Failing southern cities: can aid agencies and development banks improve their act?

For half a century, the most influential international rules and standards for taxing multinational corporations have been formulated by a select group of developed countries, the OECD, with lower-income countries on the outside. Since 2013, this has changed: decision making at the OECD has moved to the ‘Inclusive Framework’ (IF), which today encompasses 137 jurisdictions.

During the last three decades Vietnam has undergone a considerable economic transformation. However, little research has considered the role that financial reform has played in the development of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

As elsewhere in the world, COVID-19 continues to ravage Africa, causing thousands of deaths and an unprecedented health crisis that is damaging to every aspect of the social and economic lives of millions of people.

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a collapse in global economic activity that will have lasting economic and social impacts across the world. Recent World Bank estimates suggest that there could be more than 100 million additional people earning less than $1.90 per day as a result of the crisis.

The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which export processing zones in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe integrate the Sustainable Development Goals in their implementation and operations. We focused on four Sustainable Development Goals— gender equality, decent work, industry, and climate action. We interviewed four zone authorities, one in each country.