Category: Blog

Roberto Bissio, Social Watch

Almost one third of the targets that define the 17 Sustainable Development Goals approved by the governments at the UN are being de facto rewritten or deleted by the Inter-Agency Expert Group proposal of “priority indicators” published June 1 in New York. Important notions included in the SDGs such as labour rights, women rights to property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources and many commitments of developed countries to support the efforts of developing countries are excluded from the proposed list of indicators and would therefore not form part of the UN reviews of the new development agenda. Read more…

by Hubert René Schillinger, FES Geneva

In this contribution to a session on “From Millenium to Sustainable Development Goals: Is transparency the key to unlocking our human potential?” at the GFI/FES Conference on “Financial Transparency and Human Rights” Hubert Schillinger does not elaborate on the positive impact of more financial transparency and the curbing of illicit financial flows for the realization of the new set of global goals. Rather, he a) looks at the role financial integrity and transparency is playing so far in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and b) makes some suggestions as to how this framework could be harnessed further to promote the agenda for financial justice and the curbing of illicit financial flows. Read more…

by Wolfgang Obenland, Global Policy Forum
For decades, development policy was shaped by the notion that the poor countries of the Global South needed money from the wealthy North in order to advance in their development. At the latest since the 2008/09 financial crisis this view of things has, it seems, begun to change. In the current Global Governance Spotlight, Wolfgang Obenland, Program Coordinator of the Global Policy Forum, analyses the negotiations on the outcome document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, scheduled to take place from 13 to 17 July 2015 in Addis Ababa, and shares his assessment regarding its progressiveness. Read more …

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch

As UN negotiations on the post 2015 framework begin to tackle the complex issues of accountability, review and follow up, the diversity of views, perspectives and the lack of concrete proposals make the likelihood of finding an agreement remote indeed. Read more…

EU Ministers met on May 26 to finalise the EU’s position ahead of the crucial UN Financing for Development (FFD) summit in Addis Ababa. The EU position reveals that the Ministers prefer to promote a controversial and problematic reliance on private finance rather than tackling crucial systemic issues such as the need for global tax reform. Other issues addressed during the meeting were the existing aid commitments as well as tax justice. However, according to the head of Tax Justice and Financing for Development at Eurodad, Tove Ryding, there is a very real risk that the international negotiations will collapse if the EU Ministers don’t become more ambitious. Read more …

The Open Working Group has produced a bold and comprehensive set of goals and targets that, if realized, will greatly enhance the protection and fulfillment of human rights and lay strong foundations for a life in freedom and dignity for current and future generations.The International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (ICC) fully supports these goals and the compelling vision for their realization put forward by the UN Secretary General in his synthesis report. As National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) established by Member States to protect and promote human rights we encourage Member States to adopt a follow-up and review mechanism that ensures accountability for the commitments made. Read more…

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch

As negotiations on the draft outcome of the Financing for Development Conference resume at the United Nations in New York, the European Commission launches its 2015 European Report on Development titled Combining finance and policies to implement a transformative post-2015 development agenda to contribute to the debate. Read more…

Tove Maria Ryding, Tax Justice

CSO statement during the Intergovernmental negotiations on the outcome document Read more…

By Paul Okumu

They say in Africa that you do not correct an older man in public. So with all due respect to the very able team of Nobel Laureates, Intellectual minds and some Civil Society and Non State Actors who have been advising the Copenhagen Consensus, allow me to explain why I think they are wrong in asserting that we should abandon the work that the United Nations has done and instead focus all our resources and energy on what they call “ 19 Smarter Targets for Development by 2030”. Read more…

Statement by Tessa Khan, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development during the Joint Session between FfD and Post-2015 Processes: Interactive Dialogue with Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (23 April 2015).

In both the financing for development negotiations and the post-2015 development process, attention is given to trade policies as an instrument for sustainable development, both within the World Trade Organisation and preferential trade and investment agreements. The question of how to align those policies with our objectives here requires us to urgently re-order the hierarchy of obligations to which many Member States currently subscribe. It is a question of policy coherence at its most stark. Read more…