Intergovernmental Negotiations on Post-2015 Development Agenda consideration of goals and targets – Day 2, Session 3: Indicators (continued)

During the morning session of Day of the Intergovernmental Negotiations, a number of countries took the floor echoing many of the points made the previous day (See: Intergovernmental Negotiations on Post-2015 Development Agenda consideration of goals and targets – Day 1: Indicators) There were however some additional comments that relate to the process, or which can have an impact on issues such as gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights or young people in the process going forward. These include:

• The comment made by Ambassador Kamau that the intergovernmental negotiating process will be completed on 31 July. This raises the question as to the track under which the work of the Statistical Commission on indicators will carried out and how the political oversight will be provided.
• The issue of timing of the end of the MDGs and the beginning of the post-2015 development agenda was also referred to, particularly as the post-2015 agenda will not be ‘complete’ insofar as the indicator work is scheduled to conclude at the Commission’s March 2015 session. The new agenda will start on 1 January 2016. It will be necessary to find a way to refer to the indicators in the outcome document for the September Summit that will allow Heads of State to adopt an agenda that is closed-ended and comprehensive, but partially complete.
• Capacity-building — Ambassador Kamau pointed out that it will be necessary to discuss the capacities that will be required to bring all countries “up to speed.” The ambition has already been built into the goals and targets. The indicators will be used for monitoring and keeping the process on track.
• The strong emphasis on the mandate of the work of the Statistical Commission being only on global indicators and not on national level indicators was reiterated several times.
• References to the report of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Indicators and a Monitoring Framework for the SDGs, were made, including by Italy and the United Kingdom (on the previous afternoon). This report calls for 100 indicators but is very weak on indicators related to sexual and reproductive health and rights, for example, the suggested indicator for target 3.7 on sexual and reproductive health information and services is contraceptive prevalence rate and for 5.6 on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights is met demand for family planning.