Third Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, 22 – 24 May 2013

The Third Session of the Open Working Group (OWG) will be held in New York from 22 – 24 May 2013. The main items on the agenda will be food security and nutrition, sustainable agriculture, desertification, and land degradation (2 days).

The keynote address on Food security and nutrition, sustainable agriculture, desertification, land degradation and drought will be given by Director-General José Graziano da Silva, Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition the Secretary General, World Meteorological Organization and Chair of UN-Water will give a keynote address by videolink on Water and sanitation. Panel sessions will be held on both these areas together with interactive exchanges of OWG members.

Click to read more ...

WHO statistics for 2013 show narrowing of the health gap between countries with best and worst health status

The World Health Organization has just published the World Health Statistics 2013. It shows that the world has made dramatic progress in improving health in the poorest countries and narrowing the gaps between countries with the best and worst health status in the past two decades. In particular it highlights how efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have reduced health gaps between the most-advantaged and least-advantaged countries.

Progress towards Millennium Development Goals measured

As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches,  the World Health Statistics shows the considerable progress made in reducing child and maternal deaths, improving nutrition and reducing deaths and illness from HIV infection, tuberculosis and malaria. It compares progress made by countries with the best health status and those with least-favourable health status at the MDG baseline year of 1990 and again two decades later.

Click to read more ...

Prime Minister David Cameron, Co-chair of the High Level Panel, emphasizes ending extreme poverty in press conference at end of panel meeting

In a press conference on 15 May 2013 British Prime Minister and Co-chair High Level Panel (HLP) on the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda, said that the meeting had wrapped up with consensus emerging on how to make a more equitable world.

Addressing journalists at the UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Cameron said: “[We] nailed our colours to the mast with one clear overarching aim – end extreme poverty in our world.”

According to Mr Cameron, the HLP aims to create a development agenda that will also focus on protection of the rule of law, good governance and holding Governments to account, which comprise what Mr. Cameron called “the golden thread of development.”

Click to read more ...

Updated information on the release of the Report of the High Level Panel

The Beyond 2015 Campaign has provided information on the arrangements for the release of the report of the High Level Panel (HLP) of Experts on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The Panel is expected to submit its report to the Secretary-General on 30 May, and it will then be made publicly available on 31 May. 

Several initiatives, including national and regional launch events across the world, are planned to ensure that the recommendations of the Panel are carried back to the wide-reaching groups who have contributed to shaping its debate and conclusions on the new global development agenda.

Meanwhile a teleconference will be hosted by UNMC will provide an opportunity to discuss and shape the plans for:

Click to read more ...

An Action Agenda for Sustainable Development – Report of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network open for consultation until 22 May 2013

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Leadership Council has posted on its website the draft of its report to the Secretary General, entitled An Action Agenda for Sustainable Development. It draws on the work of the SDSN Thematic Groups.

This draft has been prepared for public consultation from 7 to 22 May 2013. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are invited up to 22 May 2013, using the attached form. They should be sent via email to info@unsdsn.org. In preparing comments, the decision of the Leadership Council should be noted to be concise by limiting the number of “sustainable development challenges” to ten, with three targets each.

Click to read more ...

Human Rights for All Post-2015 May 2013

Recognizing that a post-2015 framework should be anchored in human rights and based on the inherent dignity of people as human rights-holders, domestic governments as primary duty-bearers, with all development actors sharing common but differentiated responsibilities, a number of human rights organizations have set out some of the baseline implications to embed human rights into the core of the sustainable development agenda.

Click to read more ...

Update on High Level Panel (HLP) process and report

An update on the work of the HLP and dates for the submission and release of the Panel's report is now available for downoading from the High Level Panel on the Post 2015 Agenda website and may be downloaded here.  
 
Details of the public release events, which include an interaction with Panelists proposed in New York on 31 May, followed by national and regional launch events worldwiden will be available shortly on the HLP’s official website.

46th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development -- Moving towards ICPD Beyond 2014 and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

During the 46^th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development  (CPD) that took place in late April 2013, two important decisions were adopted on the agenda for the 47^th Session of the CPD, which will act as the Preparatory Committee for the UN Special Session on ICPD Beyond 2014 and the special theme for its 48^th session in 2015. These decisions ensure that the CPD will be an important forum for NGOs to work to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights for both ICPD Beyond 2014 and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Click to read more ...

Global Consultation on Environmental Sustainability in the Post-2015 Development Agenda

E-discussion on Environmental Sustainability and Equality

Please note that the deadline for the E-discussion on Environmental Sustainability and Equality as been extended to 12 May.

It has been repeatedly stated that inequalities can hamper the achievement of environmental sustainability. Participants in the global thematic consultation on environmental sustainablity see inequalities in environmental sustainability as an issue of different levels of access to: eco-services for livelihoods and health (water, clean air, clean and renewable energy); between rich and poor countries, rich and poor within countries; rural and urban populations; women and men, current and future generations. Involvement by these groups in decision-making processes has also been repeatedly underlined. Still, why does inequality undermine the attainment of environmental sustainability? Why should equality be at the center of our attention? Post-2015 goals are expected to be ambitious and universal. What does this mean in the context of inequality?  

Click to read more ...

Final appeal to the High Level Panel

A group of Southern civil society organizations has taken the initiative to prepare a letter to members of the HLP. It identifies a number of key messages, one of which is the inclusion of sexual and reproductive rights, and urges the members of the High Level Panel (HLP) not to accept the latest draft of HLP report if it does not incorporate these messages. You are urged to sign onto the letter today.

The appeal is available to downoad in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish