The Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., in cooperation with Povod Institute and SLOGA, a platform of NGOs for development, global learning and humanitarian aid, co-organised a public reflection “Where the money is going”.<\/p>\n
Slovenia ranks high on the sustainable development and green tourism indices, but on the other hand, as a country that belongs to the group of the most developed OECD member states, it is reaching the bottom of citizens’ trust in the authorities due to various financial scams of the economic and political elites. The practice of funnelling financial resources through tax havens (of which Bosnia and Herzegovina is one) with the aim of (among other things) tax optimisation has a negative impact on the well-being of all its citizens. Tax avoidance is pushing more and more countries into a spiral of increasing urge to privatise more and more social services, with frightening consequences for the most vulnerable members of society – the socially weakest.<\/p>\n
The adoption of the 2030 Agenda, the global agenda to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, has committed us to action. Action to eradicate poverty and hunger, to improve health, education levels, gender equality, sustainable use of resources and consumption, and, among other things, to strengthen civil society as a self-organising body of autonomous and free citizens. In recent years, the countries of the Global South, but also an increasing number of developed countries, have been increasingly confronted with capital flight (or ‘tax optimisation’ of companies) on the one hand, and an increasing outflow of young, educated labour from their countries on the other. At the same time, these trends are increasingly forcing nation states to cut back on social rights and consequently increase inequality, which runs counter to one of the fundamental goals of the 2030 Agenda – to reduce inequality within countries as well as between countries (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10).<\/p>\n