Meeting implementation challenges

Abstract

The implementation of a negotiated agreement—including follow-up, monitoring and revision as needed—is step four of the mutual gains approach. Crafting an agreement on paper that all parties can support “in principle,” without facing the core question of whether and how they are prepared to implement it, generally leads quickly to implementation failures, loss of credibility for the agreement, mutual recriminations among the parties and skepticism about the potential for renegotiation to produce a better outcome. Moreover, many international agreements have “free rider” problems: that is, if most countries comply with an agreement, some countries may be able to violate it while still benefiting from the compliance of the others. For example, countries that have committed to limit greenhouse gas emissions may decide that keeping the costs to their industries low is a higher priority than reducing their emissions—all the while hoping that other countries will continue to hold their industries to their commitments. Negotiators therefore should lay the groundwork for post-negotiation success during the negotiation process. It is crucial to anticipate possible implementation challenges and address them before reaching an agreement. These include unresolved conflicts of interest, insufficient human and financial resources, difficulty monitoring effectiveness, unanticipated new factors and institutional resistance to change.