The United Nations\’ proposed global goals for poverty reduction miss much of the story when it comes to trade-related illicit flows — which drain tens of billions of dollars from the world\’s poorest countries ever year. A new ASAP study identifies a set of simple reforms that could drastically reduce such outflows and can guide the UN\’s efforts as it develops its new Sustainable Development Goals.

Concerns over extreme poverty and inequality have led to a number of proposals for the reform of global taxation policy. Such proposals are enjoying serious analysis and, in some cases, implementation. While issues concerning national taxation have long concerned philosophers — invoking core questions about the legitimacy of governments and their appropriate functions as well as about the nature of freedom, coercion, and property rights — issues of global taxation and international tax fairness have not received anything like the same attention. Through a special issue of the journal Moral Philosophy and Politics, co-editors Gillian Brock, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, and Thomas Pogge, ASAP President and Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale, aim to remedy such neglect, stimulating further interest especially among moral and political philosophers who we hope will be motivated to turn their attention to many of the important normative questions that deserve more sustained analysis.

View the special issue on the De Gruyter website.

ASAP Italy is the latest ASAP chapter to hold a public launch event. There are now twelve chapters under development in the ASAP network: Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Oceania, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, and West Africa.

ASAP Italy launched on May 9-10 in Rome at LUISS University, in collaboration with the Schools of Law and Political Science. The event aimed to bring together both academics and practitioners and to spark a debate over what should be the priorities of the new chapter.

Participants in the meeting identified some early priorities for the new chapters, including encouraging research at the intersection of global justice theory and inequality studies, as well as establishing a global health research hub within ASAP Italy. Participants were also interested in initiating projects related to sustainability and human rights.

Teaching is meant to be a major priority for the new group. One idea that came up in the brainstorming session was to create an interdisciplinary MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on poverty alleviation in order to offer students a wider perspective on poverty. The MOOC would draw on work from economics, political science, and law.

To get involved with ASAP Italy, contact chapter co-organizers Mario Ascolese and Maria Ginevra Cattaneo at mario.ascolese@gmail.com and mariagc@gmail.com.

ASAP is supporting ID100, a collaborative project to identify the 100 most important questions for development after the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. Led by the Sheffield Institute for International Development (SIID), ID100 aims to contribute to the discussion of the post-2015 development agenda.

Members sent in 40 questions to be considered for inclusion in ASAP\’s submission to ID100. A committee of ASAP global Board members, chapter heads, and staff voted for the five best questions. Here are the winners:

• What are successful business models or partnership models for providing access to clean water? (Submitted by Regina Schönberger)
• What are the socially and morally most desirable interventions to reduce inequalities in income? (Submitted by Regina Schönberger)
• What are the best methods for ensuring that people benefit from the exploitation of the natural resources found on their lands? (Submitted by Jérémie Gilbert)
• How can companies and financial actors be held accountable to pay fair taxes? (Submitted by Jérémie Gilbert)
• What are the most effective policy interventions to address some of the persistent silences affecting the success of MDG 5: girls\’ and women\’s lack of control over sexuality, fertility and family planning, and access to safe abortion? (Submitted by Colleen O\’Manique and Pieter Fourie)

Regina Schönberger works for GIZ in Jakarta in the Responsible and Inclusive Business Hub. Jérémie Gilbert is Reader in Law at the School of Law & Social Sciences, University of East London. Colleen O\’Manique is Associate Professor of International Development Studies and Gender & Women\’s Studies at Trent University. Pieter Fourie is Associate Professor of Politics at Stellenbosch University.

Thanks to all who submitted questions!

Academics Stand Against Poverty has added significantly to its poverty and organizational expertise with the appointment of three new members to its Global Board of Directors, as well as communications and web officers.

Joining the Board are Helen Yanacopulos of the Open University in the United Kingdom as Fundraising Director, and Jason Hickel of the London School of Economics and Political Science as Membership Director. Miles Thompson of Canterbury Christ Church University will serve as Web Director.

Ellen Szarleta of Indiana University Northwest has been appointed Global Communications Director, and Oskar MacGregor of the University of Skovde in Sweden will serve as Vice-Chair of a new ASAP Web Committee. The Board expansion and creation of officer positions is designed to help ASAP meet both its expanding remit and growth in membership. Directors and officers will be tasked with overseeing all aspects of operations in their designated areas, and with generating ideas and creating opportunities for ASAP members to become more directly involved.

As Fundraising Director, Yanacopulos will oversee specific campaigns and help develop ongoing support for ASAP activities. She is Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development at the Open University in Milton Keynes, just north of London. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Cambridge, an MA in International Development from the University of East Anglia, and a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia.

Her areas of expertise include international NGOs, social movements, civil society networks, public engagement and media in development. She has been an academic consultant for the British Broadcasting Corporation on various International Development-related television series, and she is the editor for the Zed Books’ ‘Development Matters’ series. Her latest book, NGO Engagement, Activism and Advocacy will be published by Palgrave in 2015.

“One of the most powerful roles that academics can play is to critically engage wider publics, beyond students and other academics, around development, inequality and social justice,” Yanacopulos said.  “ASAP is a unique organisation whose mission matches my own; it is an honor to be appointed to the ASAP Board!”

Hickel, as Membership Director, will lead efforts to develop member volunteer opportunities and enhance recruiting. He is Lecturer in Anthropology at LSE, and received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Virginia in 2011. His core research looks at how the moral values that underpin western liberalism are contested in South Africa. His forthcoming book, Democracy as Death: The Making of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa (University of California Press), explores why many migrant workers from rural Zululand regard certain liberal elements of “democracy” as morally repulsive and socially destructive.

Hickel’s work has been funded by Fulbright-Hays, the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation. In addition to his academic research, he contributes to Al Jazeera, Le Monde Diplomatique, Global Policy, Monthly Review, The Africa Report and other online outlets. A recent Al Jazeera piece on the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ scheme can be viewed here.

“I am thrilled to be joining the ASAP Board,” Hickel said. “I’ve long admired what ASAP stands for, and I believe it has the potential to gain serious momentum in the coming years as a platform for academics to take a stand not only against poverty, but – even more importantly – against the ultimate drivers of poverty. This is particularly urgent in the wake of the recent financial crisis, which exposed the pathologies of an economic system that enriches a few at the expense of the world’s majority. People are beginning to seek alternatives to this system, and ASAP is perfectly poised to lead the conversation.”

Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Psychology and brings to the Web Director role several years’ experience in a similar role for the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science. Besides his academic work, Thompson continues to practice as a clinical psychologist. He earned his PhD in Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Plymouth in the UK.

Thompson said that, although his academic training was not focused on poverty issues, “the mission of ASAP is very close to my heart and current research programme. I echo the idea that seems central to ASAP: that academics interested in helping to reduce global poverty can have most impact by collaborating across the disciplinary and hierarchical boundaries within academia. Also by collaborating across the boundaries that can exist between academic institutions and the outside world.”

Szarleta serves as Director for the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE) at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana, just outside Chicago. She earned a PhD in Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1995. Her courses include public health, environmental policy and law, and her academic publications have focused on issues related to environmental sustainability. She has a long record of funded research and collaborative activities.

Macgregor is Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at Skovde, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Philosophy at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Australia. He completed his PhD at Swansea University in Wales, United Kingdom, in 2013, and he has published on issues in cognitive neuroscience and the ethics of sport. He brings to the Web Vice Chair post several years’ experience as website manager for the British Philosophy of Sport Association.

The appointments expand the ASAP Board from eight members to 12, working in seven countries. ASAP continues to interview for new officer roles, and further appointments are expected to be announced soon.

For more information, contact ASAP Vice President Luis Cabrera at a.l.cabrera@bham.ac.uk

Illicit financial flows are gaining recognition as an important issue for development. As 2015 and the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals draws nearer there are calls both from civil society and from within the UN system to make control of such flows a priority within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is still an open debate as to the role they should play in the world’s sustainable development agenda.

The Yale Global Justice Program and ASAP hosted Dr. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University for a special lecture, \”Sustainable Development Goals: The Emerging Global Agenda.\” Critical responses were given by Dr. Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics at Yale and President and Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action and Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and Director of the Global Justice Program and President of ASAP.

Videos are available of Dr. Sachs’s lecture, responses from Dr. Karlan and Dr. Pogge, and audience Q&A. Photos from the event are also available.

Dr. Sachs has been a leading figure in the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, an eight-point framework for promoting poverty alleviation and development worldwide, agreed to by all the world\’s countries and leading development institutions. The Millennium Development Goals will expire in 2015, and the framework that replaces them will shape poverty alleviation and development efforts for the next fifteen years. Dr. Sachs\’s is an important voice in the global debate over priorities for the next phase in international development.

Dr. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 80 countries.

Dr. Sachs serves as the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. Sachs is also one of the Secretary-General’s MDG Advocates, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011).

Video footage of Jeffrey Sachs\’s lecture \”Sustainable Development Goals: The New Global Agenda\”, which was presented at Yale University on February 18, 2014. This event was organized by the Yale Global Justice Program and Academics Stand Against Poverty.

The Center for International Sustainable Development Law, Academics Stand Against Poverty, and the Governance, Environment & Markets Initiative at Yale University have developed a new legal reference guide that examines the connections between climate change and human rights, with a particular focus on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The legal reference guide can be downloaded here.

Given the serious human rights ramifications of climate change, States are obliged to take all appropriate means to avoid and mitigate climate change and its harmful consequences, as well as assist vulnerable communities in adapting to its consequences. States are also required to ensure that their responses to climate change are consistent with their human rights obligations under domestic and international law. This introductory legal reference guide seeks to provide policy-makers, advocates, and experts with basic knowledge of obligations and principles related to international economic, social, and cultural rights in the context of new challenges brought by climate change, as well as to highlight opportunities for policy-makers worldwide.

Part I of this manual provides a general introduction to human rights and the international climate change regime, including the relationship between climate change and human rights. Part II surveys basic concepts of international human rights law. Part III examines the ICESCR more specifically, including its structure, the nature of its obligations, means of implementation, and compliance mechanisms. Finally, Parts IV through X discuss specific rights enumerated in the ICESCR, including: the right to equality and non-discrimination; the right to work and social security; the right to family life; the right to an adequate standard of living; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to education; and the right to culture. These sections also provide case studies illustrating how climate policies are being implemented to concomitantly address climate change and enhance the realization of human rights.

The legal reference guides was edited by Sébastien Jodoin and Katherine Lofts and includes a foreword by Thomas Pogge. The contributing authors include: Christiane Bossé, Christopher Campbell-Furuflé, Benoît Mayer, Karine Péloffy, Patrick Reynaud, and Sean Stephenson.

For more information regarding this publications, please contact Ms. Katherine Lofts at klofts@cisdl.org.

An online educational analogue to the Health Impact Fund is currently being developed by Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, to provide free primary secondary, and tertiary education courses that would be universally accessible in developed and developing countries.