Actor Atlas

Scope of the Statute Book: The laws enacted in, and agreements agreed among actors and for initiatives listed in the Actor Map, Initiative Book.

For persons, companies and other organizations in a country, and their initiatives (including those listed in the United Nations Initiative Book), the statutes specify constraints and determine a context/baseline that the initiative has to take into consideration.

Well-designed, clear and enforceable agreements are essential to a complex collaborative endeavour such as development.

The website Better Regulation explains actions in the Better Regulation field, taken by the European Commission, other EU institutions as well as the EU Member States.

Inclusive development must reach and engage all members of society, in their diverse livelihoods.

Easy access to statutes, and to treaties with which they should be compliant, facilitate transparency of the political process, and a constructive dialogue among stakeholders. This will benefit the treaty and statute fit (are problems solved and have stakeholders been heard ?) and their adoption: stakeholders who have been able to participate in the political process are more likely to comply, as participation is likely to ensure a more fair access to benefits, and a better balance of burdens.

The coexistence of multiple treaties and statutes create difficulties in reconciling confusing or conflicting provisions. Those difficulties can be structurally reduced by engaging more stakeholders in the treaty and statute shaping, and by a culture of periodic reviews and subsequent statute improvement¹.

Structuring treaty and statute books by COFOG class supports the clusturing of their provisions. The interactions and claims to which provisions pertain support an open and constructive dialogue with stakeholders, in the first instance, as represented by actors at the macro and meso level, listed in the United Nations Actor Map.

Poor quality treaties and statutes pose significant constraints to development initiatives, for instance those listed at United Nations Initiative Book. Unlike other constraints, such as for instance the limited access to resources such as water and finance, the constraints to development imposed by unfit statutes are easy to remove, this is if there is the political will. The Initiative Books support mutual awareness of ongoing and forthcoming initiatives.

A treaty is a written agreement between two or more states. A treaty takes effect either immediately on signature or, more often, on ratification.

For most COFOG classes below, the contents of a treaty will focus on the structure and claims of the international organisation established in the area of the COFOG class, and its relationship to corresponding national actors.

National statutes in the area of a COFOG class will define standards for the function of government agencies and/or for other stakeholders who should comply with the provisions of the statute in their interactions². In many cases the actors in the corresponding COFOG class, who can be found in the United Nations Actor Map are created to actively promote and ensure the compliance of stakeholders.

For a national actor, for instance a Department of Health, the relationship with the international organisation, such as the World Health Organisation will usually not be the core business. Yet a treaty may list objectives and provide instruments that national actors could rely upon in their work. In such a case, a treaty could describe procedures that national actors should follow to use (or contribute to) resources of the group, under the governance of the international organisation.

Some initiatives listed in the United Nations Initiative Book may include roles for international organisations. Governmental work, performed as part of COFOG 01.1 - Executive and legislative organs, financial and fiscal affairs, external affairs may include the drafting of new statutes or the modification of existing ones.

Economic activities (as classified by ISIC) are among the main drivers for the creation of legal instruments, and private entities are important beneficiaries of their existence.
Whereas many economic activities are (more or less) compliant to relevant statutes and treaties, the overall institutional legacy is rather complex, and it has become increasingly difficult to craft and enact improvements to it. Moreover this legacy has also reduced the policy options for many developing countries, and it has created very steep learning paths which are hard to climb, especially for entrepreneurs and policy-makers of developing countries.