Category: Publications

Publications

Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017: Reclaiming Policies for the Public

In the 2030 Agenda governments committed to a revitalized Global Partnership between States and declared that public finance has to play a vital role in achieving the SDGs. But in recent decades, the combination of neoliberal ideology, corporate lobbying, business-friendly fiscal policies, tax avoidance and tax evasion has led to a massive weakening of the public sector and its ability to provide essential goods and services. Read more…

Blog / Publications

Options for Strengthening Global Tax Governance

by Wolfgang Obenland

The importance of global cooperation on tax issues is becoming more and more evident. The sums lost amount to hundreds of billions annually. While steps to curb the losses are underway, gaps in global tax governance remain both in the institutional setting and with regard to substantive issues. For example, there is still no body with universal membership that could discuss issues that are of particular importance to countries in the Global South. In order to fill these gaps, either existing institutions need to be further developed, or new ones established, or both. In any case, a new body would have to perform certain functions and meet particular criteria with regard to composition. A new paper formulates options for achieving this. Read more …

Blog / Publications

Is the UN fit for the ambitious new Sustainable Development Agenda?

New study highlights private funding and corporate influence in the United Nations

New York City, 22 September 2015. More than a hundred Heads of State and Government will gather in New York this week to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda is intended to make the UN ‘fit for purpose’, but it is important to ask, ‘whose purpose will it be fit for’? Read more…

Publications

New Discussion Paper asks: Leave no-one out of the Post-2015 Agenda – particularly not the rich

The Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectivestoday launches its latest Discussion Paper. “Goals for the Rich – Indispensable for a Universal Post-2015 Agenda” deals with the question of how a fair sharing of costs, responsibilities and opportunities among and within countries can be achieved in formulating and implementing a Post-2015 Sustainability Agenda. Read more…

Publications

The “A” Word: Monitoring the SDGs

Twenty-two UN independent human rights rapporteurs wrote to the Rio+20 Summit that “real risk exists that commitments made in Rio will remain empty promises without effective monitoring and accountability.” This danger also exists for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Could Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) of SDG progress be the answer?

Read and analysis on this question by Roberto Bissio (Social Watch) in a new briefing paper for Future United Nations Development System. Read more… / Spanish version

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The 2030 Agenda requires mobilization of resources, some of which are considered hidden due to lack of policies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2014 estimated that: US$5–7 trillion a year is needed to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the action plan of the 2030 Agenda. The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) calculated US$80–90 trillion in untapped assets for investment and offered blended financing as a major vehicle for ‘crowding in’ corporate funds. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed said in her first address as DS-G in New York: “Bringing partnerships and agencies together in a coherent and more coordinated manner will further leverage resources and different partnerships in a mobile [development] agenda, this is becoming more complex but it is bringing in more returns.” Is this sustainable development or business development?

 

The final unedited version of the Secretary-General’s report on the repositioning of the UN development system, as a follow-up to General Assembly resolution 71/243 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of United Nations operational activities for development (QCPR), offers the Secretary-General’s vision on the repositioning of the UN development system to effectively support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and responds to the mandates contained in GA/RES/71/243 due by June 2017. The report is the product of extensive consultations with Member States, the UN development system and other stakeholders, and has benefited from in-depth analysis of relevant studies and data on the system’s present functions and capacities to support the 2030 Agenda. Per operative paragraph 45, the Joint Inspection Unit was consulted on options for improving the accountability and overall coordination of the entities of the United Nations development system and their oversight by Member States found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-jiu-contribution.pdf. The Secretary-General’s report and all relevant documents are also available on the QCPR website at  https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/node/1213351. A consultants report was supplementally released found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-dalberg_unds-outline-of-functions-and-capacities-june-2017.pdf.