Niu Haibin
FES Perspective, April 2012

On the regional level the BRICS States have proven to be strong players in maintaining regional security and dealing with economic challenges. Given their increasing economic size they are also gaining influence on the international stage. This publication analyzes the role of the emerging powers with regard to the reform of the Security Council, the G20 and the international financial institutions. Reforming the current global institutions has become a priority issue for emerging powers who want their values and visions reflected in the future world order. While the BRICS States have been able to coordinate their politics on a number of issues, for example by contributing to the global recovery plan of the G20, this political unity is lacking with regards to the SC reform, which makes the reform process even tougher. In sum, the author sees the need for a mutual and gradual adaption of the emerging powers into the system to make global governance structures more representative and effective.

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Werner Puschra and Sara Burke (Eds.)
FES International Policy Analysis, April 2012

“Issues relating to inequality or social cohesion should not be considered just as an add-on to mainstream economic policy, but such considerations should be embedded in all aspects of economic policy. In other words, the objectives of public policy include not only growth in output, maintaining employment, and price stability and financial stability, but also social cohesion.”
-Contributing Author Y.V. Reddy, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2003-2008)

The 15 collected essays-from heads of governments and central banks, governmental advisors and experts from the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions, OECD, International Labour Organization and academia-raise the level of debate on the role of rising income, wealth and group inequalities and the need to shape policies for a sustainable international monetary and financial system to foster shared societies.

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22 April, 2012, International Monetary Fund Headquarters, HQ2 Room 01-280, Washington, DC

For the 2012 meetings of the IMF and World Bank, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Club de Madrid and Center of Concern built upon our April and September 2011 conferences at IMF toward the facilitation of a “Global Shared-Societies Agenda,” a strategy to promote social inclusion and cohesion for sustainable development and growth.  This two-part event began with a high-level panel discussion on the political will needed to agree to a global shared societies agenda.  The second part was a seminar for advisors from national and intergovernmental organizations to work on the formulation of the Agenda.  The focus of the seminar was on what is required to forge a new, international consensus to directly incorporate social as well as hard economic considerations into the framework of the international monetary and financial system and to bring indicators of impacts on social conditions into the policy performance goals that Member States are required to meet by the international financial institutions.

High-Level Panel Discussion:
“A Global Shared Societies Agenda Requires Political Will”
22 April 2012, 9:30 am – 12.30 pm
HQ2 Room 01-280

With John Bruton, Prime Minister of Ireland (1994‐1997); Member, Club de Madrid, Petre Roman, Prime Minister of Romania (1989 – 1991); Member, Club de Madrid, François Bourguignon, Director, Paris School of Economics; former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Jack Boorman, Former Director, Policy Development and Review Department and Counsellor and Special Advisor to the Independent Evaluation Office, International Monetary Found, Hugh Bredenkamp, Deputy Director, Strategy, Policy and Review Department, International Monetary Fund

Workshop:
“Necessary Elements for a Global Strategy to Promote Social Cohesion for Sustainable Development and Growth”
With the Asian Development Bank, G20 Mexican Presidency, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Trade Union Confederation, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, UN Children’s Fund, UN-Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN Development Programme, UN Regional Commissions, UN Women and World Bank.

Programme
Background Reading: Fixing Finance Is Not Enough
Background Reading: New Directions for International Financial and Monetary Policy

29 March, 2012, 9:30 am – 1:00 pm, Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations, 325 East 38th St., New York

In the fall of 2012 the UN General Assembly will conduct the quadrennial comprehensive policy review (QCPR) of UN operational activities for development. Its outcome will shape the orientation and functioning of the UN development system for the next four years until 2016. To help UN Member States and UN entities with the preparations for this policy review, FES New York, together with the Office of the President of the General Assembly and UN DESA are jointly organizing a series of discussion events. The second debate on March 29, with the participation of the President of the General Assembly H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser and UN Women Executive Director Ms. Michelle Bachelet, focused on the funding of UN operational activities for development.

QCPR Info by UN DESA
Info Note for all Seminars
Program (Seminar I)
Summary (Seminar I)
Program (Seminar II)

16 March, 2012, 1:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Security Council Report, One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, 21st Floor, New York

This half-day long workshop that FES New York organized at the “Security Council Report” was a stock-taking exercise of the Council’s work last year.  Participating in this informal discussion under Chatham House rules were about 25 representatives from current and from previous Council members. Looking back at 2011 – a year in which the Council was unique in its composition as well as its actions – was intended to bring to the fore some of the larger challenges related to the Council’s membership, its working methods, its position within the UN system – as well as the prospects for reform of any of these issues.

Program
Summary

14 March 2012, 9:30 am – 6:30 pm, UNHQ-North Lawn Building, Conference Room 1, New York

The Financing for Development Office (FfDO) of UN-DESA and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) New York were jointly organizing an Expert Group Meeting on “Practical Transfer Pricing Issues for Developing Countries and Capacity Development in Tax Matters”, which are the current priority areas in work of the UN Committee. Accordingly, the meeting focused on practical transfer pricing issues for developing countries as a contribution to the Committee’s current work on a Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing for Developing Countries, to be adopted at its next annual session in October 2012 and capacity development programmes in developing countries, based on the 2011 Update of the UN Model Tax Convention and the forthcoming UN Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing.

Program Draft
Concept Note
FES Perspectives Brief: “Transfer Pricing is a Financing for Development Issue”
Financing for Development Expert Group Meeting Information page

13 February, 2012, 9:30 am – 1:00 pm, Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, 21st Floor, New York

In the fall of 2012 the UN General Assembly will conduct the quadrennial comprehensive policy review (QCPR) of UN operational activities for development. Its outcome will shape the orientation and functioning of the UN development system for the next four years until 2016. To help UN Member States and UN entities with the preparations for this policy review, FES New York, together with the Office of the President of the General Assembly and UN DESA are jointly organizing a series of discussion events. The first debate on February 13, with the participation of the President of the General Assembly H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser and UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark (see picture), focused on the challenges that arise from the changing global environment for the UN’s development work.

QCPR Info by UN DESA
Info Note for all Seminars
Program
Summary

Katherine Prizeman
FES International Policy Analysis, March 2012

A majority of states is of the opinion that arms transfers should operate according to a common set of international standards. Hence, there is general support for negotiating an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), set to commence in July 2012. But as this International Policy Analysis highlights, numerous still-contentious issues must be addressed regarding the ultimate objective of such a treaty. This publication analyzes the complex political hurdles towards a legally-binding ATT. Subsequently, possibilities for compromise and for the investment of political capital that are likely to increase the chances of negotiating a robust ATT are presented. Lastly, it makes the case for establishing solid processes for implementation and review beyond July 2012.
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Jomo Kwame Sundaram
FES Perspective, February 2012

This FES Perspective explores the role of the United Nations in transfer pricing. Transfer pricing refers to the pricing arrangements for transactions between companies that are members of a corporate multinational enterprise. If the method used to determine the fair tax owed to a country by a multinational doesn’t reflect the true profits earned in that country, the country is unfairly deprived of revenue. Transfer pricing is regarded as a Financing for Development issue because, without its due tax revenues, a country’s ability to mobilize domestic resources for development is hampered. Transfer pricing, because of the extreme complexity of its concepts and the resource-intensive nature of their practical application, tests the caliber of international cooperation on tax matters because it is the area of international taxation in which developing countries, especially those with weak or small administrations, are especially disadvantaged by a lack of capacity and resources.  The United Nations is increasingly seen as the most impartial, responsible, representative and legitimate body in which to advance discussions and agreements on transfer pricing with a long-term view to development that includes both fair returns to countries and a favourable climate to investment.
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1 February 2012, 1:00 pm – 2:45 pm, UNHQ-North Lawn Building, New York, Conference Room 4, New York

In response to the economic crises of recent years, CSOs from Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East have been engaged in a regionally-based dialogue on how a community-based participatory approach emphasizing innovative community-driven partnerships with local and national government institutions can advance pro-poor policies that take into account the strong interrelationships of poverty with injustice, lack of basic human freedoms, restricted opportunities, exclusion, disasters, conflict and other violence and economic upheaval.  This panel discussion was bridging the gap between policy and practice by examining possibilities for a new era of multi-stakeholder collaboration in the Arab World.

Program
Conference Input “Awaiting the Arab Social Spring” powerpoint by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development, UN-DESA
Background Document: Urban Poor Fund
Background Document: IIED London 2010 Meeting Report

31 January 2011, 10:00 am – 4:45 pm, UNHQ-North Lawn Building, Conference Room 3, New York

Each year the NGO Committee conducts a Forum, based on the theme to be addressed by the UN Commission for Social Development at its annual meeting.  The theme of this year’s civil society forum was “The Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPFI) – Bridging the Gap to Poverty Eradication.”  The Commission and NGO forum was an opportunity for governments and civil society to engage on effective policies and practices via the SPFI as an essential and universal solution to break the cycle of poverty and reduce inequality and social exclusion while accelerating action toward achievement of Millennium Development Goals, 2015.

Program
Background Document: IIED Urban Poor Fund
Background Document: UN-DESA National Development Strategy Policy Note “Social Policy” by Isabel Ortiz
Presentation: By Mr. Michael Cichon
Presentation: By Mr. Baquer Namazi

30 January 2011, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm; Bahá’í International, 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York

On the eve of the 50^th Commission for Social Development, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and NGO Committee for Social Development hosted a reception for speakers in the annual Civil Society Forum of the Commission.  The meeting provided an opportunity for organizers, Bureau Members and panelists, as well as NGOs coming from around the world for the Commission, to share expectations and strategize prior to the Forum.  Entertainment was provided by the World Youth Orchestra.