SOCIAL WATCH E-NEWSLETTER - Issue 131 - May 24, 2013

In September 2000, when the Millennium Summit was held at the UN General Assembly, Afghanistan was suffering from conflict and could not participate in the formulation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Government endorsed the Millennium Declaration as well as the MDGs only in March 2004. However, having lost over two decades to war, it has had to modify the global timetable and benchmarks to fit local realities. The rest of the international community defined the MDGs to be attained by 2015, against a baseline of 1990. Because of its lost decades and the lack of available information, Afghanistan has defined its MDG contribution as targets for 2020 from baselines of 2002 to 2005.

Despite extreme poverty, ill health, and hunger, Afghans define the lack of security as their greatest problem. Hence the Government of Afghanistan has added this new goal to the eight global MDGs recognizing the critical role of peace and security in achieving the other MDGs.

Read more

For the past one week, the poorest members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been locked in a battle against the united might of the richest countries to exercise their right to be exempt from the WTO intellectual property rules.

Last November, the least developed countries (LDCs) invoked Article 66.1 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to request an unconditional extension of the transition period for as long as they remain as LDCs. The rationale is to allow LDCs to have policy space while they overcome their constraints and develop a viable technology base.

The battle is over the terms of the exemption. Read more

After independence, we got bureaucracy not democracy, said Bhaskar Rao Gorantla, Research Director of National Social Watch (India). He was addressing a gathering of civil society representatives at a consultation programme organized by the Karnataka Social Watch on administrative reforms.

Presenting the gist of the ‘Administrative Reforms for Good Governance’, a book by NC Saxena - former director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Rao said that it is very essential to replace the entire system, as we change the entire structure when 70 percent pipes have leakage issues.

Download the publication (pdf version).