Thailand has been seen as a country with high economic development; however inequality in society persists and the income gap has become even wider. Data as of 2009 suggest that, 20 percent of the richest people in Thailand earn 11.9 times more than the 20 percent of the poorest. In 2012 it was found that the rich in the country possess 325.7 times more land than the poor. Reviewing government implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPA) has highlighted that the persisting gender discrimination has increased injustice in society for women and this situation is not being well addressed by the government.

The report, coordinated by Foundation for Women and Social Agenda Working Group (Social Watch, Thailand), is a summary from the report of the Thai women’s civil society groups on Beijing +20 review. The review process has provided an opportunity for civil society groups from different sectors, including groups working on issues related to public and private spheres and with diverse groups of women, to come together.

Dilma Rousseff, re-elected president of Brazil, "does not have more options than to get closer to the social movements and to the population during her next term”, says the philosopher Jose Antonio Moroni, member of the Board of directors of the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies (INESC). “One option is that Dilma is going to govern with people in the streets supporting her steps in the reform process that the whole world wants or she is going to have people against her", Moroni argues.

Dilma´s first government was „extremely technocratic ", says Moroni, with only few links to society. If Dilma repeats that strategy she will face a difficult time with the current Congress.

‘You don’t understand!’ was World Bank’s Grahame Dixie’s rebuttal of the accusation that the Bank bears heavy responsibility in the grabbing of land and natural resources by corporations in the developing world. Having heard first-hand testimonies on the tragedy of land grabbing and related human rights violations in Africa, Mr. Dixie insisted that his institution was against land grabs but nevertheless the development of agribusiness in Africa was a necessity to feed a growing population, particularly in urban areas.

This discussion took place on October 10, 2014 at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. during an event organized by the Oakland Institute on the impact of the Bank’s business indicators. The panelists from Kenya, Ethiopia and Mali pointed out the role of the institution in shaping policies and programs that lead to displacement and dispossession, destruction of lives and livelihoods, denial of basic human rights and repression for those who oppose the theft of their land by agribusinesses.

In a week, Governments at the United Nations begin their preparatory meetings for the International Conference on Financing for Development(FfD) in Addis Ababa in July 2015. That conference is widely viewed as the last opportunity to agree to a package of proposals on financial, trade and global governance measures before the summit meeting in New York in September 2015 to ring down the curtain on the Millennium Development Goals and raise the curtain on new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If there is nothing underlying pretty words in the outcome document of Addis, there will be no time to come to meaningful "means of implementation" for the SDGs two months later. That will condemn the global effort to devise SDGs over the past few years to empty rhetoric. Governments at the UN thus recognize that the Addis meeting must be a "success", but does anyone see the Governments of North and South coalescing around any interesting proposals? Well, they have about 3-5 months to find those proposals. Perhaps we can help move the discussion in a fruitful direction.

1 for 7 Billion's NGO partners from across the world have written to all UN Member States to call for an open, fair and inclusive process to select the best possible candidate for Secretary-General of the UN.

Signatories include: Avaaz, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Equality Now, FEMNET, Forum Asia, Social Watch, Third World Network, Women’s Environment and Development Organization and the World Federation of UN Associations.