Global 102

[Jude Petkus]

Welcometo GRI. For over 25 years, we have developed and delivered the global best practice for how organizations communicate and demonstrate accountability for their impacts on the environment, economy and people.

We provide the world's most widely used sustainability reporting standards, which cover topics that range from biodiversity to tax, waste to emissions, diversity and equality to health and safety. As such, GRI reporting is the enabler for transparency and dialogue between companies and their stakeholders.

We offer online courses, including a certified training program, as well as other services and tools to fine-tune and improve your reporting. Meanwhile, our membership network provides access to thought leadership and other exclusive opportunities.

Despite the challenges presented by current global threats, including antimicrobial resistance and climate change, the GBD 2021 study offers a cautiously optimistic outlook for the future of global health, advocating for evidence-based strategies to mitigate risks and enhance health outcomes.

Everyone, all over the world, deserves to live a long life in full health. One of the largest scientific collaborations in the world, the GBD measures what prevents us from achieving that goal, putting knowledge and tools into the hands of people and groups around the world to make people healthier.

Collaboration across the scientific community is one of our core principles. From data analysis to policy use, the GBD Collaborator Network is instrumental to the GBD study and affiliated research projects.

Last year recorded 162,000 conflict related deaths. This was the second highest toll in the past 30 years, with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza accounting for nearly three-quarters of deaths. Ukraine represented more than half, recording 83,000 conflict deaths, with estimates of at least 33,000 for Palestine up to April 2024. In the first four months of 2024, conflict related deaths globally amounted to 47,000. If the same rate continues for the rest of this year, it would be the highest number of conflict deaths since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Global Peace Index 2022 results show that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.03%. Although slight, this is the eleventh deterioration in peacefulness in the last fourteen years, with 90 countries improving, 71 deteriorating and two remaining stable in peacefulness, highlighting that countries tend to deteriorate much faster than they improve.

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Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of development, and since 2011, the Global Findex Database has been the definitive source of data on global access to financial services from payments to savings and borrowing. The 2021 edition, based on nationally representative surveys of about 128,000 adults in 123 economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, contains updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services and digital payments, and offers insights into the behaviors that enable financial resilience. The data also identify gaps in access to and usage of financial services by women and poor adults.

Each day, people are tricked, coerced, or forced into exploitative situations that they cannot refuse or leave. Each day, we buy the products or use the services they have been forced to make or offer without realising the hidden human cost.

Strait of Gibraltar, Atlantic Ocean, September 2018. A boat carrying migrants is stranded at sea. Many migrants are driven to leave their homes due to conflict, or displacement caused by climate change.

Idlib, Syria, December 2020. A young boy crushes stones to sell as construction materials and help support his family living in a tent camp for internally displaced people. Photo credit: Muhammed Said/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.

Each year, thousands of people living in and fleeing warzones are subjected to horrific violence and abuse. Forced recruitment and use by armed groups, abductions and kidnapping for ransom, forced marriage, and forced labour are among the daily risks faced.

The adverse impacts of climate change magnify other drivers of displacement such as loss of livelihoods, poverty, food insecurity, and a lack of access to water and other resources, pushing people to migrate and exposing these vulnerable populations to modern slavery.

For example, forced marriage is pervasive in countries where patriarchal views lead to gender inequality and discrimination, reinforced, for example, by laws that prevent women from inheriting land or the absence of laws stipulating 18 years old as minimum of age of marriage. In countries with large populations of migrants and without sufficient labour protections for them, forced labour can be particularly pervasive. In other countries, forced labour is perpetrated by the state, leaving victims with little recourse for remedy.

Nouakchott, Mauritania, June 2018. Mabrouka was a child when she was taken from her mother, also a survivor of forced labour, and was made to work as a domestic servant. Although freed in 2011, she was never able to go to school, and was married two years later, aged 16.

Forced marriage is driven by a variety of factors such as gender biases, harmful cultural practices, poverty, sexuality, gender identity, socio-political instability, conflict, climate change, irregular migration, and a lack of access to education and employment. Eradicating forced marriage worldwide will require a concerted effort by all governments.

In 2021, an estimated 3.9 million people were forced to work by state authorities. State-imposed forced labour takes many forms, including abuse of conscription, compulsory prison labour, or as a means of racial, social, national, and religious discrimination.

The global challenges of COVID-19, conflict, and climate change have diverted resources and attention away from modern slavery, leading to a reduction in focus on tackling it. In the top 10 global responses to modern slavery in 2023, there has been little progress. However, there is promising action elsewhere.

The promise of decent wages and steady employment attracts many migrants to the Arab States. However, their reality often differs substantially once they are in country and under the kafala (sponsorship) system.

There is mounting evidence social media is used to facilitate modern slavery, with perpetrators able to target multiple people in different locations, access their personal information, and exploit vulnerabilities while shielded by online anonymity.

The farming and harvesting of cocoa beans are particularly vulnerable to forced labour, trafficking, and the worst forms of child labour. Some brands are serious in their approach to preventing any forced labour that occurs in their supply chains.

Garment workers, hidden deep within supply chains, face poor or exploitative working conditions, including poverty wages, piece-rate pay, forced and unpaid overtime, irregular work, health and safety risks, and lack of benefits. Businesses should do much more to address forced labour occurring in their supply chains.

There are multiple ways the financial sector is exposed to risks of modern slavery, including through its operations, supply chains, and business relationships. At the same time, financial institutions have a critical role to play in combating slavery.

Dhaka, Bangladesh, January 2021. Labourers unload coal from a cargo ship in Gabtoli on the outskirts of Dhaka. After unloading 30 baskets of coal they earn around US$1. Photo credit: Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto. Getty Images.

Download the country-level data on prevalence of modern slavery, vulnerability to modern slavery, and government responses to modern slavery. Also includes data on G20 at-risk imports and Wikirate data assessing company modern slavery statements.

IPBES is to perform regular and timely assessments of knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services and their interlinkages at the global level. Also addressing an invitation by the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to prepare a global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services building, inter alia, on its own and other relevant regional, subregional and thematic assessments, as well as on national reports.

The overall scope of the assessment is to assess the status and trends with regard to biodiversity and ecosystem services, the impact of biodiversity and ecosystem services on human well-being and the effectiveness of responses, including the Strategic Plan and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets. It is anticipated that this deliverable will contribute to the process for the evaluation and renewal of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

The IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is composed of 1) a Summary for Policymakers (SPM), approved by the IPBES Plenary at its 7th session in May 2019 in Paris, France (IPBES-7); and 2) a set of six Chapters, accepted by the IPBES Plenary.

IPBES (2019): Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. S. Daz, J. Settele, E. S. Brondzio, H. T. Ngo, M. Guze, J. Agard, A. Arneth, P. Balvanera, K. A. Brauman, S. H. M. Butchart, K. M. A. Chan, L. A. Garibaldi, K. Ichii, J. Liu, S. M. Subramanian, G. F. Midgley, P. Miloslavich, Z. Molnr, D. Obura, A. Pfaff, S. Polasky, A. Purvis, J. Razzaque, B. Reyers, R. Roy Chowdhury, Y. J. Shin, I. J. Visseren-Hamakers, K. J. Willis, and C. N. Zayas (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 56 pages.

IPBES (2019): Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E. S. Brondizio, J. Settele, S. Daz, and H. T. Ngo (editors). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 1148 pages.

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