Collective MGoS “outcome” of 2019 HLPF - Review by 16 July @ 10 PM EST

From volunteer MGoS drafting team: 

Dear MGoS Coordination Mechanism,

Hope this finds you well, as we continue into the second week of the 2019 High Level Political Forum. 

Last week when many of us gathered for the MGoS pre-meeting (on Monday 8 July, at the UN), those present voiced collective frustration over the Political Declaration agreed on 2 July 2019 (attached).

There was a commensurate level of interest to produce a shared outcome of the 2019 HLPF that better reflects the realities and priority issues amongst MGoS around the SDGs under review: 4, 8, 10, 13, 16, and 17. This seems especially urgent this year as the agreed Political Declaration will serve as the combined outcome of both the HLPF in July and the SDGs Summit in September. This means that the ECOSOC President’s summary will be the only official outcome of the July HLPF and there will be no negotiated text on the SDGs in focus, which minimizes the political impact of the thematic review sessions that have just concluded.

A group of sixteen or so volunteers from among the MGoS have therefore drafted the attached “MGoS Outcome” of the 2019 HLPF, focusing on the goals under review and with a bit of commentary regarding our disappointment with the process of arriving at the political declaration and its insufficient ambition to address the overlapping global crises we face. We hope to present it to Member States at the conclusion of the HLPF (most likely online and distributed in paper form, as there is no mandated opportunity to speak) and our dedicated Advocacy/Communications task force is thinking through how best to disseminate the outcome.

Please find the draft of the outcome HERE. Your feedback and suggestions in the form of comments (though for the sake of clarity of process, not direct text edits) are welcome by Tuesday, 16 July at 10 PM EST, but must be sent through the Major Groups and other Stakeholders. The outcome will then be finalized on Wednesday (17 July) by the drafting team and the Steering Group of the MGoS CM, in order to be ready for dissemination on Thursday.

Thanks very much for engaging in this process and looking forward to your feedback.