Partnerships with Civil Society – join the e-Discussion

One of the topics subject under discussion during the second meeting of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Means of Implementation for Sustainable Development will be: 

"What can trigger new partnerships and voluntary commitments, and what can make them successful in advancing economic, social and environmental progress?"

You are invited to make inputs on this question via an e-Discussion on "Partnerships with Civil Society".

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High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) Second Meeting, New York 30 June – 9 July

As reported on the NGLS website, the second meeting of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) which is being held under the auspices of ECOSOC, will take place in New York from 30 June to 9 July with evening meetings on 30 June and 1 July. The ministerial meeting of the Forum will be held from 7 - 9 July 2014. The theme will be “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and charting the way for an ambitious post-2015 development agenda, including the sustainable development goals.” It will be followed by the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) from 8 - 9 July, for which the theme is “Addressing on-going and emerging challenges for meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future.” The Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) will be held from 10 - 11 July.

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Civil Society Organizations express their concern over CSO participation in Post-2015 Summit at Seventieth Session of the General Assembly

Major Groups and civil society coalitions have written to Ambassadors Guba Aisi and Ib Peterson, as Co-facilitators to express their concern about the proposed civil society involvement in the Post-2015 Summit at the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly.

In addition to the proposed Civil Society Hearings, in their preliminary response they encouraged the Co-facilitators to include “specific opportunities and modalities for Major Groups and civil society to participate in the entire process, similar to the modalities in the High-level Political Forum (A/RES/67/290) and the Open Working Group processes.” 

Including adolescent and young people and particularly adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health in the sustainable development goals

Sarah Gold, a Program Associate with IWHC, who participated in both the World Conference on Youth and the UN Economic and Social Council Youth Forum writes:

The Zero Draft of the “Introduction and Proposed Goals and Targets on Sustainable Development for the Post2015 Development Agenda” for the 12^th session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG-12) is very weak on adolescents and youth, with no mention of adolescents and only a handful of references to young people under the focus areas on education and employment. The document does not include a target on comprehensive sexuality education, a critical omission that must be addressed.  Furthermore, there are no references to adolescent girls or adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights. It is imperative that governments take urgent action to integrate the needs and rights of young people into the SDGs.

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29th Special Session of the Generally Assembly on the Follow-up to the ICPD beyond 2014 and civil society participation

Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, met with representatives of civil society on Wednesday 4 July 2014 at which he briefed them on arrangements for the forthcoming 29th Special Session of the Generally Assembly on the Follow-up to the ICPD beyond 2014, which will be held in New York on 22 September 2014 from 1-9 PM in the General Assembly Hall.  

As he said, UNFPA has been working with the Office of the President of the General Assembly (PGA) and the UN Secretariat to ensure that civil society organizations (CSOs) can effectively participate in the Special Session. Registration is open until 15 June for both ECOSOC and non-ECOSOC accredited CSOs on the United Nations web site. Non-ECOSOC accredited CSOs will have to be approved by the General Assembly on a non-objection basis.  It is foreseen that NGOs will be notified of their selection by the end of July.

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Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Co-Chairs release the Zero draft for OWG-12

Zero draft  

The Co-Chairs have now released the “zero draft” of goals and targets, in preparation for the 12^th Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG-12), which takes place 16-20 June at the United Nations in New York.

Accompanying letter from Co-Chairs

In their accompanying letter they refer to the draft chapeau that has now been incorporated into the zero draft. They also reconfirm the dates for the informal-informals (informal discussions), which will take place from Monday to Wednesday, 9-11 June.

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Beijing+20 — review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action

UN Women is making available information on the preparations for the review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action which will culminate in a summit or high-level commitment meeting in New York in September 2015.

The process has already begun with a request being sent from UN Women to Governments to prepare a national review. This should already be completed, or at least underway. Governments have been asked to involve civil society organizations in the review. As a first step, if you have not already done so, please contact your government and ask the status of the report and how civil society is to be included. 

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Registration for UNGASS on ICPD beyond 2015 deadline 15 June

We have been informed by UNFPA that all civil society organizations (CSOs), with or without ECOSOC accreditation, wishing to attend the 22 September Special Session of the General Assembly on ICPD beyond 2014 must now register by JUNE 15 at http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/other/4/special_session.html#ngo

This includes those who previously filled out the google document.

Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and the SDGs

As pointed out in a posting on the Post 2015 Development Agenda digest written by Alvin Leong (LLM, JD), Fellow at Pace Center for Environmental Legal Studies, the Group of 77 and China (G-77 & China) have advocated for the inclusion of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) as an “overarching principle” of the SDGs.

However, many developed countries object to such inclusion and take the position that CBDR is a principle that is limited to the field of environmental protection, and thus cannot be an “overarching principle” for goals that seek to integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. This will, undoubtedly, continue to be a contentious area moving forward in the process. 

World Health Assembly resolution on “Health in the post-2015 development agenda”

The 67^th World Assembly had before it in its final plenary a resolution on “Health in the post-2015 development agenda” (A67/A/CONF/4 Rev.2) While the previous version included a reference to sexual and reproductive health in its preambular paragraphs, it now refers only to ICPD and Beijing and their review conferences.  

The resolution, as revised, urges Members States in operative paragraph 1(3):

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