Breaking the Washington Consensus: the Rise of 'alternative' Development Banks
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- Written by Diane Desierto
- Category: Articles
The United Kingdom scuttled much of its trans-Atlantic partnership with the United States this week, when it became the first G7 country to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) over US objections. European countries France, Germany, and Italy followed suit, with Australia and South Korea now re-evaluating their positions to consider joining the USD $50 billion capitalized AIIB. Japan is holding firm on its alliance with the United States in refusing to join the AIIB. United States National Security Council spokesperson Patrick Ventrell declared that “any new multilateral institution should incorporate the high standards of the World Bank and the regional development banks…we have concerns about whether the AIIB will meet these high standards, particularly related to governance, and environmental and social safeguards.”
Read more: Breaking the Washington Consensus: the Rise of 'alternative' Development Banks
Terrorist Attack in Tunis on the eve of the World Social Forum
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- Written by Francine Mestrum
- Category: Articles
Yesterday’s attacks in Tunis motivate us even more to come together at the World Social Forum, that will take place in Tunis next week; in the spirit of solidarity and to take a firm stand against terrorism.
In the light of yesterday’s attack at the Museum of Bardo in Tunis where 20 people were killed and 44 wounded, SOLIDAR calls for participation to the World Social Forum as the appropriate answer from all pacifist and democratic forces for a better, more fair and free world based on peaceful co-existence.
Through this attack, terrorist groups attempted to undermine the democratic transition taking place in Tunisia, while creating a climate of fear amongst citizens who aspire freedom, democracy and peaceful participation in establishing democracy.
SOLIDAR supports progressive social movements and democratic forces in Tunisia and in the wider Middle East and North Africa to oppose violence and terrorism, whilst promoting human rights, fundamental freedoms, freedom of association, peace, democracy and social justice.
Global Social Justice will be present in Tunis at the WSF from 24 to 28 March. Tomorrow we will publish our programme, with many workshops on social protection and the commons.
Women Turn Drought into a Lesson on Sustainability
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- Written by Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
- Category: Articles
When a group of women in the remote village of Sadhuraks in Pakistan’s Thar Desert, some 800 km from the port city of Karachi, were asked if they would want to be born a woman in their next life, the answer from each was a resounding ‘no’.
They have every reason to be unhappy with their gender, mostly because of the unequal division of labour between men and women in this vast and arid region that forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan.
"South Asian countries need to realise the tremendous capacity for leadership women have in planning for and responding to disasters." -- David Line, managing editor of The Economist Intelligence Unit
Read more: Women Turn Drought into a Lesson on Sustainability
Empty EU tax package is a drop in the bucket
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- Written by Sven Giegold, MEP
- Category: Articles
The European Commission has outlined its ‘tax transparency package’ today. As a consequence of Luxembourg Leaks the EU Commission suggests to change only one provision in one directive. The Commission sketches out its future plans in a communication. Commenting on the proposals, Green economic and finance spokesperson Sven Giegold stated:
“What the Commission presented today as tax transparency ‘package’ is a drop in the bucket and embarassing. It reveals that the Juncker Commission has still not understood the seriousness of the situation and the need for a comprehensive response at EU level. The planned improvement on information exchange between member states is necessary and welcome. Nevertheless, it remains the smallest possible step towards more tax justice in the EU.
SDGs: The devil is in the Indicators
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- Written by Roberto Bissio/Social Watch
- Category: Articles
The UN Statistical Commission concluded its meeting in New York last March 6 without agreeing on a list of indicators to measure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The body is composed of 24 governments and it oversees the work of the UN statistical Division, the most important global agency on world indicators, in charge, among other things of defining how GDP is conceptualized and counted.
A preliminary list of indicators compiled from the suggestions of expert groups was deemed premature by the Commission, and instead a roadmap for the development and implementation of the indicator framework by the next Commission in 2016 was endorsed.
Post-2015 Development: One Step Forward and Two Steps Backward
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- Written by Ranja Sengupta and Mirza Alas
- Category: Articles
As the discussion on the Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda gets underway, differences between developing and developed countries that are likely to loom over the rest of the Post-2015 negotiations became clearer.
The draft political Declaration is to set the framework for the Post-2015 development agenda and spell out the broader common principles, commitments and objectives that the agenda is founded on.
Read more: Post-2015 Development: One Step Forward and Two Steps Backward
Freedom of Information: World Bank Lags Behind many Member States
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- Written by Douglas Gillison
- Category: Analysis
If only Hillary Clinton had been president of the World Bank and not chief of US diplomacy.
The former Secretary of State now says she wants the world to see her emails. This, to fend off a new controversy in which reporters, researchers, archivists, political adversaries and posterity itself might have been denied access to her official communications — which she apparently stored on a private server somewhere in her suburban mansion in New York.
But the emails of Jim Yong Kim, Robert Zoellick, Paul Wolfowitz and other World Bank presidents cannot be subpoenaed by Congressional investigators or requisitioned by investigative reporters under any freedom of information law.
Read more: Freedom of Information: World Bank Lags Behind many Member States
Behind the Climate Negotiating Text for COP21
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- Written by Pablo Solon
- Category: Analysis
The future lies in the past. What has happened will determine what will come. The idea that we can change everything and save the world at the last minute is exciting in movies but it does not work in real life. It particularly applies when we speak about issues like climate change where the consequences of what we did in the past century are just beginning to manifest.
This principle applies also to climate negotiations. What is now on the table after the climate negotiations held in Geneva from 8-13 February 2015 is setting the scope and the range of possibilities for the climate agreement at the upcoming COP 21 in Paris this December.
Can Taxation be the Answer?
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- Written by Social Watch
- Category: Analysis
Over the past twenty years we have heard constantly that the world has the resources to address global development challenges such as poverty, environmental degradation, diseases and inequalities. However, despite the resources “being there” human development plans have been consistently underfunded.
Clearly, existing “trickle-down” and redistribution mechanisms are not being effective and will be woefully inadequate to fund the implementation of the universal SDGs agenda.
There is hope ...
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- Written by Francine Mestrum
- Category: Analysis
A couple of months ago, with the indignation about the latest World Bank report in which poverty was seen as a ‘cognitive tax’, I promised to write something on hope. Because there are several reasons why hope is back on the agenda.
A radical left party won the elections in Greece, end of January. The negotiations with the European Union on debt rescheduling and austerity policies are very very difficult, but they are going on. Greece does not want to leave the Euro, nor the European Union, but does want other mechanisms for respecting the common rules that are inherent to a currency zone.
It is impossible to predict how these negotiations will end. Everything might still go wrong, and Greece might be forced out of the Euro. Apart from the disastrous consequences this would have for life in Greece itself and for the rest of the European Union, the future looks in fact rather rosy. Why?
Almost all Developing Countries now vulnerable to Financial Crisis
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- Written by South Center
- Category: Analysis
There are now two types of developing countries, and both have become increasingly vulnerable to financial crises in recent years. This is the main message of an impressive and sobering new report from the South Center.
