Knowledge

 
Tracking Progress on Sustainable Development Goal 16 with Global State of Democracy Indices

International IDEA (2019)

By using the Global State of Democracy (GsoD) Indices, this paper shows an overview of the progress in implementing SDG 16 since 2015 at the global, regional and country level. The global progress on SDG 16 is facing significant challenges such as the curtailment of civic space and democratic backsliding and erosion. According to the data, the public access to information and the protection of fundamental freedom face an underlying threat in all regions.

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URBANET Spotlight on LNOB

Another Spotlight-series from URBANET is focusing on the Leave No One Behind principle. The topics range from marginalised groups in cities to climate action in cities for making cities more inclusive.

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How to Build a National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Using the MPI to inform the SDGs

UNDP, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford (2019)

As a practical guideline for planners, policymakers and statisticians, this handbook provides detailed practical guidance on how to build a technically rigorous permanent national multidimensional poverty index (MPI). Additionally, it provides evidence on how countries have designed and computed their national MPIs to guide policy and to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

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The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019

UN (2019)

This report by the UN showcases evidence for the progress made on achieving the SDGs. It highlights the evidence, that especially extreme poverty has declined, and that some favourable trends are evident. About 150 countries have developed national policies to save our planet and concrete actions are in progress to respond to upcoming challenges such as rapid urbanisation. Furthermore, a wide range of actors has engaged in achieving the SDGs in a manner that generates great hope for the coming decade.

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Toilets Not Taxes: Gender Inequity in Dar es Salaam’s City Markets

ICTD (2018)

This study provides a gender-aware perspective on market taxation and offers interesting results in unequal funding of collective goods and services. Even if Marius Siebert and Anna Mbise found no evidence of a gender bias in the way market traders are taxed, they found a major gender issue: toilet feed. Since female traders pay up to 18 times more for their daily use of the market toilets and require toilets more frequently than men and have less alternatives, this study reveals that a focus on formal taxation systems does not reveal all complex linkages between gender and taxation in the formal sector of developing countries.

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Financing for Development and Domestic Revenue Mobilisation: More International Reforms are Needed

German Development Institute (2019)

Developing countries need additional funding to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Therefore, four different financial sources such as domestic public resources, international public resources, domestic private resources or international private resources can be used. The domestic revenues from taxes and non-tax sources are by far the most important, but fail to cover the financial needs of the SDGs. Beyond this, the financial flows from international public and private sources are declining, so that the governments of developing countries are under pressure. The German Development Institute sees the mobilisation of domestic revenues as the key and focuses on the international dimension of this issue. Tax avoidance by multinational corporations, fighting tax evasion and increased tax transparency worldwide are the key areas to act on. The capability to push forward critical governance reforms at the domestic level will define to which degree the developing countries take part in international standard-settings.

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Financing for the 2030 Agenda is Missing its Targets

German Development Institute (2019)

For the first time heads of state and government have met at the UN General Assembly on 24 and 25 September 2019 in New York to evaluate the progress on the SDGs and the funding of the 2030 Agenda. Recent studies by the OECD, UN and IMF have a sobering effect on the current state of affairs, especially concerning the work in developing countries. An approach known as ‘blended finance’, which involves the mobilisation of private capital for development purposes supported by public subsidies, is often considered as a solution. However, private financing in developing countries is difficult because private sector financial institutions tend to shy away despite government incentives.

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Urban Migration: Strengthening Cooperation with Civil Society

UCLG (2019)

Even when most of the mandates around migration, refugees and asylum fall to the central government and therefore are being seen as a national issue, cities and local governments are dealing with the newly arrived migrants and their needs. Civil society organisations take an important role in supporting migrants by raising awareness and facilitate access to basic services.

This documentation provides information about the UCLG workshop ’The role of civil society in the urban governance of migration’, which took place in June 2019 and was part of the Mediterranean City to City Migration (MC2MC) project. With case studies from Sfax, Tunisia, Malaga, Spain, Brital, Lebanon, Douala, Cameroon, Meknes and Morocco challenges and answers of the peer cities are being illustrated.

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The Roles of Local Governments in Disaster Management and Earthquake Reconstruction

The Asia Foundation (2019)

This report highlights the challenges and opportunities in disaster management and earthquake reconstruction in five districts of Nepal. The results are from a field-level scoping research and contribute to improvement in disaster preparedness. Furthermore, this report provides approaches for future responses at the local level.

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The Role of the East Java Innovation Hub in Fostering Good Local Governance

ADB (2019)

In the last decades, public services were successfully improved through innovation hubs that worked problem-focused and collaborative. This approach helps to break down sector and government barriers to share information and provide support to potential public and private innovators. In this governance brief the impact and role of the East Java Innovation Hub, which was established in 2015, is examined and key successes as well as challenges and opportunities are assessed.

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