Author: Gabriele Koehler

We note a disconcerting disconnect at the annual SDG meet at the UN between what governments say in New York and that they do at home. The German government is a prime example. Its 2025 SDG report is good, covers many themes and is honest on shortcomings (it was actually penned by the preceding government…

Multilateralism is weak (to put it mildly), but global summitry remains strong in 2025 nevertheless, with a string of meetings at heads of state/government level, and forceful progressive civil society presence and pressure. Thus, for instance, feminists celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action at the Commission on the Status of Women…

As is well-known, SDG8 is devoted to full and productive employment and decent work for all. The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals, edited by Madelaine Moore, Christoph Scherrer, and Marcel van der Linden, unpacks this as a host of methodological, policy and political challenges.   Questions include: How is unemployment…

The majority of adults – 2 billion workers – are caught in the so-called informal economy, with the trend towards casualisation of work tendentially increasing this number. Women are particularly affected, both because of the gendered inequitable nature of their employment, and their multiple roles in the care economy, as are other socially marginalised groups.…

As mentioned in an earlier post, the UN and its member countries are preparing a World Summit for Social Development, to take place in November in Doha, 30 years after the original social summit (often referred to as the Copenhagen Summit). The geopolitical situation has deteriorated palpably on all counts since then. But, we also…