Publications: Reports
Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017
Report of the Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Independent monitoring and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its structural obstacles and challenges are key factors for the success of the SDGs. It is for this reason, the Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development together with other civil society organizations and networks has produced the first annual Spotlight Reportassessing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the structural obstacles in its realization. The report puts a spotlight on the fulfillment of the [...]
Who shapes the agenda?
Private funding and corporate influence in the United Nations
"Follow the money” is the recipe for good investigative journalism and Fit for Whose Purpose does precisely that for the institution created to defend global public goods. Digging into the numbers behind the funding of the United Nations, Adams and Martens uncover a trail that leads to corporate interests having a disproportionate say over the bodies that write global rules. This book shows how Big Tobacco, Big Soda, Big Pharma and Big Alcohol end up prevailing and how corporate philanthropy [...]
The EU's role in supporting an unjust global tax system 2014
A guide to environmental-social budgeting
A critical view on the Responsibility to Protect
Private military and security companies and the future of the United Nations
Mining conditions and supply chains in the commodity sector and the responsibility of the German automobile industry
In a recently released short documentary, Brazilian initiative Justiça nos Trilhos (JnT) explains about social and environmental conflicts in iron ore extraction in the Amazon region of Carajás, northern Brazil—and the connections with the German car industry. Again and again, mining and processing of natural resources has involved violations of human rights and an escalating of violence and conflicts. Largely, this problem has lately received public attention as far as diamonds, coltan and other “conflict commodities” are concerned. However, the [...]
THE RIGHT TO A FUTURE
Growing inequalities and unregulated finances are expropriating people everywhere from their fair share in the benefits of global prosperity. The Social Watch Report 2012 concentrates on the effects of present mismangements and false recepies on the rights and well-being of future generations. “The ‘right to a future’ is the most urgent task of the present,” writes Roberto Bissio, coordinator of Social Watch, member of the Reflection Group and editor-in-chief of the study. “It is about nature, yes, but it is [...]
Private Military and Security Companies and the UN
Report of the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives
The world faces an unprecedented coincidence of global crises. They testify to the failure of the dominant model of development and economic progress that is oriented on a technocratic modernisation path, is blind to human rights and the ecological limits of the global ecosystem, confuses growth of Gross Domestic Product with progress in society, and regards poverty as a primarily technical challenge in which categories of inequality and social justice are neglected.
The Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development [...]
An interim balance of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in the Central African Region
In numerous countries, the exploitation of mineral and fossil natural resources is resulting in violations of human rights, rising poverty and violence. Many partner organisations of “Brot für die Welt” and MISEREOR are campaigning for the people affected. They are urging that those concerned actually benefit from the exploitation of natural resources in their countries, that they can realise their human rights, that the environment is not destroyed, and, above all, that they are comprehensively informed about plans, projects and [...]
Interim assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in the Central African Region
by Hedi Feldt/ Axel Müller
“We share a belief that the prudent use of natural resource wealth should be an important engine for sustainable economic growth that contributes to sustainable development and poverty reduction, but if not nmanaged properly, can create negative economic and social impacts”(EITI Principle 1)
In 2000, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) launched the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign to oblige corporations and governments to disclose payments in the context of natural resource extraction and oil [...]
Globale Krisen. Soziale Auswirkungen – politische Konsequenzen
Ein internationaler Bericht zivilgesellschaftlicher Organisationen über den Fortschritt bei Armutsbekämpfung und Gleichstellung der Geschlechter
Als im Spätjahr 2008 die Auseinandersetzung mit der globalen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise die Schlagzeilen der Medien beherrschte, bestand die Gefahr, dass die anderen Krisen in den Hintergrund gedrängt würden. Doch die gegenwärtige globale Krisensituation zeichnet sich nicht nur durch die Gleichzeitigkeit der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise, der Klimakrise, der Ernährungskrise, der Wasserkrise, der Energiekrise im Süden und der Biodiversitätskrise aus, sondern auch dadurch, dass diese Krisen in [...]
Documentation of a workshop held at the ACUNS annual meeting 6 June 2008
Having seen dynamic developments in the 1990s, relations between the United Nations (UN) and civil society are now at a critical stage. The number of private actors participating in international negotiations has been increasing and led to a more extensive involvement of these actors in global policy processes. But all attempts to extend formal participatory rights for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the UN have failed so far.
Some governments have responded rather defensively to the increasing (quantitative) presence of non-state [...]
The Ruggie Report 2008: Background, Analysis and Perspectives1
Future Models of Multilateralism?
Tax evasion, capital flight and the misuse of public money in developing countries – and what can be done about it
To decrease their dependency on rich countries and achieve long-term development, poor countries must raise revenue domestically. In this paper, author Jens Martens looks at a range of different obstacles that prevent governments of poor countries from raising sufficient public revenue and spending it on development. For example, governments of rich countries pressure poor countries to liberalize trade, thus reducing customs revenues. Also, ineffective tax systems exempt transnational corporations, landowners and rich individuals from paying taxes to poor countries. ( [...]