Comments on SDSN draft report on Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals

(from Stan Bernstein and supported by Commonwealth Medical Trust (Commat))

From the perspective of the SRHR community, the SDSN recommendations leave much to be desired. Sexual and reproductive health are included in several places but with formulations that do not give it much priority or coherence. For example, the realization of sexual and reproductive health rights are seen as instrumental to voluntary fertility decline “in countries above [3] children per woman” and relevant for the continuation of voluntary fertility reduction in countries above replacement level fertility in their statement of Target 2c. This does not capture the breadth of SRH concerns and the universality of rights in this area (especially to make voluntary and informed choices about the number, timing and spacing of one’s children) independent of fertility levels. SRH is also recognized as a component of “universal coverage of quality health care”. Other elements of women’s empowerment (including gender based violence) and health (maternal mortality ratios and rates) are included elsewhere and some links to other elements of economic and social development and environmental sustainability are noted. But there is a diminution of status relative to the independent MDG target 5B. However, the goal and target levels are considered to be frozen. (Comments/complaints are unlikely to be productive, but may be useful to stake a claim against that freeze in later discussions.)

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Invitation from Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) to participate in conference call on Thursday March 6 or Friday March 7

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in collaboration with the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) will host two conference calls to solicit feedback from civil society on SDSN's latest report, Indicators for Sustainable Development, currently undergoing public consultation. Comments may also be submitted to SDSN via email to info@unsdsn.org using the comment form available at: http://unsdsn.org/news/2014/02/14/public-consultation-on-indicators-for-sustainable-development.

More information about the report and this consultation are available at this same link.

Calls will take place:

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Latest information on General Assembly High Level event on the role of Women, Young People and Civil Society, 6 and 7 March 2014

The General Assembly High Level event on the role of Women, Young People and Civil Society will be held on 6 and 7 March 2014, the second event in the President of the General Assembly’s Setting the Stage initiative. For further background information see our earlier articles Setting the Stage! Briefing for CSOs and further information and Setting the stage! Dates announced for General Assembly thematic debates and high-level events on post-2014 development agenda. 

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UN Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) holds Consultation in Latin American and the Caribbean Region

As reported on the Post-2015 Policy & Practice knowledgebase of international activities on the post-2015 development agenda the UN Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) held a briefing and open consultation, organized by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in Santiago, Chile on 14-15 January 2014. It brought ICESDF members together with academics, civil society, and government representatives from the region to discuss the objectives of the Committee and receive inputs to its work.

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UNFPA launches its Concept Paper on Empowering Adolescents and Youth to Ensure a Sustainable Future for All

UNFPA has launched its concept paper on Empowering Adolescents and Youth to Ensure a Sustainable Future for All. The concept paper calls for a stand-alone Post-2015 goal on Adolescents and Youth. As well as referring to the numerous recent global and regional discussions and their outcomes that recognize the urgent need to invest in adolescents and youth, it makes proposals for such a goal, together with possible six targets and indicators. 

The timing is particularly apposite given the scant attention that is paid to this age group in the Focus Areas Paper recently circulated by the Co-Chairs of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals. The concept paper highlights many issues related to adolescents and youth that should be included in the post-2015 development agenda.

Opportunity for civil society to make their views known on the focus areas document

A page has been created on the World We Want 2015 website to for civil society to make their thoughts heard on the focus areas. You are encouraged to submit your comments answering the following questions:

1. Regarding the 'focus areas document' overall: What do you agree with and what is missing? (400 word max)
2. Per specific focus area, what do you agree with and how would you improve it? (400 word max per area that you choose to respond to)

This open consultation will run from Monday 24 February to Friday 14 March 2014. It is your chance to make your voice heard in advance of the next OWG session starting 3 March where UN member states will move into a process of identifying SDGs and accompanying targets.

Open Working Group Co-Chairs send focus areas to UN Permanent Representatives

In a letter dated 21 February, the Co-Chairs for the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals, sent to the UN Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) a document listing 19 focus areas. The focus areas are listed below.

In their letter the Co-Chairs said that the document did not “constitute a zero draft of the report that the Group has been mandated to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session.” The focus areas are also not exhaustive and do not preclude inclusion of other issues discussed within the context of the thematic clusters but that may not have been captured here. Based on this document, Member States are however asked to begin “the serious business of identifying SDGs and accompanying targets at the ninth session of the Open Working Group in early March.” They will also “at an appropriate time, and in light of discussions in the Group, provide a more concise document”.

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Forthcoming meetings in connection with post-2015 and sustainable development goals (SDGs) process

Sessions of UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals, March to July 2014

Sessions of the OWG will be held on the following dates:

• Ninth session: 3–5 March
• Tenth session: 31March–4 Apr
• Eleventh session: 5–9 May
• Twelfth session: 16–20 June
• Thirteenth session: 14–18 July

OWG ninth session

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ICPD Small Grants 2014: Call for proposals: Taking the ICPD beyond 2014, to position SRHR and the priorities of the ICPD in the next development framework

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has announced its call for proposals to influence the outcomes of the ICPD and Post 2015 development framework processes.

2014 marks the twentieth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). 2015 is the year the successor to the Millennium Development Goals will be negotiated and adopted. The outcome of these processes will greatly impact future Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) policy, funding and programming priorities at global level and at national level.

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Gender, Economic, Social and Ecological Justice for Sustainable Development: A Feminist Declaration for Post 2015

Following the Eighth Session of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a Feminist Strategy Meeting was held in Tarrytown, near New York City, bringing together 60 representatives of feminist and women organizations from different policy processes, including the UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD), the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the SDGs and Post-2015 etc. The meeting agreed the Feminist Declaration on Post 2015 (Esp).

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