Social Watch E-Newsletter - Issue 290 - March 3, 2017

In the framework of its critical engagement in the 2030 Agenda, ANND launched an effort to document national programs for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and socio-economic reform initiatives in the Arab region. This effort takes the form of national assessment reports and seeks to check if such implementation is made within a comprehensive rights-based development strategy, adopted with an inclusive, participatory and transparent approach.
The assessment reports link between monitoring and evaluation by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of the implementation of Agenda 2030 and other similar human rights monitoring mechanisms. They shed light on the necessity to adopt an inclusive social dialogue for policy making at the national level. With the limited resources available, the reports shall be made on a few countries (namely Jordan, Egypt and Morocco) and shall focus on 3 SDGs (Goal 1, 8 and 10). Read more

Social Watch will again join forces with other NGOs and networks to publish in 2017 a new "Spotlight report" (as opposed to "shadow report") on sustainable development.
This report will be launched next July during the meeting of the High Level Political Forum of the United Nations that will review at ministerial level the Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Almost two years after the adoption of this ambitious agenda, the 2017 report will look at how it is implemented. The Guidelines for the Social Watch national reports 2017 are available in English, French and Spanish. 

The ‘financialization of housing' is one of the greatest challenges to the right to adequate housing, with housing now being valued as a commodity rather than a human dwelling, a United Nations rights expert has charged.
This admonishment came in the latest report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Ms Leilani Farha (from Canada), which was presented to the Human Rights Council last Wednesday.
Ms Farha said the housing sector has been transformed by global financial actors and unprecedented amounts of excess capital. "Housing has been financialized: valued as a commodity, rather than a human dwelling, it has become for investors a means to secure and accumulate wealth rather than a place to live in dignity, to raise a family, and thrive within a community."
"Housing has lost its currency as a human right," she said, noting that the amount of capital now being invested in housing is staggering. Global residential real estate is valued at US$163 trillion, more than twice the world's total GDP. Ms Farha said: "Imagine if that capacity was harnessed for the realization of housing instead of for speculation and profit." Read more