MDGs
-
Achieving Sustainable Development Post- 2015 will Require Addressing Governance Challenges
Parliamentarians, civil society and academia have repeatedly emphasised the centrality of governance to sustainable development, taking into account capacity development needs of both people and institutions for good governance at different levels, from local to global.
The press conference held at the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), discussed a wide-range of issues, including: the current international development agenda, assessment of progress on the MDGs, governance bottlenecks to the achievement of MDGs as well as the need to align the Post-2015 agenda with the needs and aspirations of global citizens. If sustainable development is to be achieved, “there is need to deal with bureaucratic bottlenecks” in our governance structures and systems said Hon. Ebrahim Abrahim, South Africa’s Deputy Minister in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, is committed to taking a leading role in the Global Thematic Consultation on Governance and in shaping the post-2015 global development framework. Mr. Ebrahim cautioned that as important as it might be, the eradication of corruption alone is unlikely to lead to the full realization of MDGs as it was just “one of the many” governance problems the world is facing today.
Read more at United Nations South Africa
-
CIVICUS Statement on the MDG Summit
World Leaders must act decisively before it's too late
Johannesburg. 23 September 2010. As the high level Summit on the Millennium Development Goals draws to a close, CIVICUS urges world leaders to act decisively on the recommendations presented to them.
"The Summit has provided occasion to re-assess failed promises and take corrective action on the MDGs before it's too late," said CIVICUS Secretary General Ingrid Srinath. "Achieving the MDGs in the next five years requires world leaders to fulfil their existing commitments, become accountable to each other and their people, re-commit to human rights, and ensure civil society has the freedom to exist, express and engage."
A number of concrete acceleration strategies to keep the MDGs on track to be achieved by 2015 were forwarded by civil society and official representatives. Recommendations during the three day Summit from 20-22 September include addressing the shortfall in development funding by taxing financial transactions; ensuring strict adherence by rich countries towards fulfilling their overseas development aid commitments and meeting a minimum target of 0.7% of their GNI; reforming and regulating financial structures to guard against economic meltdown and job losses; implementing fair trade policies to reduce wealth disparities between rich and poor countries; reducing dependence on fossil fuels through support for energy efficient and green technology; and focusing national development plans to prioritise women's empowerment, social security and equitable distribution of wealth. Notably, strong recommendations were made to ground MDG strategies in social justice and human rights concepts.
As a follow-up to the MDG Summit, CIVICUS urges governments to unconditionally implement the solutions suggested by civil society experts, and ensure that the principles of accountability and participation are an integral part of MDG strategies over the next five years. In particular leaders should:
- Review and align MDG strategies with the international human rights framework and set time bound targets to achieve goals;
- Guarantee access to accurate and timely information on progress achieved with regard to MDG targets;
- Strengthen accountability mechanisms at the national and international level to ensure compliance with MDG targets; and
- Ensure public and civil society participation in all MDG related processes.
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global movement of civil society dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society across the world.
For more information please contact CIVICUS: -
Communiqué on the Secretary General’s High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
This note provides a brief overview of the first meeting of the Secretary General's High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, on 25 October 2012. The High Level Panel is committed to an open, transparent, and inclusive process. We are particularly keen that stakeholders are kept up to date with substance and process of the Panel's work. To that end, we propose to send out regular updates in this form.
-
CSOs and Social Movements from the South unite to form Campaign for Peoples Goals for Sustainable Development
Civil Society Organizations and social movements from the Global South have banded together and pledged to Campaign for Peoples Goals for Sustainable Development (CPGSD). According to the common statement released by the campaign initiators, governments must abandon the current dominant development model that grants rights and liberties to capital over the rights and freedoms of people and the protection of the environment. They vow to fight for a new development framework that is founded on the principles of human rights, equality, self-determination, and social, gender and ecological justice.
To join the campaign email pquintos[at]iboninternational.org on or before 8 Nov 2012.
-
High Level Group Reaffirms Commitment to Develop Framework to Fight Poverty
The panel tasked with advising on the global development agenda beyond 2015, the target date for achieving the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), reaffirmed its commitment to work together on a framework to combat poverty in a High Level Panel Meeting in London. According to a news release, discussion among the Panel members covered human development, jobs and livelihoods, and how to reach the marginalized and excluded. The three-day meeting also allowed Panel members to gather input from international civil society, private sector representatives and global youth, answering Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call for transparency and inclusiveness in its consultations.
-
How can the post 2015 process drive real change? The political economy of global commitments
What are the lessons of the Millennium Development Goals process? What has been their impact on aid and on decision making by national governments? This discussion paper seeks to inform the post-2015 debate by examining these questions. It argues that leverage over national governments and civil society involvement will increasingly eclipse leverage on aid as the determining factor of post-2015 success, and discusses how alternative international instruments can achieve such traction. This paper is intended to provoke reflection and debate, and does not represent Oxfam policy positions. It is a working draft, and the authors welcome all comments and suggestions.
Read the Report -
Make the post-MDG framework inclusive of persons with disabilities
The International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) and the International Disability Alliance (IDA) have recently drafted a position paper on the post-MDG framework. In the position paper, IDDC and IDA include a number of recommendations to be taken into account in order to create a more equitable and inclusive post-MDG agenda.
Read more at the Source, The International Disability Alliance.
-
Map of the Day: The World You Want, After 2015
The United Nations and partners have launched an interesting exercise to poll the world’s citizens on their top priorities, policies and views as world leaders shape a global development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals, which expire in 2015.
They are calling this project MY World, and it includes an interactive web page, SMS, platform, telephone and offline survey to target as many people as possible around the world to weigh in on their top priorities. (It’s in all six official UN languages, naturally.)Read more at UN Dispatch
-
MDGs: Making your Mark on the Post 2015 Agenda in 2013
Considering the MDGs deadline was still three years away, 2012 was a surprisingly busy year for the post-2015 agenda. We've seen theUN high-level panel (HLP) formed and its first meetings held in New York and London, alongside a flurry of policy talks and UN consultations on what the world wants from any new goals. Whatever happens in the final negotiations, it's already clear that much of the job to keep this agenda on track will have to happen much sooner – starting now.
So 2013 is an important year. It's the year the panel submits its recommendations to the UN secretary general, and the year that the finally established Open Working Group on sustainable development goals (SDGs) sets the direction of its work (with a mandate overlapping that of the HLP). It's also the year that the UN will have to wrap up as many as 11 global consultations to gather wider views on the emerging agenda.
Despite progress we might have made during the MDGs, there clearly remains a big job ahead for post-2015 goals. One which is very different to the one we might have imagined a decade ago when the MDGs were agreed.
Read more at The Guardian
-
Meaning of David Cameron’s Golden Thread must be untangled, MPs say
The international development committee (IDC) has called onDavid Cameron, the UK prime minister, to give a "clear and consistent" definition of what he means by the "golden thread" of development as he seeks to influence global policy on poverty reduction.
Cameron's influential role in determining what comesafter the millennium development goals (MDGs) in 2015 makes the need for a plain explanation of the term important, the committee says in its latest report.
"The prime minister has defined the 'golden thread' in a number of different ways. We recommend that the prime minster give a clear and consistent definition of what he means by the 'golden thread' in response to this report given its im/portance in his thinking on the post-2015 framework and goals," said the IDC report, which made recommendations on what MPs believe should be considered in the post-2015 talks.
Read more at globaldevelopment
-
Millennium development goals – the key datasets you need to know
The UK hosted the first high-level panel last week on what comes after the millennium development goals (MDGs). Progress on the MDGs has been mixed, however, with persistent inequalities both within and between countries. We've pulled together the key data on the eight goals. Although the MDG framework may seem overly technical, with its dozens of time-bound, results-based targets and indicators, it's the product of very political negotiations, with some issues receiving more attention and prominence than others.
-
People and Politics Must be Central to Post 2015 Development Framework Discussions
The UK parliament's international development select committee's report on post 2015 development goals has received a cautious welcome from IDS experts.
In their own evidence to the Committee, IDS fellows stressed that a focus on people and politics is crucial to the success of any new development framework.
Lawrence Haddad said:
"In the race to reach the 2015 finish line for the creation of a new development framework, we must not lose sight of the people and politics that will ensure its success. The select committee report makes some welcome recommendations, including one on how a new framework should reflect the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. The importance of meaningfully involving people in the design and implementation of whatever succeeds the Millennium Development Goals cannot be underestimated. Any new goals must articulate a global shared responsibility which is underpinned by targets that are set according to national priorities and to which citizens can hold their governments to account."Read more at Institute of Development Studies
-
PH still lagging behind in Millennium Development Goals
The country is still lagging behind in achieving certain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically in attaining universal primary education, maternal health, but most of all in battling inequality, according to a civil society group.
Leonor Magtolis-Briones, lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines, explained to members of the House of Representatives how far President Benigno Aquino III has taken his “daang matuwid” (straight path) and what the government needs to address as the MDGs draw to a close by 2015.
The assessments Briones made were part of Social Watch Philippines’ report entitled “Breaking Through to Sustainability,” copies of which the group furnished the House of Representatives with on Wednesday.Read more at Inquirer News
-
Post- 2015 Development Policy Must Put People at Its Centre
Civic “ownership” of the development agenda post-2015 is essential for ensuring that people in the developing world can lift themselves out of poverty and hunger, a leading development figure has said.
Speaking in the European Parliament on 22 January, Rebeca Grynpsan, UN under-secretary-general and UNDP associate administrator, said that the current UN millennium development goals (MDGs) are largely, “still a success, despite uneven progress”. However, she said that “what is today a success, could be a failure in three years time”.
Read more at New Europ -
Statement delivered by Secretary-general Ban Ki Moon to ECOSOC to launch the 2011 Millenium Development Goals
Geneva, 7 July 2011
“First of all let me thank you most sincerely for your very kind words and also your strong support and warm welcome on my reappointment as the Secretary-General of the United Nations. I am deeply honoured and privileged to serve this great organization as Secretary-General and I will be more motivated and more engaged with Member States and you can count on me. Again thank you very much for you strong support.
I am pleased to be here for the launch of the 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report. I thank all those who have worked long and hard on this excellent study.
The report paints a mixed picture. On the one hand, it is clear that the MDGs have made a tremendous difference; they have raised awareness and they have shaped the broad vision that remains the overarching framework for development work across the world, and they have fuelled action and meaningful progress in people’s lives. Hundreds of millions have been lifted from poverty, more people have access to education, better health care and improved access to clean drinking water.
-
Statement to ECOSOC 2011 High-Level Segment
CIVICUS' UN Representative in Geneva, Renate Bloem, made an intervention today that the UN Economic and Social Council reaffirming that "CIVICUS believes that UN member states and global civil society need to work together to ensure quality education for all, in accordance with international norms and best practices. Moreover, civil society can play a strategic role in shaping development policies and in ensuring their proper implementation."
-
The Battle for Water- Experts take Debate over Global Water Developments Goals to the Web
An inspired Facebook update or a 140-character tweet could play a key role in shaping global development plans.
Over the next few weeks, policymakers are seeking input from the public via social media channels as they craft a sustainable development goal to address global water-management concerns and ensure water is available in the future for food and industrial production, for drinking and for sanitation.
Experts hope the internet-based public water consultation will help them forge streamlined goals for the post-2015 development agenda by building consensus around three main aspects of water management: water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); water resources; wastewater management and water quality.
The vox-populi process is part of a broader effort by the United Nations (U.N.) to collate views on 11 overarching consultation topics that would replace the eight anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established in 2000, some of which are likely to remain unmet by the 2015 deadline.
Read more at AlertNet
-
UK Parliamentarians have their say on the Post- 2015 Development Agenda
report on the debate about the development framework to follow the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. The report wraps up the IDC’s ‘enquiry’ on the post-MDGs during which they heard from VIPs like Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Post-2015, as well as a range of academics and civil society actors, including written evidence submitted by the AfGH UK network.
The report is a departure from the usual work of the IDC holding the Government to account on their development work. Here they are informing and shaping the future agenda. There is much to welcome in the report. Critically for AfGH, the IDC has put its weight behind the potential of Universal Health Coverage as an important way to capture different health needs and interests in the next development framework. It notes that this needs to be done in such a way that the current MDG emphasis on maternal and child health is not lost and elsewhere that the vital unfinished business of the MDGs, which includes all of the health targets, is not forgotten.
Read more at Action for Global Health
