Next steps for the work of the OWG in developing the Sustainable Development Goals

During the meeting with civil society organizations on Wednesday 18 June, Ambassador Kamau, OWG Co-Chair, gave an explanation of his expectations of the process going forward. 

He stressed that the document would need to be shrunk without losing any of the “good suggestions.” These suggestions, even if they are not included in the limited number of targets, will be available when we move into intergovernmental negotiations in the General Assembly setting. They would also be useful when member states plan their national development strategies. The issue now was to work to strategize and “squeeze them down.”

Looking at interlinkages, it was absolutely important to understand that we have an integrated agenda for what are often “three-dimensional goals.”

By the end of the week, or early next week, a new iteration will be available as to what has come from the informal process in the next version of the zero draft. It will be necessary to go through the same exercise again, looking for concise language. 

In going through the goals and targets, it will be helpful to include values of measurements and to break a target into two separate targets, if necessary.  It will be important to come up with the top four or five most transformative targets under each goal. In going beyond this number, as he said “You’re forcing us to put all of that back into the annex” He continued that we should remember that if we have too many targets on everything on earth, then they will become indicators, in the annex. In referring to the means of implementation (MoI) Ambassador Kamua said what was wanted was “the top three or so targets that will help implement this process.” He stressed the importance of being disciplined and setting an early deadline to get the necessary work done.

He urged CSOs not to shy away from sharing their ideas with all governments stressing that they might never know where their constituency lies, as it is not always in the obvious place. As he said he wished to maximize the value of having civil society involved throughout the process. Finally once the exercise has been done and CSOs have got their five top targets and three top MoI targets, and the rest have been put in an annex, they should go through the mind exercise of asking themselves where are there inherent contradictions in the targets.