What Does It Take to Build an Inclusive Governance of Global Value Chains? A Framework for Intervention

Abstract

As important actors in global value chains (GVCs), multinational enterprises exercise coordination and control over worldwide commodity, production, service, workforce and knowledge mobility. A level playing field for all GVC stakeholders remains absent. We argue for empowering subordinated stakeholders in the design of inclusive GVC governance, as a necessary condition, to harness the power of GVCs that enable many firms to internationalise in the first place. We propose a Framework for Intervention at the level of civil society and five actions, using a revived form of multilateralism, to empower the economic “South” and fundamentally anchor change for human development.