Civil society organisations from across Europe have launched a tax justice pledge in the lead up to the European election, which take place across EU Member States from the 23 – 26 May 2019. The tax justice pledge calls on election candidates to commit to supporting five policy priorities, should they be elected as Members of European Parliament (MEPs).

Over the years the World Bank has developed a number of “guidance tools” on public-private partnerships (PPPs) aimed to support public authorities to implement PPP projects. 

The United Nations convened in New York last week for the Financing for Development Forum. While the outcome document has been negotiated in advance, the Forum itself offered lots of opportunities to discuss what change we need to finance the sustainable development goals. 

Last week the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released their preliminary figures on the amount of official development assistance (ODA), or development aid, raised in 2018. Following the OECD’s publication, Eurodad released an initial reaction.

This week, governments will meet at the United Nations in New York for the Financing for Development Forum, and the challenge is very clear. Too little progress has been made towards achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), which to a large extent is the consequence of lacking finance. The 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, a UN framework adopted at the same time as the SDGs, which is supposed to ensure money flows toward development and the achievement of the SDGs, is not fulfilling its objective.

While the IMF cautions against the fiscal risks of public-private partnerships (PPPs), the institution is simultaneously backing them at a country programme level and advocates austerity measures that push governments towards expanding PPPs through constrained budgets.

In a valuable step forward to support human rights compliant economic policy-making, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) called on 21 March for governments and intergovernmental organisations to make use of new UN guidance when developing economic reforms.

Social protection has been at the forefront of discussions of late, with it playing a central role in the Sustainable Development Goals, featuring heavily at this year’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and as the International Monetary Fund developing an institutional view on social protection. 

Over the course of the week leading up to International Women's Day 2019 we released a series of graphics featuring the staff of Eurodad and their work areas, with quotes reflecting how Eurodad's work aims to promote gender equality.