Monthly Archive: April 2016

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Obstacles to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

During “The way ahead: Successful frameworks and strategies for financing the Sustainable Development Goals and the paradigm shift towards low carbon societies” panel discussion on “Financing poverty eradication and sustainable development” at the President of the General Assembly’s High-Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals held at the UN in New York on Thursday, 21 April 2016, Barbara Adams from Global Policy Forum pointed out governments on one hand are signing the Paris Agreement and on the other hand signing certain bilateral trade treaties. See the video here.

Briefings

Options for strengthening global tax governance

The importance of international—or even better, global—cooperation on tax issues is becoming more and more evident in the light of tax evasion and avoidance scandals during the last few months and years. Countries in the global North and South were shown to offer preferential treatment to foreigners—from Panama to Luxemburg from the Cayman Islands to Hong Kong. Individuals as well as huge transnational corporations are using a fragmented and inconsistently regulated global system of trans-border taxation to evade and/or avoid taxes. The sums lost amount to hundreds of billions annually. Depending on the model of estimation, developing countries are losing more than one trillion US dollars per year in illicit financial flows, the majority of which can be attributed to the abuse of transfer pricing rules. A panel of the UN Economic Commission for Africa chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki estimates the losses of Africa alone at approximately 50 billion US dollars per year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) puts global revenue losses from Base Eros ion and Profit Shifting at an annual 100 to 240 billion US dollars. Read more…

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Mind the Gap – from CSW to FfD

Less than one month ago the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) adopted its “ agreed conclusions” on “Women’s empowerment and the link to sustainable development.”

From 18-20 April, the Financing for Development Forum (FfD Forum) will provide an early test on the commitment and ability of Member States and the UN system to finance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and address structural obstacles to development. Read more…

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Accountability and transparency of multi-stakeholder partnerships at the UN

During the session on “accountability and transparency of multi-stakeholder partnerships” held in the framework of the Partnership Forum at the UN, Barbara Adams from Global Policy Forum and Social Watch said that partnerships are based in a win-win dynamic but there is a need to understand of what is “win-win”. See the video here.

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The 2030 Agenda requires mobilization of resources, some of which are considered hidden due to lack of policies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2014 estimated that: US$5–7 trillion a year is needed to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the action plan of the 2030 Agenda. The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) calculated US$80–90 trillion in untapped assets for investment and offered blended financing as a major vehicle for ‘crowding in’ corporate funds. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed said in her first address as DS-G in New York: “Bringing partnerships and agencies together in a coherent and more coordinated manner will further leverage resources and different partnerships in a mobile [development] agenda, this is becoming more complex but it is bringing in more returns.” Is this sustainable development or business development?

 

The final unedited version of the Secretary-General’s report on the repositioning of the UN development system, as a follow-up to General Assembly resolution 71/243 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of United Nations operational activities for development (QCPR), offers the Secretary-General’s vision on the repositioning of the UN development system to effectively support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and responds to the mandates contained in GA/RES/71/243 due by June 2017. The report is the product of extensive consultations with Member States, the UN development system and other stakeholders, and has benefited from in-depth analysis of relevant studies and data on the system’s present functions and capacities to support the 2030 Agenda. Per operative paragraph 45, the Joint Inspection Unit was consulted on options for improving the accountability and overall coordination of the entities of the United Nations development system and their oversight by Member States found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-jiu-contribution.pdf. The Secretary-General’s report and all relevant documents are also available on the QCPR website at  https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/node/1213351. A consultants report was supplementally released found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-dalberg_unds-outline-of-functions-and-capacities-june-2017.pdf.