Incoming Secretary-General appoints three women to key leadership positions

The incoming UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has appointed Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s environment minister and a key player in the development of the 2030 Agenda, as Deputy Secretary-General. He has also announced the appointments of two other women to key leadership posts.

Having made achieving gender parity at the world body a priority of his tenure, Guterres has appointed Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, a senior Brazilian foreign ministry official, to serve as his chief of staff, and Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to the new position of special adviser on policy...

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World Data Forum, Cape Town, South Africa, 15 – 18 January 2017

The first UN World Data Forum will be held in Cape Town from 15 to 18 January 2017, hosted by Statistics South Africa, under the guidance of the UN Statistical Commission and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The venue for the Forum is Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC).

The Opening Ceremony will take place on the evening of Sunday 15 January and the closing session will be on 18 January. Substantive sessions will be held from16 – 18 January and will cover the following areas:...

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Supporting SDGs – a strategic priority for new UN Secretary-General

As reported by IIED, when he was sworn in as the ninth UN Secretary-General during the UN General Assembly, António Guterres highlighted support for sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as one of three strategic priorities for change. The other two priorities are working for peace and advancing UN internal management...

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Apply to speak or attend: 24 January UN High-level Dialogue on "Building Sustainable Peace for All"

In recognition of the fundamental interlinkages between the 2030 Agenda and Sustaining Peace, the President of the General Assembly will convene a High-level Dialogue entitled "Building Sustainable Peace for All: Synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustaining Peace Agenda" on 24 January 2017 at UN Headquarters in New York, with the participation of the President of the Security Council, the President of the Economic and Social Council, and the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission.

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NEW REPORT- Implementing the SDGs at National Level: Experiences and recommendations from 2016

Since the signing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) last year, countries have been getting to grips with this new, deeply ambitious agenda. The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July this year was the first chance to see what progress countries are making. Bond, UKSSD, Save the Children UK and WWF-UK commissioned a report that analysed the contributions to the HLPF. The report (attached) does the following:..

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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:...

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Putting women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health at the heart of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

Details	Wednesday, December 7, 2016; 9:00am-10:00am EST
Location	Adobe Connect
Presenters	Giorgiana Rosa, Senior Health Policy and Advocacy Adviser, Save the Children, will present Save the Children’s report A Common Cause: reaching every woman and child through Universal Health Coverage  Helga Fogstad, Executive Director, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, will highlight the importance of UHC for the implementation of the Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health

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Main themes for ECOSOC 2017-19 decided

The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has taken a decision on the main themes for its next three sessions. Currently, from July 2016 to July 2017, its theme is “eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions through promoting sustainable development, expanding opportunities and addressing related challenges.” The theme for the 2018 session, from July 2017 to July 2018, will be “from global to local: supporting sustainable and resilient societies in urban and rural communities), and for the 2019 session, from July 2018 to July 2019 “one world for all: empowering people to build equal and inclusive societies”. (See: E/2017/L.9)...

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World Antibiotic Week – joint WHO, OIE and FAO report on antimicrobial resistance in animal production

As reported by IIED, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) released as part of ‘World Antibiotic Week,’[1] a joint scientific report and other information materials to support actions to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by the public, health practitioners and policy makers. it recognizes the links between human, animal and environmental health and promotes cross disciplinary collaboration to support human and animal health globally...

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IAEG-SDGs: way forward and next steps

November 2016 -- March 2017 

In the final session Yongyi Min briefed participants on the IAEG’s next steps. It will:

Nov 2016: finalize the indicator and prepare and submit its report to the Statistical Commission (early December)

Dec 2016 – Jan 2017: further develop the work plans for Tier III indicators and prepare a background document for the Statistical Commission

Dec 2016 – Feb 2017: harmonize categories for data disaggregation for the global indicators

Dec 2016 – Mar 2017: review possible Tier III indicators to be “fast-tracked” for discussion at the 5^th IAEG-SGDs meeting...

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