CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Financing for Development is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@yahoo.com or bknotts@uua.org.
This conversation will look at the UN COP 15 experience and the diverse strategies for the urgent changes we need going into and coming out of that pivotal event. Grassroots pressure is crucial, as is policy change from within the multilateral spaces. The involvement of faith communities can be a game changer. The pressure must come from everywhere and include everyone. We will explore organizing with spirit, hope, intention and effective strategies for urgent action.
CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, please visit crngo.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org.
About 2 billion workers, or over 60 percent of the world’s adult labor force, operate in the informal sector –at least part-time, according to the ILO. The COVID-19 pandemic hit informal workers particularly hard, especially women. Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME), both formal and informal, make up over 90% of all firms around the globe and offer employment to one-third of 1.2 billion people in the world who work in the informal sector. They generate services for other sectors like small and large industries, retail, tourism, transportation, construction, etc., and contribute to over 30% of GDP and more than 70% of all jobs created in developing countries. MSMEs were heavily impacted by the pandemic and continue to face existential challenges on various fronts including but not limited to business formalization.
MSMEs, both formal and informal, make up over 90% of all firms around the globe1 and contribute to more than half of the GDP in most countries irrespective of income2. As many countries struggle to cope with the growing debt burdens and limited fiscal space to finance the SDGs, the important role of MSMEs as catalytic forces for achieving the SDGs cannot be stressed enough. Despite formalization gathering pace, MSMEs and those in the informal sector also continue to struggle to access formal finance. Without the appropriate regulatory reforms, social protection measures, access to formal finance, and capacity building in tools such as financial literacy and numeracy tools to help manage finances effectively, inclusive growth and a decent work environment for those in the sector will remain a challenge. As part of the Development Cooperation Strategy 2020-25, the ILO is forging partnerships that advance policy objectives and coherence within the framework of Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs) that promote Financing Decent Work. In this panel, the speakers will share global and on-the-ground perspectives and explore steps countries are taking through regulatory reforms, access to finance, and capacity building to ensure sustainable finance and decent work for MSMEs in the informal sector.
H.E. Mr. Arrmanatha Christiawan Nasir, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the UN (TBC)
Ms. Chantal Line Carpentier, Chief, UNCTAD New York Office of the Secretary-General
Ms. Adriana Marina, Founder of Hecho por Nosotros & animaná, Argentina
Mr. Amar G. Prabhu, Principal of Don Bosco Industrial Training Institute Kurla, Mumbai, India
Ms. Sandie Ejang Elobu, CEO, Western Silk Road, Ltd., Uganda
Ms. Nana Efua Brown-Orleans, Program Lead, Duapa Workspace, Ghana
Ms. Estella Kabagaya Eldradaa, Founder, Mama Children Village, Uganda
Organizers: NGO Committee on Financing for Development, Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund (DBA Women First International Fund), Salesian Missions Inc, Africa Development Interchange Network, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sisters of Charity Federation
CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Financing for Development is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/NY, please visit ngocsw.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Geneva, please visit ngocsw-geneva.ch. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org.
CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Financing for Development is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit un-ngocrip.net. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit . For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com.
Happy New Year! The NGO Committee on Financing for Development would like to cordially invite you to its first regular monthly meeting of the year, to be held virtually on Tuesday, January 17, from 1:00pm – 3:00pm.
Priority theme: Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls
Review theme: Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls (agreed conclusions of the sixty-second session)
Bureau
The Bureau of the Commission plays a crucial role in facilitating the preparation for, and in ensuring the successful outcome of the annual sessions of the Commission. Bureau members serve for two years. In line with ECOSOC decision 2002/234, the Commission holds the first meeting of its subsequent session, immediately following the closure of the regular session, to elect new members of the Bureau as needed.
The Bureau for the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (2023) comprises the following members:
H.E. Ms. Mathu Joyini (South Africa), Chair (African States Group)
H.E. Ms. Antje Leendertse (Germany), Vice-Chair (Western European and Other States Group)
Mr. Māris Burbergs (Latvia), Vice-Chair (Eastern European States Group)
H.E. Ms. Maria del Carmen Squeff (Argentina), Vice-Chair designate (Latin American and Caribbean States Group)
Ms. Chimguundari Navaan-Yunden (Mongolia), Vice-Chair designate (Asia and Pacific States Group)
CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Status of Women/NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Geneva, please visit ngocsw-geneva.ch. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@yahoo.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit un-ngocrip.net. For more information on the NGO Committee on Mental Health, please visit ngomentalhealth.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Family/NY, please visit ngofamilyny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Migration, please visit ngo-migration.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Family/Vienna, please visit viennafamilycommittee.org.
The members of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna and the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Vienna are looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, Dec. 15th!
The NGO CSW Vienna meeting will begin at 3pm.
The joint meeting of the CSW and the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna will begin at 4pm.
The meetings will be both in-person (VIC Room C0237) and via Zoom (see link below). This will be our first hybrid meeting, so some technical glitches might occur.
Topic: NGO CSW Vienna’s Zoom Meeting Time: Dec 15, 2022 03:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Vienna, please visit ngocswvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/Geneva, please visit ngocsw-geneva.ch. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/NY, please visit ngocsw.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.
We invite you all to sign on to the letter, and the deadline for doing so is Friday 16 December 2022. You can find the letter here and the form to sign on is here.
__________
To the kind attention of:
Permanent Representatives and Permanent Observers to the United Nations in New York
United Nations Secretariat, Agencies and Programmes
X December 2022
Subject: Implementation of UNGA Second Committee resolution on promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations (A/C.2/77/L.11/Rev.1)
Your Excellencies distinguished representatives of UN Member States,
We, the undersigned civil society organisations and trade unions, strongly support and welcome the UNGA resolution on promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the UN (A/C.2/77/L.11/Rev.1). We commend the Africa Group for its excellent leadership on this issue and for finally ensuring implementation of the long-standing demand of developing countries for a UN intergovernmental negotiation process on international tax. We urge all UN Member States to maintain and reinforce the spirit of international cooperation that resulted in the adoption by consensus of this historic resolution.
Furthermore, we are writing to you with a call for all governments to work constructively towards the urgent and efficient implementation of the resolution. This includes:
Supporting a speedy approval in the UNGA Fifth Committee of the required budget allocation for the implementation of the resolution, in line with the related Programme budget implications analysis (A/C.2/77/L.75). The budget requirement, totaling US$ 432,700, was presented to Member States ahead of the adoption of the resolution. We now count on all UN Member States to stand by the consensus agreement reached with the resolution and confirm the allocation of the required resources. We also urge all UN Member States to keep in mind that international tax cooperation is urgently needed, not least to combat tax-related illicit financial flows, which are costing governments hundreds of billions of dollars in lost tax income every year. This must therefore be a matter of high importance and urgency.
Supporting strong stakeholder involvement in the consultation process related to the UN Secretary General’s report as mandated by the resolution. We strongly welcome the fact that stakeholder consultation is explicitly included in the text of the resolution, and we stand ready to make our contributions. We, the undersigned civil society organisations and trade unions, bring in-depth knowledge from all regions of the world about the devastating impacts of the failure of international tax cooperation, including the continued bleeding of public resources in the form of illicit financial flows. We also bring concrete and specific proposals for solutions, including for how a future UN Convention on Tax could be designed.
Supporting a strong intergovernmental UN process to strengthen international tax cooperation. Through the resolution, all UN Member States have agreed to “begin intergovernmental discussions in New York at United Nations Headquarters on ways to strengthen the inclusiveness and effectiveness of international tax cooperation”. We strongly welcome this vital initiative, and stress the importance of moving forward with urgency. As stated in the adopted resolution, combating illicit financial flows is an essential development challenge, and developing countries are particularly susceptible to the negative impact of illicit financial flows. Therefore, we believe that the modalities for the foreseen process must be adopted as a matter of high priority, and this should take place no later than the seventy-eighth session of the UN General Assembly. Furthermore, we would like to stress the importance of ensuring that the modalities provide for a transparent and inclusive member state-led negotiation process with full participation of stakeholders, including civil society.
Despite the fact that international tax rules and standards affect all countries and people of the world, there has until this point been no inclusive international body where all countries were able to participate on an equal footing in the decision-making on international tax matters. This injustice is at the heart of the failure of the international tax system, which has continued to be characterised by injustice, inefficiency, incoherence, unilateral actions and beggar-thy-neighbor policies. All countries have paid a high price for this failure, but the impacts on developing countries have been particularly hard. The UN remains the only truly universal body where all countries participate as equals, and the consensus adoption of the UN resolution, including the decision to begin intergovernmental discussions on international tax matters under the auspices of the UN, constitutes a truly historical shift towards fairness and inclusivity.
The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the “cost of living crisis”, the fight to increase domestic resource mobilisation and combat illicit financial flows has never been more vital. In 2021, the State of Tax Justice report estimated that countries around the world are losing over US$450 billion per year due to international tax dodging and abuse by multinational corporations and wealthy individuals. Faced with the challenges of financing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and combatting the global environmental crises, it is clear that the international community must take urgent action to strengthen international tax cooperation and stop the immense bleeding of public resources.
We remain at your disposal if you would like to receive more information or would like to meet to discuss this issue further.
Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) Group
Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ): Alliance of five continental tax and fiscal justice networks in Asia (Tax & Fiscal Justice Asia), Africa (Tax Justice Network Africa), Latin America (Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe), Europe (Tax Justice-Europe) and North America (Canadians for Tax Fairness & FACT Coalition), collectively representing hundreds of organisations.
European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad)
Pursuant to General Assembly decision A/RES/73/226 of 20 December 2018, the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action (UN 2023 Water Conference) will be held from 22 to 24 March 2023 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The co-hosts are the governments of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Tajikistan.
Side events can be organized in connection with the UN 2023 Water Conference, either in-person or virtually, by Member States, the UN system, Intergovernmental Organizations and accredited non-governmental stakeholders. The side events will be an opportunity for all participants to share knowledge and solutions to accelerate implementation of SDG 6, identify new and emerging issues, exchange national and local experiences and practices, and showcase voluntary commitments for the Water Action Agenda.
Priority will be given to events organized by Member States and those organized in partnership by several networks/organizations. All interested parties are strongly encouraged to partner with others to organize a side event.
Side events can be hosted (1) in-person inside the UN Headquarters; (2) in-person in other locations in New York; or (3) virtually.
For additional details and guidance on how to submit a side event proposal, including guidelines, please visit the website: bit.ly/Water2023SideEvents
The deadline for applications is 13 January 2023. The Conference Secretariat will review submissions and only notify those organizers whose events have been approved.
CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@yahoo.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit un-ngocrip.net.
The hearing will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, 13 December 2022 from 10:00am – 1:00pm NY time (16:00pm – 19:00 pm GVA time) and will provide an opportunity for NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC to present and exchange views with members of the Committee on the issues outlined in the attached Concept Note.
The Committee is keen to ensure broad consultations, and to facilitate the participation of NGOs from all regions of the world. The three duty stations away from Headquarters have been assigned three slots each for interventions by NGOs. In view of the technical limitations related to the virtual component of the meeting and the time constraint, NGOs who wish to speak at the hearing from different UN duty stations will be given up to three minutes to make their intervention and will be selected on a first come first serve basis. The deadline for registration (at unog.ngo@un.org) is 3:00 pm on Monday, 28 November 2022.
UN WEB TV will provide interpretation in all 6 UN languages, but all remote interventions from other duty stations, such as Geneva, must be made in one language, either French or English.
*NGO representatives in Geneva wishing to follow the consultations in person can do it from the Palais des Nations in Room XXII. Only NGO representatives in possession of a valid UNOG Grounds pass will be able to attend.
CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development/Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@gmail.com.
