Articles
UNCTAD's Role in the 2030 Agenda
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The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) concept of interdependence between countries and policy areas can be employed in the follow-up and monitoring of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, says a recent policy brief of this international agency.
UNCTAD argues that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development substantially increases the demand for evidence-based analysis and integrated and coordinated policy support.
"Its comprehensive and integrated nature mirrors the UNCTAD concept of interdependence between countries and policy areas," it added.
This concept can now be employed in the follow-up and monitoring process of the Agenda to assess the impact of the international environment on the effectiveness of national implementation strategies, and trade-offs and synergies in those strategies.
Third wave of economic crisis?
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Dr. Yılmaz Akyüz, Chief Economist of the intergovernmental organization South Centre, says that the 2008 financial crisis may be moving in a third wave that could devastate the Global South.
This article was originally published in the Real News on 28 March 2016, produced by Lynn Fries.
Video, audio and statement by Dr. Yılmaz Akyüz, Chief Economist of the South Centre, at the Seminar on Current Global Economic Trends and Conditions and the International Development Policy Context After 2015 held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 23 February 2016 is available at this link
Political will needed to overcome inequality
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Inequality is a universal challenge faced by least-developed, middle-income and developed countries alike, but which can be overcome by political will at national and international levels, the United Nations deputy chief said today.
Addressing a special meeting on inequality convened by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said that inequalities within and among countries pose an immense challenge to global development efforts.
“Large disparities in income, wealth, power and opportunity plague our work for progress, both internationally and nationally, so do also large gaps in access to education, healthcare, water, sanitation, food, energy, and social protection,” Mr. Eliasson told the meeting, which brought together leading experts on inequality from academia, government, the private sector, the UN system and other stakeholders to conceptualize, analyze and recommend solutions for inequalities in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Panama Papers
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A new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations around the globe, reveals the offshore links of some of the planet’s most prominent people.
In terms of size, it is likely the biggest leak of inside information in history – more than 11.5 million documents – and it is equally likely to be one of the most explosive in the nature of its revelations.
The leak exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
The files also provide details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 other politicians and public officials around the world and show how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.
Read this investigation:
How to promote universal social protection… and how to put ‘social commons’ into practice? The idea of political laboratories
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It is easy to criticize poverty reduction policies, as it is obvious we have to put serious questions about targeting and minimalist ‘social protection’ systems. We defend and promote universal social protection and cannot be happy with liberal basic income proposals. Our alternative is a system of ‘social commons’, democratic and participatory, based on human rights and able to also protect societies.
The main question is: how to put this into practice?
