It was due in particular to the difficulty experienced with achieving tangible results in the worldwide efforts to deal with the deterioration of the climate that challenged scholars in political science, legal sociology and related disciplines to brainstorm what is called the architecture of governance for sustainable development in a globalising world. Various attempts at using the architectural approach to re-determine the role and function of sub-and suprastatal social levels and institutions have been submitted, leading to theoretical consequences with respect to the role and function of the state and its relationship to the said non-statal levels and institutions. In practical political terms, the architectural approach results in the empowerment of the non-statal levels and institutions, de facto through the recognition of the pertinent role and function these levels and institutions hold, de jure by calls to extend the existing recognition through legal reforms.In exploring and employing the architectural approach, this chapter relies on research done in Namibia. The focus is on findings from empirical research done within the legal component of the Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa (BIOTA) and its successor The Future of Okavango (TFO) Projects, both administered under the University of Namibia's Faculty of Law.