The greatest challenges countries face today transcend national borders. The threats posed by climate change, health epidemics, terrorism, tax evasion, illicit financial flows, as well as social and economic crises all have global causes and effects. A multilateral approach is essential in delivering a sustainable world economy.

This report examines the contribution of international organisations (IOs) to establishing global rules and standards, building on information collected from 50 IOs. Together with case studies and discussions among IOs held by the OECD in 2014-16, it aims to help policy makers, IO management and stakeholders understand the contribution of IOs to establishing global rules and standards and opportunities for improvement.

A wide variety of international organisations (IOs) are involved in promoting international regulatory co-operation (IRC) through their standard-setting and rule-making activities. The United Nations is very active in this area: UN bodies make up half of the IOs surveyed for this study. But new forms of organisation have also flourished alongside the traditional model of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), with different legal standing and memberships. Private standard-setting organisations and trans-governmental networks of regulators (TGNs) are for instance playing an increasing role.

In order to strengthen the information base on the contribution of international organisations to international regulatory co-operation, the OECD undertook a survey in 2015 to examine the governance, operational modalities, rule-making practices and approaches to assessing implementation and impacts of a wide range of international organisations. This chapter describes the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations and the wide variety of respondents that contribute to international standard-setting and rule-making.

International organisations contribute to regulatory co-operation among their members through various ways. They facilitate the development of common language and the comparability of approaches and practices across jurisdictions. They provide the institutional framework and technical expertise to help countries develop international legal and policy instruments and standards, align their regulatory approaches, and build capacity. Sometimes they contribute to dispute resolution among members, and facilitate crisis management. They do so by providing platforms for continuous discussions across members and by engaging with various stakeholders. This chapter analyses the answers to the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations on the activities of international organisations in support of regulatory co-operation, the actors involved and the objectives pursued.

International organisations are organised in different ways to deliver on their normative activities and, more generally, on their contribution to regulatory co-operation. There are differences in their governance arrangements and in their operational modalities. Past decades have seen the emergence of new forms of international platforms - such as the trans-governmental networks of regulators. This chapter analyses the variety in the governance and operational modalities of international organisations based on the answers to the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations. It provides an overview of membership, governance structure, decision making processes, legal and policy instruments and budget and staff of international organisations.

There is generally limited structured evidence on the impact of the activities and instruments developed by international organisations in support of global rules and co-ordinated regulatory approaches. The difficulty is amplified by the fact that implementation of global standards relies strongly on national levels and its monitoring may be outside the scope of the responsibility of international organisations. This chapter analyses how international organisations support and track implementation and impacts of their instruments based on the answers to the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations.

International organisations have, over the years, developed processes and practices to support the quality of their rule-making. However, systematic evidence on the use of different regulatory quality disciplines in international rule-making is lacking. In order to fill this information gap, the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations has collected information on the stakeholder engagement and evaluation practices of international organisations. This chapter provides an overview of the extent to which surveyed international organisations engage stakeholders and carry some forms of ex ante or ex post evaluation of the norms and standards that they develop.

International organisations do not operate in a vacuum. Most of them evolve in very dynamic areas, involving the presence of many other organisations and initiatives (international and regional, public and private). This chapter provides an overview of the institutional landscape in which international organisations operate and of their co-ordination based on the answers to the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations.

There is limited systematic analysis and research on the successes and failures of international organisations in promoting international regulatory co-operation. This chapter provides an overview of the answers provided by international organisations to the 2015 OECD Survey of International Organisations on their perceived factors of success, challenges and lessons learnt in facilitating co-operation across members.

The following tables present three possible groupings of international organisations (IOs): by nature, by main activity and by purpose. These groupings do not aim at representing a formal classification of IOs. Rather, the report uses this information to highlight the occurrence of trends and common practices across similar IOs.