Social Watch News
| Published on Mon, 2018-08-27 10:25 |
Published on Sun, 2018-08-26 00:00
The UN Committee for Development Policy has announced Bangladesh’s eligibility for graduation from Least Developed Country to Developing Country. This success also brings confidence for achieving the SDGs. In the last 15 years, with limited resources, Bangladesh has witnessed one of the fastest reductions in poverty anywhere in the world. The country has met the target in reducing the proportion of population below the national poverty line (currently 22.4%) three years ahead of time. It has reached the targets in reducing infant mortality rate from 92 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 46 now; and in decreasing the prevalence of underweight children less than five years of age from 66 percent in 1990 to 32.6 percent at present. In terms of education, the country has achieved nearly 100 percent enrollment in primary schools; and attained gender parity with more girls than boys in primary and secondary schools. |
Published on Sun, 2018-08-26 00:00
Food is at the core of the nexus between identities, health, ecology and livelihoods, an intrinsic space where different important dimensions of life converge. Yet, policy discussions and deliberations that impact on food and food systems are often fragmented and incoherent. This article explores the close connection between these different domains and offers feasible pathways on how to place the virtuous interplay between sustainable and diversified local food systems and healthy diets at the core of the public policy agenda. It argues that turning to what is defined as the Peasant Food Web is the most effective strategy to address multiple intertwined challenges and offers concrete policy proposals that can facilitate the transition to agroecology and support peasants in feeding the world through a reinforcing loop between biodiversity, nutrition, health and livelihoods. Such a strategy requires significant efforts to ‘de-silo’ the current policy approach to what are often mistakenly addressed as separate challenges and break down the artificial boundaries imposed by the institutional settings that support each of the interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). |
Published on Fri, 2018-08-17 12:15
With over a 50 year stuggle under Israeli occuptation, Palestinians’ call for the right to self-determination is not something new. Systematic and gross human rights violations they face neither. They are daily realities for Palestinians; while their country is now being defined as “least desirable, the least inviting and the least livable place on earth1”. However their struggle for freedom is constant. In each and every occasion they call for an immediate end to occupation and blockade of the Gaza Strip and the ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and other places in West Bank. They urge Israeli authorities to respect all United Nations resolutions and its obligations under international law recognizing their right to self-determination. Civil society activists and human rights defenders are at the forefront becoming a voice for these calls. They advocate for international solidarity and action as well. |
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Published on Fri, 2018-08-03 15:13
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The Spotlight Report on Sustainable Development 2018 includes a chapter on the links between food, health and the environment that calls for new priorities and approaches to make food systems sustainable. The Report was launched on the opening day of the High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York/USA by a global coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions. The close links between food, health and the environment are highlighted by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-FOOD) in “Exploring new policy pathways”, the latest Spotlight Report by the Civil Society Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. |
Published on Mon, 2018-07-30 16:30
New York, July 30 (GPW) – Next September 24, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, will outline a new private investment strategy during a high level meeting that he is convening. Under the title of “Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” the meeting aims at building momentum and support to mobilize public, private, domestic and international resources, to improve financial norms and standards, and to disseminate to developing countries digital technologies to help them access finances. Details of the format and objective of the meeting were announced on Friday, July 27 by Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and Assistant Secretary-General Elliot Harris. |
| Published on Fri, 2018-07-27 09:36 |
Published on Fri, 2018-07-27 00:00
Kate McInturff passed away last July 27. Kate was a member of the Coordinating Committee of Social Watch (where she helped enormously to shape our research strategy and gender analysis) and a contributor to the Canadian national Social Watch reports of 2012, 2014 and 2016. As a Research Associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives she was the main author of the enormously popular "Best and Worse Places to be a Woman in Canada" report. |
Published on Thu, 2018-07-26 15:41
After many years of women’s, union and human rights movements campaigning against bilateral and regional agreements known as “free trade agreements” or “trade and investment agreements”, the government of the United States of America has taken the opposite direction. President Donald Trump has imposed protective tariffs on steel and aluminum, prompting retaliatory action and sparking a “trade war” with unpredictable consequences. Trump intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and to withdraw from the Pacific Agreement, formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now renamed as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) by the eleven countries that did sign it. However, these two additional adjectives in the name do not reflect a change in the essence of the agreement pushed by Barack Obama to oppose China’s advance in the region. |
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