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

Information is now available to apply to participate in the Asia Pacific Civil Society Forum on Sustainable Development, 17-18 May and the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 21-22 May. Both meetings will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. The background documents / agenda are being posted, as they become available, on the ESCAP website.

Youth Leadership Working Group statement in Interactive Session of Intergovernmental Negotiations

The following statement was made by Lara Cousins, speaking on behalf of the Youth Leadership Working Group, from the floor during the Interactive Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Post-2015 Development Agenda:

We very much welcome today’s emphasis from various speakers and Member States on disaggregating data, in order to ensure that the human rights and specific needs of young people are integrated across the agenda, and that adolescents and young people are consistently visible. 

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Intergovernmental Negotiations on Post-2015 – Day 4: Sustainable development goals targets (continued)

(based on report by Lara Cousins, Youth Leadership Working Group (YLWG) & Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights)

Following further statements on the goals and targets, Co-facilitator, Ambassador David Donoghue, summed up the discussions by saying that he and his Co-facilitator, Ambassador Kamau, would revisit the proposed 19 targets document and would share the next version with the membership at the earliest opportunity. He sensed that there was some degree of consensus on filling in of ‘x’s. The Co-facilitators will carefully review the proposals made by Member States and provide a fuller rationale for draft documents in the future. Ultimately, the membership decides on proposals that are put forward.

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Intergovernmental Negotiations on Post-2015 – Day 4: Sustainable development goals & targets (continued)

(based on report by Ida Klockmann, Sex og Samfund, Denmark)

Process going forward

The discussions in this session continued the discussion of the sustainable development goals and targets. Ambassador Kamau said that the Co-facilitators expected to have feedback from Member States on the goals and targets before the conclusion of the meeting the following day. They will then work with the comments to see whether they can improve their document to the satisfaction of Member States. 

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UN President of General Assembly's 4 May 2015, High-level Thematic Debate on Strengthening Cooperation between the UN and Regional and Subregional Organizations: Apply for civil society speaking roles or selection committee

At the request of the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, UN-NGLS is facilitating a nomination process to identify 2 civil society speakers for the President's High-level Thematic Debate on Strengthening Cooperation between the UN and Regional and Subregional Organizations, taking place on 4 May 2015 at UN Headquarters. The concept note for the event is available here: http://bit.ly/PGA-Strengthening-Cooperation-Concept-Note

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Deadlines for civil society speaking and steering committee opportunities

As UN DESA and UN-NGLS are frequently notifying us of opportunities for civil society membership of steering committees and speaking opportunities with short deadlines, we are listing these in the attached document under the Post-2015 Calendar drop down menu.

Updated 29/April/2015

Intergovernmental Negotiations on Post-2015 – Day 3, Sessions 4 & 5: Interactive discussions and Sustainable development goals & targets

Summing up by Co-facilitator 

At the end of the interactive session, on which three of the civil society inventions have already been posted, Ambassador Kamau gave a summary of the session. He spoke about the “sense of urgency” and the need to “get on with the business,” in order to ensure that the post-2015 development would be ready for the Heads of State Summit in September. As he said, the focus should be on what is possible and we should appreciate fully the significance of what we have been able to do. He challenged everyone to find a historical precedence for what has already been done. To emphasize the point he quoted two Kiswahili sayings: “Too much greed is for the hyenas” and “He who wants everything, loses everything.” He also reminded everyone that without civil society involvement, Governments will not be able to do anything, as civil society is “of the people, and for the people.”  

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Reminder — 29 March: closing date for applications for speaking roles for 4th post-2015 negotiating session

You are reminded that the closing date for applications for speaking roles for the 4th post-2015 development agenda intergovernmental negotiating session is 29 March. See 4th post-2015 negotiating session, 20-24 April: Apply for stakeholder Steering Committee and speaking roles for further information. 

Intervention from the floor by Marianne Haslegrave on behalf of the Post-2015 Health Coalition

A common theme this morning has been health and well-being. Good health is crosscutting and has an impact on every other goal.

We respect the ongoing technical work of the UN Statistical Commission to develop a robust set of priority indicators. This should not preclude agreeing the conceptual and technical framework that will capture progress towards health and wellbeing for all.

We would ask Member States to consider a global indicator on healthy life expectancy so that by 2030 everyone will be living longer, better lines.

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Interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other Stakeholders – Statement by Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, ARROW

Recommendations for the Post-2015 negotiations – Sustainable Development Goals, Targets and Indicators: Interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other Stakeholders

25 March, 2015. UN New York

Thank you, Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates. I am Sai Jyothirmai Racherla from the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). I also represent the Asia Pacific Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (RCEM), as well as the Civil Society Platform to Promote SRHR beyond 2015.

We welcome the work done by all stakeholders on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Targets and Indicators. 

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