“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 

With the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) fast approaching, governments and organisations across the world are looking towards the next step. Introspection is a necessary part of the process as both the successes and failures of the original MDG agenda are being assessed and dissected, providing captivating accounts on both sides. The eLearning Africa news service has been following developments and taking notes.

The areas that have attracted our attention are, naturally, education and ICT infrastructure. Whilst impressive statistics concerning achievements under the MDG2 (achieving universal primary education) are abound, debates are also raging over what these numbers actually mean.

Read more at eLearning Africa News Portal 

In supporting the implementation of the Rio+20 outcome document on Sustainable Development Goals and the Post 2015 Development Agenda, the  EMG senior officials in their eighteenth meeting in December 2012 agreed to provide a contribution,  within the existing processes and through the frameworks established by the Secretary-General,  providing the perspectives of the UN system agencies on the environmental sustainability dimension of the future development agenda.

The EMG contribution would facilitate the integration of the environmental dimension into sustainable development goals (SDGs), drawing on the information, assessment, and strategic views of EMG members. It would look into how the environmental goals and targets established by the multilateral environmental agreements such as on biodiversity and desertification could be integrated into the future development agenda.

Read more at Environment Management Group  

The adoption of the Millennium Declaration in 2000 by all 189 Member States of the UN General Assembly was a defining moment for global development cooperation. In recognition of the need to translate this commitment into action, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted. Since their endorsement by the UN General Assembly, the MDGs have defined a common framework of priorities for the development community. In September 2010, a High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly convened to review progress on the MDG targets and agreed on a concrete action plan to accelerate progress towards their full achievement by 2015. It also called on the UN System to continue informing the global debate on development and to lead the international discussion on a post 2015 development agenda.

The 2011 Annual Report of the Secretary- General: Accelerating progress towards the MDGs: options for sustained and inclusive growth and issues for advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015, lays out the broad principles of the post-2015 process. These include the need to foster an inclusive, open and transparent consultation process with multi-stakeholder participation, and to use established global, regional and national mechanisms and processes to ensure that such deliberations incorporate the lessons learned and experiences from all stakeholders. At the substantive level, the Report recommends drawing on the values and principles in the Millennium Declaration and on a thorough, broad based and inclusive review of the MDGs, which should be put in the context of the global development challenges ahead, as the starting point for the discussion of a new development agenda beyond 2015. 

Read more at United Nations Armenia

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

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

CIVICUS is pleased to announce the launch of a new Youth Advisory Group to promote youth participation across the civil society alliance and throughout its programming.

The Youth Advisory Group, whose initial term will last one year from January to December 2013, have been tasked with helping CIVICUS to mainstream youth across its programmes, with developing new activities and initiatives specifically supporting youth participation, and with building new partnerships and connections across civil society.

During an extensive and open selection process in December 2012 and January 2013, CIVICUS received over 100 applications from youth all over the world, with many high quality applications from outstanding candidates. After a number of difficult decisions, CIVICUS was able to identify the 10 youth leaders who will now champion youth participation in the alliance for the coming year.

The CIVICUS Youth Advisory Group
Alfonso Aliberti, Italy
Sanka Chandima Abayawardena, Sri Lanka
Aya Chebbi, Tunisia
Patrick Mpedzisi, Zimbabwe
Liam O’Doherty, Canada
Bukola Oyinloye, Nigeria
Ivana Savich, Serbia
Ponce Ernest Samaniego, Philippines
Brittany Trilford, New Zealand
Pauline Wanja, Kenya

Click here to read the full profiles of the new Youth Advisory Group

For more information about the Youth Advisory Group, please contact Natalie Akstein at

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

VSO today (22 January) welcomed the International Development Select Committee’s new report on post-2015 development goals, particularly one of its key conclusions: that advancing women’s rights is central to development and must be included in the post-2015 framework.

The International development organisation added that a commitment to tackling gender equality must be a key element of global efforts to end extreme poverty.

VSO Chief Executive Marg Mayne said: “The IDC is right to urge a post-2015 commitment to ending extreme poverty. But we must recognise that tackling the inequality faced by women and girls worldwide is essential if we are to achieve that goal.

Read more at Volunteers Overcoming Poverty (VSO)

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The 2013 CIVICUS Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Awards will provide seed funding for innovative ideas emerging from CIVICUS members who attended the 2012 CIVICUS World Assembly, and based on the theme of last year’s assembly, “Defining a new social contract – Making the future together.”

The CIVICUS World Assembly serves as the primary point of convergence for excellence – of ideas, perspectives, experiences, partnerships and commitments – aiming at enhancing citizen participation, civil society and civic rights worldwide. CIVICUS wants the World Assembly to be a true learning experience for all the participants, encouraging them to take actions forward.

If you have been inspired by the 2012 World Assembly thematic track on “Building partnerships for social innovation” to initiate a new and creative relationship or dialogue between usually non-connected organisations, actors and/or sectors to bring social change at a local level, we invite you to apply for the 2013 CIVICUS Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Award. This year CIVICUS will fund innovative multi-stakeholders discussions with eight award grants of USD 3,000 each.

Application Guidelines
Please submit your application through our online questionnaire.
Only complete applications will be considered. You may submit in English, French or Spanish.

Read the full announcement in English, French or Spanish.

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

The atmosphere was pensive and highly emotional at the Professor Mahmoud F. Fathalla, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and chair of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research was reciting the proposed 10 manifestos for maternal health post-2015.

Some couldn't control it, as tears dropped and the entire hall gave him a standing ovation at the end of the citation. It wasn't an ovation for the respected professor only but an ovation that depicts people's resolve to support the implementation of the manifestos.

It was the closing ceremony of the 2nd Maternal Global Health Conference which took place from January 15 to 17, 2013, with over 800 experts in maternal health that came together in Arusha, Tanzania, to present the latest evidence on improving the quality of care for women during pregnancy and childbirth.

Read more at allAfrica

The General Assembly, recalling its resolution 66/288 of 27 July 2012, in which it endorsed the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”:

(a) Decides to establish the Open Working Group on Sustainable
Development Goals, in accordance with paragraph 248 of the outcome document;

(b) Welcomes the membership of the Open Working Group as designated by
the five United Nations regional groups and as listed in the annex to the present
decision.

As part of the Rio+20 Conference follow up, governments stated that they would establish the 30 member inter-governmental Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by September 2012.

Member States will nominate representatives from the five United Nations regional groups, with the aim of achieving fair, equitable, and balanced geographic representation. In addition, paragraph 248 of The Future We Want, instructs the United Nations “to establish an inclusive and transparent intergovernmental process on sustainable development goals that is open to all stakeholders”. Thus, in order to adhere to the requirements of The Future We Want and maximize its effectiveness, the OWG needs to ensure that it has recognized effective and on-going engagement of stakeholders.

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

Considering the MDGs deadline was still three years away, 2012 was a surprisingly busy year for the post-2015 agenda. We've seen the UN 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

The international development committee (IDC) has called on David 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 comes after 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