CSEND co-conducted an interdisciplinary study from 2002-2004 on resolution of environmental conflicts titled "Governing the Use of Landscape and Habitats in Alpine Areas: Negotiations as a Means to co-ordinate Stakeholder Interests" together with colleagues form the University of Basle. The study was part of the Swiss National Science Foundation programme Nr. 48. Results of the study were published in book form entitled "Verhandlungen bei Umweltkonflikten: ökonomische, soziologische und rechtliche Aspekte des Verhandlungsansatzes in alpinen Raum" by Elke Staehelin-Witt, Raymond Saner & Beatrice Wagner Pfeifer (2005).
CSEND wrote a background paper for the meeting of the Educational Contact Group held at WTO in Geneva and participated in the meeting as educational expert and member of the Swiss delegation. The title of the paper was "Trade in Educational Services and the Doha WTO Round: the Need to Move out of Current Impasse" (by Raymond Saner), Geneva, September 2005.
CSEND worked on a USAID-sponsored policy project for Booz Allen Hamilton. The goal of the study was to identify success factors of the Integrated Framework (IF), a WTO instrument targeted to support Least Developed Country's supply-side deficiencies. Structured interviews were conducted with officials of the Geneva-based IF agencies namely WTO, UNCTAD, UNDP and ITC. Policy recommendations were made as result of these interviews. Geneva, August 2005.
CSEND conducted in-depth research on how to best include employment and decent work agenda into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), the successor instrument of the failed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) devised and imposed on heavily indebted countries by the IMF and the World Bank. CSEND drafted a major document titled "Decent Work and Poverty Reduction Strategies: An ILO Advocacy Guidebook" and developed a 24 role negotiation simulation concerning the PRSP negotiation process as a vehicle to strengthen the capacities of the line ministries, social actors and labour unions to parrticipate in the PRSP process. The Guidebook was published by ILO, Geneva, April 2005. The simulation was pilot-tested and later on applied in training workshops in Ethiopia (2003), Cameroon (2005), Madagascar (2006) and so on.
CSEND gave two policy presentations entitled "Economic Growth, National Competitiveness and Education" (Raymond Saner) and "Continuous Learning: Key Driver for Social and Economic Development" (Lichia Yiu) at an international conference on "Governance and Education for Sustainable Development and European Integration" organized by OECD, Paris for government officials of Central and South-Eastern European countries. The conference was held in Graz, Austria, January 2005.