Professor Mohan Munasinghe, from Munasinghe Institute for Development, believes that achieving global governance requires integrated solutions between different stakeholders. Governments have to collaborate more with responsible business, civil society, NGOs and media in order to achieve results.
Naming and shaming in social media
Valli Moosa, a former Environment Affairs and Tourism Minister of South Africa, spoke about the important role of media in global governance. He outlined the threats to impartial reporting: the smaller and national media are under tremendous pressure, they have to cut costs and, at the same time, they have to produce around the clock.
“In my own country media institutions don’t have the capacity to produce so fast. So they copy-paste report stories from the big US wires. That makes accurate reporting really difficult.”
Although traditional media outlets are under pressure, de Geus sees opportunities in the new media information era. For him, the web offers more and new ways of conducting journalism research. Social media also has great power. Public image is important for businesses. He pointed out that naming and shaming in social media has turned doggy policies of some big corporations to more sustainable strategies.
At the end of the session, Dr Preuss addressed the plenary full of journalists, encouraging media makers to focus not only on negative stories, but to report more about best practices. Positive reporting can contribute to our sense of achievement and encourage us to find more integrated solutions between the different stakeholders in society.
By Dobriyana Tropankeva, Denmark
Photo by Michele Lapini, Italy
