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How do policy ideas spread among international administrations? Policy entrepreneurs and bureaucratic influence in the UN response to AIDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2012

Olivier Nay
Olivier Nay*
Affiliation:
Institut Universitaire de France, University of Lille Northern France
*
professor o. nay Political Science, University of Lille Northern France & Institut Universitaire de France, CERAPS, 1 Place Déliot, 59000 Lille, France, Tel: +33 158 94 04 98, Fax: +33 320 90 77 00, Email: o.nay@free.fr
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Abstract

This paper focuses on the circulation of policy ideas within international administrations. Based upon a study of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, it shows how bureaucracies can capitalise on policy-oriented information and knowledge to strengthen their influence within their own environment. Using a policy transfer approach as its analytical framework, the paper draws particular attention to the UNAIDS Secretariat, considered as a “transfer entrepreneur”. It argues that, in the 2000s, the Secretariat has demonstrated a capacity to collect, develop and disseminate policy ideas and, consequently, has gradually participated in UN policy development on AIDS. It thus suggests that the Secretariat has extended its authority within the UN system despite limited resources. In conclusion, the paper points out the need to examine policy transfer among international administrations through actors, interests and strategies, as a complement to holistic approaches.1

Keywords

AIDSbureaucratic influenceinternational organisationspolicy entrepreneursUnited Nations
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , 06 March 2012 , pp. 53 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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