Adaptation finance has recently become an essential component to address internationalclimate change impacts. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the main mechanismproviding financial adaptation assistance from developed to developing countries. Underthis mechanism, Bolivia figures as the country with more projects than any other eligiblecountry, giving the impression that Bolivia receives favourable treatment when resourcesare allocated. This study analyzes the process by which Bolivia receives funding foradaptation projects using the principle of good governance and elements of accountability,fairness and effectiveness in the allocation of resources, to understand how suchadaptation projects are granted. The analysis results showed the process in Bolivia has lowlevels of accountability, neither low or high levels of fairness and low levels ofeffectiveness and that the theories presented by the literature review reflect the resultsfound. The analyses also suggested that it is difficult to determine that Bolivia receivesfavourable treatment because all projects where Bolivia received funding are all sharedwith other countries. It was also found that two projects are currently suspended and notyet implemented.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 2000. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

The interdependence and cooperation in the international arena have brought different benefits and made the world more interconnected. As the global system became more complex new types of state and non-state actors have emerged. Institutions have also been introduced with the specific objective to support in upholding mutual agreements and to make sure that the compliance between the several actors is followed. These institutions aim not only to uphold the stability of the system but also to provide support for power asymmetries in a competitive international system. Yet, the difficulty of holding powerful actors accountable is present in the global governance debates.  On one hand, Robert Keohane (2003) argues that democratic accountability is not possible due to the lack of a global public but suggests accountability mechanisms to understand who should hold actors to their accountability. On the other hand, Michael Goodhart (2011) offers an alternative view by arguing that the focus should be on norms, rather than agents, and these norms should carry a democratic standard.  This paper aims to investigate Repsol and more specifically, focus on the oil spill at the La Pampilla Refinery in Peru. The objective is to understand the accountability (or lack thereof) of the oil and gas companies for the harmful, environmental impact that was caused by the oil spill. The dynamics between the actors involved in this case will be studied and analyzed with the aim to expose any shortcomings of accountability in global governance. As a result, this case suggests that without firmer rules from the host country, the business industries are unlikely to make big amendments to their operations to prevent future oil spills. The result of this research adds to the IR discussion concerning the need to strengthen international norms and enable the agency of institutions.

No / This paper examines the concept of global public goods (GPGs) and in that context explores the extent of aid (ODA) presently being diverted to GPG provision and whether such diversion skews aid-flows towards some recipients. These are examined on the basis of OECD data for the late 1990s. The main argument of this paper is that ODA should not be used for financing GPG provision by developing countries. Instead, it is suggested that other sources of financing the provision of GPGs should be developed keeping in view the various technologies by which the GPGs can be produced and design principles for supra-national institutions. Various arguments from Sandler, Barrett and Kanbur are considered. In particular, Kanbur's suggestion of two tensions involving the principles of economies of scale, subsidiarity, economies of scope and specialisation, is explored further.

The gap observed between the rhetoric and reality of biodiversity conservation draws critical attention to the discourse of conservation and to claims that local and global interests can be balanced. In this work, I suggest that the spatial framing of organized biodiversity conservation inhibits attempts to produce such 'balance'. I examine the processes by which biodiversity conservation projects are brought into being through the discursive production of scale within the institutional framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Using five case studies of projects proposed under the GEF’s operational program for agrobiodiversity, I analyze how the GEF brings actors and sites into relation and engages them in the reproduction of articulations of scale through the GEF project cycle. In so doing, I reveal how the mechanisms that structure conservation projects around global goals systematically undermine the claims of situated resource users and prevent questions of justice from being raised.

The gap observed between the rhetoric and reality of biodiversity conservation draws critical attention to the discourse of conservation and to claims that local and global interests can be balanced. In this work, I suggest that the spatial framing of organized biodiversity conservation inhibits attempts to produce such 'balance'. I examine the processes by which biodiversity conservation projects are brought into being through the discursive production of scale within the institutional framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Using five case studies of projects proposed under the GEF’s operational program for agrobiodiversity, I analyze how the GEF brings actors and sites into relation and engages them in the reproduction of articulations of scale through the GEF project cycle. In so doing, I reveal how the mechanisms that structure conservation projects around global goals systematically undermine the claims of situated resource users and prevent questions of justice from being raised.

168 p. / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2012-12-18T16:35:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_mateus_santos_da_silva.pdf: 1410735 bytes, checksum: c1d0091778aaf52f68d4841ee7c638e9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-12-18T16:35:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_mateus_santos_da_silva.pdf: 1410735 bytes, checksum: c1d0091778aaf52f68d4841ee7c638e9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / A partir da consolidação do conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável, enquanto um novo modelo de desenvolvimento do capitalismo, associado ao processo concomitante, de inserção da temática ambiental no cenário político internacional, no contexto da globalização caracterizada pelo aumento dos fluxos financeiros, econômicos, culturais, dentre outros e com reflexo direto na maior porosidade entre nas noções de interno e externo, a partir da maior atuação dos atores não-estatais no cenário internacional e pelo processo de reformulação do Estado frente às novas demandas desencadeadas durante esse processo, o presente trabalho se concentra na análise da atuação do Global Environment Facility, enquanto um fundo internacional criada nos anos 1990, para fornecer suporte financeiro aos países em desenvolvimento dentro de temas ligados ao meio ambiente, no processo de construção da política externa ambiental brasileira, entre os anos de 1994 e 2010. O trabalho apresenta uma abordagem predominantemente qualitativa, assim como se caracteriza enquanto uma pesquisa explicativa quanto aos seus fins, utilizando-se de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, aliado ao desenvolvimento de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com atores-chave para a realização do trabalho. A cooperação internacional, dentro do contexto apresentado, é construída a partir da teoria dos regimes e também da abordagem da governança, como base para a caracterização tanto da organização estudada quanto das mudanças na política externa brasileira durante a década de 1990, e dos impactos dessas mudanças na política ambiental do Brasil, com atuação direta do Fundo, enquanto principal financiador dos projetos e políticas desenvolvidas pelo país na construção das respostas aos compromissos assumidos pelo governo nas quatro convenções internacionais que o Brasil faz parte e que têm o Fundo como instrumento oficial de financiamento, com ênfase especial, para a Convenção sobre Diversidade Biológica e a Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre Mudanças Climáticas. / Salvador

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-04-06T21:19:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva, Mateus da.pdf: 1410735 bytes, checksum: c1d0091778aaf52f68d4841ee7c638e9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-04-06T21:24:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva, Mateus da.pdf: 1410735 bytes, checksum: c1d0091778aaf52f68d4841ee7c638e9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-06T21:24:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva, Mateus da.pdf: 1410735 bytes, checksum: c1d0091778aaf52f68d4841ee7c638e9 (MD5) / A partir da consolidação do conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável, enquanto um novo modelo de desenvolvimento do capitalismo, associado ao processo concomitante, de inserção da temática ambiental no cenário político internacional, no contexto da globalização caracterizada pelo aumento dos fluxos financeiros, econômicos, culturais, dentre outros e com reflexo direto na maior porosidade entre nas noções de interno e externo, a partir da maior atuação dos atores não-estatais no cenário internacional e pelo processo de reformulação do Estado frente às novas demandas desencadeadas durante esse processo, o presente trabalho se concentra na análise da atuação do Global Environment Facility, enquanto um fundo internacional criada nos anos 1990, para fornecer suporte financeiro aos países em desenvolvimento dentro de temas ligados ao meio ambiente, no processo de construção da política externa ambiental brasileira, entre os anos de 1994 e 2010. O trabalho apresenta uma abordagem predominantemente qualitativa, assim como se caracteriza enquanto uma pesquisa explicativa quanto aos seus fins, utilizando-se de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, aliado ao desenvolvimento de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com atores-chave para a realização do trabalho. A cooperação internacional, dentro do contexto apresentado, é construída a partir da teoria dos regimes e também da abordagem da governança, como base para a caracterização tanto da organização estudada quanto das mudanças na política externa brasileira durante a década de 1990, e dos impactos dessas mudanças na política ambiental do Brasil, com atuação direta do Fundo, enquanto principal financiador dos projetos e políticas desenvolvidas pelo país na construção das respostas aos compromissos assumidos pelo governo nas quatro convenções internacionais que o Brasil faz parte e que têm o Fundo como instrumento oficial de financiamento, com ênfase especial, para a Convenção sobre Diversidade Biológica e a Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre Mudanças Climáticas. From the consolidation of the sustainable development’s concept, while a new model of development of capitalism, associated to the concomitant process, the environmental theme’s insertion in the international policy scene, in the globalization context characterized by the increase of financial flow, economic, cultural, among others and with a direct reflection in the biggest porosity between the notions of internal and external, from the higher interaction of the non-estate-owned actors in the international scene and through the Estate reformulation process facing the new demands triggered during this process, this paper focuses in the analyses of the Global Environment Facility acting, as an international fund created in the 90’s, to give financial support to developing countries in themes connected to the environment, in the process of the Brazilian foreign policy’s construction, between the years of 1994 and 2010. The paper presents a quality-like approach, as well as it characterizes itself as an explanatory research about its purposes, using both a bibliographical and a documental research, allied to the development of semi-structured interviews with key-actors to the work’s achievement. The international cooperation, in the presented context, is built from the regimen theory and it also uses the governance approach, as a basis to the characterization thus of the studied organization as to the changes in the Brazilian foreign policy during the 90’s decade, and of the impact of such changes in the Brazilian environmental policies, with the Fund’s direct proceeding, as the main sponsor of projects and policies developed by the country as a built answer to the engagements taken on by the government in the four international conventions in which Brazil takes part and that have the Fund as an official sponsoring instrument, with special emphasis, to the Convention towards Biological Diversity and the United Nation Convention about Weather Changes.

Flexibility is a term that is presumed to be meaningful across different levels of analysis in an organisation. It has been suggested that flexibility is required by organisations, groups, and individuals to deal with an increasingly complex and dynamic organisation and global environment. Authors have proposed that organisational flexibility enables a firm to achieve a better 'fit' with their environment and create a sustainable competitive advantage. The group level literature promotes flexibility at this level of analysis as important for group effectiveness and successful project completion. The individual flexibility literature suggests that people who are flexible are more likely to be satisfied and effective than individuals who are inflexible. Despite the importance placed on the construct of flexibility, it is a relatively under explored construct, both theoretically and empirically. This is due in part to the lack of definitional precision and inconsistency in the operationalisation of flexibility at each level of analysis. Consequently, little is known about the meaning of flexibility and the relationship of this construct with contextual and performance variables. This research addresses the limitations of the current literature on flexibility by developing a testable multi-level framework of flexibility. Flexibility is defined in this research as an organisation's, group's, and individual's ability to be proactive, adaptable, and resilient. Three primary research questions were addressed in this thesis. The first question addressed what are the characteristics of flexibility at the organisation, group, and individual level of analysis. The second overarching research question of interest in this thesis examines how flexibility at each level of analysis is related to performance. The third overarching research question examined what factors impact flexibility at each level of analysis. To address these three research questions at each level of analysis, a theoretical review and an empirical study were conducted. The first empirical study, focused on flexibility at the organisational level of analysis. This study involved the exploration of seven specific research questions that were developed from the theoretical review. This study used cross-sectional secondary data of private sector Australian organisations. Flexibility was defined as proactivity, adaptability, and resilience. This research examined the relationships between each of the flexibility components and improvements in several organisational level outcomes. Also, the impact of the contextual variables level of organisational control, degree of structure, and competition changes on the flexibility-performance relationship was investigated. Analysis techniques included moderated regression analysis. Results showed support for the positive association between flexibility and performance. Flexibility interacted with competition and structure to influence performance, but control was found to have no moderating effect on the flexibility-performance relationship. The second empirical study investigated group flexibility. This study took a sequential, mixed method research approach, using qualitative data to explore group flexibility and quantitative analysis to explore the broad relationships found among variables from the qualitative research. Using this approach, this study addressed five specific research questions that were developed from a theoretical review, including defining group flexibility, the nature of group flexibility conceptualisation, the relationship between flexibility and group performance, factors that may enhance group flexibility, and factors that may reduce group flexibility. Findings showed group flexibility was described consistently between participants and the existing literature, proposing group flexibility is a group's ability to search and consider alternatives, be adaptable, and resilient. Results also suggested a positive relationship between group flexibility and several outcomes, including stakeholder satisfaction, personal development and satisfaction, group morale, and group confidence. The final study examined individual level flexibility. Based on the theoretical exploration of individual flexibility, in this study, individual flexibility was defined as the ability to be proactive, adaptable, and resilient. This empirical research focused specifically on managerial level flexibility. Due to the similarities in descriptions of individual flexibility and managerial flexibility in the literature, the definition of individual flexibility was applied to the managerial level. The study investigated changes in flexibility levels over time using executive coaching as the literature promotes executive coaching as an individual flexibility developmental tool. This study examined eleven leaders undertaking executive coaching with individual flexibility being measured at three points in time, pre coaching, the middle of coaching, and post coaching. Findings were consistent with the proposition of the positive impact of executive coaching on flexibility as the data showed leaders' individual flexibility levels increased from pre coaching to post coaching, with a significant linear trend over time. The results of these three studies are integrated to inform the multi-level framework of flexibility which was developed in this thesis. This framework provides a systematic, comprehensive, and tangible definition of flexibility at each level of analysis, providing a rich description of the characteristics of each flexibility component. This research advances our understanding of flexibility, which I hope will encourage further research on the construct. For managers and practitioners, this research provides a clear description of flexibility at each level of analysis and offers indicators of flexibility at each level to encourage the measurement and development of organisational, group, and individual flexibility. Also, this research provides empirical evidence of the benefits of flexibility, helping to provide legitimacy for the inclusion of flexibility into the organisation, in areas including strategic planning, organisational design, group design, recruitment and selection, and training and development. Furthermore, this multi-level model allows practitioners to be more focused in developmental efforts for organisation, group, and individual flexibility. This research provides several interesting areas for future research.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Political Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 347-364). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR51701