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Politics

Agenda 2030

Alliance Sud advocates Swiss policies that are coherent across all issues and systematically aligned with the UN 2030 Agenda. Approved in the autumn of 2015 by 193 Heads of State, this framework for a new "world domestic policy" lays out 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They stand for fair and lasting balance between the social, environmental and economic fields – today and for future generations. Responsibility rests with both North and South; global and national interests ought not to be played off against one another. Together with Swiss non-governmental organizations, Alliance Sud monitors Switzerland's compliance of the SDGs.

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Cleaning for chauvinists

The tourism workforce is predominantly female. Whether tourism as a driver of development is suited to promoting equal rights is down to the working conditions and legal frameworks that the sector provides for women.

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We need sustainability assessments!

Sustainability cannot become a request show. If the Federal Council takes it seriously, the monitoring of it should be built into free trade agreements as a matter of course.

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The contentious migration pact

Swiss politics has painted an unworthy picture in recent weeks. The bickering over the UN's well-balanced declaration of intent gives a foretaste of the 2019 election year.

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Multilateral institutions

International development is coordinated and steered by numerous UN organizations and bodies. In addition, there are international organizations where, as a rule, the economically strongest are able to impose their interests. From a developmental standpoint, special mention may be made of development banks like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). As part of an international network, Alliance Sud strives to influence multilateral institutions from a civil society perspective..

Note: Articles on multilateral institutions that can be clearly assigned to an Alliance Sud dossier (2030 Agenda, development policy, climate and environment, trade and investment, taxes and finances, multinational enterprises) can either be found there, or via the search function. .

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AIIB: New global player under scrutiny

“The AIIB can contribute significantly to (…) promoting sustainable economic development in Asia”, the Swiss Government stated in August 2015 justifying Switzerland's involvement in the AIIB. Time for an interim appraisal.

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Safeguards reform: an important crossroads

The World Bank is changing. Some aid recipients have become competitors. What has not changed is civil society’s struggle for more co-decision and better rules when it comes to investments in development.

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Climate and environment

Alliance Sud advocates a Swiss environmental and climate policy that respects the limits of our planet and atmosphere. The basis for this lies in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, which strives to limit global warming to 1.5-2.0°C over the pre-industrial level. Not only must Switzerland reduce its CO₂ emissions to zero by 2040, it must also acknowledge its share of responsibility for the causes and effects of global climate change. The global South needs support in coping with the consequences of climate change. Alliance Sud is calling on Switzerland for a major financial commitment above and beyond traditional development assistance; climate financing cannot be at the cost of poverty reduction, education and health.

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Listen to women in tackling the climate crisis!

The climate crisis and the struggle for women's rights have more in common than first meets the eye. Climate change is in fact compounding discrimination – also in the global South.

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Constitution no obstacle for a new climate policy

As even the Radical Liberal Party (FDP) positions itself for a #climatechangeelection, an explosive legal opinion demonstrates that the way is now clear for an effective turnaround in Swiss climate policy.

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Climate policy in the slow lane

The COP 24 climate summit in Katowice, Poland is expected to approve the regulatory framework for implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement. A herculean task with an uncertain outcome. Meanwhile, major policy issues remain unresolved.

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Finance and tax policy

Alliance Sud advocates for a Swiss tax and finance policy that is in harmony with sustainable world development. As a member of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, it strives to combat worldwide tax avoidance by wealthy individuals and multinational enterprises, as tax flight undermines democracy and well-being worldwide. Switzerland bears very special responsibility in this regard, being still the world's largest offshore financial centre and a prominent tax haven. Alliance Sud militates in Switzerland for effective regulations on financial markets designed to promote the fair distribution of resources worldwide and contribute substantially to halting the economic exploitation of countries in the South.

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Tax flight kills mothers

Fiscal policy is a matter for a few – generally male – insiders divorced from reality. But it turns out, particularly from a gender equity standpoint, that tax policy entails negotiating the most elementary things in life.

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Global taxation looming for US data mining giants?

Representatives of more than 100 countries are discussing a reform of digital taxation in the OECD framework. It is still unclear whether it will also benefit developing countries. Switzerland's tax dumping model could again come under pressure.

The upcoming referendum on corporate tax reform

On 19 May, Switzerland votes again on its corporate tax reform, which Parliament has linked to additional funding of its pension system (AHV). From a development policy point of view, the tax proposal does not represent any significant progress.

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Trade and investments

Alliance Sud analyses the rules of international trade and strives for them to be made more equitable. Negotiations in the multilateral framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are being increasingly supplanted by bilateral free trade agreements or partnership agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) or the Trade in Services Agreement TISA. Both are attempts initiated by industrialized countries to further deregulate markets and limit the capacity of States to defend their own interests. As pertains to investment protection agreements, Alliance Sud also champions not only the protection of human rights, environmental standards and the inclusion of the Sustainable Development Goals, but also the compliance and monitoring of them.

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World Trade Organization courts women

The World Trade Organization purports to be pro-women. Yet a closer look at the Declaration on Women and Trade shows that it is primarily a kind of pink washing, a clumsy attempt at image correction.

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After 25 years of free trade, we've had enough!

The newly founded platform "America Latina mejor sin TLC" opposes any new free trade and investment agreements. And the impacts of existing agreements are to be assessed.

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Mercosur negotiations behind closed doors

Anger is widespread in Mercosur countries over free trade negotiations with the EU. It is feared that industrial jobs will disappear to make way for a commodity-exporting economy. Things are not much different in the case of EFTA.

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Business and human rights

Alliance Sud is part of the broad coalition of Swiss non-governmental organizations that jointly launched the Responsible Business Initiative in the spring of 2015. In previous years, Government and Parliament had refused to take legislative measures to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in force since 2011. These guidelines call for sustained improvement in corporate observance of human rights by means of an appropriate smart mix of voluntary measures and statutory regulations.

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"They said they were bringing development"

The Federal Council plans to work much more with private sector capital for development cooperation in the future. A closer look reveals enormous risks. The case study of a Swiss agricultural company in Ghana.

YES to responsible corporations

What happens when multinational corporations from Switzerland abuse human rights and damage the environment in the South? Often nothing at all. The Responsible Business Initiative aims to change that.

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Corporations prefer trials in Zambia

«What do people in Zambia think of Glencore?», asked the Alliance Sud magazine "global" Mtwalo Msoni, national coordinator of the NGO Publish What You Pay in Zambia.

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