Greening global governance: INGO secretariats and environmental mainstreaming of IOs, 1950 to 2017

Dörfler, T. and Heinzel, M. (2023) Greening global governance: INGO secretariats and environmental mainstreaming of IOs, 1950 to 2017. Review of International Organizations, 18(1), pp. 117-143. (doi: 10.1007/s11558-022-09462-4)

Abstract

The last decades have seen a remarkable expansion in the number of International Organizations (IOs) that have mainstreamed environmental issues into their policy scope—in many cases due to the pressure of civil society. We hypothesize that International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs), whose headquarters are in proximity to the headquarters of IOs, are more likely to affect IOs' expansion into the environmental domain. We test this explanation by utilizing a novel dataset on the strength of environmental global civil society in proximity to the headquarters of 76 IOs between 1950 and 2017. Three findings stand out. First, the more environmental INGOs have their secretariat in proximity to the headquarter of an IO, the more likely the IO mainstreams environmental policy. Second, proximate INGOs’ contribution increases when they can rely on domestically focused NGOs in member states. Third, a pathway case reveals that proximate INGOs played an essential role in inside lobbying, outside lobbying and information provision during the campaign to mainstream environmental issues at the World Bank. However, their efforts relied to a substantial extent on the work of local NGOs on the ground.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Heinzel, Dr Mirko
• Authors: Dörfler, T., and Heinzel, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Review of International Organizations
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1559-7431
• ISSN (Online): 1559-744X
• Published Online: 01 April 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Review of International Organizations 18(1): 117-143
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License