July 2017

von Jens Martens

Am 7. und 8. Juli 2017 fand in Hamburg das Gipfeltreffen der G20, der Gruppe der 20 führenden Industrie- und Schwellenländer, statt. In der medialen Wahrnehmung war der Gipfel geprägt vom Auftritt des US-Präsidenten und den Konflikten in der Klima- und Handelspolitik. Andere Themen, darunter auch die Aktivitäten der G20 zur Umsetzung der Agenda 2030, traten demgegenüber in den Hintergrund. Das „Hamburg Update” zum im vergangene Jahr verabschiedeten G20-Aktionsplan zur Agenda 2030 wurde kaum beachtet.

Bundeskanzlerin Merkel [...]

New York, 19 July 2017: Despite soaring rhetoric, glossy reports and slick presentations, the fact remains that implementation on the ground is “stalled”, as highlighted in a series of civil society national reports as part of the global Spotlight Report initiative.

Increasingly, civil society is expressing concern that the SDGs are being used not as a roadmap for social, economic and environmental transformation, but as a vehicle to entrench inequitable power relations. In particular, as exhibited in many speeches at [...]

New York, 18 July 2017: During the Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) of 44 countries at the 2017 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, many civil society activists raised questions, criticizing government (in-)action as well as crippling framework conditions that slow down implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the national level.

Ziad Abdel Samad, Director of Arab NGO Network for Development, highlighted the situation in his region: “Foreign occupation, armed conflicts and wars are key challenges, even before talking about [...]

New York, 17 July 2017: On Monday, 17 July, the sponsors of the High-Level Panel report on Women’s Economic Empowerment are presenting a panel on “Accelerating women’s economic empowerment to achieve the 2030 Agenda”, head-lined by the Secretary-General. They will be joined by a diverse Member State ‘group of champions for women’s economic empowerment’. Given the knowledge and expertise of the High-Level Panel and the national level experience of the group of champions, they will have many examples [...]

New York City, 14 July 2017: With the first week of deliberations at the 2017 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development coming to a close this Friday at the UN in New York, civil society activists are criticizing a piecemeal approach to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Especially worrisome to activists is a growing gap between aspirational goals and a lack of proper and comprehensive means of implementation.

On many occasions – during side-events as well [...]

FIAN veröffentlicht heute eine Untersuchung über Landkonflikte in Ländern des Globalen Südens, die durch europäische Investitionen verursacht werden. Die Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass Akteure aus Europa oftmals an Landgrabbing beteiligt sind und dass die Politik auf die hiermit verbundenen menschenrechtlichen Probleme bislang kaum angemessene Antworten gefunden hat.

Roman Herre, Agrar-Referent von FIAN Deutschland: „Vor genau zehn Jahren berichteten die Medien erstmals über moderne Landnahmen, auch Landgrabbing genannt. Private und staatliche Investoren sind seitdem ständig auf der Suche [...]

New York 13 July 2017: As the SDG 17 is under review today at the HLPF 2017, civil society groups express their concern for the inadequacy of the combined MoI/AAAA framework to match the ambition of the 2030 Agenda. The worrying slogan of ‘making the business case for sustainable development’, clearly exemplifies how private finance, rather than public policies and investments, is being portrayed as the fundamental key to SDG implementation, says the Spotlight Report, a comprehensive independent assessment released [...]

New York, 13 July 2017: Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), usually portrayed as a useful tool towards sustainable development, actually “involve disproportionate risks and costs for people and the public purse”, claims a global coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions in the Spotlight Report 2017 launched earlier this week.

“The proponents of privatization and public-private partnerships (PPPs) present the state as impoverished and unfit to deliver, leaving the private sector as the only way to provide the necessary means for [...]

New York, 12 July 2017: SDG2 ‘end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, articulates one of the highest aspirations of the 2030 Agenda. Failure to advance it will significantly affect the entire agenda, claims the Spotlight report, a comprehensive independent assessment released in New York on the opening day of the High Level Political Forum 2017.

The context in which SDG 2 is being implemented is the battlefield of two opposing visions [...]

New York, 12 July 2017: Corporate power threatens women´s human rights by promoting a race to the bottom in labour standards and avoiding taxes in the countries where profits are obtained, concludes the report Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017, in its analysis of the fifth Sustainable Development Goal which promises to achieve gender equality by 2030 and empower all women and girls.

Corina Rodríguez Enríquez, Executive Committee member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), [...]

New York, 11 July 2017: “The promise made by governments to eradicate poverty by 2030 is doable if countries cooperate to fight tax evasion and capital flights” argues an independent report submitted to the High Level Political Forum of the United Nations as an input to its debate today around the first of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDG 1 envisages to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere” and the global Spotlight report, a comprehensive independent assessment launched here [...]

New York, 11 July 2017: The “leave no one behind” slogan and the proposition to increase funding “from billions to trillions” made by the development banks and the International Monetary Fund are the two policy messages most commonly heard at the debate around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that started yesterday at the United Nations. “You cannot have both at the same time” commented Roberto Bissio, coordinator of Social Watch, summarizing the analysis of the first SDG by the global [...]

New York, 10 July 2017: A global coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions presents today the report Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017. It is published on the opening day of the High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York. The report provides the most comprehensive independent assessment of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The editing team of the Spotlight Report states:

“In the 2030 Agenda governments committed [...]

Privatization, partnerships, corporate capture and their impact on sustainability and inequality - assessments and alternatives

In the 2030 Agenda governments committed to a revitalized Global Partnership between States and declared that public finance has to play a vital role in achieving the SDGs. But in recent decades, the combination of neoliberal ideology, corporate lobbying, business-friendly fiscal policies, tax avoidance and tax evasion has led to a massive weakening of the public sector and its ability to provide essential goods and [...]

Einladung zur Vorab-Präsentation

Referent: Jens Martens, Global Policy Forum (GPF)
Discussant: Palesa Mokomele, National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa

Mit der Agenda 2030 und ihren globalen Zielen für nachhaltige Entwicklung (SDGs) haben sich alle Regierungen der Welt verpflichtet, ihre Politik konsequent an ökologischen, sozialen und menschenrechtlichen Kriterien auszurichten. Viele halten dazu die Abkehr von einer Politik des business as usual für unerlässlich. Zugleich setzen zahlreiche Regierungen aber weiterhin auf die Politikrezepte der Vergangenheit, indem sie Partnerschaften mit [...]