This report is the first product of a larger project entitled 'Engaging the Disenfranchised: Developing Countries and Civil Society in International Governance for Sustainable Development.' The report outlines the research agenda for the project, which will analyse the obstacles that civil society actors and delegates from developing nations face when participating in international regimes for sustainable development. Conventional policy wisdom has held that improving the participation of these actors is essential to promoting the goals of sustainable development. This report examines that assumption and its associated policy challenges, and also considers how individual capacities, rules and norms affect the engagement of these disenfranchised actors. Further, it lays out an agenda for future research, which will examine new models for enhanced participation.
