Civil society activists from five Arab countries are urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease pressure on their governments to reduce food and fuel subsidies until stronger social-protection schemes and other basic reforms are implemented.

In a new report, the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) argue that social safety nets in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen are inadequate – or, in some cases, too corrupt — to compensate for the loss of critical subsidies on which the poor and even the middle class depend.

In a new working paper entitled "Corporate influence in the Post-2015 process" GPF's Lou Pingeot discusses the influence of transnational corporations in the Post-2015 process. This working paper by Brot für die Welt, Global Policy Forum and Misereor provides an overview of the main corporate actors in the post-2015 process and how they shape the discourse on development. The paper advocates for more transparency around the participation of corporations in UN processes, including their financial support to UN initiatives, and for more reflection on the risks of a corporate, private interests-driven development agenda.
The paper draws conclusions from its findings and makes recommendations for how to deal with corporate interests in global policy making in the future.

In a recent report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (“the Rapporteur”), Ms Raquel Rolnik called for a paradigm shift from the financialization of housing to a human rights-based approach. In the report, she builds on a previous one where she had highlighted how the deregulation, liberalization and globalization of housing finance have had major implications for housing and urban development, eventually leading to a global affordability and housing crisis.

Popular story has it that a custom officer was obsessed with finding out what the old man was hiding, as he crossed the border every day with a donkey loaded with hay. Never able to discover anything unusual in the forage, one day he announces:

- I have just retired and I have no authority any more, but I will not die in peace if I do not get to know what your business really is.

- It's easy, -replies the old man- I smuggle donkeys.

I’m at a three-day workshop on data and accountability for the post-2015 development agenda, hosted by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). I’m joined by a sizeable contingent of statisticians as well as representatives from governments, parliaments, international organisations, NGOs, the private sector and academia.