APFSD – SDG Week in Asia Pacific

by Alexandra johns, Asia Pacific Alliance (APA):

The week of 28 November – 2 December was SDG week as ESCAP, during which a series of meetings were held on the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD), including the follow-up and review process.  Both APA and ARROW were among the CSOs accepted to the meetings.

The next APFSD will be held on 28-31 March 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand, organized by UN ESCAP. The theme follows the 2017 High Level Political Forum, “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world", and the agenda will have three main items: the current state of the region (see background document); review and follow-up; and building capacity to support implementation.  The thematic review of goals will not be addressed in the main agenda of the regional conference, but through associate events organized in collaboration with UN agencies. The overall approach taken to review the goals at these events is not yet decided (ie: focus on individual goals, interlinkages?) of these events have not yet been decided.  The possibility of a joint event with UNFPA and partners on Goals 3 & 5 is currently being explored.

ESCAP is preparing a background document to provide the foundation for discussions at the 2017 APFSD.  It is intended to be an annual technical paper prepared by ESCAP.  The 2017 technical paper contains three main chapters on: urbanization, natural resources, and infrastructure.  While only a synopsis of each chapter was shared at the meeting, the document is strongly weighted to the environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development and feedback was given to mainstream gender, human rights and include the social dimension. Due to the short timeline, the opportunity to influence the draft of this document was very limited this year, however it is expected to be more participatory in future years.

The meeting on Follow-up and Review gathered a mix of UN, government and CSOs to discuss key elements of effective follow-up and review and gather recommendations for a regional level process in Asia Pacific, to be discussed further at next APFSD.  Defining the “value add” of regional level review to ensure no duplication of national and/or global level efforts was emphasized, with identification of cross-border challenges one principle role.  Inclusion of multiple stakeholders in all three phases – monitoring, review and follow-up - was strongly stresses as a key element.  Alternative reporting was highlighted.

Prior to the SDG week, a new draft of the Regional road map for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Asia Pacific was circulated for comment among civil society.   APA gave input to include the mid-term review process of ICPD in Asia Pacific, to ensure the two processes are linked.  The draft is expected to be adopted at the 2017 APFSD. (The first draft of the roadmap was not accepted by governments at the 2016 APFSD).