Post-2015 development agenda intergovernmental negotiations, 20-31 July, No 11: CSO statement “A Vision for Urgent Action on health, education and development”

This statement was also  delivered by Marianne Haslegrave, Commonwealth Medical Trust on Tuesday 21 July 2015

Thank you Co-facilitator,

I speak on behalf of civil society working on education, and the “Health in the Post-2015 NGO Coalition.”

Education and health for all are critical factors to fulfill the entire SDG agenda.

The Declaration should explicitly state that all governments will work towards achieving the full set of goals and targets. This requires specific and time-bound actions and not -- as now weakly worded for non-communicable diseases, “ to devoting greater efforts”.

Member States should deliver quality, essential, affordable services for education and health, for all. Public private partnerships must be entered into with extreme caution, with strong regulation and accountability mechanisms in place, and with protection from policymaking.

On education:

Delivering quality education for all at all levels is the prime responsibility of the state.  But the role of civil society should be recognized, particularly youth organisations, in delivering non-formal or out-of-school education. 

In para 7,  “quality, equitable and universal” should all be applied to all of education, health and social protection. 

Para 15 should include The Incheon Declaration; ICPD and Beijing.

In para 23, “Inclusive and equitable” should be added to quality education, and “lifelong learning” included (not just access), as referred to by the Republic of Korea. 

Also critical are safe school environments. 

On health:

We appreciate statements on health by member states, such as Indonesia, Palau, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Iceland and just now by Benin on behalf of the LDCs. 

In the preamble, “Physical and mental health and well-being” should be included under PEOPLE.

For para 11, we support the UK and Sweden to include “anti-microbial resistance.”

In para 19, we support the call for “sexual and reproductive health and rights.” 

In para 24, “financial risk protection to reach those furthest behind” should be included, to achieve universal health coverage.

In line with AOSIS, the third sentence should read “We commit to accelerating the progress made to date in eliminating newborn, infant, child and maternal mortality by eradicating preventable deaths and morbidity by 2030.”

Language on NCDs should be strengthened with specific references to  “prevention and control” instead of “tackling”, and a reference to “social determinants of health.” We agree with what the Ambassador of` Benin just said on behalf of the LDCs, that a final sentence should read: “These efforts together achieve our vision of integrated health, mental health and well-being.”

Finally, the Declaration should reflect the environmental dimension of health, recognizing the link between air, water and soil pollution, reducing human exposure to toxics, and recognizing the dangerous health impacts of climate and environmental change.

Thank you, Co-facilitator

This statement was based on the following position paper from the Health in Post-2015 NGO Coalition.