Southern Voice and its members have been busy this first quarter of 2019. Here is a roundup of a few of their activities, sprinkled with links to excellent further reading on various topics:

We are proud to inform that several members are contributing to the working groups of the T20, discussing policy proposals for the G20 meeting in Japan in June 2019. Publications range from Sustainable financing for development and Scaling up business impact on the SDGs to Women’s economic empowerment and topics such as a Gendered perspective on changing demographics.

Our “Rethinking development effectiveness” programme was present at various side events during BAPA+40 in Buenos Aires in March. We organized a joint event with CIPPEC and UNPD on Measuring Development Effectiveness of South-South Cooperation: Recipients Perspectives. You can read the conclusions here.

Various SV members published with UNOSSC on South-South Ideas. While Grupo FARO (Ecuador) and FUSADES (El Salvador) wrote on the Role of Civil Society Organizations in improving the quality of education –  The cases of Ecuador and El Salvador, our colleagues from Nigeria, CSEA, published a paper on South-South Cooperation coherence in a complex assistance framework for development – The Case of Nigeria and CPD (Bangladesh) wrote on How coherent are trade and investment policies of the southern finance providers? A case study on Indo-Bangla lines of credit.

Also, as part of our “Rethinking development effectiveness” programme, we co-hosted a session with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin. The session titled “Assessing the effectiveness of external financial flows for meeting the 2030 Agenda goals”. It had the participation of Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Southern Voice Chair and distinguished fellow at CPD (Bangladesh), and Ms Margarita Beneke de Sanfeliu, senior researcher at FUSADES (El Salvador). You can read about the outcome here.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya is a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) that advises the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on the implementation of the SDGs.  In New York, he briefed Ambassadors and Delegates on the outcome of the plenary session of the Committee. In Bangkok, he moderated the SDG 17 stocktaking session at the Sixth Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development. Also our steering committee member Karin Fernando was present at said Forum. She spoke at the civil society segment on the panel on why people’s movements engage with SDGs and led a workshop on the future of work in the digital age.

Southern Voice Director, Andrea Ordóñez, attended the What Works Summit in Iceland to discuss how to accelerate progress on the SDGs. She joined the plenary on “Financing the Global Goals.” The panel focused on the challenges to finance the 2030 Agenda, from mobilizing resources to ensuring they reach key areas of sustainable development.

Southern Voice members are actively producing research and policy advice on the  2030 Agenda. Bitrina Diyamett and Lanta Diyamett from STIPRO (Tanzania) have written on the role of public-private partnerships in Africa. You can also read about the challenges of capacity development for the implementation of the SDGs in Pakistan, written by Ammad Javed Khan and Wajid Ali from SDPI (Pakistan). Finally, Alvaro Andrade from Grupo FARO (Ecuador) reflects on the role of local governments in the implementation of the SDGs in that country.

And last but not least, CSEA published a timely article with the Brookings Institute. In this text, titled “Is a debt crisis looming in Africa?”, authors Chukwuka Onyekwena and Mma Amara Ekeruche call for the need to cautiously monitor the recent debt buildup on the continent.

Southern Voice members are always on the move and engaged to enhance policy debates with southern perspectives.

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