Tax Policy is Human Rights Policy
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- Written by Aldo Cagliari
- Category: Articles
In a recent report (“the report”), the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, Mr. Philip Alston (“the Rapporteur”) addressed the issue of economic inequality, drawing its connections to the enjoyment of human rights and to policy recommendations needed to tackle it. Among the recommendations offered in the report, some squarely focused on economic policies. States should “reduce inequality by adopting taxation policies that are instrumental to achieving that aim,” the report said. By linking economic inequality to human rights enjoyment and to the actions and omissions by the state (in pursuing a particular tax policy), the report constitutes yet another important building block in the emerging body of standards that connect acts and omissions of the state in the field of economic policy to human rights.
Tax Avoidance Fuels Inequality
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- Written by Joseph Stiglitz
- Category: Articles
Two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. But not for big corporations.
Although they are "legal persons" and can fund politicians of their choice without limit, they don't have to be limited by time and, thanks to our outdated system of taxing global profits, they can easily shirk paying taxes.
Rise in large Scale Refugees Triggers New Population Order
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- Written by Thalif Deen / IPS
- Category: Articles
As the unprecedented flow of hundreds and thousands of migrants and refugees continues from war-ravaged countries to Europe, a new study warns that large-scale migration from poorer to rich nations will be a permanent feature of the global economy for decades.
The joint study by the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), released Oct. 7, says the world is undergoing a major population shift that will reshape economic development for decades.
And, while this poses challenges, it also offers a path to ending extreme poverty and shared prosperity if the right evidence-based policies are put in place nationally and internationally.
Joseph Chamie, an independent consulting demographer and a former director of the United Nations Population Division, told IPS that in contrast to the recently adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WB/IMF report does not ignore population growth, but rightly acknowledges its vital role in the global economy and development efforts.
Read more: Rise in large Scale Refugees Triggers New Population Order
Is the Miracle of Microfinance Illusory?
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- Written by S. Kulkami and Raghav Gaiha
- Category: Articles
Mohammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, transformed the lives of millions of poor women through unsecured micro loans or micro credit to self-help groups. Microcredit evolved into microfinance that also includes savings and basic forms of insurance and transfer mechanisms. Within a few years, microfinance became a global phenomenon. Although microfinance continues to grow, the enthusiasm for it shows signs of waning.
In recent years, there has been a great deal of scepticism regarding the “miracle” of microfinance. Critics have questioned whether the rhetoric has moved far ahead of the evidence, with some even suggesting that microfinance can spell the death of local economies. Meanwhile, its defenders present robust evidence to substantiate their claims that microfinance delivers enormous benefits. We argue that the miracle is largely intact but needs strengthening.
Youth Employment Easing but Far from Over
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- Written by ILO
- Category: Articles
New ILO Report: Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015
Does individualism imply a minimalist State?
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- Written by Branco Milanovic
- Category: Articles
It is often thought that individualism as a philosophical position must go together with dislike of state involvement in economic life. Radical individualists must like a small state, or no state at all. I think it is an utterly wrong point of view: being a radical individualist does not predispose one to be in favor of a small or big state, to favor state-provided social transfers or to be against them.
Where does this erroneous view come from? We have at least three possible sources.
From Millennium Goals to 'Distraction Gimmicks'
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- Written by Patrick Bond/ Telesur/Pambazuka
- Category: Articles
Last weekend in New York heralded another of the annual UN heads-of-state summits at which inappropriate targets, processes and evaluation systems were reconfirmed. Politicians joined multilateral bureaucrats to congratulate each other for hitting many of the MDG targets during the 2000-2015 period. Now there are 17 new SDGs with 169 new targets and more than 300 indicators to aim for by 2030.
But since most state elites are not truly committed to these, the big question is whether SDGs can motivate activists working in the trenches against the systems of power that create poverty, hunger, disease and climate change. The UN, in contrast, shies away from considering or attributing causes, preferring to focus on symptoms.
Base Erosion and Profit Shifting: an assessment of OECD/G20 agreement
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- Written by Tove Ryding / Eurodad
- Category: Articles
We now see the complete picture of what BEPS will deliver, and it’s clear that BEPS will fail to reach the stated objective of ensuring that multinational corporations pay their taxes ‘where economic activities take place and value is created’. It will also fail to reach the objective of ensuring that developing countries benefit from the process.
The failure of BEPS to deliver the necessary reforms will mean that problems such as those exposed in the LuxLeaks scandal and several other corporate tax scandals can continue to exist, even if the BEPS outcomes were to be implemented.
The outcome of BEPS is increased complexity and a continued reliance on the much criticized ‘arm’s length principle’.
Read more: Base Erosion and Profit Shifting: an assessment of OECD/G20 agreement
World Bank Forecasts Global Poverty to Fall Below 10 %
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- Written by World Bank
- Category: Articles
The number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10 percent of the global population in 2015, according to World Bank projections released today, giving fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic goal of ending poverty by 2030.
The Bank uses an updated international poverty line of US $1.90 a day, which incorporates new information on differences in the cost of living across countries (the PPP exchange rates). The new line preserves the real purchasing power of the previous line (of $1.25 a day in 2005 prices) in the world’s poorest countries. Using this new line (as well as new country-level data on living standards), the World Bank projects that global poverty will have fallen from 902 million people or 12.8 per cent of the global population in 2012 to 702 million people, or 9.6 per cent of the global population, this year.
Read more: World Bank Forecasts Global Poverty to Fall Below 10 %
Better data for better lives : Statistics at the center of the SDGs
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- Written by UN DESA
- Category: Articles
As the global statistical community embarks on the final phase of defining a new indicator framework to review progress of the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world community prepares to celebrate World Statistics Day on 20 October.
This day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010 to recognize the central role of statistics for development and their importance in shaping our societies. A statistical day was already a tradition in over 100 countries around the world, but the adoption by the General Assembly of a resolution marking 20 October as World Statistics Day brought a strong recognition of the important role of statistics in people’s lives.
Read more: Better data for better lives : Statistics at the center of the SDGs
Uncovering the Truth about Global Poverty
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- Written by Share the World's Resources
- Category: Articles
The Sustainable Development Goals – despite their positive and progressive rhetoric – by no means constitute a transformative agenda for restructuring the global economy and meeting the basic needs of all people within the means of our shared planet. As we explain in STWR’s latest report, the basic assumptions that define the SDGs discourse – that life is improving for the majority of humanity, that unfettered economic growth and development-as-usual can continue indefinitely into the future, and that the world is on course to completely eradicate poverty by 2030 – are fatally flawed and misleading.
