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

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

The 27 eminent persons gathering in Monrovia this week to discuss what should replace the current set of Millennium Development Goals have a prodigiously difficult task ahead of them. The process to agree the original MDGs was contentious enough, but the ‘High Level Panel’ of world leaders selected by Ban Ki-Moon to help set new goals when the current ones expire in 2015 face a host of additional challenges.

Firstly, the panel suffer from the benefit of hindsight. The MDGs have been a victim of their own success; dominating global development efforts since their adoption in 2000, they have been criticised in equal measure. Despite being ground-breaking in many ways (a single set of agreed development priorities, an emphasis on transparently measuring progress over time), the MDGs’ most innovative features have also proved their most controversial. As with all prioritisation exercises, the MDGs necessarily de-prioritised a range of other issues which have subsequently come to be seen as glaring omissions: Climate change, conflict and security, jobs. By focusing on a single set of targets baselined to 1990, when many countries – particularly in Africa – were entering a period of unusual turbulence caused by the end of the Cold War, real progress in the past decade has often gone unacknowledged. And by focusing almost exclusively on quantifiable end goals (numbers in school, poverty levels) the MDGs engendered a results culture that detractors argue has been to the detriment of quality, sustainability and equity.

Read more at Labour List beta

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

Sometimes it can feel difficult to make our voices heard on this big planet. But I just found out about a new website created by the United Nations with civil society groups to collect ideas for solving global poverty problems [including water and sanitation] after 2015. It’s called The World We Want 2015. Like the internet and the United Nations, it’s not perfect. Themes aren’t inclusive, not everyone have access to a computer, and allocated time is too short. But if you’re interested in global conversations regarding “development” after Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015, this is a chance to hear and speak about such issues from January 15th to February 15th.

Read more at Water for the Ages

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

Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson is one of 26 members on the UN high-level panel tasked with presenting proposals for the global development agenda after 2015, the deadline for the current Millennium Development Goals. On 31 January to 1 February, the panel will hold its second high-level meeting, this time in Liberia’s capital of Monrovia.

The main theme of the meeting is ‘national building blocks for sustained prosperity’, which includes issues of inclusive growth and conditions for business development. The meeting also has a particular focus on the situation in fragile and conflict-affected states. Ms Carlsson will be working to ensure that the issues of democratic governance, political accountability, transparency and the rule of law are included in the panel’s framework. These issues are key to guaranteeing people’s political rights and are also important drivers of development and growth. Ms Carlsson will give one of the panel meeting’s main speeches on the area and will also discuss the way forward with the other panel members

Read more at African Brains: The Home of Intelligent Networking

The ongoing process to craft a post-2015 global development agenda should be more transparent – otherwise, world leaders may not want to sign on, a panel of British parliamentarians worries in a report published Tuesday that also identified job creation as the most important goal for the coming years.
 
It’s the first time since a high-level panel tasked by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with crafting a followup set to the Millennium Development Goals began its work, belatedly, at the end of last year. And it foreshadows the intense debate that is sure to heat up further as the deadline for reaching those anti-poverty targets draws closer.

The U.K. lawmakers, who are part of the House of Commons’ International Development Committee, are urging Prime Minister David Cameron to use all power at his disposal to engage his peers in the process of crafting measurable targets to guide international cooperation. Cameron co-chairs the high-level panel which is now crafting an agenda to succeed the MDGs, which expire in two years. The panel is expected to share its recommendations with the United Nations later this year.

Read more at The Development Newswire

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono landed in Liberia as the first stop on his eight-day African and Middle Eastern trip to address economic and multilateral diplomatic missions.

The Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330-300 carrying Yudhoyono, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono and a number of Cabinet members touched down at Roberts International Airport in the Liberian capital of Monrovia at 8 a.m. on Thursday local time (3 p.m. Jakarta time), according to the President’s official website.

The President was welcomed by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Indonesian Ambassador to Liberia Sudirman Haseng.

Yudhoyono will cochair the third meeting of the UN High Level Panel (HLP) on the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Liberian capital. Yudhoyono and Johnson, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron, have been appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to cochair the panel.

Read more at The Jakarta Post

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

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

Consultations on growth and employment are being coordinated by an advisory group consisting of staff from the United Nations Development Programme, the International Labour Organization, UNCTAD, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and UN Women, as well as representatives of other international and civil society organizations.

The thematic e-discussion on development-led globalization will be led by UNCTAD from 25 January to 22 February 2013, and will be moderated by Ralf Peters and Amelia Santos-Paulino (from UNCTAD) and Jayati Ghosh (from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi).

The e-discussion has been launched on the World We Want 2015 website, as part of the Global Consultation on Growth and Employment for the post-2015 development agenda.

The e-discussion aims at advancing thinking in four areas:

Read more at United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

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

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

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

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

“Post-2015 development agenda. Post-2015 goals. The next development agenda post 2015.” Ring a bell? Sound familiar?

The international community is talking a lot about what development will look like post the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. Of great concern to UNAIDS/us is making sure that HIV, and the response to it, remain a central feature in the Post-2015 agenda. Why? Because the global HIV epidemic remains one of the world’s leading causes of early death and is both a driver and consequence of inequality and social injustice. The AIDS response has also been a pioneer and pathfinder on many fronts, and the innovation, dynamism, community leadership and global solidarity that characterizes the AIDS movement can make critical contributions to doing health and development differently in the Post-2015 era.

Read more at Global Network of People Living with HIV

Worldwide, about 150 million people a year face catastrophic healthcare costs because of direct payments such as user fees, while 100 million are driven below the poverty line. To the extent that people are covered by a risk pooling mechanism, their out-of-pocket expenditure will not cause financial hardship. Out-of-pocket expenditure for health also illuminates inequities in that richer countries—and richer populations within those countries—tend to have lower out-of-pocket expenditure.3 Additional indicators of access are needed for coverage, and experts at WHO are leading a working group on this challenging issue.
 
Read more at Rockerfeller Foundation

On January 22, 2013, IBON International, WALHI, INDIES, PCFS and APRN are inviting peoples organizations, social movements and NGOs from across Indonesia to a workshop titled “Towards a Just and Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda”
The workshop’s objectives are:

1. To discuss the challenge of sustainable development in the global and Indonesian context
2. To provide a background on the United Nation’s roadmap towards a post-2015 development framework
3. To present the Campaign on Peoples Goals for Sustainable Development (CPGSD)
4. To strategize how Indonesian social movements and civil society can campaign for a truly just, equitable and transformative development agenda for the post-2015 period

The Campaign for People’s Goals for Sustainable Development is a global campaign of grassroots organizations, labor unions, social movements and non-governmental organizations and other institutions committed to promoting new pathways to the future we want. Join the campaign at here.

Read more at Asia- Pacific Research Network

Since the Millennium Development Goals were formulated, we have had a pretty historic global conversation about how developed and developing countries can partner to achieve an ambitious agenda – to eliminate extreme poverty from the planet, and at least halve it by 2015. We’ve seen a few areas that have really taken off. We’ve seen issues of disease control – including HIV/AIDS, malaria and immunizations for children – really making breakthroughs. In recent years maternal health has also made progress and we’ve seen a lot of success in primary education. In some areas we haven’t seen much success. In hunger, we’re still struggling. On the environment, the Millennium Development Goals actually had a pretty narrow definition and these issues have not been so well addressed.

As we look at the final 1,000 days to 2015, there are a few basic questions. One is how do we make sure that this last stretch goes as well as possible – how do we make sure we really maintain the momentum around doable propositions such as eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and ending deaths from malaria? Second, while the world has already achieved the first Millennium Development Goal of cutting income poverty by half, how do we finish the job and end extreme poverty altogether?

Read more at World Economic Forum

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

At the moment the average civil society organization can now choose to contribute to up to 11 thematic and 60 to 100 national consultations, each one of them using several outreach media – e-consultations, meetings, papers, expert groups, panels, twitter, video, facebook hangouts – multiplying the input opportunities ad infinitum..
In addition, the UN High-Level Panel on post-2015 and their outreach team have set up their own consultation mechanism consisting of a mix of meetings and on-line questionnaires.

Finally, there are still processes waiting to be established: the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the intergovernmental process who will ultimately negotiate the post-MDG framework.

Read more at Serpents and Doves: CAFOD policy team blog

There is one idea we have not tried: making job creation our number one priority. We have talked about it, but haven't really acted on it. It's a simple idea that could promote a sustainable recovery from the crisis now, and lead to poverty eradication in the future.

This is particularly timely as we start debating the post-2015 development agenda.
Originally, the 2015 Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs) did not mention jobs, but "full and productive employment and decent work for all" was eventually added as one of the targets to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty.

Read more at Aljazeera

With the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals fast approaching, the United Nations is already planning its post-2015 agenda. But rather than looking inward, it has partnered with various civil society organizations, including Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and CIVICUS, to produce The World We Want 2015, a website that encourages discussion, solicits opinion and crowdsources on a global level. The conversations will be moderated, synthesized and presented to a high-level panel that will formulate an agenda based on this global feedback.

Read more at The Independent

UNAIDS is hosting an online consultation from January 21 through February 3 on the UN and Civil Society joint platform, "The World We Want," to determine a roadmap for global development after the 2015 Millennium Development Goals' target date. The publicly accessible forum is gathering diverse opinions on how to incorporate AIDS and health into post-2015 development plans, with a focus on the following three related topics: How the HIV epidemic will be relevant to the post-2015 agenda; how principles and practices from the AIDS response can inform equitable and sustainable health and development; and how decision-making, monitoring, evaluation, and accountability can be reformed in efforts to end the HIV epidemic.

Read more at The Body

What values does a Yemeni journalist who fuelled the Arab Spring hold in common with a former principal of the U.S. National Security Council? And how in turn will they see eye to eye with a Jordanian queen, or the president of Indonesia?

The subjects of this riddle are meeting in Monrovia as part of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s 27-member High Level Panel of Eminent Person’s on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP).

The purpose of the HLP is to lead the discussion around a new framework, the post-2015 development agenda, to replace the expiring Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The HLP’s work will culminate with an advisory report to Ban in May 2013.

The meeting, which takes place between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, is the third in a series of four. Previous meetings took place in London and New York, and the forthcoming one will take place in Bali.
“This (meeting in Monrovia) is the HLP’s chance to hear the perspectives of a wide range of organisations and individuals in Africa about their priorities for a post-2015 agenda,” said Claire Melamed, head of the Growth and Equity Programme at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

“It’s important those perspectives are reflected in the final report,” Melamed told IPS.

Read more at Inter Press Service

Yesterday, I had the honour of moderating the roundtable debate on ageing and disability with my colleague AK Dube of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, as part of this week's meeting of the UN High-level Panel in Monrovia, Liberia.

We were joined by colleagues from ageing and disability organisations from around the world; and two members of the UN High-level Panel: Amina Mohammed, the UN Secretary-General's Adviser on post-2015 and Paula Caballero, Adviser to María Ángela Holguín, Colombian Foreign Minister.

Read more at HelpAge International

Participate in the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and make your voice heard.

The Public Dialogue Meeting on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda is the culmination of the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a joint civil society/UN consultation, co-convened by UNICEF and UN Women and sponsored by the Governments of Denmark and Ghana. The meeting is held in Eigtveds Pakhus, room III, in Copenhagen on 18 February 2013 from 9.00-15.00.

The consultation on addressing inequalities is one of eleven thematic consultations that the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) initiated in 2012. The aim of the Global Consultation on Inequalities is to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals and to discuss options for addressing inequalities in a new development framework after 2015.

Read more at Udenrigsministereit Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
 

Our country, Liberia is currently hosting a United Nations High Level Panel Post 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) meeting. The 26-member panel was set up by United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, in May 2012 to advise him on the Global Development agenda after 2015 (At the expiration of the current Millennium Development Goals).

High level Panel Must Formulate Clearly Defined and Achievable New Global Development Goals
The panel is co-chaired by Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Indonesian President SusiloBambangYudhoyono. Academics, diplomats and civil society leaders from all regions of the world are also here participating in the meeting.

Read more at allAfrica

In the first informal meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on establishing the High-level Political Forum on sustainable development (HLPF), Members States and Permanent Observers convened to discuss its format and organizational aspects.

The consultation took place on 30 January 2013, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, convened by the two co-facilitators for the process, Cesare Maria Ragaglini, Permanent Representative of Italy, and Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Permanent Representative of Brazil. The consultation followed from the decision at the June 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) "to establish a universal, intergovernmental, high-level political forum, building on the strengths, experiences, resources and inclusive participation modalities of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), and subsequently replacing the Commission."

Noting that the HLPF was one of the key outcomes of Rio+20, Ragaglini said the meeting should allow delegates to express their initial views on modalities and format of the HLPF. He requested, inter alia, conducting the negotiations in an inclusive and transparent manner and avoiding reopening agreements reached in Rio. He said that Major Groups will be engaged in the process and negotiations should be concluded by May 2013, in order for the HLPF to start at the beginning of the 68th session of the UNGA.

Read more at Sustainable Development Policy &  Practice

The countdown to the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda is a time for debate about how the development community and countries around the world should collaborate on improving wellbeing, sustainability and social justice from 2015.

Look beyond the proposals and the wrangling over priorities, imagine a new development framework in place and fast-forward two decades: how many questions will we be able to answer about what has and hasn’t worked?

The value of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is clear when we reflect on progress made in the past decade or so: with the benefit of hindsight, answering questions about the MDGs’ impact has been far from straightforward.

Read more at Business Daily

Johannesburg. 8 February 2013. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation expresses serious concerns on the escalating campaign to silence independent dissent in Zambia, calling on the government to take immediate steps to protect media and civil society freedoms.

A number of civil society organizations advocating for greater civic engagement in Zambia’s ongoing constitution-making process have recently been threatened with deregistration. Moreover, in an apparent attempt to suppress voices critical of President Michael Sata and the ruling Patriotic Front, several journalists and political activists have been arrested on various charges including defamation of the President and operating unsanctioned media outlets.

On 26 December 2012, the Office of Registrar of Societies informed the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), a non-governmental organization established in 1992 to promote and strengthen democratic governance in Zambia, that their registration would be discontinued in 28 days. The letter, which was sent without prior notification, reportedly makes several unfounded allegations of organisational misconduct including “pursuing objectives contrary to the objectives for which [FODEP] was formed” and “failing to furnish [the Office of Registrar of Societies] of such duly audited accounts”. FODEP has since issued an exhaustive response questioning the validity of the Office of Registrar of Societies’ assertions.  

Early in February, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will join UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Monrovia, Liberia, in leading the third UN High-Level Panel Meeting for the Post 2015 Development Agenda discussions.

The discussions will continue in Bali in March, before a report is produced for the UN Secretary General in May, to serve as a basis for a new development agenda. Following the meeting in Africa, the President is expected to join the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit in Cairo to address the needs of the Ummah.

Later in 2013, he will join G20 leaders in St Petersburg to discuss economic inclusiveness and development at the premier forum for international economic cooperation.

Read more at The Jakarta Post  

Public Works Minister, Samuel Woods, II has told World leaders and partners that Liberians want action now and not words. Minister Woods said Wednesday when he made a welcome and opening remark at the occasion marking the Post 2015 Thematic Consultations on Water on the Margins of the Post 2015 High Level Panel of Eminent Persons that is expected to take place in Liberia.

"This consultation must be a call to action. This is the time to act; our women in the villages continue to suffer the excruciating perils associated with the lack of safe drinking water," Minister Woods said.
According to the Works boss, the growth, survival and development of the Liberian children continue to be impaired by lack of access to safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation. So "they want action, not words, these consultations must respond to their yearnings."

In furtherance, Minister Woods said, Liberia is eager to demonstrate to the world that it is committed to reforms, and its agenda for transformation is on course. "We want to show progress, we want to consolidate the gains of democratic transition, respect for the rule of law and good governance".

Read more at allAfrica

Youths from different organizations and communities have adopted a powerful post -2015 development vision in a two-day consultation workshopheld in Freetown.The workshop was organized by Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) in collaboration with Restless Development (RD) and Ipasas leading organizations from Sierra Leone to feed into the post Millennium Development Goal (MDG) agenda.

Outcomes from the consultation, according to the organizers, will be contributed to the framework that will be guiding future government policies not only in developing countries but also globally, on the ideas to ensure that any future development would recognize the role that young people play as assets and problem solvers.

One of the facilitators, Moses Johnson from YMCA said that the workshop was for youth to identify the issues and challenges in the MDG and see what gaps and how they could be addressed in the next development framework, which could be set after 2015.

He said young people will look at the MDG’s to see how far they can suggest alternatives that will replace them after 2015, adding that this workshop is among series of processes that various international organizations are undertaking to add youngpeople’s voice to the next development framework.

Read more at Awoko Business

"As we discuss, we should not forget that we still have two very important years left to consolidate the gains and accelerate our efforts to achieve the MDGs; in discussing about the future, we cannot forget that the time to act is now and that civil society has a critical role to play", Liberia's Gender and Development Minister has said.

Madam Julia Duncan Cassell told participants of the third High Level Penal (HLP) post 2015 Development agenda civil society preparatory meeting not to concentrate on the post 2015 development agenda, but should renew energy for greater action in the next two years of the climax of the MDGs.

According to her, the credibility of the post 2015 agenda depends largely on goals that are still achievable within the present MDGs.

Read more at allAfrica

On 30 January, EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs will take part in the second UN panel on post-2015 development agenda.

Mr Piebalgs commented, “the Millennium Development Goals have been instrumental in mobilising the international community towards key targets to fight poverty. As the 2015 deadline is fast approaching, we need to propose a new vision for the world to address key challenges ahead such as poverty, inequality or sustainable development.

The EU will remain at the forefront of this process and I hope to see post-2015 agenda more comprehensive and inclusive. This has to be an agenda that focuses on providing decent life for all people by 2030, irrespective of where they live.”  Moreover, Commissioner Piebalgs added, “I trust that this new framework will pave the way to empowering people so that they can lift themselves out of poverty once and for all.”

Read more at New Europe

The bunting has been hung, there is a smell of fresh paint at the airport, and posters dotted around Monrovia suggest something big is happening in the city this week.

On Tuesday, the technical sessions of the UN high-level panel (HLP), which has until May to come up with a vision to shape the post-2015 development agenda, began. On Friday the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and her HLP co-chairs – David Cameron, Britain's prime minister, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of Indonesia – are expected to offer a clearer idea of what that vision may be when they issue the panel's first communique.

What is it likely to contain? Job creation is expected to make an appearance. The World Bank's 2013 World Development Report, published last year, said more than 600m new jobs will be needed over the next 15 years, particularly in Africa and Asia. An estimated 200 million people around the world are unemployed, of whom more than a third are under the age of 25. There is concern among leaders about what to do with the "youth bulge" – the young people who have benefited from the millennium development goal (MDG) to get more children into school, but have few opportunities once their education is completed.

Read more at Poverty Matters Blog

My country Liberia is about to play host to global leaders and thinkers, including the United Kingdom Prime Minister and the Queen of Jordan, as they discuss what priority issues to include once the current Millennium Development Goals (MDG) expire in 2015. I could not think of a better place for this to happen.

Liberia has many lessons to teach on how to ensure past development mistakes are not repeated. The most important of these is the need to tackle corruption head on. We need with a new Millennium Development Goal that specifically calls for greater governance with a way to measure progress - such as access to information targets and open government commitments, a transparent way to follow the money - as well as obligations that specify and measure the enforcement of anti-corruption in each of the goals to fight poverty, hunger, maternal mortality, education and sustainability.

Liberia, which means "land of liberty", was founded by freed and former slaves thirsting for a better future. Yet more than a century of existence has been characterised by conflicts, entrenched public sector corruption and civil wars that destroyed this dream leaving us poor and angry. Our last civil war was in its final throes when the United Nations set the initial MDGs to tackle extreme poverty, hunger, health, equality and environmental sustainability.

Read more at Aljazeera

The minister of Foreign Affairs, Georges Rebelo Chikoti, said Thursday in Huambo City that the Angolan government has been working in the last  years to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially the increase in school and hospital infrastructures.
 
The minister made the statement at the laying of the first stone for the construction of the Amizade Angola-China School, being built at Lossambo land reserve, situated in the surroundings of Huambo City, at a space of 1.523 square meters.

Read more at Angop Agencia AngolaPress Society

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

In a few days, an array of world leaders and thinkers – from politicians to Nobel Prize winners- will meet in Liberia to debate the state of the world’s development and where we are going.

They have been called together as part of a high level panel put together by the United Nations to set out the key priorities that must be tackled if we are to end poverty on the global and local level. In Liberia’s capital of Monrovia, panel members will discuss issues that will succeed those outlined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will end in 2015.

When the MDGs were adopted in 2000, they set forth global pledges such as to collectively cut hunger, guarantee gender equality and get all children enrolled in elementary school. These aims grew out of promises outlined in the Millennium Declaration. More than 13 years later, too many of the declaration’s commitments are unlikely to be met. Much of this derailment is seen as the failure to address governance and corruption as part of the priorities- a point TI has been arguing.

Read more at Transparency International

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

There are two sessions on the future of the Millennium Development Goals after 2015 at Davos this year - that’s the same number of sessions given to meditation and art walks.  The word ‘growth’ features in 11 of the agenda’s session headings, ‘human’ in 4 and ‘poverty’ gets no airtime at all.  Yet if the World Economic Forum is ‘committed to improving the state of the world’ this critical debate should be front and centre of everything we are talking about.
We have made huge strides in delivering on the MDGs: the World Bank estimates that the number of extremely poor people in developing countries will fall from 29% in 1990 to 12% in 2015; the number of children dying before their fifth birthday of preventable causes across the world almost halved from 12 million to 6.9 million in a decade.

But the world has changed since the MDGs were first agreed: six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries are African and once developing countries like China, Brazil and India have become major figures on the world stage, while historically powerful economies now face cuts and financial uncertainty.

Save the Children recently published our report on our aspirations for this new framework, aiming at (stretch-but-doable) zero targets for absolute poverty reduction, hunger, preventable child and maternal deaths and a zero target for those without safe drinking water and sanitation.  This is all possible, so to aim for any less is unconscionable.

Read more at Save the Children

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) met to consider a report outlining the framework for developing a health-related component of the UN's post-2015 development agenda. The Secretariat report proposes two interrelated components for a health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG): universal health coverage and healthy life expectancy.

The report notes that even though progress towards health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been impressive in many countries, the post-2015 agenda needs to: ensure continuing progress towards these goals; sustain political and financial support; and maintain investment in tracking results and resources. It further states that SDGs should take into account the changing global health agenda, including through: increasing recognition of the social and economic impacts of noncommunicable diseases; a shift towards focusing on means that support health outcomes, such as health as human right, health equity, equal opportunity and addressing determinants of health; and increasing recognition of the mutually beneficial linkages between health and other sustainable development policies.

Read more at Sustainable Development Policy & Practice  

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

Less widely recognised has been the impact of surging inequality on efforts to reach the 2015 millennium development goals. Widening gaps in wealth and opportunity have acted as a brake on poverty reduction and progress in child survival, nutrition and education. Yet inequality remains conspicuous by its absence from the agenda for the post-2015 development goals.

This week's meeting of the high-level UN panel framing the post-2015 goals provides an opportunity to change this. As one of three commissioners co-chairing the gathering in the Liberian capital Monrovia, Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, should be playing a leadership role in making the case for a strengthened focus on equity. After all, inclusive growth and equal opportunity are central themes running through the UK's Department for International Development's (DfID) aid programmes.

Read more at Brookings 

Since the turn of the century the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have guided global efforts surrounding the eradication of poverty, diseases, gender inequalities and environmental crises. The goals will have reached their target date in two years’ time.
 
As such, the international community is currently in the process of negotiating the global development agenda to be put in place after 2015. In order to capture diverse perspectives on how HIV and health should be reflected in the period after 2015, UNAIDS is hosting an online consultation until February 3rd which is open to all people.

Read more at SKNVibes

Governments from over 50 countries in Africa will meet in Arusha, Tanzania from 13-15 February for the Fourth Africa Regional Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (ARP) to address the challenges of building a disaster resilient society.

The Africa region is home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is projecting economic growth of 5.25% for sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, a rate that places the region second only to Asia's booming economies and well above a world forecast of 3.6%.

As the countries in this blossoming region continue to develop, this impressive growth could be undermined by exposure to disaster risks and a changing climate. A recent statement "Raising the African Voice" at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the African Science Academies, claims that climate change will impact Africa more severely than any other region in the world and that severe weather events such as droughts and floods are on the increase.

Read more at reliefweb

This was stated by deputy country director UNDP Pakistan, Jean-Luc Stalon, at a roundtable discussion on “Consultations on Post 2015 Development Agenda from a Pakistani Perspective” jointly organised by UNDP and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), here on Wednesday.  Dr Vaqar deputy executive director, SDPI, moderated over the proceedings.

Millennium Development Goals: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

Read more at Dawn.com Newspaper