"Business Accountability FOR Development": new study by TUDCN/ITUC and Eurodad, supported by CPDE
How can we ensure that business – in particular multinational enterprises (MNEs) – really contribute to development in the countries where they operate? How can responsibility of their actions be granted against development impacts? How to keep them accountable for spending public money? These seem quite immediate questions. However, they still need to be answered.
3rd EU Policy Forum on Development (Brussels, 17-18/03/2015)
Claude Akpokavie, Senior Specialist in Workers’ Activities at the ILO’s Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV), spoke at the 3rd EU Policy Forum on Development, which took place on 17-18 March 2015.
He stressed the need for the SDGs’ to focus on decent work and social protection for all. He particularly stressed the importance of social dialogue as a Means of Implementation (MoI) of the SDGs. These elements are currently missing in the EC Communication “A Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development after 2015”. "Social dialogue is the missing gap", said Akpokavie, “but this is the basic cornerstone to provide democratic governance and to tackle inequalities”.
Post-2015: Trade Union Perspective on Means of Implementation, Accountability and Global Governance
Trade union efforts towards the Post-2015 development agenda are driven by our firm belief that sustainable development cannot be achieved without quality jobs and decent work. That is enshrined in TUDCN's position paper on post-2015 Means of Implementation (MoI), accountability and global governance.
Read also the letter from the Canadian Labour Congress to the Canadian Minister of International Development stating its main priorities on Means of Implementation, Accountability and Global Governance.
Wellington Chibebe at EP debate on Decent Work for All
ITUC's Deputy General Secretary Wellington Chibebe participated in the panel debate "The way forward – What role and responsibilities for the stakeholders?", in the framework of the debate "Decent Work: the path to dignity for All", organised by the Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Community (COMECE), in Brussels on 17 March.
Regional Meeting of the Trade Union Development Cooperation Network, Panama City, 2-4/03/2015
The IV Regional Meeting of the Trade Union Development Cooperation Network (TUDCN) was held in Panama City on 2-4 March 2015. The meeting was attended by the TUCA Secretary of Sustainable Development and Economic Policies, Rafael Freire, the head of the TUCA Cooperation Network, Giulia Massobrio, representatives of the ITUC Development Cooperation Network, Paola Simonetti, Diego Lopez and Matt Simonds, and members from 24 trade union centres from 15 countries in the continent.
Trade union cooperation: women tannery workers organise in Dakar
In Senegal, the “Social and Solidarity Economy in the Informal Sector” Project, launched in 2013, is supporting the unionisation and training of workers in Senegal. It has provided 35 women with an opportunity to explore alternative ways of managing their economic activity. The CFDT’s international cooperation institute Institut Belleville is co-financing the programme.
ILO: Want to tackle inequality? Shore up collective bargaining
From the forums in Davos to the protests taking place on the streets: inequality is the defining challenge of our time. It hurts economic growth, denies workers their fair share and robs families of their hopes for a better future.
The evidence is clear. Unions and collective bargaining institutions reduce inequality by raising wage floors. Collective bargaining also reduces inequality between groups of workers such as women and men, high-skilled and low-skilled workers, and workers with a regular contract and those with temporary contracts.
The reform of social security in Indonesia, by Rekson SILABAN, Advisor International Affairs, Confederation of Indonesia Prosperous Trade Union
Indonesia strives for the extension of social protection coverage to the entire population. Since its amendment in 2002, the Indonesian Constitution recognizes the right to social security for all and the responsibility of the government in the development of social security policy. Though existing social protection schemes tend to be fragmented and scattered, progress towards a more comprehensive provision of social protection coverage is taking place.
Why Public-Private Partnerships don’t work: The many advantages of the public alternative
A new report by Public Services International assesses the PPP experience in both industrialised and developing countries and contains a combination of 30 years of research by David Hall, former Director of Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) University of Greenwich, UK.
The many case studies analysed, from United Kingdom to Chile, show that PPPs have failed to live up to their promise. In most cases, they are an expensive and inefficient way of financing infrastructure and services, since they conceal public borrowing, while providing long-term state guarantees for profits to private companies.
FOS-Socialistische Solidariteit campaign for global social protection
Becoming sick and not being able to pay for your treatment. Losing your job and not getting a benefit or income support. Working all your life and not getting a pension. ‘This is not fiction!’ More than 5 billion people worldwide do not have any kind of social protection! That is the main message of a new campaign on the universal right to social protection.
Changing the Order and Setting our Agenda: for a World Tax Summit, by by Santiago González Vallejo (USO-SOTERMUN) and Susana Ruíz Rodríguez (Oxfam Intermón)
In most instances, the trade union movement and social movements are reactive. We respond to government agendas or the global agenda, which, in turn, respond to the interests of the same group - the global economic establishment. There are also, of course, important overlaps, with the same denomination, climate change, tracing the post-2015 route, etc., and we will find ourselves with different readings of how to respond to them and attempts to break out of the framework of the language imposed by the dominant ‘culture’ or pensée unique. But it is time we introduced our vision.
Interview with Antonio de Lisboa Amâncio Vale, International Relations Secretary at CUT Brazil and President of the CUT Cooperation Institute (IC-CUT).
"Our priority is South-South cooperation, especially between countries of Latin America and Africa, for historical and political reasons. Our country is in Latin America and has strong ties with many African countries and the trade union movement there. We share similar histories and are faced with very similar challenges: the fights against the military dictatorships that established themselves in our countries, the resistance of the workers, trade union organisations and confederations. All this has brought us much closer together."
Why Addis Ababa matters: CIDSE Recommendations for the Third UN International Financing for Development Conference
2015 is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make giant leaps towards our vision of justice, equity, dignity and protecting our natural environment. International agreements to be made this year on financing for development, climate change and the Post-2015 framework will lock us in – people and the planet, for better or for worse, on certain pathways.
2015 marks 25 years since the first Human Development Report introduced a new approach for advancing human flourishing. The expression “human development” is likely familiar; it is understood and used in different ways around the world.
Measuring the human progress and well-being has itself becoming an industry: last year the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) listed over a hundred indices currently used to measure some aspect, or aspects, of human progress -wellbeing, happiness, peace.
Trade Unions and Fairtrade International in Common Engagement for Workers’ Rights
‘Fairtrade and Trade Unions: Two Movements, One Purpose?’ was a first-of-its-kind conference, co-hosted by The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and Fairtrade in Stockholm on 27 and 28 January. Trade unions, Fairtrade International staff, producers and workers and others from across the world discussed scope for collaboration to organize workers to push for living wages, greater representation and other benefits within the agriculture sector in impoverished countries.
CEPAL: Financing for development in Latin America and the Caribbean: A strategic analysis from a middle-income country perspective
This document was prepared for the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Consultation on Financing for Development, held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, on 12 and 13 March 2015, in preparation for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa, July 2015).
OECD: Development aid stable in 2014 but flows to poorest countries still falling
Development aid flows were stable in 2014, after hitting an all-time high in 2013, but aid to the poorest countries continued to fall, according to official data collected by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Net official development assistance (ODA) from DAC members totalled USD 135.2 billion, level with a record USD 135.1 billion in 2013, though marking a 0.5% decline in real terms. Net ODA as a share of gross national income was 0.29%, also on a par with 2013. ODA has increased by 66% in real terms since 2000, when the Millennium Development Goals were agreed.
This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the ITUC and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
