Making Policy Recommendations in International Organizations

Conclusion: Toward Total Recall in International Organizations

10.1093/oso/9780190672171.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Heidi Hardt

Keyword(s):

Informal Learning ◽

International Organizations ◽

Institutional Design ◽

Learning Processes ◽

Future Research ◽

Formal Learning ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Total Recall ◽

The Past ◽

Institutional Memory

Chapter 8 offers a summary of the findings discussed in earlier chapters and directions for future research. The chapter first reiterates the argument that institutional memory develops in international organizations (IOs) from elites’ reliance on informal processes, such as networks, because formal learning infrastructure can disincentivize reporting. The chapter then identifies the book’s theoretical and empirical contributions to scholarship on IOs, organizational learning and organizational change. Subsequent sections proceed to discuss how the book’s argument can be applied to explain institutional memory in other IOs beyond NATO. The chapter then presents a series of policy recommendations to strengthen institutional memory. Examples include realigning incentives in the institutional design of organizations’ formal learning infrastructure and means of supporting existing informal learning processes. The chapter then provides concluding remarks about the importance of transnational interpersonal networks for protecting IOs’ institutional memory of the past to prevent future failures.

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International Organizations as Policy Advisors

International Organization ◽

10.1017/s0020818312000276 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 66 (4) ◽

pp. 537-569 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Songying Fang ◽

Randall W. Stone

Keyword(s):

International Organizations ◽

Private Information ◽

Domestic Politics ◽

Policy Position ◽

Necessary Condition ◽

Theoretic Model ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Game Theoretic ◽

The Government ◽

Moderate Policy

AbstractHow can international organizations persuade governments to adopt policy recommendations that are based on private information when their interests conflict? We develop a game-theoretic model of persuasion that applies regardless of regime type and does not rely on the existence of domestic constituency constraints. In the model, an international organization (IO) and a domestic expert have private information about a crisis, but their preferences diverge from those of the government, which must choose whether to delegate decision making to the expert. Persuasion can take place if the international institution is able to send a credible signal. We find that this can take place only if the preferences of the IO and the domestic expert diverge and the institution holds the more moderate policy position. This result contrasts with conventional wisdom, which holds that the necessary condition for IOs to exert influence is support from a domestic constituency with aligned preferences. Our model suggests that, far from being an obstacle to international cooperation, polarized domestic politics may be a necessary condition for IOs to exert effective influence.

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Gender bias in education in Burkina Faso: Who pays the piper? Who calls the tune?

Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education ◽

10.20355/c5wc7t ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Some Touorouzou

Keyword(s):

Burkina Faso ◽

International Organizations ◽

School Experiences ◽

Education For All ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Policy Choices ◽

Gender Education ◽

The Government ◽

Gender Issues In Education

In this chapter, I analyze policies developed by the government of Burkina Faso in order to redress an imbalance in gender education. Girls, in effect, are not getting their fair share of education, whether in quantity or quality. I critique existing policies concerning gender issues in education by first taking stock of different policies launched in favor of the education of girls, the context of their formation, and identify shortcoming therein. It has been found that international organizations, beyond their commitment to reverse the lag in the education of girls, bring with them an agenda that is at times contradictory with the aim of education for all. At the same time that governments are prodded to school all girls, Structural Adjustments Programs that generally bring more poverty and less public spending, are at loggerheads with increased access. Moreover, the policy choices of international organizations seem to be ill-equipped to subvert existing ideological and patriarchal structures. These structures do not allow for the empowerment of women. The government itself is found to have very little leverage on current policies, raising the nagging question of their appropriation. The paper ends with some policy recommendations that go beyond the construction of facilities and resources to address issues of the school experiences of girls, the curriculum-in-use, and overall problem of teacher training and compensation.

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International organizations establishing their scientific authority: Periodizing the legitimation of policy advice by the OECD

International Sociology ◽

10.1177/0268580920947871 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 3-24

Author(s):

Marjaana Rautalin ◽

Jukka Syväterä ◽

Eetu Vento

Keyword(s):

International Organizations ◽

Institutional Environment ◽

Policy Advice ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Scientific Content ◽

Scientific Authority ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

The 1960S ◽

National Governments

This article contributes to the periodization of ‘scientization’ by scrutinizing how international organizations (IOs) have evolved into such scientific authorities as many of them are today. The authors examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and its Economic Surveys during the period 1965–2015. The study sheds light on how scientific authority manifests in IOs’ reporting and policy recommendations directed at national governments. First, the analysis scrutinizes how science figures rhetorically in reports. Secondly, it focuses on policy recommendations and their connection to the scientific content of these reports. The results show that although the reports were portrayed as ‘scientific’ already in the 1960s, in the 2000s the reporting clearly shifted from the language of economics towards more popularized consulting language. The authors argue that these changes are due to the OECD’s reactions to transformations in the wider institutional environment and occasioned by its endeavours to appear as a significant actor in knowledge-based policymaking.

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