Social Watch E-Newsletter - Issue 317 - October 27, 2017

Issue 317 - October 27, 2017
Social Watch reports
Spotlight report on the 2030 Agenda
 
   
 

Socializing risks and damages in Argentina

   
 

Since 2015, with the election of a new government, Argentina has seen a radical change of policies, from a development model based on strengthening local markets, trade protectionism, expansion of social rights and an active role of the State in redistributing the income from agricultural exports, to a model inspired by neoliberalism, free trade, competitiveness in global markets and tax exemptions.
According to the Argentinian Social Watch report, “this has led to a substantial redefinition of the role of the private sector in development policies”, of which the privatization of State-owned land is a striking example. Since 2015, the government has authorized the sale to private investors of 93 State-owned extensions, half of them in the city of Buenos Aires, where one-tenth of the population lives in overcrowded conditions and some 200,000 people live in slums. Read more

 

   
   
 

SDG implementation and the private sector in Tunisia

   
 

The implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Tunisia suffers from almost the same challenges encountered by the rest of the Arab economies. It is not legally binding and it provides the government only with guidelines. It also remains dependent on the good will of the government and its own priorities. It is subject to different threats such as instability, regional conflicts, immigration and displacements, demographic movements, social inequalities, economic crises and high public indebtedness. The economic crisis and the lack of funding sources are often mentioned to justify the incapacity of the Tunisian government to invest in infrastructure and development projects. Read more

 

   
 
Social Watch publishes country reports 2017

Social Watch coalitions around the world are contributing their assessments and reports to the global Social Watch report 2017 on the national implementation of the 2030 Agenda in its first year. Stalled, or slipping back, is the theme that appears in many of the contributions. Natural and un-natural disasters, some of them of catastrophic proportions, appear again and again not just as an obstacle to faster progress towards the agreed goals, but in fact setting the clock back. Part of the reason for lack of progress has to do with an over-reliance on public-private partnerships, urged by the World Bank as a way to finance implementation of the SDGs.

The Social Watch national platforms are independent coalitions of civil society organizations struggling for social and gender justice in their own countries. The Social Watch network has been publishing since 1996 yearly reports on how governments implement their international commitments to eradicate poverty and achieve equality between women and men.

   
   
 

The World Bank, together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the development banks, have been proclaiming since 2015 that “to meet the investment needs of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global community needs to move the discussion from ‘billions to trillions'” – that is from billions in official development assistance (ODA) to trillions in investments of all kinds: public and private, national and global, in both capital and capacity. 
Further, many Member States have promoted and the UN has been exploring so-called ‘blended financing’ as a major vehicle to “leverage” or ‘crowding in’, corporate funds. Deputy Secretary-General (D S-G) Amina Mohammed declared in her first remarks as D S-G: “Bringing partnerships and agencies together in a coherent and more coordinated manner will further leverage resources and different partnerships in a mobile [development] agenda, this is becoming more complex but it is bringing in more returns.“ Read more

 
   
   
 

The IMF’s approach towards social protection "has been principally oriented around the desire to reduce social protection coverage and contain expenditure, rather than ensuring adequate levels of protection for all". The Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF) expressed its deep concerns about these IMF policies and sent a statement to Ms. Christine Lagarde (Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund - IMF) and the Executive Directors of the IMF in order to draw their attention on the issue and in the hope to influence a reconsideration of their position. Read more

 
   

 

 
SOCIAL WATCH IS AN INTERNATIONAL NGO WATCHDOG NETWORK MONITORING POVERTY ERADICATION AND GENDER EQUALITY
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