Author: Blog

EU to the rescue: Priorities for a positive multilateralism

Photo: EU FlagsWe are a long way from 2015. That year, the world committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate – promising to end extreme poverty, address corrosive inequality, boost peace and prosperity, and stop climate change.

Now in 2018, we already look back at 2015 with nostalgia. This was the high water mark of multilateralism, brought low by the rise of populism and ‘illiberal democracy’. Suddenly, it seems, we are forced to find ways of rescuing the global rules-based order.

Economic Development and Migration in Africa: Going beyond just ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’

Photo: Kusile_Power_Station,Witbank, south Africa

Policy makers, struggling to respond to migration within Africa and from Africa to Europe, have turned to economic development as a means to improve prospects in potential migrants’ home countries. The logic goes, if people have livelihoods in their home countries they are less likely to undertake the dangerous journey across Africa and the Mediterranean to Europe.

Mehr Politikkohärenz für nachhaltige Entwicklung: „SDG-TÜV“ einführen und bestehende Nachhaltigkeitsstrukturen stärken

Image: Plakette der Abgasuntersuchung

Ein „SDG-TÜV“ für Nachhaltigkeit

Zwei Jahre nach Verabschiedung der Agenda 2030 und des Pariser Klimaabkommens ist Deutschland von deren konsequenter Umsetzung weit entfernt. Es fehlt vor allem am politischen Willen, aber auch an ressortübergreifender Abstimmung und ganzheitlichem Regierungshandeln. Doch wie können wir echte Politikkohärenz für die sozial-ökologische Transformation erreichen? Eine grüne Idee ist es, einen „SDG-TÜV“ für Nachhaltigkeit, Frieden und Menschenrechte auf Regierungsebene einzuführen und die bestehenden Nachhaltigkeitsstrukturen zu stärken.

From growth to prosperity and well-being: How did G20 leaders deal with labour market issues?

Photo: Art with red people

G20 leaders in Hamburg met against the background of high levels of uncertainty and dissatisfaction in their countries’ populations. Growing levels of inequality, the unclear impact of digitalisation, high youth unemployment, bad conditions for workers in global supply chains. These major global challenges were also mirrored in the manifold peaceful demonstrations in which protestors demanded a change in thinking about growth and globalisation. Did the G20 leaders adequately address these worries or did they continue with business-as-usual? Did they address the important questions of the future?