Europe Development News |
Turning up the volume on “silent disasters”
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), in partnership with European societies, has launched a month-long campaign to draw public attention to the world’s “silent disasters” – or smaller crises that often go unnoticed by the media. Silent disasters make up over 90% of IFRC’s work but because they rarely – if ever - reach international headlines, they are often underfunded. You can watch the campaign’s launch video here.
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Credit: IFRC
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Improved governance through tax reform?
Donors are becoming more interested in how tax reform can improve governance in developing countries. A new report by the World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) reviews the current state of knowledge on aid and tax reform in developing countries, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and offers insights into how donors could help strengthen the link. Donors should complement the traditional “technical” approach to tax reform – focused on taxing more – with measures to help governments tax more “consensually,” through constructive state-citizen engagement, the report argues.
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Credit: Flickr user 401(k)2013 |
UN delegates protest stringency of Europe’s food standards
In a bid to highlight high levels of food loss and waste, the UN Environment Programme hosted a five-course dinner of reject-grade produce for 500 delegates attending its global ministerial meetings in Nairobi. Farmers in developing countries single out European supermarkets as some of their toughest buyers, rejecting fruit and vegetables for cosmetic reasons. Unnecessarily strict sell-by dates and consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food have been partly blamed for wasting nearly half of the world’s food supply.
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Credit: Flickr user evilnick |
Supply chains behind big brands – a dismal affair
As part of its GROW campaign, Oxfam launched Behind the Brands, a new report and scorecard that assesses the agricultural sourcing policies of the world's 10 largest food and beverage companies, evaluated against seven criteria identified as critical to sustainable agricultural production: women, small-scale farmers, farm workers, water, climate change, and transparency. |
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Credit: Oxfam |
Europe’s vision for the post-2015 agenda
The European Commission has issued a communication outlining the EU’s position on the post-2015 agenda. “A Decent Life for All” proposes a unified policy framework focusing on the eradication of poverty in all its dimensions and promoting prosperity and well-being for all people. The EU’s lengthy consultations process has meant that the proposal – though laudable – comes late in the game, argues Anna Knoll of the European Centre for Development Policy Management. Various NGOs cited a lack of clarity around what rich countries must do to fulfill this agenda.
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Credit: Flickr user tiseb
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Center for Global Development in Europe
CGD Director Owen Barder explores the relationship between effective and accountable states, active citizenship and development in a 3-episode series of Development Drums. His first guests: Rakesh Rajani, a Tanzanian civil society leader who currently leads Twaweza (meaning ‘we can make it happen’ in Swahili), and Martin Tisné, director of policy at Omidyar Network. You can listen here.
Is there is anything you think we should know about, and which we might want to include in the Europe Development Digest? Please send it to [email protected].
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