Publications

This GPW Round Up #6 – 2023 ECOSOC Operational Activities for Development Segment: Financing for effective UN Development System & Country Teams – features a selection of perspectives from the sessions held in May 2023.

This GPW Round Up – 5th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5): Highlights from High-Level Roundtable discussions at LDC5 – features a selection of perspectives from different groups of participants at the LDC5 Conference held in March 2023.

This GPW Round Up #4, UN 2023 Water Conference: Highlights from the conference in UN year for Water Action and Focus, features a selection of perspectives from different groups of participants at the UN Water Conference held in March 2023.

The European Union (EU) is on the verge of introducing an EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). An agreement among the EU institutions involved is to be reached by the end of 2023. This also brings the EU’s active participation in negotiations at the United Nations (UN) level on an international legally binding instrument on business and human rights, also known as a “UN treaty,” ever closer. After all, it is in the EU’s interest that high standards apply [...]

This new report Spotlight on Global Multilateralism offers critical analyses and presents recommendations for strengthening democratic multilateral structures and policies. Its contributors cover key areas such as peace and common security, reforms of the global financial architecture, calls for a New Social Contract, an inclusive digital future, the rights of future generations and the transformation of education systems. The report also identifies built-in deficiencies and weaknesses of current multilateral structures and approaches. This applies, inter alia, to concepts of corporate-influenced [...]

The United Nations Financing for Development Forum 2023, which was recently held over four days in New York, was dominated by multiple crises. Setbacks to the 2030 Agenda have increased political pressure to make substan­tial progress on financing for development. The chapters in the outcome document on taxation and debt issues were particularly vigorously negotiated. African countries in particular want to further strengthen the UN’s work on taxation. With the escalating debt crisis, it is also becoming more important [...]

The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) offers a unique opportunity to prevent human rights violations and environmental damage in value chains of European companies and to finally give those affected a real chance to claim compensation. In February 2022, the EU Commission presented a proposal for a corresponding directive. It goes beyond the German Supply Chain Act in several respects. However, it also contains numerous loopholes, largely as a result of pressure from business lobby groups. In [...]

Since 2014, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Coun­cil in Geneva has been negotiating an internationally binding agreement on business and human rights – also known as the UN Treaty. From October 24–28, 2022, the intergovernmental working group on a legally binding in­strument on transnational corporations and other busi­ness enterprises with respect to human rights (OEIGWG) met for the eighth time. The countries of the global South as well as the major industrialized nations were present at the meeting. New [...]

By Alexa Sabatini, Julie Kim, Barbara Adams, and Karen Judd

The UN established the category of least developed countries (LDCs) in 1971, as many developing countries were navigating a path to development in the post-colonial period. The classification identified specific development challenges faced by these countries. As the UN ECOSOC Committee for Development Planning (renamed in 1998 Committee for Development Policy – CDP) acknowledged in 1971:

“[w]hile developing countries as a group face more or less the same general problems [...]

This GPW Round Up #3 highlights different perspectives on CSO engagement in UN processes.