Author: Ana Zeballos

Political vision should come before technical practicality

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch

On Monday, the 23rd of March 2015, government representatives will meet at UN Headquarters for five days of negotiations on the SDG’s goals, targets and indicators.

Governments should resist the temptation –particularly when looking at targets and indicators- to be restricted by existing quantitative monitoring systems and the current (and limited) availability of data.
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Public-Private Partnerships: Benefiting or hindering international development?

By Sabá Loftus, Social Watch
On the 18th March, the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) hosted a side event in New York to promote the report “Why Public-Private-Partnerships don’t work”. The report assessed the impact of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) actually undertaken in rich and poor countries. These global case studies show that there is no evidence that PPPs are cheaper or more convenient for governments in the long-term.
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Why fighting illicit capital is not a priority?

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch
An interesting report named “Illicit financial flows, human rights and the post-2015 development agenda” has been submitted to the Human Rights Council on 9 March 2015 under the agenda item “Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, in political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development”.
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Statistics for the SDGs: the devil is in the indicators

By Roberto Bissio, Social Watch
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.
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Data & Development: Reality check for Post-2015 agenda?

By Sabá Loftus

The UN Statistical Commission discussed the challenges of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. This included implementation, measuring or monitoring progress as well as accountability. This includes a pragmatic look at the available data and implications for the Sustainable Development Goal indicators. Linkages between different agendas being negotiated in parallel such as Financing for Development, Post-2015 and Climate were starkly noticeable.

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Development: Post-2015 declaration – one step forward, two steps back? – Pt. II

By Ranja Sengupta; SUNS.

The United Nations negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in New York saw Member States inching towards a political Declaration amidst considerable differences.

The Declaration is to lay the broader framework on which the more specific elements of the Agenda will rest in a separate outcome document. These will be adopted at the UN Summit on 25-27 September tilted "Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda".

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The 2015 Declaration: Meeting great expectations (maybe)

By Barbara Adams, Gretchen Luchsinger

The most recent step in the post-2015 negotiations was the 17-20 February debate in New York on the Declaration, meant to be the framework political statement. Despite strong emphasis on transformation and high aspiration, traditional lines were drawn between (mostly) Northern and Southern positions. Read more… / Spanish version

Development: South needs policy space to meet post-2015 agenda

By Kanaga Raja. SUNS.

Developing countries need sufficient policy space in particular in the areas of trade, finance and industrial development if they are to meet the goals of the post-2015 development agenda, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In its latest Policy Brief (No. 31 of February 2015), UNCTAD said that buoyant demand at the global level and effective industrial policy at the national level have been key ingredients of successful development in recent decades.

Can taxation be the answer?

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch.

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.
Read more / Spanish version