STWR - Share The World's Resources

Although the financial crisis originated in the Global North, it will impact the world's poorest economies most deeply. The G20 should reform the Bretton Woods Institutions, strengthen the UN, and encourage development led by the Global South, says a report by the Overseas Development Institute.

Analysts appear to have overlooked the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, even though the repercussions could be disastrous for the world’s poor. Two reports reveal how lax financial regulation and accounting secrecy facilitated the crisis and could have serious implications for poor countries.

Domestic tax revenues are an essential source of financing for development. This report describes the problems that undermine direct tax revenues in poor countries, with a focus on aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations, by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations.

The financial crisis is expected to have a severe impact on humanitarian funding, with some analysts projecting cuts in official development assistance (ODA) of up to a third or more.

The internal public debt of the world's developing countries has increased significantly since the 1990s as a result of neo-liberal policy, yet it would take only $80 billion a year over a period of 10 years for the entire population of these countries to have access to essential social services. By Éric Toussaint.

The global financial, food, and fuel crises and the negative impacts of climate change pose a severe threat to the world's 37 million uprooted people, and will likely increase their numbers, warned the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Reported by Ida Wahlstrom. 

As a spreading financial crisis threatens to deepen the economic recession in the United States, the news of an unprecedented $700 billion bailout package reverberated through the UN last week as over 100 world leaders gathered in New York for the annual talk-fest: the 63rd session of the General Assembly. Reported by Thalif Deen.