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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 [...]

The world has become a patient. The new corona virus is a global medical riddle that governments, pharmaceutical companies and international organizations are trying to decipher in a unity rarely seen before. The level of cross-border exchange of data, research methods and evidence underlines the crucial role played by transnational communities of scientists* and experts*. With the development and the clinical testing of a vaccine, many hope that the virus will be all but contained, the rest a matter of [...]

Berlin, September 2020

In June 2014, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UNHRC) mandated an intergovernmental working group (Resolution 26/9) to develop an interna-tional instrument to regulate the activities of transnational and other corporations. The aim of the process is to close the legal gaps in the protection of human rights in the global economy that have emerged in the course of globali-zation. So far, in five rounds of negotiations, governments, legal experts and representatives of civil society [...]

Berlin, September 2020

In June 2014, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UNHRC) mandated an intergovernmental working group (Resolution 26/9) to develop an interna-tional instrument to regulate the activities of transnational and other corporations. The aim of the process is to close the legal gaps in the protection of human rights in the global economy that have emerged in the course of globali-zation. So far, in five rounds of negotiations, governments, legal experts and representatives of civil society [...]

22 JULY| ROSA LUXEMBURGSTIFTUNG ET AL.

An international study published by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Biba, Bread for the World, FIAN Germany, Forum on Environment and Development, INKOTA-netzwerk, IRPAD, PELUM Zambia, Tabio, and TOAM documents the dramatic negative impacts of the Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) on small-scale food producers in the 13 African countries the initiative focuses on.

More information and download here

 

Related publication:

Corporate influence through the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa [...]

Position paper published by ASW –Aktionsgemeinschaft Solidarische Welt, Brot für die Welt, CorA-Netzwerk für Unternehmensverantwortung, FEMNET, FIAN Deutschland, Global Policy Forum, Marie-Schlei-Verein, materra, Plan International Deutschland, TERRE DES FEMMES, TransFair, WECF.

 

On 24 April, the World Health Organization announced a multi-stakeholder initiative called the “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or the ACT Accelerator”. The ACT Accelerator describes itself as “a collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable global access to new COVID-19 essential health technologies”. It is “grounded in a vision of a planet protected from human suffering and the devastating social and economic consequences of COVID-19”.

The multi-stakeholder initiative was launched in Geneva by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [...]

A joint letter from the World Health Organization and private business to the G-20 leaders on the response to COVID 19 and its economic fallout raises concerns.
The letter dated 23 March signed by the WHO Director-General, the Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Saudi Arabia chair of Business 20 (B20), a private sector grouping of G-20 was addressed to the G20 Heads of State and Government prior to their virtual summit on the. The letter states [...]

By Roberto Bissio*

versión en español.

The message could not have been clearer: "There is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people and wiping out nearly 5% of the world’s economy. A global pandemic on that scale would be catastrophic, creating widespread havoc, instability and insecurity.”

This prediction was published in September 2019, several months before the identification of the first Covid-19 patient, by [...]

Published by: the Treaty Alliance Germany

Berlin, October 2019

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 Jens Martens and Karolin Seitz

Published by: Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR, Brot für die Welt-Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V., Global Policy Forum

Aachen/Berlin/Bonn, September 2019

ISBN 978-3-943126-47-1

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 [...]

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 [...]

Working Paper

By Karolin Seitz, with substantial contributions from Barbara Adams, Laraine Mills and Jens Martens

Published by: Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR, Brot für die Welt-Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V., Global Policy Forum

Aachen/Berlin/Bonn/New York, February 2019

ISBN 978-3-943126-45-7

By Karolin Seitz

Published by: Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR, Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung - Brot für die Welt, Global Policy Forum

Aachen/Berlin/Bonn, January 2019

By Armin Paasch, Karolin Seitz, Eva-Maria Reinwald, Maren Leifker, Julia Otten

Published by: Global Policy Forum

Bonn, January 2019

By Nicoletta Dentico and Karolin Seitz

Over the last two decades, the philanthropic sector has grown in terms of the number of foundations, the size of their annual giving, and the scope of their activities. Spending concentrates on certain selected areas, especially health, education, and nutrition. Civil society organizations, scientists, and the media have finally started to devote more attention and research to the growing influence of philanthropic foundations in global development, in particular with regard to the influential members [...]

To coincide with the World Health Summit and the Grand Challenges Conference of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Berlin, Global Policy Forum, Brot fuer die Welt, medico international, and MISEREOR invite you to discuss the benefits, risks and side-effects of the WHO’s engagement with philanthropic foundations, and reflect on how the WHO can be strengthened in order to fulfill its responsibilities. Speakers will include representatives from the German Ministry of Health, the WHO (tbc) and international civil society.

Published by the Treaty Alliance Germany: Attac Deutschland, Brot für die Welt, BUND, CIR, CorA-Netzwerk für Unternehmensverantwortung, FEMNET, FIAN- Deutschland, Forschungs- und Dokumentationszentrum Chile- Lateinamerika, Forum Fairer Handel, Forum Umwelt und Entwicklung, Germanwatch, Global Policy Forum Europe, Goliathwatch, INKOTA, Medico International, MISEREOR, Mission EineWelt, PowerShift, SÜDWIND, WEED.

September 2018

How to overcome obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda “The world is off-track in terms of achieving sustainable development and fundamental policy changes are necessary to unleash the transformative potential of the SDGs.” This is the main message of the Spotlight Report 2018, the most comprehensive independent assessment of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

At the United Nations (UN) summit in September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted by all UN member states. The Agenda gives a comprehensive framework for a global socio-ecological transformation.

The novelty of the SDGs vis-à-vis the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is its paradigm shift: all countries, not just the countries of the Global South, have to implement the SDGs, working closely together to achieve the common goal of a [...]

By Barbara Adams and Gretchen Luchsinger

Getting the right balance between public and private sector roles and responsibilities in the Financing for Development and Post-2015 process will be fundamental to prospects for sustainable, inclusive development. Yet early evidence suggests this balance is already awry, skewed far in favour of private interests. Are we seeing a process of outsourcing the international agenda?

There’s no question that businesses around the world are sources of growth and employment. But they are also the [...]

By Harris Gleckman

Published by: Global Policy Forum and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung-New York Office

Berlin/Bonn/New York, April 2018

The United Nations face a funding dilemma. On the one hand, member states continue to transfer new responsibilities to the UN system, not least in implementing the 2030 Agenda and their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); on the other hand, they do not match these mandates with adequate resources.

Some see the way out of this financial mess in reinforced UN partnerships with private donors and their foundations. The UN Foundation (UNF) plays a special role here. It was established by [...]