The Tax Justice Network released a new tool to track the global extent of tax-related illicit financial flows, how much tax revenues each country loses, and which jurisdictions facilitate these enormous losses. Tijmen Tuinsma authored an article on their website with a description of the tracker and some of its implications. The tracker shows how $1,624,708, 158,000 (over 1.6 trillion dollars) in 2022, with an estimated tax revenue lost of over $433 billion. As an example, they estimated that Ghana…
Tag: inequality
6 million more children missing out on education
Oluwaseun Ikusika, in UNtoday (1 October) draws attention to the growing global crisis in education, where the number of children missing out on any schooling has increased by six million globally to 250 million total. And this doesn’t even take into account the rapid and sustained growth of privatization of education, where the public schools that serve the poor are often extremely crowded and underfunded. The education crisis is critically important for global population health, were lack of education is,…
UN global tax negotiations – encouraging?
Fair taxation is essential for optimizing global health and equity. Dr. Dereje Alemayehu of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) was encouraged by the August 2026 UN Tax Convention, stating “The negotiations for a Framework Convention on tax get to the heart of the issues of our broken global tax rules: fairly sharing between countries the ability to tax multinational corporations, effectively taxing the rich, ensuring a transparent international tax system….the debate is open and moving forward.” The UN…
Art for global health equity
A July essay in PLOS Global Public Health argues that art and its expression are critically important in the struggle for global health equity. Reñosa and his colleagues make the case that art can be leveraged to (1) to amplify disenfranchised voices, (2) to advance social justice activism, (3) to strengthen communities and individuals, and (4) to improve global health communication. They argue that art facilitates the inclusion of diverse cultural perspectives and engagement and uplifts marginalized voices. They provide a…
Barred from Healing: Denial of Qualified Medical Care Deepens Humanitarian Crises
This article is written in Arabic and English. For the English version, please see below. في مناطق النزاع حول العالم، يمكن أن يكون الوصول إلى المهنيين الطبيين المؤهلين هو الفارق بين الحياة والموت. ولا يوجد مكان يتجلى فيه هذا الأمر أكثر من غزة، حيث أدى الحصار المتعمد على العاملين في مجال الرعاية الصحية الماهرين إلى تفاقم كارثة إنسانية متزايدة. أحد الحالات الرمزية هو حالة الدكتور محمد الموسوي محمد طاهر، الجراح البريطاني-العراقي المتخصص في جراحة الصدمات والمعروف بمساهماته الاستثنائية خلال مهمة…
IMF imposing austerity on new Sri Lanka government
The new wave of IMF-imposed austerity measures is now reaching Sri Lanka, and their newly elected center-left government is challenging the usual IMF terms of social welfare cuts, rise in the VAT, and other measures that have the effect of doubling the cost of living and reducing the real wages by half for those that have formal employment. These are the standard IMF free-marked driven policies that typically benefited the elite in the country, while the burden typically falls on the…
Kenya’s protests: The violent cost of IMF debt
Recent demonstrations against Kenya’s Finance Bill 2024 were met with deadly repression. At least 39 civilians were killed and hundreds injured by Kenyan police while protesting the proposed 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.6 billion) tax increase. This Bill was intended to generate government revenue, a condition of the $2.34 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) 38-month loan issued to Kenya in April 2021. The proposed tax levies would have increased the price of basic commodities including bread, sugar, and car petroleum,…
The Shift Towards Private Education in Rural India
India’s education landscape is witnessing a significant shift, with nearly 50% of students now enrolled in 4.5 lakh privately managed schools, making it the third-largest school system globally. This surge is driven by low- and middle-income families seeking quality alternatives to government schools. The ‘State of the Sector Report on Private Schools’ by the Central Square Foundation and Omidyar Network India highlights the urgent need to improve learning outcomes in these institutions, which contribute approximately Rs. 1.75 lakh crores to…
Israel’s Dahiya doctrine intentionally violates International Humanitarian Law
The Israeli response to the brutal October 7, 2023 Hamas killings and hostage-taking has been widely criticized by the international community. The immense numbers of civilian deaths and injuries have prompted human rights experts to condemn Israel for its defense strategy that disproportionately harms civilians. The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials. Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians…
Chiquita guilty of funding terrorists in Colombia
A South Florida jury just found Chiquita Brands liable for killings by right-wing paramilitary death squads that the the company financed in their banana plantations. Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company (UFC), has a long history of deadly repression against workers. The New Orleans-based multinational has long monopolized land and markets and controlled governments throughout Latin America. UFC was implicated in massacres in Colombia, the overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbens of Guatemala, and propped up many so-called “banana…