The old debate around ends and means usually deals with unacceptable procedures claiming legitimacy because of the intended results. Not any more. In the current international debate around development goals for the United Nations, the “ends” are set so low that no major effort is really required from anybody. “No means are needed if the goals are meaningless” commented report editor-in-chief Roberto Bissio at its launch.

The Social Watch Report 2014, launched on July 9th in New York during the ministerial meeting of the High Level Political Forum of the UN, is a summary review of fifty country reports and an analysis of global trends by civil society organizations. The report, titled “Ends and Means” and it monitors how government and international institutions are doing in implementing their solemn commitments to eradicate poverty, achieve gender justice and promote sustainable development.

Global Policy Forum publishes guide to environmental-social budgeting. International development policy is at a crossroads. By September 2015, governments plan to adopt a Post-2015 Development Agenda – an agenda that is supposed to shape the fundamental priorities, goals and strategies for development policy beyond 2015. In parallel, governments have agreed to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals integrating all dimensions (social, economic and environmental) of sustainable development and being applicable to all countries in the world. Forming one coherent Post-2015 Agenda, including the SDGs, affects all policy areas beyond development policy in a narrow sense, in particular social, economic and environmental policy – and above all fiscal policy.

The Palestinian NGOs Network "PNGO" addresses Mr John Gatt-Rutter, EU Representative to Palestine, while Israeli occupation offensive against the Palestinian people continue and in the light of the occupation's aerial, naval and artillery bombardment of the Palestinian houses and civil society organizations in the Gaza Strip, that left more than two hundred martyrs most of whom are children, women and elders and displaced hundreds of families leaving them with a shelter after destroying their houses, as well as destroyed agricultural lands, fishing boats, factories, and civil society organizations.

Many voices have recently alerted to the impacts of the rulings by the US courts on Argentina’s ongoing dispute with a small minority of its creditors. Far from staying confined to Argentina, the decisions will have negative consequences on global financial stability have warned the International Monetary Fund, countries such as France, Mexico, Brazil and the US State Department, as well as economic analysts and civil society organizations.

In a recent statement human rights organizations are now calling on governments to consider the worldwide human rights impacts of this decision.

Development aid is being redefined. Before the new UN Development Goals (Post-2015 Agenda) can be determined, the industrialized countries of the OECD wish to redefine which financial flows count as development aid.

The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD has been measuring financial flows from its members to developing countries since the 1960s. The data, compiled every year, provides information about which donor country invests how much in which developing country and in what development sector. In essence, all grants (see glossary below) and concessional loans that go towards the economic and social development are recognized as Official Development Assistance (ODA). In 1970, the United Nations General Assembly agreed for the first time that industrialized countries would earmark 0.7% of their annual gross national income as ODA. This goal has been repeatedly reaffirmed, but so far has been attained by just five of the 28 DAC donor countries (Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom).