Home Alternate 2
Ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders next week in Hamburg, Germany, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced that only one country deserves to be on its tax haven blacklist: Trinidad and Tobago. Tax reform advocates have condemned this as a farce
Multinational corporations are lobbying the U.N. behind closed doors to keep tax avoidance off the list of targets in the Sustainable Development Goals, say advocates of global tax reform. Many experts cite tax avoidance by corporations and wealthy individuals as a major driver of inequality and poverty worldwide. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established by international consensus as a series of goals for reducing poverty and inequity, included reducing tax avoidance and evasion.
As part of the Indian government’s plan to ensure the nation’s rapid urbanization leads to improved quality of life, rather than just contribute to more slum growth, officials announced today that they have added 30 more cities to its select Smart Cities Mission. Critics of the $7.5 billion initiative say the plan ignores the needs of the urban poor.
The U.S. has rejected a UN resolution aimed at preventing violence against women because it included language on access to safe abortions. The resolution expressed “outrage at the persistence and pervasiveness of all forms of violence against women and girls worldwide” and called on countries to take immediate steps to prevent gender-based violence and discrimination.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and UN chief Antonio Guterres host today a conference to raise $8 billion for South Sudanese refugees. Nearly one million have crossed into Uganda since conflict broke out in 2013. (DW)
A tool used to gauge ‘social progress’ beyond the traditional economic measures shows some gains in quality of life worldwide but also a decline in personal rights, freedom and social cohesion. The U.S. ranked low, due to violence, lack of an adequate social safety net and, surprisingly, poor access to information technologies.
Every year, publications like Forbes release their lists of the world’s richest. While often dismissed as the financial equivalent of the world’s sexiest man, some say these lists can be useful for economists trying to evaluate who’s winning and losing. This week, an organization has published what might be called an anti-Forbes list, the Bottom 100, the faces and stories of 100 of world’s poorest.
Paraguay had been making progress against poverty over the years, but the government has reported a recent rise in poverty that some say stems from an inadequate focus on agricultural communities. Despite the country’s overall economic growth last year, the total poverty rate rose from 26.6 to 28.8 percent.
A French-American standoff over the vast, dangerous Sahel region of Africa is over: On Wednesday, after weeks of tense negotiations, the Security Council approved a resolution welcoming the deployment of a new multinational military force to fight terrorist groups operating in the area. (NY Times)
Republican attempts to indict Hillary Clinton did not end with the election and ongoing inquiries now put a Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner squarely in the crosshairs. Muhammad Yunus, and anti-poverty advocate of microfinance, is under political attack at home that is now fueled by the GOP.
Humanitarian needs are growing worldwide and international donors are not keeping up. So far, only one-quarter of the money requested for 2017 is available to respond to crises ranging from Syrian refugees to the more than 20 million people at risk of famine. More money is needed due to deteriorating conditions in conflict regions and the recent rapid growth of violence in the Kasai province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Urgent government action is needed to address inadequate health care, housing and other root causes of a suicide epidemic among Canada’s indigenous, according to a new report. Canada’s indigenous suicide crisis stems from a long history of poverty, chronic unemployment and generations of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.
Despite a peace agreement signed this week between the government of the Central African Republic and different political and military groups active in the country, Doctors Without Borders teams are witnessing renewed fighting today in the town of Bria, in the east of the country, amid ongoing tensions elsewhere. (MSF)