UNF Alert 8

Post-2015 Co-Facilitators and New Summit Dates Announced
The President of the General Assembly (PGA) has appointed Ambassador Donoghue of Ireland and Ambassador Kamau of Kenya to co-chair the intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda. Member States have requested that a roadmap for the negotiations be proposed shortly and that those negotiations be planned in coordination with the FfD and climate negotiations to avoid overlap.

Due to UN holidays, new dates for the September 2015 Summit have been proposed: September 28-30, 2015.  According to the draft resolution, the Summit will consist of six interactive half-day dialogues. In addition to the post-2015 events already scheduled, the PGA will also convene two days of informal hearings with stakeholders before June 2015. Themes for those hearings will be informed by the Secretary-General’s forthcoming synthesis report and decided by the PGA in consultation with Member States.

Financing for Development – Roadmap to Addis
After receiving views from member states, the co-facilitators of the Financing for Development (FfD) process, Ambassador Talbot of Guyana and Ambassador Pederson of Norway, have released an updated roadmap outlining the preparatory process leading up to the FfD summit in Addis Ababa next July.  Following an opening session on October 17, subsequent informal sessions will be clustered over four days each on November 10-13 and December 9-12 to enable maximum participation from capitals. There will be an interactive hearing with civil society and the business sector on January 15-16, 2015. Sessions are open to all stakeholders with a UN pass.

The upcoming November session will focus on the global context and mobilization and effective use of resources, including domestic public finance, international public finance (including ODA), private and blended finance.  The December session will focus on the enabling policy environment; systemic issues like trade, technology, and capacity building; governance; and learning from partnerships and funds.

Data Revolution Report Launched
The SG’s Independent Expert Advisory Group’s report on the data revolution launched today, November 6, 2014. The report states that “data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability” and that monitoring the SDGs will require substantial investments as well as strong leadership from the UN and its partners. The report highlights increasing inequalities in data and access to information between developed and developing countries, between information-rich and information-poor individuals, and between the public and private sectors and emphasizes the need to reverse this trend to realize the vision of leaving no one behind.

The report recommends a program of action that covers four main areas: consensus on principles and standards; technology, innovation and analysis; resources for capacity development; leadership for coordination and mobilization; and quick wins on SDG data. It also presents a vision for the future that includes the emergence of a vibrant “global data ecosystem” to support the monitoring and implementation of the SDGs with roles for governments, international and regional institutions, statistical systems, civil society, the private sector, the philanthropic sector, the media, academia and scientists.

Monitoring and Accountability
Member states are beginning to focus more attention on questions related to monitoring and accountability for the post-2015 agenda. Recently, the Second Committee held a special event on “Accountability at all levels.” Questions were raised about the voluntary nature of the agenda – is it an accountability dilemma that countries are not legally bound to the agenda, or is it a benefit in the sense that it will be driven by political will? Many participants emphasized the need to develop more concrete ideas on accountability before July 2015 so that they can be further debated at the FfD conference.

In a letter to the Secretary-General, a group of seven countries — Egypt, Liechtenstein, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland – have called for the SG’s synthesis report to highlight the importance of an “efficient post-2015 review mechanism” and noted that they consider the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) to be the “key forum for such a review mechanism”.

Indicator Framework
According to a note from the UN Statistics Division, the UN Statistics Commission is expected to discuss and agree on the process and modalities for the development of an indicator framework for the SDGs at its session in early March 2015. Its subsequent session in March 2016 is expected to agree on a set of indicators for the measuring and monitoring of the SDGs and their implementation.

For the MDGs, an Inter-agency Expert Group, consisting of international agencies, regional organizations and national statistical offices, conducted the work on indicators. The UN Statistics Commission may establish a similar mechanism for the development and implementation of the post-2015 indicator framework at its March session. Some key principles for selection criteria of indicators have already been discussed, in particular, “SMART indicators: specific, measurable, available/achievable in a cost effective way, relevant for the programme, and available in a timely manner.”

Must Reads

• Istanbul Programme of Action for the LDCs (2011-2020): Monitoring Deliverables, Tracking Progress – Synthesis Report. The latest report from LDC IV Monitor, launched on October 15, evaluates progress toward the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA), the outcome of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and focuses on the need to strengthen monitoring, particularly improving transparency, accountability and effectiveness. 

• Even It Up: Time to end extreme inequality. Oxfam’s latest report gives new evidence that inequality, particularly the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, is growing. According to Oxfam “just 85 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity.” The report also presents a set of concrete policy solutions to close this widening gap. 

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued its strongest warning yet on climate change and global warming in a Synthesis Report released earlier this week. 

• Unpacking the Data Revolution at the Country Level – Initial Findings. Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya of Southern Voice on Post-MDG International Development Goals and the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Kate Higgins of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) summarize the initial findings of the Post-2015 Data Test, a set of country studies that aim to road test the measurement of goals and targets at the national level. To view the initial results of the Post-2015 Data Test country studies, visit their website: Presenting Initial Findings from the Post-2015 Data Test. 

• Reaching the Unreached: Cross-sector partnerships, business and the post-2015 development agenda. World Vision’s paper implores policymakers to think outside of the business-as-usual frame of mind, emphasizing that current approaches to poverty eradication are insufficient to achieve zero-based goals. The paper presents a series of solutions through cross-sector partnerships, between government, private sector, civil society and UN agencies.
• If Not Now, When? Ending Violence Against the World’s Children. NYU Center on International Cooperation’s David Steven describes the magnitude of the crisis of violence against children, analyzing the post-2015 targets aimed at combatting violence and proposing solutions, particularly political leadership and global partnership.

Look Ahead

• November 6: Report launch of the Secretary-General’s Data Advisory Group, New York.
• November 9-11: World Economic Forum Summit on the Global Agenda, Dubai, UAE.
• November 10-13: Financing for Development substantive session, New York.
• December 1-12: UNFCCC Lima Climate Change Conference, Lima, Peru.
• December 9-12: Financing for Development substantive session, New York.
• Mid-late December: Expected release of the Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report, New York.

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