Financing child rights in Malawi

AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS : All data is available on the GRADE website (https:// www. st-​andre ws. ac. uk/ ~grade/ doh/), the Missing Profits (https:// missi ngpro fits. world/), Hidden Wealth (https:// gabri el-​zucman. eu/ hidden-​wealth/), Who Owns the Wealth in Tax Havens? (http:// gabri el-​zucman. eu/ offsh ore/) websites, and the Tax Justice Network’s website (https:// iff. taxju stice. net/).BACKGROUND : Nearly all countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and, therefore, support children having access to their rights. However, only a small minority of children worldwide have access to their environmental, economic, and social rights. The most recent global effort to address these deficits came in 2015, when the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a plan for a fairer and more sustainable future by 2030 and outlined the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One remediable cause is the lack of revenue in many countries, which affects all SDGs. However, illicit financial flows from low-income to high-income countries, including international tax abuse, continue unabated. METHODS : Using the most recent estimates of tax abuse perpetuated by multinational companies and tax evasion through offshore wealth, and precise econometric modelling, we illustrate the potential regarding child rights (or progress towards the SDGs) if there was an increase in revenue equivalent to tax abuse in Malawi, a low-income country particularly vulnerable to climate change. The Government Revenue and Development Estimations model provides realistic estimates of government revenue changes in developmental outcomes. Using panel data on government revenue per capita, it models the impact of increased revenue on governance and SDG progress. RESULTS : If cross-border tax abuse and tax evasion were curtailed, the equivalent increase in government revenue in one country, Malawi, would be associated with 12,000 and 20,000 people having access to basic water and sanitation respectively each year. Each year, an additional 5000 children would attend school, 150 additional children would survive, and 10 mothers would survive childbirth. CONCLUSIONS : More children would access their economic and social rights if actions were taken to close the gap in global governance regarding taxation. We discuss the responsibility of duty bearers, the need for a global body to arbitrate and monitor international tax matters, and how the Government of Malawi could take further domestic action to mitigate the gaps in global governance and protect itself against illicit financial flows, including tax abuse.The Global Challenges Research Fund, the Scottish Funding Council, and the Professor Sonia Buist Global Health Research Fund, the MRC Impact Acceleration Award. Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support fund of the University of St Andrews.https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.comam2024TaxationSDG-16:Peace,justice and strong institution

Educational use cases from a shared exploration of e-books and iPads

E-books and e-book readers are becoming increasingly widely available, particularly for the general reader, and there have been many studies on their adoption. However, less is known about their use for educational and academic purposes. We report here on work carried out on e-books and e-book applications using iPads by academic and teaching staff. After considering pedagogical issues and reporting survey results, we identify a spiral of six key use case areas for e-books. This spiral of use cases moves from basic e-book use, through situational reading, e-books and learning, using multiple learning resources, collaborative/group learning, to e-book production. We discuss each of these use case areas and provide guidelines that will be of interest to practitioners and researchers alike

Money & Trust in Digital Society, Bitcoin and Stablecoins in ML enabled Metaverse Telecollaboration

We present a state of the art and positioning book, about Digital society tools, namely; Web3, Bitcoin, Metaverse, AI/ML, accessibility, safeguarding and telecollaboration. A high level overview of Web3 technologies leads to a description of blockchain, and the Bitcoin network is specifically selected for detailed examination. Suitable components of the extended Bitcoin ecosystem are described in more depth. Other mechanisms for native digital value transfer are described, with a focus on `money'. Metaverse technology is over-viewed, primarily from the perspective of Bitcoin and extended reality. Bitcoin is selected as the best contender for value transfer in metaverses because of it's free and open source nature, and network effect. Challenges and risks of this approach are identified. A cloud deployable virtual machine based technology stack deployment guide with a focus on cybersecurity best practice can be downloaded from GitHub to experiment with the technologies. This deployable lab is designed to inform development of secure value transaction, for small and medium sized companies