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:...

Click to read more ...

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

Click to read more ...

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)...

Click to read more ...

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...

Click to read more ...

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...

Click to read more ...

IAEG-SDGs: results of discussions on key concerns to health and SRHR advocates

A number of issues of key concern to health and SRHR advocates were considered during the plenary sessions of the IAEG. Below are summaries of key points and decisions:

1          Tier system for the indicators

In presenting the updated tier system for the indicators, classifications were reiterated, ie:

• Tier I: Indicator conceptually clear, established methodology and standards available and data regularly produced by countries
• Tier II: Indicator conceptually clear, established methodology and standards available but data are not regularly produced by countries
• Tier III: Indicator for which there are no established methodology and standards or methodology /standards are being developed/tested...

Click to read more ...

Apply to Attend / Submit Comments: 22 November meeting w/ UN Member States on intergovernmental process for Global Compact for Migration

We have received the following from UN-NGLS

Dear Colleagues,

We write to provide four updates:

1. The start time of the meeting on Tuesday is moved to 4:00pm NY time, to end at 6:00pm.
2. The meeting will take place in Trusteeship Council Chamber.
..

Click to read more ...

Report on Stakeholder briefing with IAEG-SDGs Co-chair

During the Briefing for Stakeholders, including civil society organizations (CSOs), on Friday 18 November, the Co-chair responded to a number of questions. These included:

Closed meetings – The Co-chair pointed out that these had begun in Bangkok. Insofar as the IAEG-SDGs meets only every 6-7 months with teleconferences between, it is not possible for everyone to attend all meetings and the closed meetings provide a process to bring everyone up-to-speed. This time they had two days of closed meetings as many issues had arisen at the last meeting...

Click to read more ...

4th IAEG-SDGs: Tier III Work Plans & Next Steps

The proposal for next steps for IAEG-SDGs’ review of Tier III work plans is:

• For the short term, the IAEG-SDGs will review the Tier III work plans and identify those indicators whose development is quite advanced and can be ‘fast tracked’ to be Tier II
• The IAEG-SDGs will review these ‘fast track’ indicators at its March meeting in 2017
• For the longer term, the IAEG-SDGs will conduct a review of the Tier III work plans in advance of the Fall physical meeting

At the Fall meeting a decision will be reached on those that will be reclassified. 

Opening plenary session of 4th IAEG-SDGs, Geneva, 17 November

Christian Friis Bach, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, made opening remarks for the Plenary Meeting of the 4^th Session of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the SDGs (IAEG-SDGs), stressing the importance of proper data. He pointed out that there will be an unprecedented amount of data and that devices can collect data using the internet. This is already happening for example with big data and machine learning in Ghana (on diseases) and in India (on school dropouts).  In mobilizing for change, partnerships with the private sector as well as with academia and civil society will be important...

Click to read more ...