finance

Multi-year Expert Meeting on Trade, Services and Development

The ninth session of the Multi-year Expert Meeting on Trade, Services and Development will be held with physical and remote participation from 4 to 6 July 2022. The substantive topic of the session is the evolving landscape of digital trade in services.

Participation and Registration:

Member States are invited to nominate experts from the public and/or private sectors. Nominated experts are encouraged to participate in all sessions of the Multi-year Expert Meeting on Trade, Services and Development to ensure continuity. Each State is encouraged to nominate up to five experts to participate remotely. This session is open to all member States of UNCTAD. Other organizations, including specialized agencies, intergovernmental bodies and non-governmental organizations in the general and special categories, as well as academia, research institutions and the private sector, may participate as observers.

Online registration is mandatory for all those wishing to attend the meeting and is required in order to be included in the list of participants. Please register for this session at indico.un.org/event/1000971/.

Registration requires uploading an official letter of nomination to represent an organization at this meeting. For government representatives, a note verbale or an email from the permanent mission in Geneva will suffice. Further inquiries regarding registration should be sent to the UNCTAD secretariat, Intergovernmental Outreach and Support Service, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10; email: meetings@unctad.org and tncdb@unctad.org.

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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 Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit congocsd.wordpress.com.

Financing Global Climate Action and Promoting Digital Solutions

Financing Global Climate Action and Promoting Digital Solutions

Session 4 of the UN DESA Global Policy Dialogues for Climate Action

  • How has the COVID-19 crisis put climate finance at risk? 
  • What are examples of good projects that are leading the path to jumpstart more investment in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts?
  • What are some of the innovative applications of digital technology for mitigating the climate crisis?

Join UN DESA, finance experts, policymakers, and climate and sustainable development practitioners for a discussion of the best approaches for ensuring that climate financing measures are included in rebuilding efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that such efforts are inclusive and help the most vulnerable. Additionally, experts will discuss emerging digital solutions to the climate crisis, including ideas related to the Internet of Things, for climate adaptation and mitigation and ways to scale them up.

Register here by 29 June 2021: bit.ly/climate30june

More information: bit.ly/DESAdialogues

The event is free and open to all, and will be streamed live on UN DESA’s Facebook page. It will be held in English with captions available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The event is made possible by the United Nations Peace and Development Trust Fund. All are welcome!

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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 Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

Alternatives to Debt and Austerity in Latin America

Alternativas frente a la Deuda y Austeridad en América Latina | Alternatives to Debt & Austerity in Latin America

Panel:

  • Oscar Ugarteche, Coordinator of the Economic Observatory of Latin America (OBELA) from the Economic Research Institute (UNAM).
  • Isabel Ortiz, Director of Global Social Justice

Comments:

  • How do austerity policies affect workers? Jocelio Drummond, Regional Secretary of the Public Services International (PSI) for the Americas
  • How do austerity policies affect women’s rights? Verónica Serafini, Latindadd
  • How was the IMF´s return to Latin America? Mario Valencia, Latindadd

Moderator: Patricia Miranda, Latindadd

Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/5516215289568/WN_lCE-A_smQ_GEr946KztoZQ

Background:
Latin America is going through one of the worst social and economic crises, which drags structural failures of the economic model deepened during the pandemic.

In the face of confinement decisions, developed countries have responded with fiscal stimuli and monetary emissions, and some poor countries have managed to access temporary debt service suspensions. However, middle-income countries -that is to say, almost all countries in Latin America- face difficulties in accessing the neccesary financing to address health and economic emergencies.

Concerns in the region grow around the need to alleviate the situation of millions of people living below the poverty line, closing the deepening gender gaps, applying urgent measures in the face of job losses, preventing lack of education from becoming a structurally lagging factor and also, preventing countries from continuing to depend on the extractive economy as the only form of economic growth, among others.

The financing needs to face the crisis have led countries to borrow, increasing their external and internal debt in the midst of a critical fiscal situation, as well as to implement austerity measures. The IMF has returned to the region and there are no signs of a sustainable recovery in this new lost decade for Latin America. In this seminar we seek to address responses and solutions to the situation in Latin America, in the midst of a multiple crisis. Additionally, we seek to address alternatives leading to the recovery of the region.

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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 Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@gmail.com. 

Economist Group’s 8th Annual World Ocean Summit: Accelerating a Sustainable Ocean Economy

Since 2012 The Economist‘s World Ocean Summit has been the pre-eminent global platform for leaders in business, finance, government, and civil society to debate the greatest challenges facing the seas, share bold strategies to help tackle them, and form partnerships that will mobilize the action needed to build a sustainable ocean economy.

The 2020 “ocean super year”, of a series of major conferences and events, was disrupted by the pandemic. In 2021 it will therefore be an even more urgent move from theory to action.

The 8th annual edition, now a fully virtual event, will aim to change the way business is done in the ocean, shaping and accelerating how governments, businesses, and civil society work together to create a sustainable blue economy.

The virtual week offers the opportunity to access five days of highly curated content and the chance to make meaningful connections no matter where you are in the world.

Plenary sessions and action-oriented industry tracks include: Aquaculture, Energy, Plastics, Fishing, Shipping, and Tourism.

Register here and explore the full agenda here. 

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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 Sustainable Development-New York, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. 

Launch of FACTI Panel Final Report

The FACTI Panel is the High Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda. It aims to improve the world’s chances of achieving sustainable development by making recommendations that both strengthen current efforts to combat illicit financial flows, and close remaining gaps in the international system.

The FACTI Panel is set to launch its final report at 8:00-10:30 (EST) on Thursday, 25 February 2021. The event will be conducted virtually with simultaneous interpretation for all UN official languages.

All interested participants can register by clicking the registration link below and filling out the form. After registering the FACTI Panel Secretariat will directly send you connection details to attend the launch.

Register here.

Read the FACTI Panel interim report here.

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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 Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-New York, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

[Book Launch] “Critical reflections on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)”

You are invited to the online launch of the book entitled “Critical reflections on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)”, edited by Jasmine Gideon (Birkbeck Geography Department) and Elaine Unterhalter (Institute of Education, University of London). The session will take place on Friday 5th February from 2:30 PM – 4:15 PM CET.

The studies in this newly-published book argue that despite the hype within many policy circles, there is little evidence to support the presumed benefits of PPPs in reducing poverty and addressing inequalities in the provision of and access to public services. The book adopts a cross-sectoral comparative approach to investigate how PPPs have played out in practice, and what the implications have been for inequalities. Participants at the session will be commenting on the issues raised in the book, notably the implications of the growing reliance of PPPs as a means of funding and delivering key services, and what this means for inequalities.

Speakers will be: 

-Philip Alston – Director and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (2014-2020).

-Rama Baru – Professor at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

-Sonia Languille – Acting Co-Director of the Higher Education Support Program at the Open Society Foundations, and research fellow at the Centre for Education and International Development at the Institute of Education (University of London).

-Jasmine Gideon – Reader in Gender, Health, and International Development in the Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London.

-Elaine Unterhalter – Professor of Education & International Development at University College London, Institute of Education and Co-Director of CEID.

-María José Romero – PhD candidate in Development Economics at SOAS University of London, and policy and advocacy manager at Eurodad

Online registration is mandatory: https://lshtm.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIof-6tpzoqHNw5qh63BP-4GbixY5431aMH (but the event is open for everyone!)

There is also a 30% discount code for the book included in this link: https://lidc.ac.uk/event/book-launch-critical-reflections-on-public-private-partnerships/

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CoNGO Notes: 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 Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. 

UN Office at Geneva and World Academy of Art and Science lead e-Conference on Global Leadership in the 21st Century; partners include CoNGO

UPDATE: See UNOG news release.

14 December 2020, New York City (CoNGO InfoNews) – An e-conference on Global Leadership in the 21st Century will be held on 15 and 16 December, under the joint leadership of the  United Nations Office at Geneva and the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO) is one among 24 partner organizations from the UN System, academia, civil society, foundations and the private sector.

In an advance message, CoNGO President Liberato C. Bautista said: “Global leadership today must have a focus and a locus at once local and global. It will require transborder and transnational organizing, and mobilizing for glocal consciousness and action.”

At this two-day conference, the results of a year-long project to develop catalytic strategies to address the challenges of global leadership facing the world will be presented.  Online events will include sessions on peace and human security, economy and employment, health and food security, environment, finance, education, civil society, the media, youth networks, social movements, and integration of research and implementation.

Speakers include UN Office at Geneva Director General Tatiana Valovaya, Columbia University Center for Sustainable Development Director Jeffrey Sachs, actress and activist Jane Fonda, WAAS President and CEO Garry Jacobs, and numerous political, civil society and thought leaders from around the world.

The President of CoNGO, Liberato C. Bautista, will address the conference at 11:00AM (Geneva) | 05:00AM (New York) at the panel on “Mobilizing Civil Society: Building Global Social Consciousness”.

For further information and registration, please see http://bit.ly/3oGUtOO, the agenda and schedule at https://bit.ly/3gNcuYF and speaker bios here. Videos will be available online after the event, at the World Academy of Art and Science.

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