Final meeting of the Post-2015 Thematic Consultation on Governance

As reported on the IISD website, the final meeting of the Post-2015 Thematic Consultation on Governance, in which was attended by 250 participants, took place in Midrand, South Africa from 28 February to 1 March 2013. Co-led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), it aimed to build consensus and recommend how to integrate global, regional, national and sub-national governance and accountability with the intergovernmental process on the UN’s post-2015 development agenda.

Participants discussed a variety of issues relating to governance and accountability, emphasizing, among other things, the need to: address the challenges of poverty and inequality; empower indigenous peoples; improve the accountability of UN agencies; empower women; promote democratic governance; improve citizens’ awareness of their right to hold their leaders accountable; increase public participation and involvement; and combat corruption.

The outcomes of the meeting will feed into an overall report, which will be used to engage with the HLP, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other key processes in preparation for the General Assembly’s Special Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2013 and beyond.

For the summary report of the meeting please click here (PDF or HTML).

Olav Kjørven, Assistant Secretary General, UN Development Programme; Graça Machel, the Secretary-General's High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda; and Zanele Mbeki, former First Lady, South Africa. The President of the Pan-African Parliament, Bethel Amadi, Nigeria, welcomed participants to the final meeting of the post-2015 Global Thematic Consultations on Governance.A participant from Ghana at the final meeting of the Global Thematic Consultations on Governance. 

Photos courtesy of IISD.