Social Watch news

Unlocking the Means of Implementation: Civil Society Perspectives on SDG 17

Published on Wed, 2018-07-11 14:20

HLPF Side Event – Wednesday, July 11, 18:30-20:00 – UNHQ CR4
The combine MoI and FfD agendas should tackle the removal of many of the structural barriers to the socio-economic transformation and advance systemic reforms of global economic frameworks to realign them with the imperatives of human rights, gender justice, people-centeredness and sustainable development. Despite the high-level political promises of the 2030 Agenda, the world is off track to reach the SDGs, the cost being paid by all those people and communities that continue to be marginalized in the face of a world economy that is increasingly focused of its new frontiers of digitalization and dematerialization. The latest economic cyclical upturn, not generalized and mostly centred within the Global North, has been accompanied by an increase in hunger and the worsening in the profile of vulnerabilities, heightened carbon emissions, and the persistence of structural levels of inequalities between and within countries. Our economy fails when it downturns and fails us again when it moves forward.

Could the socio-economic duty be a way to reduce inequalities in the UK?

Published on Wed, 2018-07-11 09:18

The UK Government committed to reducing inequalities through Sustainable Development Goal 10. Three years later things aren’t on track but is the socio-economic duty the solution we need? Koldo Casla from Just Fair explains.

By signing up to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, among other things, the UK Government committed to reducing inequalities.

The SDGs, with their 17 Goals and 169 Targets, set the world on a trajectory where we have eradicated poverty, reduced inequalities, halted the loss of biodiversity and combatted catastrophic climate change. Some call them an action plan for the world. But as our chapter on SDG 10 in Measuring up shows, three years later the UK’s chances of hitting the targets on reducing inequalities by 2030 are not looking too good.

Press release: Sustainable development needs fundamental policy changes

Published on Mon, 2018-07-09 08:18

Global civil society report assesses obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda
New York, 9 July 2018: “The world is off-track in terms of achieving sustainable development and fundamental policy changes are necessary to unleash the transformative potential of the SDGs.” This is the main message of the Spotlight Report 2018, the most comprehensive independent assessment of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The report is launched on the opening day of the High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York by a global coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions.

UN SDG progress reports - how statistics play favorites

Published on Sat, 2018-07-07 21:18

As key instruments to assess implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the UN secretariat has published The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018 and a report on Progress Towards Sustainable Development Goals that should inform the ministers attending the High Level Political Forum of ECOSOC to be held mid-July in New York. Both publications aim to “provide a global overview of the current situation” of the SDGs, “based on the latest available data for indicators in the global indicator framework” and they include the same set of numbers and indicators, only differing in their presentation, the latter being more wordy and text-only and the former a collection of bullet points with ample use of graphs.

Czech Republic: Gender equality targeted by a confidence-lacking government

Published on Fri, 2018-07-06 11:21

Jana Smiggels Kavková.
Photo: Jan Sklenář / Czech Radio

Could it be the case that the Czech Republic has reached the Scandinavian level of development in terms of equality of men and women? If not, the planned transfer of resources from the field of gender equality makes little sense. Yet, the statistics and our position in international comparison indeed tell us the very opposite. Our society has a long way to go in terms of gender equality. But the leadership of Ministry of Labour and Social Affair is obviously quite content with the current state of affairs, since it plans to withdraw financial support for the promotion of equality of women and men in the labour market.

New Report: Highjacking the SDGs?

Published on Fri, 2018-07-06 00:00

The Private Sector and the Sustainable Development Goals
At the United Nations (UN) summit in September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted by all UN member states. The Agenda gives a comprehensive framework for a global socio-ecological transformation.

Switzerland and the 2030 Agenda: Domestic policy is foreign policy!

Published on Tue, 2018-07-03 00:00

Swiss civil society – organized in the Platform Agenda 2030 – presented its report entitled «How sustainable is Switzerland? Implementing the 2030 Agenda from a civil society perspective».

Platform Agenda 2030 – Press Release of 3 July 2018

Czech gender equality NOGs fear loss of European funding

Published on Wed, 2018-06-20 00:00

Jana Smiggels Kavková.
Photo: Jan Sklenář / Czech Radio

Despite the Czech Republic stagnating in the worldwide effort to bring about gender equality, the country’s government plans to cut funding for equality projects significantly in the coming years. That’s according to the Czech branch of the international NGO network, Social Watch.

Eurostat data sets the country’s pay gap at more than 20 percent, while at the same time the difference between men and women being able to find employment lies at 15 percent.

Iraqi women brief the UN Security Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict

Published on Fri, 2018-06-08 14:12

Ms. Hanaa Edwar, Chairperson of Iraqi Al-Amal Association, participated at the UN Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflicts that was held in New York, 22nd May 2018.

Hanaa highlighted that civilians who have suffered must have access to justice and accountability. The Security Council Resolution in 2017 on Da’esh accountability, and the Joint Communique on the Reduction and Response to Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict signed in September 2016 are crucial documents and she urge to support their implementation.

She said there must be accountability for all harm committed in Iraq by all parties to the conflict. Accountability should not be limited to some people and some types of violations. All civilians deserve redress for their suffering. This must be clearly linked to reconciliation efforts.

The semantics of partnership

Published on Tue, 2018-05-29 18:07

Partnerships for Sustainable Development – inclusive and accountable or laissez-faire marketplace?

Current conventional wisdom has it that partnerships are crucial for the success of the of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

However, the UN approach to engaging in stakeholder partnerships is rooted in pre-2030 Agenda practices and perspectives. It has been shepherded by UN offices mainly concerned with resource mobilization and often amounts to fitting UN development activities into a pipeline of bankable projects.

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