The growing water crisis for billions threatens global progress on everything from poverty to hunger to green growth. Yet no one is stepping up to deliver and coordinate the funding needed to avoid a catastrophic future. Jo Trevor sets out the urgent need for smart water financing – which is the focus of an Oxfam event at this week’s Marmalade Festival in Oxford.
The private jets leaving COP29 are the ultimate symbol of climate injustice. Now the UK must go further in taxing them
With COP29 failing to deliver anything close to the climate finance lower-income countries need, the world needs to look again at taxing rich people like us, says Julia Davies of Patriotic Millionaires UK. Expanding on Britain’s recent small increase in duty for private jets would both raise revenue and make a powerful statement on climate fairness.
Who can’t afford to get ill? The missing target in the World Bank’s drive for Universal Health Coverage
With the bank poised to replenish funds to back expansion of healthcare among the world’s poorest people, it needs to measure what matters – and what matters is that billions are being forced into poverty and hardship by the costs of care. Anna Marriott, Rosemary Mburu, Harjyot Khosa and Waiswa Nkwanga on a critical omission from the Bank’s ‘IDA21’ policy package.
People before profits: why we need responsible businesses
The future of business lies in being “regenerative by design” and looking for alternatives to the shareholder-first model. Fiona Jarden and Winne van Woerden share insights from last year’s Oxfam Novib forum about responsible business.
Lisa Nandy on the UK’s future development policy under Labour
‘People know better than we do’, the opposition party’s shadow minister for international development tells the Overseas Development Institute. Duncan Green on what he thinks her first major speech in post potentially means for UK policy and for the “development cluster” of academics, think-tanks and NGOs.
Mia Mottley on Slavery, Poverty, George Floyd, Climate and the Future of the World
‘I felt like we were seeing a future UN Secretary General in action…’ Duncan Green on Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley’s jaw-dropping ‘grand sweep’ of a speech at the LSE
What do refugees from across Africa want to tell the global forum?
Abbas Kigozi, Robert Hakiza and JeanPaul Kasika on priorities of refugees in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Malawi that need to be heard at this week’s gathering in Geneva – including access to basic services, secure legal status and protection against forced returns.
Not the usual response – what can we learn from Italy’s welcome for Ukrainian refugees?
The way many countries provided people fleeing the war in Ukraine protection and rights was an important moment – and, says Charlotte Greener, this week’s Global Refugee Forum should take note.
Will the new loss and damage fund replicate the same old exclusion of local voices and organisations?
How can a community-based organisation with three staff compete with the World Bank or an INGO for resources to address climate damage? Lyndsay Walsh on why this week’s crucial pre-COP meeting on recommendations to establish the loss and damage fund must create more space, money and support for local organisations.
After half a century of misguided policies, here’s how the World Bank and IMF can work for the poor…
It’s time both the World Bank and IMF abandoned the short-term fixes and austerity that have repeatedly failed people in developing countries, says Anthony Kamande. With their joint annual meetings back on African soil for the first time in five decades, he sets out six ways both institutions can make real and lasting change: from debt restructuring to encouraging social spending and taxes on the wealthiest.