UN’s plea for billions: A good try in a lost cause?

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - The late Everett McKinley Dirksen, an American politician. once famously said: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”

Perhaps that remark may apply to the funding of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where developing nations continue their relentless search for billions of dollars—now rising to trillions -- to help achieve these targets by the year 2030.

But this appeal for real money—and not just commitments—has been virtually undermined by a shortage of funds triggered by rising inflation worldwide, sharp cuts in development aid by Western donors, the after-effects of the war in Ukraine and the devastation caused by the pandemic lockdown.

When the 134-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing countries, was trying to strike a hard bargain in its negotiations with Western nations years ago, one of its envoys declared, exemplifying the power of the purse: “You have the numbers. We have the money.”

The 17 SDGs include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the elimination of economic and gender inequalities, improved health care, sustainable energy, protection of the environment and global partnership for sustainable development.

“There are two main reasons why we are not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” said David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, presenting his report to the United Nations General Assembly last month.

“The first is that States have misunderstood the Goals as political aspirations when in fact they have a rock-solid foundation in international human rights law. Every single Goal and over 93% of the 169 targets are directly connected to an international human rights treaty,” he said.

“The second problem is grossly inadequate levels of investment in achieving the goals, with an annual gap of more than $4 trillion,” Boyd pointed out.

His report identifies seven sources of funding that could generate up to $7 trillion annually towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director at The Oakland Institute, a leading policy think tank based in California, told IDN the Rapporteur’s recommendations around financing should be urgently applied.

Taxing the wealthiest — who have grown wealthy at the expense of the poor and the environment — and ensuring redistribution of wealth is the only way forward, she pointed out.

“The billionaires can jet into space for the “best day ever,” not pay taxes, capture the government and thereby the policies, while billions lack access to safe drinking water and food – basic human dignity”.

She said countries need public money so governments can govern and put in place institutions, policies and programmes that serve the people.

“Instead, the so-called ‘development’ institutions are working for the billionaires and corporations to ensure a ‘business friendly’ environment so they can continue to rule the world.”

Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur, warned that with the world approaching the halfway mark towards 2030, current trends show that almost all States will miss nearly all Sustainable Development Goals and targets.

“Failing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals will condemn billions of people to misery and jeopardise the future livability of the planet for everyone,” he noted.

“On the other hand, meeting them would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people, and protect the extraordinary Earth that is needed to sustain all forms of life,” he noted.

Pooja Rangaprasad, Policy Director (Financing for Development) at Society for International Development, told IDN that commitments on SDGs would not be met unless UN member states led on addressing key global economic challenges such as addressing international tax dodging and unsustainable and illegitimate debts.

Hundreds of billions of dollars of public revenue are lost due to the failure to stop large-scale international tax dodging by multinational corporations and wealthy elites.

“We agree that the private sector needs to contribute to the SDGs and it starts with governments ensuring more effective taxation of private and corporate wealth”.

She added; “We are not short of solutions to move on this quickly”.

Last month, at the UN General Assembly, the Group of 77 and China, along with the Africa Group, tabled resolutions calling for negotiations at the UN to address this broken international tax system.

“We need leadership from the richest countries in the world to implement these resolutions and ensure there is fiscal space to implement the SDGs.”

Boyd said today’s global economy was based on two pillars—the exploitation of people, and the exploitation of the planet— that were fundamentally unjust, unsustainable and incompatible with the full enjoyment of human rights.

The SDGs aim to address these problems by transforming the economy, alleviating inequality and protecting the environment.

Examples include new taxes on wealthy individuals and pollution, debt relief for low- and middle-income States, closing tax loopholes, redirecting subsidies from environmentally destructive activities to sustainable actions and fulfilling longstanding commitments to foreign aid and climate finance.

“The recent UN recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment should be a catalyst for accelerated action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” Boyd said. The Special Rapporteur urged States to take immediate and ambitious rightsbased action to improve air quality, ensure everyone has access to safe and sufficient water, transform industrial agriculture to produce healthy and sustainable food, accelerate actions required to address the global climate and energy crises, replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, and conserve, protect and restore biodiversity.

He also called on States to ensure that a rights-based approach is at the heart of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and it could detoxify people’s bodies and the planet.

“Employing a human rights-based approach to each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is the best way to ensure effective and equitable action, prioritising vulnerable and marginalised populations and making sure that no one is left behind,” Boyd said.

Meanwhile, a new research paper published by the Helsinki-based UN University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNUWIDER) last week shows the first global estimates of profits shifted to tax havens between 1975 and 2019.

The study documents a remarkable increase in profit shifting, with close to $1 trillion or 40% of global profits shifted to tax havens in 2019. Globally, 10% of corporate tax revenues are lost as a result.

Profit shifting by multinational firms is a relatively new phenomenon: in the 1970s less than 2% of profits were shifted to tax havens, by 2019 it was nearly 40%.

This phenomenon has attracted considerable attention from economists and policymakers in recent years, with various policies and regulations introduced to try and curb tax avoidance.