Thematic consultation round-up
Friday, November 30, 2012 at 6:35PM The consultations of greatest relevance to sexual and reproductive health and rights are those on Health and Population Dynamics. It is, however, important to contribute to as many other consultations as possible in order to ensure that relevant sexual and reproductive health and rights concerns are reflected in discussions.
In looking at the nine thematic consultations, it can be seen that they all have different formats and mechanisms, which we have tried to reflect in the information given below. During the coming weeks, given that these consultations will be completed by the end of March, the NGOs Beyond 2014 website will be posting information regularly on all of them as well as highlighting them in the Newsletters. We would be most grateful if you could send us any relevant information that we can post to the following email address: newsletter@ngosbeyond2014.org
Health
The health consultation focuses of five key themes:
- Lessons learnt from the health MDGs: What are the lessons learnt from the health related MDGs?
- Health priorities post 2015: What is the priority health agenda for the 15 years after 2015?
- Framing the future health goal: How does health fit in the post 2015 development agenda?
- Measurement of progress towards the health goals: What are the best indicators and targets for health?
- Ensuring a process and outcome that is relevant to the key stakeholders: How can country ownership, commitment, capacity and accountability for the goals, targets and indicators be enhanced? How can we ensure effective working relations between countries and global partners in terms of alignment and harmonisation with a focus on development results?
Manuscripts (maximum 3000 words, excluding annexes) will be accepted up to 15 December 2012 and reviewed by a task team of experts for publication on The World We Want website. For more information please see: call for papers
Several meetings are proposed involving Members States, civil society organizations, the private sector and academia.
- A meeting of Member State representatives (mission delegates) hosted by WHO in Geneva, Switzerland to seek broad-based inputs from Member States (prime organizer – WHO);
- A meeting of civil society organizations that bring together key international health NGOs and NGO coalition representatives to discuss how to build broad-based consensus around health in the post-2015 agenda and consider ways of enhancing accountability mechanisms and involving civil society (prime organizer – civil society coalition);
- A meeting of private sector partners to discuss private sector contributions and assessment of MDG progress as well as priorities for the future (prime organizer – private sector partner/s).
- A meeting of representatives of academic and research institutions, to review experiences with the MDG monitoring process, discuss new goals, indicators and targets for health, examine measurement challenges and propose how they can be dealt with (prime organizer – academic institution.
They will culminate in a high-level leadership meeting involving approximately 40 high-level participants (e.g. government representatives, key thinkers, major civil society/international NGO coalitions, key UN partners, members of the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel) to discuss the synthesized report that will be developed following the consultation processes and develop a statement or recommendations on how the findings should be integrated into the formal post-2015 formal negotiations. This meeting will be held at the end of the consultation process, in early March 2013 .
Population dynamics
The consultation on population dynamics in the post-2015 UN development agenda, is co-convened by UN-DESA, UNFPA, UN-Habitat and IOM, in partnership with the Government of Switzerland. It is an open and inclusive forum for civil society, policy makers, government officials, donors, UN staff and all other stakeholders.
An Expert Group Meeting Population Dynamics and the Post-2015 Development Agenda was held in New York 19-20 November 2012.
The following are current e-consultations:
- Why and how should population dynamics be integrated into the post-2015 UN development agenda?
- Is it possible to develop a common framework for integrating different population dynamics into the post-2015 development agenda?
- Should we consider expanding targets with respect to include such issues as high fertility, demographic bonus, ageing, urbanization, or migration? What would be the disadvantages of broadening the set of targets?
- How can we ensure a human–rights based and gender-responsive approach to addressing population dynamics?
Addressing Inequalities
Inequalities e-consultation are taking place on Persons with Disabilities, LGBTI and Inequalities and Economic Inequalities (which is new) and Indigenous Peoples (which is about to start). Further discussions will be held in January on Inequalities and Urban Areas and Inequalities and Minority Groups.
On 4 February 2013 at the time of the Joint Executive Boards, UNICEF and UN Women will brief Member States on the findings so far and the highlights from the draft synthesis report will be presented.
The consultation will culminate with a small high-level meeting of key decision-makers in government, civil society and the UN in Copenhagen, Denmark on 18-19 February 2013
Conflict and Fragility
The Global Thematic Consultation on Conflict, Violence and Disaster and the post – 2015 Agenda is co-convened by UNDP, UNICEF, the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (UNPBSO) and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) in partnership with the Government of Finland. It provides a platform to articulate views on how best to bring peace and security to the center stage for the future, the question to be answered being “how can we make conflict, violence and disaster integral to the post-2015 development goals?”
There are currently two e-discussions:
- Including Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in Post-2015 Development Goals – what are the options?
- Gender-Based Violence
For further information see http://www.worldwewant2015.org/conflict
Consultations are planned for Indonesia (28-30 November, 2012); Panama (January, 2013); and Finland (February, 2013). A consultation has already been held in Liberia.
Environmental sustainability
Individuals and groups are invited to post ideas and work, on topics that should be a priority for the dialogue on environmental sustainability in the post-2015 agenda. Topics should build on MDG7 experiences and lessons and/or bring forward new and emerging thinking and experiences related to integrated approaches that link economic, social and environmental sustainability and touch on cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, human rights, young people, inequalities and the partnerships necessary to make progress.
They will provide input into a Leadership Meeting of some 40 leading and emerging thinkers to be held in January 2013. This meeting will develop a framework for Phase 2 of the environmental sustainability consultation that provides a focused range of topics selected from the submitted discussion notes.