A Corporate takeover of the UN

Global Policy Watch, a UN Watchdog has noted today how the UN, which is meant to protect and uphold human rights, is finding itself part of a corporate takeover.

Of the 11 sessions of today’s Climate Action Summit, all but one feature members of the Corporate and Financial Sector.

“Is this what is meant by multi-stakeholder engagement?”, said Barbara Adams of the Global Policy Watch.

This is part of an increasing trend in which the cash-starved UN has welcomed the private sector to contribute to finance, and now finds that major CEOs are determining policy and strategy, with governments relegated to playing a background role.

Governance of data and artificial intelligence

The current status of Artificial Intelligence governance must be reshaped or it will contribute to more being left behind. The risks and shifts are outlined by Cecilia Alemany of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and Anita Gurumurthy of IT For Change (ITFC) in a chapter on Governance of Data and Artificial Intelligence in the 2019 Spotlight on Sustainable Development report.

Four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda the world is off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But there are signs of change. New social movements have emerged worldwide. They not only challenge bad or inefficient government policies, but also share a fundamental critique of underlying social structures, power relations and governance arrangements.

For this reason, the Spotlight Report 2019 has as main topic “reshaping governance for sustainability”. It offers analysis and recommendations on the global governance that sustainability requires, as well as on how to strengthen inclusive and participatory governance to overcome structural obstacles and institutional gaps.