Given that most of their population lives in rural areas, the rural economies in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will need to undergo structural transformation in order to reach the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said.

In its latest Policy Brief (No. 46 of February 2016), UNCTAD has proposed that the LDCs engage in poverty- oriented structural transformation of rural areas, encompassing the upgrading of agriculture, the diversification of rural economic activities and the strengthening of synergies between both.

The Swiss Parliament is discussing corporate tax reform III. In development policy terms, with this reform Switzerland is going from the frying pan into the fire.

For every US dollar a developing country gains, it loses more than two. A wide range of capital transfers help account for the constant drain of financial resources away from developing countries. According to calculations by Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development, developing countries lost US$1,583 billion in this way in 2012. That is more than 10 times the US$120 billion that flowed into developing countries in 2012 in the form of official and private development assistance.

Much will depend on the capacity and determination of civil society to leverage the necessary political will opines.

A  rare sense of euphoria permeated the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in New York. The multitude of events that have been taking place on First Avenue and beyond had a party atmosphere. And it was not only government delegates but many civil society activists who negotiated for systemic change that celebrated the new agenda that promises transformative change for sustainable development. Yet will implementation actually bring real change?

The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are truly the battleground on which the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be won or lost, and the rural areas in the LDCs are the front-line of the battle, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said.

In his statement at the sixty-second executive session of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board (TDB) on Monday, the UNCTAD head, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, said that this first executive session of 2016 comes at a paradoxical moment for the international community.

Owners, executives and managers of some prominent companies actively participated in the human rights violations committed against workers during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, according to the report “Business responsibility in crimes against humanity: The repression of workers during state terrorism.” (available in Spanish) The report, laying out evidence of such violations, was recently released by Argentine human rights organization the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS, according to its acronym in Spanish), the Area of Economy and Technology of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO-Argentina), and the Truth and Justice Program and Human Rights Secretariat – both of which belong to the Argentine Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.