FfD4 Countdown: A Watered-Down Proposal on Tax Expenditures Risks Undermining Countries’ Domestic Revenue Mobilization

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation,
Image of the Square in Seville, “4th International Conference on Financing for Development 30 June–3 July 2025 Seville, Spain”

Image by Gerhard Bögner on Pixabay

Governments’ decisions to grant preferential tax treatments have a direct impact on their ability–or inability–to finance their sustainable development goals. At the Fourth Conference on Financing for Development in June, countries must commit to greater oversight of tax expenditures, including implementing minimum reporting standards and rationalizing ineffective or harmful tax expenditures.…

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Image of the Square in Seville, “4th International Conference on Financing for Development 30 June–3 July 2025 Seville, Spain”

Investment Facilitation for Development: What Should FfD4 Deliver?

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, ,

The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), scheduled for 30 June – 3 July 2025, presents a pivotal opportunity to address the large financing gap hindering sustainable development. The recent first draft of the outcome document of FfD4 underscores the urgency of mobilising additional and innovative financing from all sources, both public and…

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Photo of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with dark clouds in heaven.

Science as early casualty in the authoritarian turn

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, , ,

At flabbergasting speed, we currently see a very unappetising authoritarian turn in the United States under President Donald Trump. Numerous executive orders, often on questionable legal basis, target international cooperation and funding for academia, which, in the mind of “strongmen”, merit little attention, anyways. Most importantly, though, these decrees target the state’s capabilities to operate…

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The former Federal Chancellery in Bonn's government district, today the headquarters of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Umbau statt Zerfall: Entwicklungspolitik jetzt anders aufstellen

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, , ,

Bonn, den 20. März 2025. Die USA erschüttern in diesen Wochen die Strukturen internationaler Sicherheits- und Kooperationspolitik. Sie stellen die Beistandsverpflichtung der NATO und das Zusammenwirken mit Europa in den Vereinten Nationen in Frage. Sie überziehen ihre Partner mit Zöllen. Sie verabschieden sich aus Vereinbarungen wie dem Pariser Klimaabkommen und der 2030 Agenda für nachhaltige…

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Image of the Square in Seville, “4th International Conference on Financing for Development 30 June–3 July 2025 Seville, Spain”

Frozen in time: How to rethink the role of foreign aid in FFD4

By Allgemein, Future of Globalisation, ,

Whether time moves linearly or circularly, is subject to debate in the natural and social sciences. Meanwhile, the FFD4 process suggests the primacy of circularity, at least when reading the draft outcome document’s references to “Official Development Assistance” (ODA). In brief, the document calls for scaling up the volume of ODA (colloquially foreign aid) along…

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