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Publications

Displaying 11 - 20 of 32
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Push no one behind, by Diane Elson (CDP Background Paper No. 43)

One of the pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the pledge to ?leave no one behind?. This paper argues that we must recognise that many people throughout the world are not just being left behind. They are being pushed even further behind, and their levels of well-being are falling, often in ways from which it is impossible to fully recover. Indeed, many are confronted with forces that lead to their avoidable premature deaths. Thus, development policies should have as their first priority to ensure that no one is pushed behind. The paper argues that this could be secured through a different way of framing economic policy, that focuses on the obligations of states to… Download
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Priority to the furthest behind, by Marc Fleurbaey (CDP Background Paper No. 42)

The UN Resolution heralding the Sustainable Development Goals pledges to leave no one behind, and moreover "to reach the furthest behind first". This priority echoes the priority to the worst-off that is being discussed in philosophy, economics and related disciplines, but also the pleas of many actors who represent or fight for the most disadvantaged populations. This paper argues that serious theories do support such a priority and that the best policies implementing this priority do not necessarily involve the most intuitive anti-poverty targeted measures.  For more information on the CDP's work on "Leaving no one behind" go to: Leaving no one behind, poverty, human and social… Download
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International tax cooperation and sovereign debt crisis resolution: reforming global governance to ensure no one is left behind, by José Antonio Alonso (CDP Background Paper No. 41)

The paper focuses on two crucial issues that hinder the fiscal sovereignty of developing countries: the reduced level of international tax cooperation, and the lack of appropriate procedures for sovereign debt crisis resolution. The low level of international tax cooperation enables a race to the bottom in tax rates among countries, tax avoidance through profit-shifting activities by companies and tax evasion by individuals and companies, based on the existence of non-cooperative jurisdictions. In the last five years, the international community has made some improvements in this field, but the situation remains far from satisfactory. On the other hand, the current procedure for sovereign… Download
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Eradicating poverty by 2030: Implications for Income Inequality, Population Policies, Food Prices (and Faster Growth?), by Giovanni Andrea Cornia (CDP Background Paper No. 40)

The paper examines whether the planned eradication of poverty to the year 2030 part of the SDG strategy is compatible with the expected trends in key economic variables such as GDP growth, population growth, income inequality and food prices. To do so, the paper develops a comparative static, poverty-accounting model that allows to simulate to 2030 the impact on SDG1 of the fastest improvements recorded for the above four variables during the last 30 years. Numerous model simulations show that, even under the most favorable assumptions, between 16 and 28 countries (mainly from Africa) out of the 78 analyzed will not reach the SDG1 target. Policy suggestions on how to improve on such… Download
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Development cooperation to ensure that none be left behind, by José Antonio Alonso (CDP Background Paper No. 39)

The development cooperation system is undergoing a dramatic process of change. New actors are on stage, new instruments (beyond ODA) are being used, and the fields of work have been clearly widened. The enlargement of the development cooperation system is in line with the ambitious and comprehensive 2030 Agenda. However, those changes also imply massive tensions and challenges to the current development cooperation system in terms of its objectives, procedures and narrative. This paper presents some of these challenges in light of the "leaving no-one behind" mandate. The paper discusses, firstly, how the development cooperation system can be brought up to date, taking into account massive… Download
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Trade agreements and policy space for achieving universal health coverage (SDG target 3.8), by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Kim Treanor (CDP Background Paper No. 38)

Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is one of the core priorities of the Sustainable Development Goal health agenda, and much of the debates on the means to achieve this target has focused on financing and benefits models. However, little attention has been paid to the challenges related to the costs of providing UHC, such as the affordability of medicines. This paper explores the challenges countries face in negotiating trade and investment agreements that could restrict their ability to manage access to medicines and the public health systems more generally. The paper outlines the key provisions in recent trade agreements?strengthened intellectual property (TRIPS plus) requirements… Download
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From planning to policy: Half a century of the CDP, by Daniel Gay (CDP Background Paper No. 36)

The United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) comprises 24 independent specialists from a variety of disciplines. It advises the UN Economic and Social Council on emerging economic, social and environmental issues relevant to sustainable development and international co-operation. The paper argues that since its launch in 1965 the CDP has at times struggled to make an impact, but that it has been most effective when it has been at its most creative and when it has broken with convention.
The CDP helped put into practice the target that developed countries should devote 0.7% of their gross national income to official development assistance. The Committee created the least… Download
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Thought for Food: Strengthening Global Governance of Food Security, by Rob Vos (CDP Background Paper No. 29)

There are significant threats to sustainable food security and nutrition in the long-run, including demographic and environmental pressures and changing business practices in agriculture with the emergence of global values chains. The global nature and public good aspects of the challenges require coordinated responses and urgent improvement of the global governance of food security. This paper argues for the strengthening of the Committee on World Food Security to ensure greater coherence in the global approach to food security and the multilateral trade, financial and environmental regimes. Download
A Post-2015 Monitoring and Accountability Framework

A Post-2015 Monitoring and Accountability Framework, by José Antonio Ocampo (CDP Background Paper No. 27)

This paper proposes a bottom-up, multi-layered and multi-stakeholder framework for the accountability of the post-2015 agenda. It would be built upon national follow-up processes supported by the UN country teams, and complemented by consultations (and possibly peer reviews) at the regional level, and global accountability exercised by the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), with support from the ECOSOC system, UN organizations and other relevant international organizations. It would also be accompanied by parallel accountability mechanisms for civil society and the private sector as key partners in the achievement of the post-2015 development agenda. Download
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Managing Labour Mobility: A Missing Pillar of Global Governance, by José Antonio Alonso (CDP Background Paper No. 26)

The increasing problems associated with international migration call for nations to manage migratory flows in a more realistic way both at national and international levels. However, global initiatives undertaken to date in this field have seen very limited success. This paper adopts a political economy approach for identifying the interests of affected social groups with a view towards building feasible policy responses. A dual proposal for global governance of migration is suggested, based on a combination between the establishment of universal minimum standards and the promotion of bilateral and regional interaction driven by problem-solving goals. Download