Sustainable Development & Human Rights - Archive

The United Nations has offered its annual assessment of prospects for 2016 in its World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report. It opened with: “The world economy stumbled in 2015, amid weak aggregate demand, falling commodity prices and increasing financial market volatility in major economies.” In addressing the impact of the downward pressure on economies, UN ASG Lenni Montiel, explained that many countries, “specifically LDCs which rely on commodity exports, will be unable to sustain public spending on [...]

By John Probert

One of a series of Guardian Members’ events, hosted by Guardian Sustainable Business in partnership with Nordea Responsible Investments, the focus of this discussion, facilitated by a Guardian environmental journalist Karl Mathieson, was nominally on the “plethora of pledges from major businesses… in the lead-up to the UN talks”.

In fact, the panel discussion, whilst demonstrating a healthy degree of scepticism, centred mostly on how business can be encouraged to lead in opposing climate change. It was [...]

Over the past fifteen years, the international world has implemented the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). During that time it became evident that “localization” even at the sub-national level was required. Some efforts were made to prepare local authorities for adapting MDGs targets and indicators into their priorities. However, it emerged that municipalities had to be empowered and better equipped to do this more effectively. Even more as in September 2015, the Member States of the United Nations signed on to [...]

The Climate Justice Programme launched a report titled “Making a killing – who pays the real costs of big oil, coal and gas”. The report looks at the costs of climate change through extreme events, such as droughts or storms and slow-onset events such as the rising sea levels, and compares it to the profits made by carbon majors in the same periods. To address these disparaties it suggests the “Carbon Levy Project”. The suggested mechanism would extract a levy [...]

A review of country climate targets reflecting the twin pillars of science and equity has been released by civil society ahead of the UN climate conference in Paris. The new report, Fair Shares: A Civil Society Equity Review of INDCs shows that there is still a big gap between what it will take to avoid catastrophic climate change, and what countries have put forward so far. It is an independent review, supported by social movements, environmental and development NGOs, trade [...]

In light of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September, the question how other international agreements interact with SDGs is highly interesting. The Trade Justice Movement (TJM) has published a report which scrutinizes the effects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on the SDGs and developing countries. The report “TTIPing Away the Ladder” finds that, in a number of points, TTIP will interfere with the implementation of the SDGs and the [...]

The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) has published a booklet titled ‘Rethinking the development paradigm: Reflections from civil society in the region on Post2015 and Financing for Development’. Some of the central topics are the role the private sector has been given in the Post2015 development agenda and the diminished support for civil society organizations in the region. This shift in stakeholder roles comes before the adoption of “business-binding human rights standards.” In the global partnership for development the [...]

The role of foreign investment in financing development has been a matter of considerable debate in the negotiations leading up to all Financing for Development (FFD) conferences. But deliberations towards the one which took place in Addis Ababa in July 2015 have seen a definite tendency to propose a greater reliance on foreign investment in financing development. It will be important to watch how the Addis Ababa conference frames the regulatory role of the state, and the practices of using [...]

The Women’s Major Group, made up of more than 600 women’s organizations and networks from around the world, recognizes the historic agenda for global sustainable development that 193 governments agreed to on Sunday. At the center of this broad and ambitious plan are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will be formally adopted by Heads of State in September at the UN General Assembly. The SDGs chart out global development across social, environmental and economic areas for the next 15 [...]

With a delay of ten days, the UN has now published the final outcome document for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to be officially adopted at a UN Summit on September 25-27, 2015 in New York. The Agenda sets out the aims of the organization and all its members for the coming 15 years in the fields of social development, curbing equalities, economic progress and environmental sustainability. If taken seriously, the 2030 Agenda will require profound changes in policies [...]

After more than two years of intense negotiations, the U.N.’s 193 member states have unanimously agreed on a new Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA) with 17 goals — including the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger — to be reached by 2030. The new goals, which will be part of the U.N.’s post-2015 development agenda and to be approved at a summit meeting of world leaders Sep. 25-27, cover a wide range of political and socio-economic issues, including inequality, poverty, hunger [...]

On July 16th, governments adopted the Outcome of the Third Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), called the “Action Ababa Action Agenda” (AAAA or the “Outcome”). In a collective and sharp statement in response, civil society said that the conference “lost the opportunity to tackle the structural injustices in the current global economic system and ensure that development finance is people-centered and protects the environment.” The lack of ambition of the adopted text, though not a [...]

The United Nations Working Group on business and human rights this week urged Governments across the world to ensure that corporations do not undermine sustainable development, and called for greater transparency and accountability for how businesses address human rights risks and impacts. “States must set a clear vision for connecting the increasing role of the private sector and businesses in development with accountability and agreed standards for business practices aligned with human rights,” the independent expert group said in a [...]

The Third International Conference on Financing for Development is coming to an end. Yesterday, the countries reached an agreement in Addis Ababa on the final outcome document. The Conference on Financing for Development has reportedly seen the presence of 27 heads of government and many more senior government representatives from the capitals. Representatives of UN Agencies, civil society from across the globe and the business community were also taking part in the conference. While the UN reports that the “groundbreaking [...]

This week, we witness state leaders, high-level officials, civil society groups, and business representatives convene for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss and agree on an action plan for financing development, including the Sustainable Development Goals to be adopted by UN member states in the September 2015 Summit. “We started from an optimistic viewpoint on FfD3 and now ending with so much disappointment over what seems like retrogression from old agreements [...]

The debt crisis in Greece dominates the news in Europe but a significant related event lacks public attention – the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD3). This is being held in Ethiopia from 13 to 16 July and is designed to come up with proposals on how to shape international financial relations more equally and to finance efforts to advance sustainable development. FFD3 deals with vital issues such as the mobilization of domestic resources and reform of tax [...]

One of the more contested issues at the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development, currently underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is how to improve/ensure global cooperation in tax matters. During preparatory negotiations in New York, a proposal surfaced that would upgrade a UN expert committee on the issue into a full-fledged political, and more importantly universal, commission. The commission could deal with issues like fighting tax evasion and avoidance, could set standards for double taxation agreements and for how [...]

FFD3_logo_vertical-hires_website The coordination group for the civil society participation for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa, July 13-16 2015) has convened a forum for civil society in advance of the conference. One outcome of this forum was a declaration with reflections and recommendations to the Member States of the United Nations and the international community. Furthermore, the CSO FfD group published a statement, expressing the concerns and demands they have regarding the draft outcome document of [...]

Public-private partnerships (often referred to as PPPs) are increasingly promoted as a way to finance development projects. Donor governments and financial institutions, such as the World Bank, have set up multiple donor initiatives to promote changes in national regulatory frameworks to allow for PPPs, as well as provide advice and finance to PPP projects. PPPs also feature prominently in the discussions around the post-2015 and the financing for development agendas. Currently, there is a strong push to increase the involvement [...]

417 NGOs from 105 countries, including GPF, signed a Joint Statement on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression and Intersex Status which was delivered on Monday 29 June 2015 at the 29th UN Human Rights Council. The statement urges the Council to act now and end the violence and discrimination suffered by LGBTI people around the world. It welcomes the resolution passed by the Council in September 2014 but expresses concern about severe human rights violations from State and non-State [...]

Global Trends analyzes current developments and longer-term trends in the fields of peace and security, world economy and society, and sustainable development. Global Trens has been first launched in 1991 and it is based on a wealth of statistical data and information from a variety of international sources and presents its findings in a clear and accessible format. Applying a multidisciplinary approach, it aims to explain patterns and linkages in complex global processes and identify the potential for more responsible [...]

“Green Growth” is frequently promoted as the new growth paradigm. It is of a different quality as it is largely based on enhanced material/resource/energy efficiency, structural changes towards a service-dominated economy and a switch in the energy mix, favouring renewable energy. But can Green Growth also mitigate climate change at the required scale and pace? Is it the solution to the multiple crises we are facing or an excuse to do nothing fundamental to bring about a U-turn of global [...]

Negotiations towards the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) on July 13-16, are in full gear. In line with ongoing trends in the landscape of development assistance, deliberations thus far have shown a strong promotion, especially by Northern countries, of increased reliance on private sector sources for development funding. Two new studies set out to interrogate what does this mean for the language on human rights accountability of the private sector that [...]

The outcome document for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) is being finalized at the United Nations in New York. This is a key moment to make an assessment and influence the issues under negotiation to ensure progress is not lost in the interests of fact-tracking consensus. The outcome document must establish new ground on a range of issues such as combatting illicit financial flows and global tax cooperation.

Key to this is action on proposals of [...]

As governments negotiate the Third Financing for Development Conference (FFD 3) to be held in Addis Ababa (13-16 July 2015), an important decision that they will have to make refers to the follow-up process. This brief piece by CIDSE offers some thoughts on the international dimensions of such monitoring, accountability and review mechanisms. The briefing note elucidates that the FFD follow-up process has two roles to fulfill: it should serve as a coordination forum for tracking progress on all sources [...]