post 2015 development goals

• Commissioner Piebalgs Participates in the UN Panel on Post- 2015 Development Agenda

  
  Today EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will take part in the second UN High Level Meeting on the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda beyond 2015, which takes place in Monrovia, Liberia. The meeting will be co-chaired by David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia.

  
  This meeting will focus on the lessons learnt from the implementation of the current set of MDGs and further elaborate on the principles and main elements of a post-2015 agenda. This will bring the panel one step closer to finalising the report, which is to be submitted to UN's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the end of May 2013.

  Read more at Andric Piebalgs Member of the European Commission

• Consultations in Viet Nam on the post- 2015 development agenda

  
  The United Nations in Viet Nam has initiated a series of consultations with a broad range of Vietnamese citizens on the new development framework to be put in place in 2015, once the current Millennium Development Goals expire.
  As part of this process, the UN is consulting with representatives from eight target groups to seek their views on the world they want. The eight groups include ethnic minorities, the urban and rural poor, people with disabilities, people living with HIV, young people, the elderly and the private sector.

  
  Since the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by world leaders in 2000, they have helped to set global and national development priorities. With the MDGs expiring in three years, work has started at global, regional and national levels to define what kind of global development framework should be put in place after 2015. The UN is leading part of this work.

  Read more at United Nations Viet Nam

• Corruption blocking millennium goals for weak, say NGOs

  In India, women, dalits and minorities are not going to achieve millennium development goals set by the United Nations for 2015.

  Corruption is forbidding these sections from doing so, reveals a study by civil society organisations. 

  Releasing a report card on status of millennium development goals on the ground, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (Do Not Break the Promise Campaign), says that aggregated data on various human development indicators like poverty, health,  nutrition and education mask the real picture.

  The real picture, according to the campaign, is that marginalised sections are nowhere near the development goals.

  The campaign, which is joined by several NGOs, carried out the study in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Manipur.

  Read more at Deccan Herald

• Forget post- 2015 development goals- a global new deal is what’s needed

  Many familiar problems were raised at the Liberia meeting of the UN high-level panel tasked with drafting global post-2015 development goals: extreme poverty, lack of productive employment, environmental degradation and growing inequality. But these big questions are still being met with small answers, suggesting that the international community remains in the wrong frame of mind to meet such major challenges.

  
  A recent Guardian editorial noted how "small", "technocratic" and "fragmented" the discussion within the international development community has become. But it missed a major reason for this: the continued but misplaced faith in "market fundamentalism". This adds to the perception that globalisation is an irresistible force beyond the control of governments, a process driven by countless invisible hands, infallible business acumen and continuous technological revolution, and reaching its zenith with the unleashing of finance.

  Read more in Poverty Matters Blog

• Fragile States and the Post- 2015 Development: The Need for Resilience Architecture in the Face of MDG Failure

  Fragile states constitute a global development crisis. Government capacity and public institutions in these states are weak and international aid approaches are often fragmented and piecemeal. Extreme poverty doubled in fragile states in just five years between 2005 and 2010[1], and not a single Millennium Development Goal (MDG) has been achieved in low income and conflict affected fragile contexts. The failure of MDGs in these volatile contexts means that the most basic standards of care do not exist for a widening number of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.

  The UN Secretary-General has tasked the UN High-Level Panel on Post-2015 Development to address conflict and fragility as part of its broader mandate to envision development beyond the MDGs. Despite this task, the UN’s preparatory report to inform the Panel’s work scarcely mentions fragility[2]. Instead, it takes up issues shared more broadly among developing countries, such as peace and security, sustainability, and human rights. In order to deliver on its mandate of tackling fragility, the High-Level Panel must significantly elevate this development crisis and seek out new models for resilienceas part of the post-2015 development agenda. Any model for resilience must address foremost the reasons why the MDGs did not work in fragile states.

  Read more at Yale Journal of International Affairs

• Global Goals for Human Rights and Governance After 2015: Part II

  Over the past fifteen years a nascent consensus has begun to emerge that some aspects of good governance and human rights are integral to development as both a means and an end. Although in the past it has been difficult for the global community to agree on governance and human rights goals due to both political disagreements and technical uncertainties around measurement, it is indeed technically feasible, and increasingly politically possible on a global stage, to include governance and human rights goals and targets as part of post-2015 development priorities.

  
  Global development goals should meet four criteria.

  Read more at Council on Foreign Relations

• Global Goals for Human Rights and Governance After 2015: Part VI

  As discussed in previous blog posts in this series, good governance and human rights are essential to human well-being, and should be included in the post-2015 global development agenda. Rule of law and access to justice are linchpins of these concepts.

  
  Globally, the United Nations Development Program estimates that four billion people live outside the law’s protection, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Empowering individuals and communities to assert and realize their rights can ensure that the law protects against government corruption and discrimination, and gives a voice to the least politically powerful, who might otherwise be ignored. Rule of law and access to justice can also acts as a powerful economic lever, allowing small farmers and entrepreneurs the opportunity to protect their assets and enforce contracts. And rule of law and access to justice are universally applicable issues, in rich and poor countries alike, making these goals particularly appropriate for a global development agenda that aims to have far-reaching scope and relevance.

  
  Read more at Council on Foreign Relations

• Government of Finland: EU Ministers for Development- post- 2015 development goals and Mali

  Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will attend the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Development Cooperation being held in Dublin on 11 and 12 February. The agenda for the meeting includes, among others, the post-2015 international development goals and the crisis in Mali.

  
  The existing UN Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015. Preparation of the following international development goals is under way. Finland considers it important that during the drafting process the EU acts coherently and supports the UN's responsibility for leadership in the matter. The ministers will also discuss this topic at a working dinner, where the participants will include former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, Special Advisor of the UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg.

  Read more at 4- traders

• Have your say on the Post- 2015 Development Agenda

  This January UNA-UK has been asking its members and supporters to participate in the UN’s My World survey – a global initiative allowing members of the public to feed their ideas into the process to devise the successor framework to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

  
  Successfully creating a representative and inclusive post-2015 development framework will depend on the ability of the process to incorporate the views and opinions of people across the world. This initiative, spearheaded by the United Nations, provides a great opportunity for you to have your say in the post-2015 development debate.

  
  The results of this survey will be shared with world leaders as they consider the world's future development priorities following the expiry of the MDGs in 2015.

  Read more at UNA- UK

• HIV in the Post- 2015 Development Goals- Let’s Keep the Momentum Going

  The International Development Committee (IDC) today publishes its Post- 2015 Development Goals report calling for a simple and measurable set of global targets to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015.

  With specific reference to health, the report states that “there is a strong argument that the post-2015 framework should include one overarching goal on health based on Universal Health Coverage, rather than the three health-related goals which feature in the original MDGs.  This should be done in such a way that the current vital emphasis on maternal and child mortality is not lost.”

  Read more at International HIV/ AIDS Alliance

• International Development Committee on Post- 2015

  On 22 January, the International Development Committee published a report on the post 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the report, the Committee supports Prime Minister Cameron’s emphasis on the eradication on poverty. Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce, chair of the committee stated "Aiming to eradicate extreme poverty is ambitious, of course, but for the first time in human history it is also eminently achievable. The MDGs have been successful in halving extreme poverty, but progress has been very unequal. Now is the time to focus on those who have been left behind."

  Read more at United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe

• Key Tweets from the Post 2015 High Level Meeting in Monrovia

  David Cameron arrives in Monrovia to co-chair the Post-2015 High Level Meeting. Watch the video on The Guardian. Visit monrovia2015hlp.org to learn more about the meeting.

  
  This week in Monrovia, Liberia a high level meeting is taking place to look at global development for post 2015 after the expiration of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Co-Chaired by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono along with 27 members of the high level panel will collectively determine the aid and development agenda for the next twenty years.

  
  From the high level meeting several key tweets emerged at the #post2015hlp hashtag.

  Read more at Mom Bloggers for Social Good: A Global Coalition of Mothers Who Care

• Liberia: Prioritize Women, Children’s Health

  
  Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been urged to prioritize women reproductive health and children malnutrition in the post 2015 development agenda.

  
  Professor Gita Sen said the role of civil society organizations in mainstreaming gender and women issues are cardinal to the post 2015.

  
  Prof. Gita Sen spoke Monday when he served as keynote speaker at the opening of the third High Level Panel (HLP) CSOs preparatory meeting on the post 2015 Development Agenda.

  
  The two-day Monrovia meeting is part of consultations with CSOs jointly organized by the Africa-wide post 2015 working group and the Liberia CSO post 2015 working group, the United Nations Secretariat outreach desk, the UN Secretary General Secretariat and representatives from other southern CSOs networks.

   

  Read more at allAfrica

   

   

• Migration, Post- 2015 Development Goals, And the KNOMAD

  Even as the US media is in a frenzy about comprehensive immigration reforms - long overdue, but in terms of detail, still more forest than trees - there is another sense of urgency about how might migration feature in the post-2015 development goals (see my earlier blog). One reason for the urgency is the upcoming High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development at the UN in early October 2013: this meeting could successfully advocate the crucial role played by migration in impacting global development, and it could even suggest one or two goals or metrics for the post-2015 development goals.

  Last week I attended a series of meetings on this topic at the UN (for example, the second roundtable organized by the IOM, UN DESA and UNFPA). In my powerpoint presentation, I made the following points:

  Read more at People Move: A blog about migration, remittances, and development

   

• Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015: A Strong EU Engagement

  The European Parliament's Committee on Development held a public hearing called "Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015: A Strong EU Engagement" in Brussels on 22 January.

  
  The hearing, chaired by Filip Kaczmarek (EPP), Michael Cashman (S&D) and Keith Taylor (Greens) examined the lessons learned from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the scope of the post-2015 development framework with a strong European Union engagement.

  
  Rebeca Grynspan, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator, presented the lessons learned and declared that, thus far, the MDGs are a success for "defining an explicit human development framework in terms of people's needs." She also stressed that progress has been uneven and must be accelerated especially in maternal health and environment in order to reach the goals in two years.

  Read more at United Nations Brussels

• Monrovia Meeting Stresses Poverty Eradication, Equity for Post- 2015 Agenda

  A UN group tasked with defining a new post-2015 development agenda completed their second substantive meeting last week in Monrovia, Liberia focusing on the theme of “National Building Blocks for Sustained Prosperity.” Civil society was also actively present, providing their input to the three-day meeting.

  
  The High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP) is a 27-member panel formed in July 2012 by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise on the global development framework beyond 2015, the completion date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). (See Bridges Weekly, 7 November 2012)
  Having met twice during the latter half of 2012, the HLP will have one more substantive meeting - dealing with Global Partnerships - in March, before submitting their final report to the Secretary-General by the end of May.

  
  Read more at International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development

• Myanmar, FAO to implement millennium development goals

  Myanmar government and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will implement three of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under a five-year Country Program Framework (2012-16), official media reported Wednesday.

  
  The program will be carried out by the FAO and three Myanmar ministries -- Agriculture and Irrigation, Livestock Fisheries, and Forestry to assist the MDGs No. 1, 7 and 8.

  
  The framework agreement was signed between Myanmar Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development and FAO in Nay Pyi Taw Tuesday.

  Read more at English.news.cn

• New report on post- 2015 development agenda

  Today the HoC International Development Select Committee launched its report on the post 2015 development agenda.

  
  The current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will expire in 2015, and the Prime Minister is co-chairing a UN High Level Panel to consider what should replace them. The Panel meets next week in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
  Commenting on the launch of the report, Chair of the Committee, Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, stated that 'the Prime Minister must use his influence to ensure that the goals are simple and measureable'.

  Read more at UK CDS: UK Collaborative on Development Sciences

• Post- 2015 Global Water Consultations

  As part of this process, a UN-led consultation process ‘The World We Want 2015’ is taking place. The IUCN Global Water Programme is taking a lead role in the thematic consultation on Water, and in particular for the Sub-stream 'Water for Nature and Nature for Water', taking place this week from 28 January to 1 February.

  Read more at IUCN

• Reaction to HLP meeting on post- 2015 in Liberia

  Brendan Cox, Save the Children’s Director of Policy and Advocacy said in Monrovia:

  
  “Today’s commitment from the High Level Panel in Liberia to focus on ending extreme poverty is what we’ve been calling for. It is now critical that the Panel retains this level of ambition and agrees a blueprint that can get us there.
  “We know that in order to end extreme poverty, we must focus on the very poorest who have been left behind by growing inequality.

  
  “With ambition and the right approach, the Panel can ensure that we see an end to extreme poverty in our generation.”

  Read more at Save the Children