Articles
Brexit: a U-turn in tackling global tax avoidance?
- Details
With just days remaining until Britain decides on its EU membership, the UK is at a crossroads. It has a historical choice to make, with various consequences attached to the decision on the 23rd of June on whether it becomes the first ever country to leave the EU. Those consequences could include undermining the leading role that Britain has taken in the global fight against corruption and transforming Britain into an even greater tax haven for multinationals.
According to a recent report by the British Treasury, £36 billion would be sucked out of the UK’s financial sector by 2030 due to the economic costs of pulling out from the EU. Taxpayers will be forced to pay 8p more in income tax on every pound earned, and the economy risks shrinking between 3.4 percent and 9.5 percent by 2030 depending on the exit strategy it chooses.
With these numbers in mind, how might a potential Brexit affect the global financial transparency agenda, particularly in terms of tackling tax avoidance?
Read more: Brexit: a U-turn in tackling global tax avoidance?
Promises and Perils of UNCTAD 14 in Nairobi
- Details
UNCTAD14 will showcase an organization “with one foot rooted in history and both eyes looking to the future”, assures the communications and information unit of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Civil society organisations from around the world are however concerned at the prospect of UNCTAD moving toward forcing developing countries to take the role of engines to increase trade. This, they say, would tantamount to the organisation deviating from its mission to support the use of trade for development, the more it risks becoming redundant and irrelevant.
But official sources says that while the the six-day UNCTAD14, opening in Nairobi (Kenya) on July 17, has special historical significance, it makes important concessions to the future. Some 52 years ago, for example, Geneva hosted UNCTAD1, at that time the biggest conference ever, with 4,000 delegates from 120 countries.
Spotlight Report on Sustainable Development
- Details
Independent monitoring and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its structural obstacles and challenges are key factors for the success of the SDGs. It is for this reason, the Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development together with other civil society organizations and networks has produced the first annual Spotlight Report assessing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the structural obstacles in its realization. The report puts a spotlight on the fulfillment of the 17 goals, with a particular focus on inequalities, responsibility of the rich and powerful, means of implementation and systemic issues.
What are currently the main obstacles to achieving the SDGs? Are there transnational spill over effects that influence or even undermine the implementation of the goals? Are the current policy approaches, as they are reflected, inter alia, in the 2030 Agenda, an adequate response to the challenges and obstacles (or are they part of the problem)? What has to be done? Which specific policy changes (at international level) are necessary?
Download the full report here (pdf)
The African Union: a turning point?
- Details
The eyes of Africa are this week turned to Kigali, host of the African Union Summit, where a new Chairperson of the AU Commission will be elected. The Summit presents yet another opportunity for African Heads of State and Government to place the continental body on a new path that will genuinely respond to the needs and aspirations of the African people.
Social Justice: social protection for all, decent work, essential services, tax justice and other egalitarian alternatives to debt and austerity measures
- Details
Background note to the Asia Europe People’s Forum 11, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 4-6 July
‘At the level of people, the system does not work’ (J. Stiglitz)
Common challenges
When I started my research on poverty some twenty years ago, more particularly on the international poverty discourse of international organisations, I soon found out that this new focus in development had nothing to do with poverty, poor people or, for that matter, development. Ten years after the introduction of neoliberal structural adjustment programmes, it was mainly meant as a legitimation of these policies. Indeed, not only were there no worldwide poverty statistics, but the World Bank, who was the main proponent of this poverty approach, did not propose any change in its policies. From that moment onwards, 1990, neoliberalism was ‘sold’ in the name of poverty reduction.
