The commitments made at the Doha Summit for Social Development … Approximately 40 heads of state and government, around 200 ministers and officials, and approximately 8,000 representatives from civil society and the business world gathered in Doha during the week of November 3 for the Second World Summit for Social Development. The assembled governments agreed…
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Der Weltsozialgipfel in Doha
Die Zusagen des Doha- Gipfels für soziale Entwicklung … Circa 40 Staats- und Regierungsoberhäupter, an die 200 Minister:Innen und Beamt:Innen und circa 8000 Vertreter:innen aus Zivilgesellschaft und Businesswelt kamen in der Woche vom 3. November in Doha zum 2. Weltsozialgipfel für soziale Entwicklung zusammen. Die versammelten Regierungen einigten sich in einer moralisch-verpflichtenden – aber…
Read MoreWhy Care About Care?
This contribution is published as part of the UNRISD Think Piece Series Beyond Copenhagen: Rethinking Social Development for the 21st Century, which supports UNRISD’s efforts to shape the agenda of the upcoming Summit in Qatar in November 2025. This series brings together experts from academia, advocacy and policy practice to critically explore the achievements and…
Read MoreUN social summits as Global Social Policy?
In 2025, multilateralism is under great pressure. Many United Nations (UN) member states violate the binding principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, often only superficially commit to non-binding declarations such as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development or the Paris Agreement, and are delaying or even cutting funding…
Read MoreThe 2nd World Summit for Social Development
Global society is riven by deep inequalities – political, social, economic, ecological, technological. The inequalities are deepened by produced divisions around economic and political status, genders, ethnicity, indigeneity, caste, faith, and location, to name just a few. There are more simultaneous deadly aggressions in the form of international and civil wars, and persistent persecution of…
Read MoreComments on The Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality
As children and young people are murdered, on a daily basis, in Gaza, Myanmar, Nepal, Sudan and many other countries, does it even make sense to do research? What effect can this have? The purpose of committed research course is to document inequities, uncover and analyse systemic issues, chart existing policies and their impact, and…
Read MoreThe big disconnect
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…
Read MoreWatching the 2025 global commitments pipeline
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…
Read MoreILO conference on regulating for decent work
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…
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Two Summits – two dynamics – social development and climate justice
The city of Doha, its glass skyscrapers rising overwhelmingly, and menacingly, from desert lands, hosted the 2nd World Summit for Social Development (3 to 6 November). Belém, at the mouth of the lush green Amazon river, was the site for the 30th Climate COP (10 to 22/23 November). The venues of the two Summits obviously…
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