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A study by Diakonie, the Protestant Church welfare organization, calculates that a 10-30% increase in welfare benefits is needed in order to comply with the Court’s ruling. 15 Instead, a decision was taken in February 2011 to increase benefits by around 1.5%, with a further increase of less than 1% planned for 2012. 16 At the same time, the gap between rich and poor has widened. A 2010 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report 17 states: “the distribution of gross wages widened significantly after 1995” and “the share of jobless households has increased […] to 19%, the highest level across the OECD area.” It adds that social transfers “are less targeted to lower income groups than in other countries.” Sustainability in practice: development policy According to figures published by the OECD in early April 2011, German Official Development Assistance (ODA) increased slightly in 2010 – but not enough to bring it into line with the European Union’s timetable to raise ODA to 0.56% of gross national income (GNI). In 2010, the country spent 0.38% of GNI on development assistance – and has therefore stalled at the 2008 level. What’s more, in 2009 it actually decreased to 0.35%. In absolute terms, the country has fallen from second (2008) to fourth place in the international ranking of donor countries and is trailing behind the United States, France and the United Kingdom, while its ODA spending of just 0.38% of GNI ranks it 13 th out of 23 Western donor countries. 18 15 Ibid., p. 3. 16 See Federal Government, Bildungspaket für Kinder, (2011), . 17 OECD, Growing Unequal?, (2008),
Climate change policies and citizen’s rights NETRIGHT ghana Like other African states, Ghana is already experiencing the impact of climate change: hotter weather, reduced or increased seasonal rainfall, changes in rainfall patterns, flooding, sea surges, tidal waves and a rise in sea-level causing inundation and coastal erosion. The result is a reduction in food security, increased transmission of vector and water-borne diseases, significant economic losses through weather crises and the displacement of the population. However, since the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Conference on Sustainable Development, after which Ghana adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol, the Government has engaged with the issue of climate change at all levels, from global to local. Institutional and policy initiatives Having ratified all the Rio Conventions on the environment--the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Ghana established several national institutions as policy focal points, including the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology (MEST), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ghana Environment and Climate Change Authority (GECCA). However, the uncritical stance of these institutions towards the UNFCCC and KP decisions is problematic. Ghana was among the first 23 countries in Africa that associated itself with the Copenhagen Accord in 2009 in spite of the fact that African countries had developed a collective position at Copenhagen against the Accord. The Government took that position ostensibly to access the various funding windows available for adaptation and mitigation measures on climate change. Nonetheless, since then, Ghana has developed a National Adaptation Strategy, set up a National Climate Change Committee and developed a discussion paper on a National Climate Change Policy Framework (NCCPF). In its National Communication Assessments (NCA), the Government’s Environmental Protection Agency has provided useful information about the effect of various climate change scenarios on different economic sectors and the implications for Addressing climate change is critical for sustainable development in the country. At the national level, efforts have been made to comply with the decisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), but bilateral and multilateral funding opportunities affect the extent to which the real concerns of citizens are addressed. Donor consultations on adaptation and mitigation of climate change are constrained by a neo-liberal economic framework that limits the space for a citizen-led process. Civil society organizations must intensify efforts to ensure that efforts to address climate change promote social justice, human security, gender equality, and sustainable development. Basic Capabilities Index (BCI) BCI = 77 Births attended 100 GEI = 62 100 61 Children reaching 5th grade 0 59 100 100 93 National reports 116 Social Watch Surviving under-5 people’s livelihoods. The analysis, however, of the implications for women is premised on women’s vulnerability rather than women’s human rights or human development. 1 The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its assessment of countries developing National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs) has said: “In general NAPAs portray women as victims without the skills that would allow them to become involved in negotiations of strategic planning. Most of these plans do not even recognize that women with the knowledge they have can make a contribution to adaptation processes and that they should be a focal group for adaptation programmes”. 2 The NCCPF discussion paper is another concern. Its three objectives – promoting low carbon growth; effective adaptation to climate change; and social development – seem laudable, but their articulation and the policy implications leave much to be desired. Similar to earlier proposals, the NCCPF is located in a framework of market-oriented options, such as carbon-trading schemes including Reducing Emis- 1 I. Dankelman, “Climate Change: Learning from Gender Analysis and Women’s Experiences of Organising for Sustainable Development”, in Gender & Development, Vol. 10 (2002):21-29; Dankelman, et al., ”Gender, Climate Change and Human Security Lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana and Senegal,” prepared by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) with ABANTU for Development in Ghana, ActionAid Bangladesh and ENDA in Senegal, (2008), . 2 UNDP, Resource Guide on Gender and Climate, (New York: 2009). Gender Equity Index (GEI) Education 19 0 Empowerment 100 79 100 Economic activity sions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). It focuses on financial schemes available to developing countries that demonstrate compliance with laid down market-driven criteria on adaptation and mitigation. Civil society engagement Whereas the NCCPF has been based on broad consultation with a range of actors in Ghana including civil society groups such as Friends of the Earth and ABANTU for Development, the issues of concern to these groups have not been sufficiently articulated in the discussion paper. A case in point is the gender issue which is discussed under the ‘social development’ objective of the NCCPF. While the document acknowledges the contribution of women and the need to address the risks they could face as a result of climate change, the policy prescription merely refers to the need for “measures such as social protection to smooth out inequities.” 3 Climate change Data from 1960 to 2000 indicates a progressive rise in temperature and a decrease in mean annual rainfall in all agro-ecological zones. 4 Estimates show that temperature will continue to rise on average “about 0.6 degrees C., 2.0 degrees C. and 3.9 degrees C. by the year 2020, 2050 and 2080 3 Ministry of Energy Science and Technology (MEST), Ghana Goes for Green Growth: National Engagement on Climate Change, (Accra: 2010), p. 13. 4 Modern Ghana, Climate Change Ghana’s Threat to Coca Production, (22 August 2008), . 88
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SOCIAL WATCH R E P O R T 2 0 1 2 SU
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SOCIAL WATCH REPORT 2012 The right
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Social Watch in the world SW Nation
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• GUATEMALA: CONGCOOP - Coordinac
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Española de la Educación; Movimie
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Social Watch: promoting accountabil
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Global Assembly The Global Assembly
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Table of contents The right to a fu
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The right to a future An overview o
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has similarly led to population dis
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In the current international trade
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Rio+20 and beyond: no future withou
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ated into many other international
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• Emphasizing progressive taxatio
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A compensation scheme to pay off cl
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Rio+20: implementation is the key A
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Sustainable development and a renew
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policies that have only exacerbated
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neoliberal model, it gained even mo
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Thus, the advances of the sustainab
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Networking cities that use new indi
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Green and equal: financing for sust
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fROM AID EffECTIvENESS TO TAx jUSTI
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casions, often reaching agreement.
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The indignados are asking the right
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Green jobs but no justice From the
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Human right to adequate housing and
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have its most negative impacts and
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BASIC CAPABILITIES INDEx 2011 The b
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TeChnICal noTes 1 The following are
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surviving under-5 Birth atended Chi
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education malawi 89 57 32 59 malays
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Achievement Possibility Frontiers (
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promoTIng eConomIC and soCIal rIghT
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Core Country serf Index Country Cor
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From the grassroots: NATIONAL REPOR
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Education and gender equality Accor
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- have gradually put sustainable de
Page 80 and 81: FIGURE 1 GDP - Real growth rate (%)
Page 82 and 83: diversified manner and underscored
Page 84 and 85: was re-opened shortly afterwards wi
Page 86 and 87: waste water is often polluted by hu
Page 88 and 89: “Europe is alone with its unilate
Page 90 and 91: into the atmosphere, with emissions
Page 92 and 93: The Kyoto Protocol includes an anti
Page 94 and 95: However, the Government has not tak
Page 96 and 97: One egregious example is the offici
Page 98 and 99: The grim face of militarized develo
Page 100 and 101: Cooperation Agency study stated dur
Page 102 and 103: Unemployment According to a 2009 st
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Page 106 and 107: vere reduction in productivity in t
Page 108 and 109: However, discussions about reform d
Page 110 and 111: harmful impact on the environment.
Page 112 and 113: FIGURE 1 Unemployment in Croatia me
Page 114 and 115: the Ministry of Education and Cultu
Page 116 and 117: have been more women in the judicia
Page 118 and 119: liable to arbitrary detention and c
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Page 122 and 123: Taking a broad view, even though in
Page 124 and 125: a government which does not hesitat
Page 126 and 127: Indigenous peoples’ rights A conf
Page 128 and 129: WORLD LEVEL COMMITMENTS The world h
Page 132 and 133: TABLE 1 Trends in Forest Cover in G
Page 134 and 135: union and research groups and other
Page 136 and 137: underlying factors that generate la
Page 138 and 139: Energy consumption declining In the
Page 140 and 141: te Mitigation Action Plan for low c
Page 142 and 143: nance of an exclusionary culture in
Page 144 and 145: In terms of development cooperation
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Page 152 and 153: ment protection agency. There have
Page 154 and 155: concerning the La Parota dam since
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Page 158 and 159: The question of transparency was hi
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Page 162 and 163: THE COORDINADORA CIVIL TAxATION PRO
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Page 174 and 175: is almost twice that of Latin Ameri
Page 176 and 177: The conflict in Mindanao is instruc
Page 178 and 179: postcolonialism, he writes, “The
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them. Initially this was a wide-bas
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and environmental hotspot clean-up
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the employer is not obliged to pay
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try. Research has shown that this m
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eflected in Parliament by the progr
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ASIA’S LONGEST CIVIL WAR The Sri
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TABLE 1 Summary of general educatio
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Agriculture and food security Chall
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damage and destruction to the fishi
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FIGURE 1 Increase in after-tax inco
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which unemployment decreased, since
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emissions. It is important that emi
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3%, is due not only to its small si
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The national biomass (above and bel
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