Social Development

SouthViews No. 113, 14 October 2014

Malala got the Nobel peace prize; here’s why Nabila won’t

By Staff, Firstpost of India

Last week, the Nobel Peace Prize committee announced two winners: Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi for their struggle for the rights of children. While for most Indians K Satyarthi’s name was a bit of a mystery, Malala was already a widely known international figure, her personal story documented on magazine covers around the world. The celebration of Malala in the West has long inspired conspiracy theorists who view her as a CIA stooge — and that she is now the youngest recipient for the Nobel Peace Prize is likely to prove more fodder for the same. But you don’t have to be paranoid to ask the question raised by Murtaza Hussain in Al-Jazeera: What about Nabila Rehman? (more…)

Research Paper 54, September 2014

Innovative Financing Mechanisms: Potential Sources of Financing the WHO Tobacco Convention

  1. Introduction and Objectives

This research paper is produced as part of a research being conducted by the South Centre on expanding fiscal policies for global and national tobacco control. The objective of this research is to identify innovative solutions to fill the funding gaps in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). (more…)

Research Paper 53, September 2014

Regional Pooled Procurement of Medicines in the East African Community

This paper explores the current discussions in the East African Community (EAC) with regard to the establishment of a regional pooled procurement mechanism for essential medicines. (more…)

Climate Policy Brief 14, August 2014

Loss and Damage Mechanism Set Up for Climate Change

The UN Climate Conference held in Warsaw has set up a new international mechanism to help developing countries affected by loss and damage from climate change, such as the Philippines typhoon. (more…)

Research Paper 49, January 2014

Public-private Partnerships in Global Health: Putting Business before Health?

Public and private sector interaction in health has always existed at the national level; in the United Nations (UN) system, public-private partnerships (PPPs) started at the end of the 1990s with the reform of the UN system launched by Kofi Annan. (more…)

Perspectives on Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development, January 2014

Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals: Perspectives of the South Centre

  • Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development

The United Nations’ Post-2015 Development Agenda should not simply extend MDGs, or reformulate the goals, but focus instead on global systemic reforms to remove main impediments to development and secure an accommodating international environment for sustainable development. (more…)

Analytical Note, November 2013

WTO’s MC9: Summary of Issues

10 documents were distributed to WTO Members on 26 November 2013 at the last General Council meeting before the Bali Ministerial Conference (MC9).  These documents are being transmitted to Bali. (more…)

Analytical Note, November 2013

WTO’s MC9:  Analysis of the Food Security ‘Peace Clause’ Text

The Peace Clause is time-limited (4 years) and partial in coverage (no inclusion of the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures- ASCM). Countries can still be taken to dispute. It also has onerous and intrusive transparency and information requirements and conditions. (more…)

Report on The WTO’s Bali Ministerial and Food Security for Developing Countries, November 2013

The WTO’s Bali Ministerial and Food Security for Developing Countries: Need for equity and justice in the rules on agricultural subsidies

Food security in developing countries is a major issue in the WTO’s negotiations towards the Bali Ministerial Conference in December.  A report drawn from meetings of trade expert group meetings organised by the South Centre has pointed to the importance of public stockholding for food security in developing countries, and some of the imbalances in the present rules on agricultural subsidies in the WTO.  (more…)

Climate Policy Brief 12, November 2013

Integrating a Gender Perspective in Climate Change, Development Policy and the UNFCCC

This policy brief discusses the opportunities, challenges and constraints for integrating a gender perspective into global climate change policy as well as the current effort of gender mainstreaming in the UNFCCC. The brief is a companion piece to a previous note that explored the nature, content and implications of the Gender Decision made at COP 18, Doha, 2012. (more…)

SouthViews No. 76, 9 August 2013

Development-led Globalization Requires De-colonizing the MDGs

By Manuel Montes

The big attraction of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), or at least the first seven of these, was their near universal acceptability. It mobilized both resources and politics, both nationally and internationally, in pursuit of reducing poverty, hunger, gender inequality, malnutrition and disease.

(more…)