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Tax Convention negotiations kick off at the United Nations

On Friday 26 April, the first substantial round of negotiations on the Terms of Reference for a new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation kicks off at the UN Headquarters in New York. The negotiations, which will run until 8 May, include issues such as wealth taxes, environmental taxation and corporate taxation, as well as the basic structures of a future UN convention.

Read the press release

Financing for Development (FfD) Forum 2024

This week we, together with our partner and members, attended the 2024 ECOSOC Financing for Development (FfD) Forum in New York. The Civil Society FfD (CSFfD) Mechanism coordinated civil society's participation during the event. 

The process towards the fourth Financing for Development Conference will kick off with a one-week preparatory committee session in July in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the birth-place of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA).

You can catch up on the latest news from the Forum in the daily 'FfD Chronicle' 

You can watch the CSFfD lead discussants' interventions (video)

News

IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings 2024 - Piecemeal 'solutions' to shore up countries hit by crises will not help in the long run

by Eurodad

Last week’s IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings kicked off celebrations marking 80 years since they were created at the Bretton Woods Conference. But instead of moving with the times, the lack of outcomes demonstrates just how outdated and ill-equipped these institutions are, making them unable to address the complex realities of the 21st century.

Read our reaction | Read article (via Reuters)

Latindadd’s reaction to 2024 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings

by Latindadd

Consistent with the almost eight decades of existence of these institutions, the results of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings point to the absence of substantial and decisive responses to confront the multiple crises in the world, particularly for the nations of the South.

Read the analysis | (Spanish version)

Civil society organisations call on investors in Bridge International Academies to divest urgently and to address concerns raised around the IFC child abuse scandal

Forty-five civil society organisations receive with concern the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s (CAO’s) Compliance Investigation Report into the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) investment in Bridge International Academies (BIA, also known as NewGlobe schools), and acknowledge its grave findings regarding allegations of child sexual abuse at the company’s for-profit chain of schools in Kenya.

Read the joint statement | Read the CAO's report

Reports

Demands and expectations from the debt and climate working group on the new collective quantified goal (NCQG)

by Latindadd, Global Youth Coalition; Debt Justice UK; Eurodad; Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN); MenaFem Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, Stichting Projekta, Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), ActionAid.

2024 is a crucial year for climate finance negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) because a new goal or climate finance commitment is going to be set in COP29 in Azerbaijan, as part of the process called “New Collective Quantified Goal” (NCQG). This new goal will replace the unfulfilled and inadequate USD 100 billion pledge per year committed by developed countries in 2009.

Read the briefing

The Big Bang Theory? Why MDBs need to rethink what it means to be “Bigger, Bolder and Better” development banks

by Recourse, Big Shift, Trend Asia, Christian Aid

MDB conditionalities, policy and technical advice continue to disregard the high levels of indebtedness and low fiscal space for developing economies by pushing countries to implement austerity measures to repay debts instead of allowing them to pursue their own energy transition and poverty reduction objectives.

Read the report 

Vacancies

Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer - Debt Justice

Eurodad | Brussels | Deadline: 28 April

This newsletter has been produced with co-funding from the European Union, Bread for the World and Norad. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Eurodad and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the funders.