Articles
Arguing the TOSSD: is the OECD’s new measure for Total Official Support for Sustainable Development a good idea?
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Last week, I went to an expert group meeting to discuss a new framework being prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) for monitoring and measuring flows that could be considered developmental but are not currently captured in Official Development Assistance (ODA, or ‘aid’). This new framework is provisionally called Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD). The stated purpose of this framework is not to supplant ODA but to provide transparency on other financial flows that support the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN.
Now, I think this agenda has serious risks attached – it could undermine aid targets, incentivise the wrong kind of private investments, and give donors false credit for supporting global public goods. But last week I was challenged to think about what the positive side might be. I have two initial thoughts.
Global Inequality: the haves and have nots
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Although inequality has recently become one of the current topics “de jour” in the economics profession, Branko Milanovic is certainly not a newbie to this area. Indeed, the World Bank economist and development specialist (currently a visiting presidential professor at CUNY’s Graduate Center and a senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center), has been studying this particular field of economics since his days as a graduate student. One of his unique contributions has been to link this scholarship to prevailing financial conditions, providing substantial empirical evidence which illustrates how financial bubbles and the increasing financialisation of the global economy has played a key role in terms contributing to greater inequality.
China's new South South funds: a global game changer?
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South-South cooperation is usually seen as a poor second fiddle to North-South aid in the world of development assistance. Indeed, developing countries’ policy makers themselves insist that South-South cooperation can only supplement but not replace North-South cooperation.
However, this widespread view received a jolt recently when China announced it was setting up two new funds totalling a massive 5.1 billion dollars to assist other developing countries.
Read more: China's new South South funds: a global game changer?
TTIP: what it will mean for us and what is the alternative?
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This new report by Martin Myant – Senior Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute – describes why the negotiating parties want a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), what the agreement will contain and what trade liberalisation may lead to. It argues that TTIP offers no improvements in economic or social conditions for European citizens. On the contrary, the Partnership threatens a reduction in protection for employees and consumers and a substantial enhancement of the power of private business.
If the Partnership is to be continued at all, then it should do so with the exclusion of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement and with means to ensure there is no reduction in regulatory protections through attempts to achieve compatibility.
Africa as gatekeeper for Europe?
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A gathering of African leaders and European Union (EU) member-states in Malta has resulted in a proposed financial package of nearly $US4 billion which will ostensibly be utilized to halt the flow of migration from Africa to Europe.
European governments say they are willing to send funds to Africa so that people will not be interested in migrating to the continent. Such a program would in effect turn African presidents and prime ministers into the gatekeepers of Europe.
