Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Guest blog by Eurodad.  This week’s IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings provided the strongest proof yet of the urgent need for reform to the global economic architecture and governance, as the spillovers from the Ukraine war increased the complexity of the multiple crises facing the world. The unprecedented accumulation of financial pressures quickly became clear: the worsening debt crisis and divergences in economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic have been compounded by inflationary pressures, food and energy price spikes, and by increasing political and social instability. According to  estimates from the World Bank , an additional 75-95 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022. Yet, while the IMF and World Bank both sounded the alarm on this untenable situation, neither institution - nor the G20 - presented the world with the ambitious solutions it needs and instead continued with either the same failed responses, or no clear plan at all. For example,...

On the 10th and 11th of September at the UN t he Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development in cooperation with UN-DESA Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development   held an expert meeting for reviewing how to improve the High Level Political Forum (HLPF). attending were governments, UN, Major Groups and Other Stakeholders. The title of the workshop was:  "Advancing the 2030 Agenda: Lessons learnt from the first cycle of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)– how far can we go?"  The power points as PDFs can be viewed on the Friends web site here.  Papers based on the presentations will be available at the end of October for groups to use to have their own internal discussions on the key subjects. 1.  Rethinking the UN intergovernmental bodies after the creation of the HLPF: the roles of the General Assembly, ECOSOC and HLPF In 2019, the High-Level Political Forum will complete i...

Last week the Secretary General presented his report on Re-positioning  the UN Development System to Deliver the 2030 Agenda.  This is happening at a time when President Trump has told the State Department to reduce US funding by more than 50% to UN programs. and as he is cutting State and US AID budgets by 37%. There will be a second Secretary General Report in December. This is in accordance with the request of the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR). That document will provide further clarity on the measures and ideas mentioned in the present report, in particular regarding proposals for the improvement of the Resident Coordinator system. That report will also respond to the QCPR call for a system-wide strategic document, and will provide recommendations on how funding efforts can better align with the work required from the United Nations in response to the 2030 Agenda. So, what are the highlights of the first report? The report identifies three gu...