Consultations on post-2015 Summit to resume in September

According to iisd Post-2015 Policy & Practice at the beginning of August, UN Member States decided to postpone the conclusion of the informal consultations on organizational modalities of the UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda. It is expected that they will resume in early September.

The consultations started on 27 June 2014 at UN Headquarters, continuing throughout July, with delegations discussing a draft resolution and annexes that elaborate on key elements, which were circulated by the co-facilitators, Robert Guba Aisi of Papua New Guinea, and Ib Petersen of Denmark.

There are now four Annexes for the current version of the draft: Annex 1, on the organization of plenary meetings and speakers list for the summit; Annex 2, on the organization of the interactive dialogues for the Summit; Annex 3, on the organization of the informal interactive hearings; and Annex 4, on “Other participants.”

There seems to be agreement among participants that the Summit will be held on 21-23 September 2015, in New York, and convened as a High-level Plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly. Discussions continue regarding references to format, stakeholder and observers’ inclusion, budget, and other matters.

Editors note: These negotiations are particularly important for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as they will decide the modalities for their participation as stakeholders and observers in the UN Summit. NGOs do not enjoy consultative status with the UN General Assembly in the same way that they do with the UN Economic and Social Council. We therefore should continue to urge Member States to ensure the fullest inclusion of NGO and civil society in the process, as has been the case with the General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals.

It should also be noted that these informal consultations only relate to the UN Summit itself. Co-chairs or facilitators will also be needed for the process to take the post-2015 development agenda forward up until the Summit. This should include the OWG report, the report of the ICESDF, which has been forward to the next (69^th) session of the General Assembly, and the UN Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report. They will also be used as input into the Third International Conference on Development Financing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 13 – 16 July 2015.