Social Watch E-Newsletter - Special Issue 207 - March 18, 2015

To eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and respect planetary boundaries is possible, but the rich and powerful have to be serious about their responsibilities. This is the main message of "Goals for the Rich" a publication launched today by the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives.

"Goals for the Rich demonstrates that the new development agenda needs to be truly universal. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities requires developed countries to be serious in their commitments for real transformation to happen" said Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio. Social Watch is a member of the Group, together with Third World Network, Global Policy Forum, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, DAWN, terre des hommes and the Arab NGO network for Development. Read the report

In the United States poverty increased steadily in the last two decades and currently affects some 50 million people, measured by the official threshold of 23,850 US-Dollar a year for a family of four. In Germany, 20.3 per cent of the population – a total of 16.2 million people – were affected by poverty or social exclusion in 2013.

The Sustainable Development Goals require rich countries to reduce their domestic poverty and inequalities, but that is not enough. The powerful have to look at the extraterritorial impact of their trade, investment and migration policies, and they have to support the efforts of the less privileged countries. Is it too much to ask? Not at all, since present and future generations will benefit from a development paradigm that is genuinely sustainable and fair. Read more

Fulfilling the SDGs will require some serious reshuffling of the cards. In order to create environmental and policy space for the poor to enjoy their human rights and achieve a decent level of prosperity, the rich – meaning rich countries as well as rich individuals everywhere – will have to profoundly change their consumption and production patterns, as well as the patterns whereby profit from value chains is not only reaped at the very end of the chains. 
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