Category: Publications

The mandate of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters ends June 2017. In early April 2017, the Committee met to discuss updates and renewal of their vows. A change the Committee will implement in their next cycle is regional representation. Additionally during their time in New York, there was a call by for more resources to fund the committee and subcommittees’ work resounding on the edge of the continued pursuit by G77 and China to transform the tax committee into a UN intergovernmental body due to its comparative advantage of universal membership. This call hit a wall of OECD member countries defending the OECD’s Base Erosion & Profit Shifting or BEPS plan for international cooperation in tax matters. It is easy to see where priorities lie if you look at resources of these institutions. The trust fund created for the UN committee of experts on international cooperation in tax matters, is nil and there are only 1.5 paid staff in this department. The World Bank employs 45+ tax experts with an annual budget of give or take USD 45 million, and the OECD employs 75+ tax experts and has a near USD 65 million annual budget. Further reinforcing the OECD-led BEPS plan, is the launch of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax.

There is a method of addressing the SDGs at the UN becoming more and more popular. The UN World Data Forum (created to expand and accept broader input in response to the Data Revolution) in early January 2017, created essentially a to-do list called the “Cape Town Global Action Plan” which was explained as an organizing framework for all stakeholders. The design of that action plan resembles other fora, for example the Oceans Conference, which set up a platform of action areas, that invite stakeholders to ‘sign-on’ to contribute to those areas by making voluntary commitments.

The idea is, post sign-on, to assess where there is capacity to deliver on which SDG targets (and for the UN to fill in where there are gaps or “SDG orphans”, according to Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the United Nations Statistics Division, UN DESA. For more information see  http://undataforum.org/WorldDataForum/launch-of-the-cape-town-global-action-plan-for-sustainable-development-data/ and https://oceanconference.un.org/.

Since taking office, the UN Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly have prioritized raising enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda and achievement of the SDGs. The new Chair of the Group of 77 (Ecuador) has shown similar enthusiasm in institutional reforms needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda. For instance, in the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the General Assembly is emphasizing a more transparent, gender and geographically balanced selection processes for senior UN officials, and how to more efficiently organize their work program to facilitate equal footing at high-level meetings. On this point the G77 Chair noted in his statement that “enhancing the participation of equal footing [in the General Assembly] cannot be led by a restrictive group of hegemonic powers”. Additionally, on institutional reform, the Ad Hoc Working Group established the need to enhance coherence between the agendas of the General Assembly and ECOSOC in paragraph 22 and 23 of resolution 70/305, which will hold an informal on 6 March 2017. The next meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group is 15 March 2017 in New York. For more on this process see (http://www.un.org/en/ga/revitalization/revital_current.shtml).