Social Watch news
Published on Tue, 2015-03-17 14:02
Nigel Martin has spent 45 years trying to turn governments' ears toward civil society voices. In 1998, he founded FIM: the Forum for Democratic Global Governance, an international NGO based in Montreal. FIM both convenes activists from around the world with particular attention to those from the global south and from Muslim sectors, and it has worked to create openings for civil society actors in global governance fora such as the UN, G8, G20, and more recently BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation).
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Published on Fri, 2015-03-13 18:57
An interesting report named “Illicit financial flows, human rights and the post-2015 development agenda” has been submitted to the Human Rights Council on 9 March 2015 under the agenda item “Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, in political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development”.
The report outlines how illicit financial flows undermine the enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights and emphasizes the need for political action.
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Published on Fri, 2015-03-13 18:35
The UN Statistical Commission discussed the challenges of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. This included implementation, measuring or monitoring progress as well as accountability. This includes a pragmatic look at the available data and implications for the Sustainable Development Goal indicators. Linkages between different agendas being negotiated in parallel such as Financing for Development, Post-2015 and Climate were starkly noticeable.
The 46th session of the Statistical Commission was held at the United Nations Headquarters, New York from 3 to 6 March 2015. The Commission attempted to tackle the issue of data in support of the post-2015 development agenda.
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Published on Thu, 2015-03-12 18:22
The UN Statistical Commission concluded its meeting in New York last March 6 without agreeing on a list of indicators to measure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The body is composed of 24 governments and it oversees the work of the UN statistical Division, the most important global agency on world indicators, in charge, among other things of defining how GDP is conceptualized and counted.
A preliminary list of indicators compiled from the suggestions of expert groups was deemed premature by the Commission, and instead a roadmap for the development and implementation of the indicator framework by the next Commission in 2016 was endorsed.
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Published on Mon, 2015-03-09 16:11
The United Nations negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in New York saw Member States inching towards a political Declaration amidst considerable differences.
The Declaration is to lay the broader framework on which the more specific elements of the Agenda will rest in a separate outcome document. These will be adopted at the UN Summit on 25-27 September tilted "Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda".
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Published on Mon, 2015-03-09 16:06
As the discussion on the Declaration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda gets underway, differences between developing and developed countries that are likely to loom over the rest of the Post-2015 negotiations became clearer.
The draft political Declaration is to set the framework for the Post-2015 development agenda and spell out the broader common principles, commitments and objectives that the agenda is founded on.
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Published on Thu, 2015-03-05 19:54
The most recent step in the post-2015 negotiations was the 17-20 February debate in New York on the Declaration, meant to be the framework political statement. Despite strong emphasis on transformation and high aspiration, traditional lines were drawn between (mostly) Northern and Southern positions.
At the same time, the debate was rich and nuanced, reflecting the increasing diversity of developing country concerns and their willingness to engage substantively on issues that will be critical to transformation. The process continues to suggest there is historic potential for redressing some of the longstanding imbalances driving deep social and economic disparities, and the impending collision with planetary boundaries. The notion that post-2015 is supposed to universally apply to every country and person in the world is unprecedented—never before has there been a development agenda this broad in scope.
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Published on Thu, 2015-03-05 08:32
The UN Statistical Commission in New York meets at a moment when the global statistical community is at a “crossroads”. As we shift towards the post-2015 development agenda there is a need for measurement, monitoring and speed. There appears to be pressure to adapt by moving away from traditional data collecting to using “Big Data”.
Big Data refers to “high volume, velocity and variety of data, which require new tools and methods to capture, curate, manage, and process them in an efficient way”. Currently, Big Data tends to be owned primarily by the private sector (e.g. banks, online retailers, search engines, cellphone providers etc). This information ranges from your financial details to who you call, what you search for online or what you click on. Big Data has a lot of potential to discover subtle patterns. The private sector mine this data to make the customer’s experience better or tailor marketing to improve their business.
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Published on Tue, 2015-03-03 18:59
Over the past twenty years we have heard constantly that the world has the resources to address global development challenges such as poverty, environmental degradation, diseases and inequalities. However, despite the resources “being there” human development plans have been consistently underfunded.
Clearly, existing “trickle-down” and redistribution mechanisms are not being effective and will be woefully inadequate to fund the implementation of the universal SDGs agenda.
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Published on Tue, 2015-03-03 14:07
The phenomenon known as “Sinai Trafficking” started in 2009 in the Sinai desert and it involves the abduction, extortion, sale, torture, sexual violation and killing of men, women and children. Migrants, a majority of them Eritrean, are abducted and brought to the Sinai desert, where they are sold and resold, extorted for very high ransoms collected by mobile phone, while being brutally and “functionally” tortured to support the extortion. Many of them die in Sinai.
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