2020
Virtual #UNDataForum.
Register now!
October
12 – 21 |
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The
UN World Data Forum brings
together data and statistical
experts and users from
governments, civil society,
the private sector, donor and
philanthropic bodies,
international and regional
agencies, the geospatial
community, the media, academia
and professional bodies. Data
experts and users gather to
spur data innovation, mobilize
high-level political and
financial support for data,
and build a pathway to better
data for sustainable
development.
The forum will start with the
transmission of sessions on
October 12 and will go on
until October 21 with
scheduled live sessions.
Register for the event here,
and join us in GIFT session on
Fiscal Data for Emergency
Response, featuring an amazing
group of presenters sharing
very interesting experiences!.
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Data
for Policy Conference
Data
for Policy CIC
September 15-17
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The Data
for Policy conference
series is the premier global
forum for multiple
disciplinary and
cross-sector discussions
around the theories,
applications and
implications of data science
innovation in governance and
the public sector. During
this conference, Lorena
Rivero, from GIFT
coordination team, chaired
the Special
Track: Harnessing Data
and Science to Achieve
the Sustainable
Development Goals.
Six research papers
were selected to be
presented during this
special track, we highly
recommend watching the
presentation of these
different approaches to
identify interlinkages among
the Sustainable Development
Goals, as well as using data
for combating modern ways of
slavery:
- “Assessing
the Feasibility of
the SDGs: Large A
Global Analysis of
Policy Priorities
and Their Budgetsâ€;
Omar Guerrero, UCL and
The Alan Turing
Institute and
Gonzalo Castañeda,
Centro de Investigación
y Docencia Económicas
- “Non-linear
interlinkages and
key objectives
amongst the Paris
Agreement and the
Sustainable
Development Goalsâ€;
Felix Laumann, Imperial
College, Julius von
Kugelgen, Max Planck
Institute for
Intelligent Systems,
Germany, and
Mauricio Barahona,
Imperial College
- “Policy
Priority Inference:
A Computational
Method for the
Analysis of
Sustainable
Developmentâ€;
Gonzalo Castañeda,
Centro de Investigación
y Docencia Económicas
and Omar Guerrero, UCL
and The Alan Turing
Institute
- “Budgeting
for SDGs: A
Data-driven Approachâ€;
Daniele Guariso,
University of Sussex,
Omar Guerrero, UCL and
The Alan Turing
Institute and
Gonzalo Castañeda,
Centro de Investigación
y Docencia Económicas
- “Using
machine learning
methods to better
understand the
complexities of the
national prevalence
of modern slaveryâ€;
Rosa Lavelle-Hill,
Anjali Mazumder, The
Alan Turing Institute,
James Goulding and
Gavin Smith, University
of Nottingham
- “Applying
Epidemiological
Thinking to Assess
Anti-Trafficking
Interventions in the
Thai Garment
Industryâ€;
Michael Gallo, United
Nations University
Institute in Macau,
Renata Konrad, Worcester
Polytechnic Institute,
USA and
Hannah Thinyane, United
Nations University
Institute in Macau.
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Uniting
Business for a Better
World
United
Nations Global Compact & Thunderbird
School of Global Management
September
21-23
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In
the context of the 75th
anniversary of the United
Nations, the UN Global
Compact hosted the 2020
United Business Live,
supported among others by
the Thunderbird
School of Global
Management. Through
this forum Juan Pablo
Guerrero, GIFT Network
Director participated in the
session SDG 16 Progress to
Date – Challenges and
Opportunities in the Decade
of Action, with the
participation of Karen Tse,
Founder and CEO of the International Bridges to
Justice and Miki
Kittilson, from the Global Institute
of Sustainability and
Innovation of the
University of Arizona. The
panel was facilitated by
Sanjeev Khagram, Dean of the Thunderbird
School
of Global Management,
and as matter of fact, one of
the founders of the GIFT
network and a longtime friend
and fighter of the
transparency and participation
agendas. Watch
it on YouTube.
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| Thunderbird
presents: SDG 16 Progress to
Date – Challenges and
Opportunities in the Decade of
Action |
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Taxing
Personal Income and
Wealth in Developing
Countries, and the
role of transparency
and civil society
World
Bank
September
24-25
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Individual
income taxes are a major
source of government revenue
in high-income countries,
and the primary tool for
redistribution via the tax
system. In lower-income
countries, however, taxing
individual income and wealth
can be challenging. Many
individuals in the lower
part of the income
distribution operate outside
of the formal sector, while
those in the upper part of
the distribution often have
diverse sources of non-wage
income that can be de jure
or de facto untaxed. These
personal tax collection
challenges can lead to a
critical shortfall in
government revenue,
hampering the state’s
ability to fund essential
development programs and
reduce inequalities. This
was the backdrop context for
the 2nd World
Bank Tax Conference:
Taxing Personal Income and
Wealth in Developing
Countries.
As
part of the conference, the
International Budget
Partnership and GIFT presented
a recent broad scan about the
field of civil society work on
tax. Historically, civil
society groups have had a
limited role in tax
policy-making, but this is
gradually changing due to,
among other things, growing
calls to reform unfair
international taxation rules
and to ensure that developing
country governments raise
additional domestic resources
to finance the Sustainable
Development Goals.
IBP/GIFT’s shed light on the
characteristics, motivations,
activities and impact of CSOs
working on tax reforms in
various countries. Among the
topics covered, one of the
issues that received
particular attention was
access to tax information, as
existing international norms
and standards on tax
transparency do not adequately
recognize the kinds of tax
information that citizens and
CSOs may need in order to
adequately engage with tax
policy and tax reform
processes at the country
level. The sessions also
featured presentations from
two civil society
organizations engaged in
shaping tax policy at the
domestic level in Guatemala
(ICEFI) and Uganda (SEATINI)
respectively. Stay in the loop
for upcoming publications of
this ongoing research and drop
us an email
in case you are particularly
interested in the topic, we
will be glad to follow up
with you.
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Improving
transparency of public
trust funds in Mexico
ETHOS-
Public Policies Lab
September 22 |
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During
a space for reflection
convened by ETHOS, a civil
society organization
from
Mexico, GIFT participated in
generating reflections on
the challenges surrounding
the transparency of public
trust funds in the current
context and the challenges
for the future of public
finances in the face of
juncture of the extinction
of such trust funds through
the Executive decision and
legislative channels. The
panel also counted with the
views of the National
Institute for Access to
Information, and the Social
Intelligence Unit. While
this session focuses on the
case of Mexico, it can
provide a useful context of
the intricacies of
transparency of public
finances beyond the budget
and the importance of
accounting extra-budgetary
funds.
The session is in Spanish
and is available through Facebook.
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International
Monetary Fund- World
Bank Annual Meetings
World
Bank
October 12-18 |
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The Annual
Meetings of the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the Board
of Governors of the World
Bank Group (WBG) bring
together central bankers,
ministers of finance and
development, private sector
executives, representatives
from civil society
organizations and academics to
discuss issues of global
concern, including the world
economic outlook, poverty
eradication, economic
development, and aid
effectiveness. Also featured
are seminars, regional
briefings, press conferences
and other events focused on
the impact of COVID-19 on the
global outlook, the pathway to
recovery, and developments in
the international financial
system. This year’s Meetings
will be held primarily in a
virtual format on October
12-18. Checkout the schedule
and register here.
The
Civil Society Policy Forums
have already started and you
can join a plethora of
sessions that will discuss
the different caveats of
implications of COVID in
public finance, as well as
basis for a sustainable
recovery.
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Citizen
Engagement: Emerging
Digital Technologies
Create New Risks and Value
Peixoto,
Tiago; Steinberg, Tom
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recent rapid evolution
of digital
technologies has been
changing behaviors and
expectations in
countries around the
world. Despite the
lower technology
penetration levels in
developing countries,
their more malleable
governance contexts
may be more influenced
by the effects of
emerging technologies
than older states with
greater rigidity.
Digitally influenced
citizen engagement is,
in short, one of those
“leapfrog†areas
in which developing
nations may exploit
technologies before
the wealthier parts of
the world. But
countries can leapfrog
to worse futures, not
just better ones. This
paper explores
what technology might
mean for engagement,
makes predictions, and
offers measures for
governments to
consider.
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