Unless austerity is reversed, people in developing countries will lose social protections and public services just when they are most needed. And it doesn't have to be this way, write Isabel Ortiz and Matthew Cummins for Project Syndicate.
A lack of financial resources was a major sticking point at the talks, as well as vague commitments on reducing consumption and production. Report by Catherine Early for The Ecologist.
Pandemics, wars and recessions do not exempt states from human-rights commitments. They must tax multinationals and the richest more to protect the most vulnerable, writes Magdalena Sepúlveda for Social Europe.
The external debt of the world’s low and middle-income countries at the end of 2021 totalled 9 trillion US dollars, more than double the amount a decade ago. Such debt is expected to increase by an additional 1.1 trillion US dollars in 2023.
