Globalization has brought profound changes in international trade over the last 50 years. In this period, not only has the volume of trade nearly tripled, it has also changed in its form and complexity. Today, Global Value Chains (GVCs) are a pervasive feature of global trade, accounting for nearly 70% of the total share of global trade.
Climate change, poverty, social inequalities, environmental pollution, armed conflicts… To overcome these challenges, we need all citizens to step up their behaviours, regardless of where in this world they live in. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Agenda, adopted in 2015, includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the blueprints to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. “Sustainability is one that belongs to everybody because the issue of our environment and the depletion in resources is one that will
Photo Credit: A general view of Long Street, usually one of the busiest and most popular entertainment areas in Cape Town, South Africa, under a billboard reading ‘Stay Home’ amid a coronavirus lockdown, on April 3, 2020. (Rodger Bosch/AFP) The United Nations have expressed concerns through its Secretary-General report regarding the reversal tendency of COVID-19 on the decade long progress in the fight against poverty. In the report, a declaration that, ‘This is much more than a
The spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic has changed the interaction between people and the food system at a drastic speed. At present, some 820 million people around the world are experiencing chronic hunger and of these, 113 million are coping with acute severe food insecurity where any further ‘access to food’ disruptions may pose an immediate threat to their lives or livelihoods. With border closures, quarantines and market, supply chain and trade disruptions, the global economy is being challenged
Governments’ pledges for sustainable development are flourishing, most notably as they signed up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. But how can they translate such pledges into practice? Voluntary Sustainability Standards, or VSS, have been recognised as potentially transformative tools for sustainable trade, and they offer great potential for governments to realise their sustainability commitments through two main avenues. First, public procurement represents, on average, 12 percent of GDP in OECD countries, and up to 30 percent of GDP in
