Sustainable Development & Human Rights - Archive

Time to overcome contradictions and hypocrisy in the COVID-19 crisis

Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have greatly exacerbated national and global inequalities. Blatant examples are the unfair distribution of care work, relying mainly on women and poorly remunerated if at all, and the global disparity in the distribution of vaccines.

So far more than 60 percent of people in high-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but less than 2 percent [...]

Friday, 17 September 2021, 9:00-10:30am EDT

Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have exacerbated rather than reduced global inequalities. The most visible example of this is the global disparity in the distribution of vaccines.

So far more than 60 percent of people in high-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but less than 2 percent have done so in low-income countries. In view of this dramatic disparity, the "leave no one behind" [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically demonstrated just how close the link is between humans, animals, and the environment, and has highlighted and aggravated existing challenges. The destruction of natural habitats and displacement of species, trade in wild animals, resource-intensive lifestyles and conditions, non-sustainable food systems and, in particular, industrial agriculture and intensive livestock farming are the causes of the emergence of zoonoses as well as numerous other communicable and non-communicable, chronic diseases.

The One Health approach focuses precisely on such [...]

This event is in the past. Watch the RECORDING.

The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) will discuss with Civil Society Reflection Group their key findings of its analysis of 2020 VNRs, highlighting the disconnect between the ambition of the agenda and the attention given to the transformative policies in such areas as productive capacities, pandemic preparedness, inequalities and sustainable consumption and production.

Presented by the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs at the Schools of Public Engagement [...]

International cooperation in tax matters has intensified in the last few years. Processes under the anti-BEPS framework at the OECD/G20 are proof of that. Nevertheless, countries in the global South that are suffering from the results of tax evasion and avoidance the most are still to a great deal marginalized and excluded from this. In some cases, countries in the global South are even suffering from a non-conducive global environment that limits their policy space in tax matters. For the [...]

Civil society organizations and social movements around the world are drawing attention to increasing situations of human and labor rights violations by business. There are important developments in corporate regulation both at international level and at national and regional levels. Following strong collective advocacy efforts by civil society within the “Treaty Alliance” for its establishment, the new United Nations inter-governmental working group on an international legally-binding instrument on business & human rights will hold its first meeting in July 2015 [...]

“Post-2015” is currently right in the centre of the development discourse. The UN, governments, civil society organizations and researchers are discussing what will come after the MDGs. But the “Post-2015 Agenda” must be much more than just an updated list of MDGs.

The Post-2015 process offers the opportunity to respond to changing global realities – be it the shift in geopolitical and economic power relations, or urgent global problems, such as accelerating global warming, growing inequalities, or the expansion of [...]

The 2030 Agenda adopted at the highest level in September 2015 has the potential to change the prevailing development paradigm by re-emphasizing the multidimensional character of sustainable development and its universal applicability.

The implementation of the 2030 Agenda depends on the adoption of appropriate strategies and policies, available resources and other means of implementation. Accountability mechanisms are important tools for strengthening political commitment and effectiveness. Thus the success of the new Agenda relies a lot on adopting adequate mechanisms and [...]

Jointly organized by Civil Society Financing for Development Group including the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Femnet, Forum for Women and Democracy, Womankind Worldwide in co-operation with inter alia Society for International Development, Global Policy Forum, Brot für die Welt, MISEREOR, Christian Aid, Social Watch and many more.

 

The pursuit of the 2030 Agenda requires UN Member States to provide the necessary regulatory and financial means, including the removal of structural barriers to social, economic, and [...]

Jointly organized by: Corporate Accountability, Sustainable Rural Development, The Greens/EFA, miljöpartiet de gröna, Women's Major Group, Corporate Europe Observatory, IBON International, Global Policy Forum, IPMSDL, Aksi!

The global community is compelled to look at different ways to increase ambition and action. Pledges under the Paris Agreement are not enough to match the urgency and magnitude of the problem. Climate crisis challenges us with the hard questions: how ready are we to challenge systems and structures?

Speakers: Jesse Bragg - Corporate [...]

The Campaign
How can the SDGs be used to hold governments and the private sector accountable for global issues like climate, the pandemic or finances? The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is tasked with overseeing implementation of the 2030 Agenda, but it has proven itself to be insufficient. Civil society around the world organize campaigns on finances, trade, health, gender and the environment, utilizing spaces beyond the HLPF to advance accountability to the SDGs. As the SDGs are intrinsically interrelated [...]

Watch the interview of Barbara Adams (GPF) by International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific) here.

By Elena Marmo

As the global community coalesced to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations in September 2020 under the shadow of COVID-19, Member States in their Declaration A/RES/75/1, made commitments to strengthen the multilateral system and set forth plans to “build back better”. Among the tools to do so, as recognized by UN leadership and Member States, are the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their importance is highlighted by marking 2020 as the start [...]

The virtual launching event of the Spotlight on Susainable Development 2020 took place on Friday, 18 September 2020.

If you missed it, you can watch the recording on youtube now. The details are below.

Roberto Bissio (Coordinator of Social Watch), Ziad Abdel Samad (Executive Director of the Arab NGO Network for Development – ANND)Vanita Mukherjee (Member of the Executive Committee of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era – DAWN) shared brief snapshots.

Policy conclusions were presented by Ignacio Saiz [...]

Bonn, 24. September 2020

Jens Martens of GPF was interviewed by Deutsche Welle on the progress of the SDGs.

Listen to the full interview here.

Lessons from the global COVID-19 crisis

This is the fifth edition of the report Spotlight on Sustainable Development. Since 2016, we have published this report annually to assess not only the implementation of the 2030 Agenda but also the structural obstacles in its realization.

When we started to plan for this year’s report in Autumn 2019, mass protests were shaking a growing number of countries in various regions of the world. In Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, in Egypt, Lebanon [...]

Mass protests are currently shaking a growing number of countries worldwide. In Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, in Egypt and Lebanon, millions of people are taking to the streets. The reasons are complex, but the trigger is often a forced austerity policy by governments. In doing so, they are usually reacting to escalating foreign debt, deteriorating global economic conditions, and pressure from international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

There is a great danger that the situation will worsen [...]

By Karolin Seitz

Published by: Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Global Policy Forum, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Berlin/Bonn/Suva/Toronto, October 2019

By Elena Marmo

Every year since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in 2015, governments are invited to present Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) on their progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) of the UN. This process is heralded by some as a great opportunity to hold governments accountable to their actions and by others as a beauty contest riddled with misrepresentation and power imbalances. Civil society organizations in many countries produce [...]

Transforming institutions – shifting power – strengthening rights Four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda the world is off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most governments have failed to turn the transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda into real transformational policies. Even worse, xenophobia and authoritarianism are on the rise in a growing number of countries. But there are signs of change. Social movements have emerged worldwide, many with young people and women in the lead [...]

By Elena Marmo and Sophia McCarron

“There needs to be an examination of the hardware of the 2030 Agenda, rather than an upgrade of its software” concludes the 2019 Spotlight Report launched on Thursday, 11 July during the High Level Political Forum that reviews the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. The meeting was co-sponsored by Global Policy Watch, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). Under the title of “Reshaping governance for sustainability”, the [...]

Studying EU policies thoroughly means studying policies of externalization. The thirteen chapters assembled in this publication constitute an impressive – impressively gloomy though – evidence for this assertion. Wherever you turn your eyes, whatever policy domain you may be concerned with: What at first glance may seem to be part of the European Union’s internal policies immediately turns out to be a story of externalities, a matter of spill-over effects transcending the borders of the European polity. And more often [...]

New York, 8 July 2019: “The world is off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most governments have failed to turn the transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda into real transformational policies. Even worse, xenophobia and authoritarianism are on the rise in a growing number of countries.”

“The implementation of the 2030 Agenda is not just a matter of better policies. It requires more holistic and more sweeping shifts in how power is vested, including through institutional and governance [...]

By Roberto Bissio

English version

Versión en español

Deutsche Version

By Roberto Bissio

versión en español

UN progress reports on almost any issue on which the secretariat is asked to inform Member States tend to follow the classic glass-half-full formula: We are moving, but much remains to be done.

Not surprisingly, this approach is repeated in the latest draft of the UN Secretary General’s report “Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals” to be officially published in July as an input for the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) where the 2030 [...]