interviews
Working at the Supranational Level
by Daniel Naujoks
July 31, 2019
This interview with Daniel Naujoks was conducted and condensed by frank news. It is part two of our conversation on The Mobility Mandala.
frank: Today, we often hear about a crisis of cooperation at the international level. It seems that many countries are reluctant to work together and many wonder about the place of the United Nations in today’s world. This is broad – but what influence does the UN have on nations today?
Daniel Naujoks: When we think about the influence of the UN it’s important to recognize that the UN isn't one entity. What we call “the UN” includes many different ways in which states interact with each other, often mitigated or moderated by certain entities of the UN. You have the General Assembly, which, for many people is the quintessential UN. And the Security Council – a highly political body and the only UN organ that has the power to take decisions infringing on states’ sovereignty. On the other hand, there is the UN of the many programs and agencies that have specific mandates and that work with governments and non-state actors to achieve something, like the UN Development Programme, the International Labour Organization, or the UN Environment Programme, to name a few.
When it comes to migration and displacement, we actually had several discussions on these topics at the General Assembly. In 2006, the UN organized the first high level dialogue on international migration and development, for which I was part of the organization team at the UN Population Division. In 2013, we had another high-level dialogue at the UN General Assembly. And after preparing and negotiating for two years, in December 2018, the global community adopted two new compacts. The UN adopted the UN Global Compact for Migration, for safe, orderly and regular migration, and the UN Global Compact on Refugees. These are non-binding agreements but the entire process of drafting these compacts was influential for spurring discussions among countries, between countries and civil society at the international level, and, even more importantly, at the national level.
Often we think of UN issues as matters at the supranational level, happening at the UN General Assembly hall here in New York or in Geneva. And that's true, that is an important venue. But, when we have a UN event or UN treaty, or in this case, a compact, there are also national stakeholders, human rights commissions, NGO networks, ministries at the national level, who have an interest in promoting certain issues. And they have consultations, the press picks up issues. Each country is a little different and it depends on the strength of certain stakeholders and their interests. For example, the U.S. government was largely absent from the process of the UN Global Compact for Migration.
Already in the beginning of the negotiations, the US declared, "We're out." Which, in my opinion, was not a very smart move, because even at that point, it was clear that it would be non-binding.
The risk of somewhat being held accountable would actually be low. And remaining in the discussions would have given the US a way to influence the content. But I think it was more about sending a political message to certain local constituents than an actual policy move in the international sphere.
What is remarkable is that even though the national government withdrew from the process, many U.S. cities said, "Can we be part of that?" New York, Chicago,and other cities really stepped in. Thus, in the end, there was a lot of participation in the U.S., even though the national government declared they don't want to have anything to do with it. So, sometimes, how the UN works is a little more complex than just what the official state department position is on an issue. And there are many venues. There are bilateral consultations, there are regional consultations on human trafficking, on labor migration and so on. There is a Global Forum on Migration and Development, the GFMD, which, since 2007, takes place every year. Governments come, they exchange notes on good policies, and on what can be done, mostly at the working level. At the working level, government officials cooperate and learn from each other. Again, it's non-binding. And the UN provides inputs, they chair sessions, they write background papers, they present case studies.
This is to exemplify that there are systems where policy learning happens in a much more informal setting, than through rigid rules-setting and treaty-making. This is something students in the UN Studies specialization here at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, that I direct, focus on when studying global governance. There are many different ways in which local and national governments, countries’ specific ministries, institutions, and agencies, international organizations, NGOs, and other groups negotiate and collaborate.
And then in the developing world, of course, the UN has a different role, because they are not just advising, they're working with local partners and in actual programs, like funding. And they're advising governments directly on how to do things.
But even there, what people from the outside often don't understand, the UN cannot work without the explicit consent of the host government.
So, when Kenya says that they want to close the refugee camps for Somalia refugees, UNHCR can plead, "Oh, please, refugees have rights and camps are bad." But, unless the Kenyan government gives UNHCR authority to work on certain programs, and provides UNDP consent to implement initiatives on livelihood strategies targeting refugees, these agencies can't do much. This being said, because of certain power asymmetries and donor interests, the so-called technical assistance from UN agencies in the Global South has the potential to influence policy decisions and exemplifies how the work of the UN can have an impact. But the political leverage of many agencies is not as large as is often seen. Which is why there's a lot of bargaining in the background. The things that you don't see that are not official.
Can you give an example?
DN: An example for the fact that the UN has to always ask for permission to work on certain issues is the persistence of the use of refugee camps. For the last 15 to 20 years, we know that refugee camps are not good for refugees. In the very short term, in the immediate aftermath of an atrocity, of a civil war, of a calamity, in the case of a sudden influx, camps may make sense to provide shelter and food and medical services to a large number of people. But, even in the medium term, they're very bad for the human development outcomes of people.
They lend themselves to a range of human rights violations, because people live in close vicinity to each other, people who are very heterogeneous among themselves. Just because they're all refugees, just because they're all from one country, doesn't mean they all get along well.
Camps generally don't provide sufficient economic opportunities for people, et cetera. That's why for some time now, we know that limited humanitarian responses to large refugee and IDP movements are not good for development. Definitely not for those people who are displaced, but mostly equally for surrounding communities. I actually developed a role-play simulation on the reasons for and against refugee camps and participants understand quite clearly the mix of international development and human rights logic with local politics and interests.
Addressing the shortcomings of classic humanitarian approaches, different UN agencies have been very strong in advocating for a more development-based strategy. For example, in the Syrian context, there has been the 3RP, the regional refugee and resilience plan, which is headed by UNDP and UNHCR, with I think, about 270 partners. It’s implemented in Syria’s neighboring countries, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. In addition to each country’s national plan there's a regional plan, which focuses not only on the humanitarian side but also development side. UNDP has been leading these efforts to provide livelihood support, skills, training, et cetera. But even there, we see that the implementation is hampered by a lot of challenges. Take Jordan. In the 2013 donor conference in London, Jordan pledged to give work permits to 200,000 Syrian refugees. They were very committed at the highest level of government.
But, a year later, there were almost no permits for refugees, and everyone asked why. We did a project with Better Work Jordan, which is a collaboration between the International Labour Organization and the World Bank. BetterWork Jordan published a report that my students drafted on why Syrian refugees did not get more official work permits. There are many reasons why employers couldn't employ refugees or couldn't expand their production. The refugees could only work in the export-oriented zones, mostly in the garment sector. They couldn't work in other areas. There was a distance they had to travel. Refugees often didn't want these jobs for a variety of reasons. There were many bottlenecks in the bureaucratic procedure to get work permits. In brief, there were many challenges at the supply side, the demand side, as well as on the bureaucratic transaction side.
These issues combined led to a situation in which this great policy that was mediated by the UN and other donors to actually empower refugees to be economic actors, didn't have the impact people had hoped for. While much of what the UN does can have important impacts, this shows that what can be done at the national level depends a lot on national priorities and politics. How politicians are afraid of negative impacts for the local voting populations. And then, of course, it has also to do with the commitment of the international donors to actually put in money to say, "Yes, we will not only give you minor funds to warehouse refugees but we will partner with you to empower them and your populations." Part of the agreement with Jordan that I mentioned was a pact with the EU. The EU said, "If refugees are employed you can export garments and other goods from export-oriented zones to us duty free." The idea was to use trade and the increase in production in the Jordanian garment sector as a way to increase employment opportunities for refugees. A great idea.
But, you probably need to do more to help Jordanian products to be competitive on the EU market. There's also a time lag. Even if you open up the market right away, these products may not satisfy the EU standards for garments. So, there are many things that the partners need to do to support these endeavors and to really make sure that local leaders are not afraid that if they open the labor market, if they open chances for local integration, that in two years, donors will pull out. And then, they will get stuck with the additional population without the support financial community. So, that's where the UN can help a lot. But, without real commitments from large donor countries or any countries to resettle and share the responsibility for refugees, there's only that much the UN can do.
Thank you so much for your time.
Image via Hannah Wallace Bowman (above).
interviews
Impact Investment For The Circular Economy
by Rob Kaplan
January 31, 2019
Rob Kaplan is Founder and CEO of Circulate Capital, an impact-focused investment management firm dedicated to financing innovation, companies, and infrastructure that prevent the flow of plastic waste into the world's ocean while advancing the circular economy.
How do you define a circular economy?
I think a circular economy is one where commodities and resources are managed in perpetuity. So that there is no waste, but instead it's a resource for future innovation and product manufacturing.
In transitioning from a linear system to a circular one – who becomes responsible for the end of life? Especially in a time where goods are globally dispersed.
Well, I think the answer is that everybody's responsible. There's no single entity that is responsible for how it's managed at the end of its life, in my opinion. That's why this is a systems challenge that requires a systems solution.
Part of the challenge you're noting is the aspiration of a circular economy with the reality of where waste exists today. Because, circular economy in many ways is an aspirational concept. Especially within consumable products. It doesn't really exist. As we look to invest in companies that can prevent plastic pollution and instead drive towards more circular opportunities, it is a matter of degree. It's not, we'll get there tomorrow in that perfect ideal. It's more about, we've got a lot of waste that's not being managed appropriately. How do we improve that in a way that can create value for those communities? And also prevent the pollution at the same time.
What do some of those solutions look like in practice for you and the companies you work with?
We've been looking at how to invest in South and Southeast Asia for the last couple years. I'd say most of the opportunity that’s "shovel ready" today is in the waste and recycling sector. They are usually startup recycling companies that are generally the first line of formality. Where they're buying materials from waste pickers as well as municipalities in some cases. And then adding some kind of value to it. We also see a number of recycling facilities. They're a little bit further downstream from the collection aggregation. We have started to see a little bit of reusable and returnable systems, but they're in a very early stage at this time.
When you work with a large multi-national company, such as PepsiCo or Coca-Cola, what does their commitment to this process look like?
They have two different levels of commitment. The first is they are committing to improve their own operations and supply chains. Almost all of our investors have direct commitments about what they're doing to increase the amount of recycled materials they use in packaging and design for recyclability. Then, they are also committing capital to our strategy to allow us to invest in companies that can increase the amount of recycled material available for their use and the use of others.
They are also providing expertise and resources, and network. They are providing essential off-take and the ability to buy the material after it's collected and sorted. That's a big part of the challenge. The market that's available to buy this material. Needing that kind of surety of off-take.
We’ve discussed circular economies from a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. Science, academia, advocacy. You approach it as a business. Why is your work a necessary part of the puzzle?
The particular slice of the problem we are looking at is plastic pollution in Southeast Asia. We quickly realized it was going to take many billions of dollars of capital to build the infrastructure required to really stop the flow of plastic leaking into the environment and the ocean. We started to look at where would that capital come from? And we realized that it's not going to come from necessarily consumers or companies, but really, institutional investors that are financing the future of infrastructure in Asia. The only way to get those folks involved in this space is to show them that it's an investable marketplace. That there is a track record. That there is a pipeline of opportunity. And that you can make money doing this. We want to demonstrate that investing in waste recycling is as boring as investing in roads and bridges, for which there is a lot of capital allocated.
Our approach to this was “How do you turn this from a waste stream and a cost center into a profit center as a way to unlock that capital?”
When you say infrastructure, are you talking landfills, incinerators? What is that infrastructure?
Our focus is certainly on the recycling and reuse side. I think there is a reality that they need to have improved landfills in Southeast Asia too. But we're not particularly able or interested in financing landfills and incinerators are out of our scope.
Has the China recycling ban affected your day to day?
Oh yeah. I mean National Sword basically turned the entire recycling industry upside down globally. In the markets that we're particularly focused on, they were exporting waste to China too. They hadn't invested in their own domestic processing. That has caused big problems for them and has created great opportunities for investors, who are trying to build those companies within those countries, under those infrastructure projects.
I think most of the countries we're working in in Southeast Asia have also started to follow China's lead and stop accepting imported waste. The US and Europe are not contributing as much to ocean plastic these days as we used to. Because the exporting markets have dried up.
I think there's probably a shifting in the future where more of that will go to Africa, right? Because they haven't started those bans. But most of Southeast Asia has already either halted imports or is talking about halting imports.
Does all of this help move the agenda of circular economies further?
Absolutely. It was so cheap. No one had any incentive to invest in domestic circular economy opportunities because if you were in Los Angeles it was cheaper to ship a container of waste to China than it was to Chicago.
That's crazy.
One important point that I've been trying to communicate lately is that there is no silver bullet for these solutions. It's incredibly complex. People really look for elegant, simplified solutions. But a circular economy is complex. We're not going to be able to reduce our way out of this problem just like we're not going to be able to recycle our way out of this problem. You need both and many more solutions. I worry about absolutists that are trying to push agendas rather than really trying to drive environmental progress.
Our approach is very much, how do we deploy capital as much and as quickly as possible to stop this pollution and make triple bottom line in the process of doing it? Rather than, you know, any political perspective or point of view, it's really just the view of the investor that we're looking to bring to the conversation.
All or nothing doesn’t work here.
Yeah. It's really complex. How can anyone say that there's a single solution to something? If it were that easy, we would have figured it out already. And I think we're also starting to see, because of the topic getting so hot and everyone wanting a piece of it, they're all saying, “Well, what's my contribution?"
Right.
My contribution is activism. My contribution is lobbying or my contribution is X, Y, and Z. And so they're all sort of piling on without a really clear theory of change about where they think they're trying to drive the progress.
Has the re-upping of investment from petrochemical companies into the production of plastic affected your work?
Yeah. One of the interesting things about plastics and circular economies is you actually want that feed stock, right? If you start removing feed stock opportunities, like PET plastic, which is what most beverage bottles are made of, for example, that's really problematic from a circular economy and recycling perspective because PET is the most recyclable plastic that we have today. You'd want to see more of that recyclable material out there. Right now it's cheaper to make plastic out of petroleum or natural gas in the US. It could be cheap to make it out of old plastics. That's where I think the big unlock towards the circular economy comes in. How do you tap into those market forces of building massive chemical facilities and use that as your off take for recyclables? That's the opportunity to change the game and that's your supply and your demand.
Are you optimistic that that will start happening?
I think the petrochemical industry is starting to show that they're really interested in that idea. I think it's really complex and hard to do. There's a lot of barriers. But it's not a technology barrier necessarily.
Is it a political barrier?
It's not so much a political barrier, I think but... Why do you think it's a political barrier?
Because of the political and financial incentive to produce and frack natural gas. How do you switch where incentive lies?
Yeah. I think you're right there. Policy is a huge part of that. Especially in the US where natural gas is so cheap thanks to policy incentives and new technology. It's not so much the same thing in some of these emerging markets we're working in, which is where energy is very expensive and most of that additional capacity is coming online.