At its meeting on 18 March, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) decided the theme for the next meeting of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that will be convened for the first time under its auspices, 7 – 9 July 2014.
Acting by consensus, ECOSOC decided that the theme would be “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and charting the way for an ambitious post-2015 development agenda, including the sustainable development goals”.
It’s President Martin Sadjik (Austria) said that the decision was “forward-looking”, as it would allow the High-level Political Forum to guide the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda at a time when the Council would be moving from the stocktaking and review phase into negotiation mode. As he said, “I am confident that this decision will facilitate consensual agreement on a single Ministerial Declaration to be adopted by the High-level Political Forum.” He reiterated that the Forum would be able to benefit from the Charter authority of ECOSOC.
Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz (Bolivia), speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said the Forum was a universal body and that it should decide the themes of its future sessions. This was echoed by Olivier Marc Zehnder (Switzerland), speaking also for Liechtenstein and Norway, emphasizing that this decision should not create a precedent.
For more information on the High-level Political Forum.