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Articles

Articles, Economic justice

An alliance to end corporate privileges?

By Roberto Bissio
What is the purpose of the APEP Summit that will bring ten Latin American presidents and the Canadian prime minister to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on 3 November? Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and influential Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren have a suggestion: it is the great opportunity to do away once and for all with the private arbitration tribunals that condemn governments to pay huge amounts of compensation to large corporations for lost profits due to health and safety legislation, thereby inhibiting democratic decisions. Read more

Articles, Economic justice

Building Back Better? Dubious Strategies to close the SDG Financing Gap

By Isadora Jahanfar Tholin
With less than eight years left to 2030, countries around the world are struggling to even come close to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a huge part of why has to do with financing. More specifically, USD 3.3-4.5 trillion per year is needed to close the so-called financing gap. There are several reasons why this massive gap exists. Read more

Articles, Economic justice

Global Health & Private Sector Partnerships at the UN: The COVID-19 Private Sector Global Facility

By Elena Marmo
The COVID-19 crisis continues to have profound consequences across all sectors of society. Following the initial worldwide shutdown and resulting economic crisis, governments were forced to respond quickly to the virus, while also addressing the profound socioeconomic impacts—widespread job loss, inadequate social protection systems, and industries on the brink of collapse. Read more

Articles, Economic justice

Feminists for a People’s Vaccine Campaign

The Feminists for a People’s Vaccine Campaign for equitable, accessible, and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, and equipment—Access to Medicines or A2M for short.
The FPV Campaign brings the unique perspective of feminists from the Global South and our partners and allies in the North to challenge the causes and consequences of extreme inequalities in access to medicines. Read more

Articles, Sustainable development, social justice and sustainable peace

LDCs present VNRs at the HLPF (13–15 July 2021)

By Barbara Adams and Tejaswini Vavilala
The second PrepCom session will take place on 26-30 July 2021 and will launch negotiations on the Programme of Action for LDCs for the next decade, a decade that coincides with the last decade of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This is the last HLPF before the Doha conference / LDC5. During the HLPF Ministerial segment of the HLPF, eight LDCs will present their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), making a total of 53 LDC VNR presentations over the last six years, many by countries for the second, and some for a third, time. Read more

Articles, People-centered Multilateralism

CSO Perspectives on the LDC5 Programme of Action

By Elena Marmo and Alexa Sabatini
The Fifth UN Conference on the LDC5 will be held In Doha in January 2022. Preparations are already underway to negotiate the Outcome Document to be adopted in Doha, which will serve as a new 10-year Programme of Action for the LDCs.
On 20 May 2021, Co-Chairs of the LDC5 Preparatory Committee bureau–Rabab Fatima, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh and Bob Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada–facilitated a virtual consultation with CSOs, designed to address policy prescriptions that LDC5 must deliver to meet the needs of people and planet. Read more

Articles, Economic justice

Mismeasuring foreign aid

By Simon Scott and Hedwig Riegler
DAC members as a group have never got near meeting the ODA target, but for political reasons they have also never dared to abandon it. Their unfortunate solution to the conundrum has been a series of dubious rule changes that weaken ODA’s concessional nature and therefore help donors look as if they are spending more without really doing so. Read more

Articles, Economic justice, Equitable Global Governance & UN reform

Broad consensus, paltry results. The UN Forum on Financing for Development 2021

By Bodo Ellmers
The UN Forum on FfD 2021 was the first FfD forum held as planned since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. Accordingly, the expectations were high. Development finance is currently facing a triple challenge: to mitigate the humanitarian crisis, funds for an acute crisis response are needed – for example, to finance universal access to vaccines through the COVAX-facility, or for social protection measures. To mitigate the further divergence between countries, resources must be made available for economic stimulus programmes in the Global South that match those of the Global North. To prevent the failure of the Agenda 2030, the SDG financing gap that already existed before the COVID-19 crisis and has widened as a result of the crisis must be filled. The UN FfD Forum 2021 was a pivotal moment on the international policy calendar to take the necessary steps. Read more

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