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On the brink of unprecedented famine
We all celebrated. Poverty in the world halved in just two decades - historic success, humankind at its best, a world altogether more free, less exposed to disease, less violent. More girls in school, too! We Africans were told that "war, famine and dictators have become rarer." Today that celebration stops.
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Enthronisation of an ultra-presidential regime?
At first glance, everyday life seems not to have changed in Istanbul. The streets are congested; people hurry to the ferry or the bus. For weeks, there has been no terror attack. Nevertheless, there are some visible changes. There are much more policemen in the streets. In some days, the Istiklal Caddesi, the main shopping street on the European side, seems to be under a state of siege. At every street corner, there is police van with the blue light switched on.
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Financing for development? Mostly not!
Recent disturbing trends in international finance have particularly problematic implications, especially for developing countries. The new United Nations report, World Economic Situation and Prospects 2017 (WESP 2017), is the only recent report of a multilateral inter-governmental organization to recognize these problems, especially as they are relevant to the financing requirements for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The end of US hegemony
The Trump government signals unequivocally the end of international US hegemony. An international hegemon is able to define rules that find relatively broad acceptance internationally and plays a role in safeguarding international economic stability. The Trump government announced measures that go against the present economic rules while not proposing new ones.
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What does the Brexit mean for us women?
The Brexit is not gender neutral. - What is good about the EU idea for everyone, whether living in Europe or elsewhere in the world, is the notion of open borders and open minds, giving us a pacifist, human rights-based identity - this promise is still there even if it has been fundamentally violated these past years.
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Global employment crisis: 2030 Agenda under threat
The global deficit in quality jobs and deteriorating economic conditions in a number of regions threatens to undo decades of progress in poverty reduction, warns a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) 2016.
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The closing of democratic space for trade unions
Weakening of workers' rights in most regions is being aggravated by severe crackdowns on freedom of speech and assembly, according to the 2016 Global Rights Index. Restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly, including severe crackdowns in some countries, increased by 22%, with 50 out of 141 countries surveyed recording restrictions.
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Agenda for transformation, solidarity, democracy
The year 2015 was marked on the one hand by the inability of the European Union (EU) to emerge from the crisis, and on the other by a dramatic rise in the number of people taking flight from their homes and from their homelands, because of wars and terrorist attacks, in many cases caused by the destructive policies of the EU and of its member states.
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Global economy faces major headwinds in 2016
The world economy stumbled in 2015 and only a modest improvement is projected for 2016/17 as a number of cyclical and structural headwinds persist, says the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2016 report. Global growth is estimated at a mere 2.4% in 2015.
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The Latin American Left is losing ground
Within a few weeks leftwing governments in Latin America have experienced a breath-taking decline. The Latin American (centre-) left forces suffered several strategic defeats. They occurred in the biggest Latin American economies. First in Argentina, than in Venezuela, and also in Brazil the days of an uncontested majority of left forces are definitely over now.
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The World Bank's new Gender Equality strategy
14 years after their previous strategy on gender mainstreaming, the WBG has decided to develop a new Gender Equality (GE) Strategy. This briefing document presents WIDE+ critical reflections and key recommendations to enhance the new World Bank Group's (WBG) strategy on Gender Equality.
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Greece: Merkel's victory - a Pyrrhic victory?
The Euro Zone Summit on 12-13 July 2015 forced the Greek Syriza-led government into accepting practically all demands of the other euro zone states. In return, the Greek government received the prospect that negotiations on renewed credit programme might commence and the vague promise that longer grace and payment periods on the Greek debt might be considered.
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Greek crisis out of control
Everything is possible. The crisis has reached such a precipitating dynamics, that nobody is able to fully control the process. There might still come a last minute muddling through compromise. But there might also be insolvency and a subsequent Grexit either by accident or by intention.
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Fight tax avoidance and reform investment policies
Two crucial issues are dealt with in the new World Investment Report: A fundamental reform of the international investment regime and more coherence between international tax and investment policies. According to the authors of the report there must be no contradiction between the policy imperative of taking action against tax avoidance and facilitating productive investment in sustainable development.
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New labour standard for the informal economy
At its 104th conference in the first half of June, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted a new international labour standard that is expected to help hundreds of millions of workers and economic units move out of informality and into the formal economy.
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Rehabilitating the c word
What do the writer-activist Naomi Klein, the academic economist Thomas Piketty, the art curator Okwui Enwezor and the Catholic Pope have in common? A cosmopolitan lifestyle? Concern for humanity? A knack for controversy? All of that. But something more substantive too.
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Alternatives to stagnation and decline in Europe
Austerity policies, imposed by the strong states throughout the euro area, but especially on the weaker states, have reduced millions of EU citizens to poverty and impaired even basic levels of social protection and employment rights in the crisis-struck countries. The EuroMemo Group presents alternatives.
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On the cusp of a genuinely transformative agenda?
Four parallel but interrelated negotiation processes are currently underway in the multilateral sphere - on the post-2015 development agenda, on climate change, on an update of the women's agenda, and on financing for development. If all went well, there could be a unified, global agenda for sustainable development by December 2015. If not, the situation will continue to deteriorate.
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Public-private partnerships and infrastructure
The popularity of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to support infrastructure development in emerging countries is growing worldwide. PPPs' new appeal may redefine not just development economics, but also the overall relationship between rich and poor countries - though not necessarily for the better.
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Juncker's new start
Jean-Claude Juncker, the new President of the European Commission and his "winning team" start to work officially on 1 November 2014. The former Prime Minister of the small state and fiscal paradise Luxemburg (500,000 inhabitants) is trying to spread the sentiment of breaking new ground for the European Union after five years of financial, economic, and increasingly, political, crisis.
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The case of Ebola
The recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in Western Africa which started in December 2013 is leading to media hyped worries about its global spread to developed countries since the first human-to-human transmission of the disease in an US hospital (Dallas/Texas). Despite these concerns the brutal reality of the outbreak in the Western African countries plays only a marginalized role in that global media drama.
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