Meeting with Financing for Development co-facilitators: Friday, 17 April 9:00-9:45am Conference Room A at UNHQ

We have received the following from UN-NGLS:

Dear Colleagues, 

On Friday, 17 April from 9:00-9:45am, the co-facilitators of the process for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3), Ambassadors Geir O. Pederson of Norway and Ambassador George Talbot of Guyana, will meet with stakeholders in Conference Room A at UN Headquarters. Susan Alzner of UN-NGLS and Daniel Platz of DESA FFDO will facilitate this dialogue in the context of the 13-17 April drafting session for the outcome document of the FfD3 Conference...

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Second drafting session for the Addis Ababa Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) begins

The second drafting session for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) began in New York on Monday 13 April 2015. The main agenda item was to begin to negotiate the zero draft of the Addis Ababa Accord (See also: Zero draft for Financing for Development Addis Ababa conference).   

Ambassador George Talbot, Permanent Representative of Guyana and Co-facilitator, in his opening presentation stressed that this was a critical stage in the process and that negotiations were about to begin in earnest on the zero draft. 

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Post-2015: Stakeholder views on indicators - deadline 26 April

As you are aware, on 19 March 2015, a technical report was released by the Bureau of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) on the process of the development of an indicator framework for the goals and targets of the post-2015 development agenda. This report was discussed during the March inter-governmental negotiating session of the post-2015 development agenda. 

DESA-DSD and UN-NGLS invite non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and organizations participating in the Major Groups to contribute their views and assessment of the draft indicators by completing the online google form at: http://bit.ly/onlinegoogleform

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18-22 May negotiating session for the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Nominate speakers for interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other Stakeholders

We have received the following information from UN-NGLS:

The UN DESA Division for Sustainable Development (DESA-DSD) Major Groups Programme and UN-NGLS are facilitating stakeholder Steering Committees to ensure broad and inclusive participation of stakeholders in the negotiating sessions on the post-2015 development agenda at UN Headquarters in New York. DESA-DSD and UN-NGLS are also conducting open and transparent nomination processes for these Committees to select speakers for the post-2015 negotiating sessions, in accordance with the modalities that are defined for the negotiations...

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Draft Programme for Joint Session between Post-2015 processes and FfD processes now available

The Co-facilitators for both the intergovernmental negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Ambassadors David Donoghue of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya, and the preparatory process for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD), Ambassadors George Talbot of Guyana and Geir O Pederson of Norway, have made available the draft programme for the joint session to be held in New York next week. 

The meeting will open on 21 April with a discussion of issues from the FfD negotiating session, followed by a discussion with the International Financial Institutions...

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Financing for Development Hearings (FfD) with Civil Society and Business Sector

As part of the preparatory process for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD 3), hearings with civil society and the business sector, hosted by the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, with support from the Financing for Development Office (FFDO) and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) were held on 8 April for the business sector and on 9 April for civil society.  The concept notes are now available.

Claudio Guedes Fernandes, shared ideas on innovative finance on behalf of Gestos and the Brazilian Association of NGOs (ABONG), as the national hub of the campaign Beyond 2015.

Upcoming Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2015 documents now available

Documents for the upcoming Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2015 are becoming available on on the ESCAP website. These include the Annotated Provisional Agenda (中文, English, Français, and русский) as well as the Tentative Programme (English only). 

(See: Call for participation: Asia Pacific Civil Society Forum on Sustainable Development )

Apply to speak at the 26-27 May 2015 United Nations General Assembly interactive hearings for the Post-2015 Development Agenda

As part of the process to define the post-2015 development agenda, the UN President of the General Assembly will organize two full days of hearings for stakeholders to participate in informal interactive dialogue with Member States on 26-27 May at UN Headquarters in New York.

By request of the Office of the President of the General Assembly, UN-NGLS will facilitate a stakeholder Steering Committee for the hearings, which will select the speakers from applications received through an open and transparent process.  

UN-NGLS invites stakeholders to apply to speak at these hearings here: http://bit.ly/p2015hearings-speaker-apply

Deadline: Monday, 27 April   

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If The Economist can get it wrong, others can too!

A letter from Marianne Haslegrave, Director, Commonwealth Medical Trust (Commat), in response to three articles of 28 March 2015 on The 169 commandments; unsustainable goals; and the good, the bad and the hideous, has been printed in the 11 April issue of The Economist.

The original letter was co-signed by 85 international and national organizations and networks and marks the beginning of a campaign to ensure that the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment and related issues, are properly reported by the media.  

Please let us know immediately, by leaving a comment below, if you see reports in the press or in other media that misrepresent the post-2015 development agenda and SDGs on these important issues.

Every Woman Every Child: technical paper on adolescent health

We have received the following email from Noemi Espinoza Madrid, Civil Society Partnerships, ICPD Beyond 2014 Secretariat, UNFPA. Comments should be sent to pmnch@who.int up to 15 April, including your name, affiliation and email:

Dear Partners,

I am pleased to share with you the technical paper on adolescent health that is a part of the update of the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy on Women and Children's Health "Every Woman Every Child".

UNFPA has made every effort to ensure that interventions to promote adolescents' sexual and reproductive health and rights are prioritized in this paper and hope that they will remain a priority. We would greatly appreciate your advocacy and support for this as this process gets streamlined.