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.
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…
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…
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.
Follow:
Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have exacerbated rather than reduced global inequalities. The most visible example of this is the global disparity in the distribution of vaccines.
This year’s Spotlight on Sustainable Development Report describes the highly uneven socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis and analyses the policy responses to it. It explores beyond the rhetoric, highlighting deepening inequalities, self-serving and hypocritical policies and governance failures at national and international level. Spotlight Report on Sustainable Development “Demanding justice beyond rethoric.”
