The project aims at studying the developments that have taken place in recent years in the field of global social policy and global social governance. Several regional integration bodies, regional agreements and international organisations have identified the need to develop regional social policies to balance economy driven integration processes with a social policy dimension. The UN reform and several projects led by UNDP have also focused on these issues with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the UN interventions in countries and regions in the world, to secure the comprehensiveness of social and employment policies, including stronger social protection and poverty alleviation policies and better provision of health and education services at national and regional levels. The project is designed to contribute to these objectives, by increasing knowledge about these processes in order to strengthen the regional dimension of social policy and governance considering the relationship of this to the ongoing reform of the UN. A High-level meeting symposium on the “Social Dimensions of Regional Integration” was organised in Montevideo (20 to 23 February, 2006). Major papers and policy conclusions have been published on the UNU-CRIS website. A special issue of Global Social Policy (Sage) was published in 2007 with Montevideo papers and other relevant material. An edited volume Global Governance, Regional Integration and Social Policy edited by Luk Van Langenhove, Bob Deacon and Nicola Yeates(Routledge) is also under preparation.