Four years after the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) reform process started in 2008, it remains to be seen whether it has learned its lessons well. At the annual CFS 40th session being held this week, discussions on responsible agricultural investments, biofuels, and the post-2015 development agenda are among the key issues taking center stage.
Four years after the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) reform process started in 2008, it remains to be seen whether it has learned its lessons well. At the annual CFS 40th session being held this week, discussions on responsible agricultural investments, biofuels, and the post-2015 development agenda are among the key issues taking center stage.
The Agenda For Change, first unveiled in 2011 and approved in May 2012, will determine European Union (EU)’s development policy in the coming years. It is an attempt to improve EU poverty reduction efforts by making its development assistance “more strategic, targeted and results-oriented”.“Impact” has become a buzzword among European development officials but issues that plague European development cooperation over the years call to question whether or not the new overseas aid policy can indeed bring about real transformation in the lives of the poor in Asia & the Pacific.
The goal to end extreme poverty worldwide by 2030 is now part of the World Bank Group’s (WB) new vision, adopted at its 2013 Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. in April. The WB also adds the promotion of “shared prosperity” as another goal. The Bank’s strategy based on this vision is set to be unveiled in the 2013 Annual Meetings on 11-13 October.
Over a hundred representatives from various countries, civil society groups and grassroots organizations gathered at the European Parliament to hold the Conference on Democracy, Self-Determination and Liberation of Peoples last September 23, 2013. Organized by the offices of Members of the European Parliament Jürgen Klute and Inaki Irazabalbeitia, IBON International and KONKURD (Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe), the conference aims to reaffirm the fundamental principles enshrined in the various UN declarations on the collective rights of peoples to self-determination and liberation.
QUEZON CITY, Philippines – The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) through its Asia regional office together with 16 other local and international organizations based in the Philippines co-sponsored and organized the “People’s Solidarity Festival: Strengthening People’s Collective Actions to the Global Crisis,” last September 10 in Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
People’s Solidarity Festival: Strenghtening People’s Collective Actions to the Global Crisis
Sept. 10, 2013
Balaw Kalinaw, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
People’s Solidarity Festival: Strenghtening People’s Collective Actions to the Global Crisis
Sept. 10, 2013
Balaw Kalinaw, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
IBON International Statement for the First session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing
Bangkok, Thailand – The first region-wide civil society consultation on Post-2015 took place on Friday, 23 – Saturday 24 August in Bangkok, Thailand with 90 organizations from 21 countries from across Asia and the Pacific.
In the bid to include human rights in the post-2015 development agenda, the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), IBON International and Amnesty International in partnership with the Permanent Mission of Argentina and the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations and the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), will be organizing an interactive forum on the 24th of September in Conference 7, North Lawn Building of the United Nations Headquarters, New York.
Asia and the Pacific civil society groups representing 92 organisations from 21 countries from various major groups and stakeholders gathered in Bangkok to formulate a just and transformative development agenda towards post-2015 and beyond. The result of the consultation led to the drafting of the Bangkok Civil Society Declaration: From Inclusive to Just Development.
Civil society has engaged Asia & Pacific governments in the Asia Pacific Ministerial Dialogue (APMD) to commit to real transformative change. Yet propositions that strongly articulate the need for equity have been stubbornly opposed by the United States and other advanced countries who are not even part of the region but members of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The US, United Kingdom, France and other advanced countries were part of the core group that led to the formation of ESCAP as part of post-war reconstruction under the Marshall Plan.
On the eve of discussions among governments gathering at the United Nations, the Peoples General Assembly on Development Justice brings together peoples from around the world to share experiences and demand justice, human rights and accountability.