Open Working Group on SDGs is ‘getting down to business’

Young people in Brazil also getting down to business (growing towards peace project)

The Kenyan Co-chair, Mr. Kamau, opened the recent session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on SDGs taking place in New York from 17-19 April urging delegates to ‘get serious and get on with the business’. This is great news since the OWG has been a long time coming. Initially expected in September 2012, it only came into being at the beginning of this year. The delay was caused by tough negotiations on modalities that resulted in 70 countries sitting in 30 seats.

While Member States were still busy refining the modalities during the first session in March, the second session in April addressed a couple of central issues head on: What do universality and differentiated targets for country context look like in practice? How should poverty eradication be addressed in the framework – as overarching target or as a goal (or both)?

Poverty eradication as top priority?

I presume the fact that poverty is on the top of the agenda is a sign that it is a top priority, or even outcome number one. In that case there is a risk that this focus on poverty eradication might be lost further down the line during the sessions scheduled over the next ten months, which cover a wide range of topics related to human development, inclusive growth and environmental sustainability. After all, the purpose of the framework should be keeping poverty eradication on the international agenda, focusing on the poorest and most marginalized, while ensuring that all countries take action to keep development within our planet’s natural thresholds.

Changing indicators to change the world: evidence from the ground.

Why the way we measure progress on education matters.

The building of a school next to an IDP camp in the Teso sub-region. Research participants said they have the physical walls but not the teachers and teaching materials needed to provide their children with quality education.

A widely acknowledged success of the current MDG framework is the creation of strong incentives for the governments of developing countries to achieve progress on the agreed goals. Governments want to receive international praise and increased AID flows associated with the implementation of good pro-poor policies. Government performance is assessed on the achievement of the MDGs targets associated to the goals. If we take the example of the second goal “Achieve universal primary education”, the target is to “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling”. The key indicator used is the Net enrolment rate in primary education, complemented by the number of pupils enrolled in grade 1 who reaches grade 5, and literacy rates. This post examines the implications of the incentives generated by the current MDGs indicators. It does so by considering the critical views of those living in poverty collected through the COMPASS 2015 research.

CAFOD’s new paper: ‘Building from the ground up’

How the foundations of a post-2015 framework should translate into change for people in poverty

CAFOD has published a new paper on the post-2015 agenda. ‘Building from the ground up’ looks at the value-add of a global development framework, contributing to the discussion to define the post-2015 agenda. It looks in detail at the values CAFOD believes the framework should be built on to take us towards a shared vision for global development. The paper shows how this can be practically done by suggesting example goals which embody those values, including empowering governance, equitable economies, and resilient livelihoods.

Finally, it makes a suggestion on the framework architecture, and how indicators can link across goals to ensure that no goal can be left behind while the others make progress.

As ever, your comments, thoughts and feedback are welcomed – we’ll be developing our thinking further throughout the year as the findings from the participatory research from COMPASS 2015 emerge.

The post-2015 consultations – does quantity add to quality?

A women’s group meeting in Bangladesh as part of a CAFOD project to improve food and livelihood security in the context of climate change

Ever since the United Nations (UN) were created, civil society fought to establish and strengthen their position as crucial stakeholders in UN processes. So how could civil society ever say no, if consulted as part of a UN process? But looking at the consultations on the post-2015 development framework, I wonder if there is point when consultations cannot serve their purpose anymore.

What are the politics? MDGs in a changing world

The political landscape is going to be as important to the post-MDG framework as the theory and policy that goes into them. The MDGs were drawn from a series of high-profile international conferences during 1990s. This meant many goals already had a large amount of political support, although they were inevitably altered somewhat by the grinder of the political process. There are fewer clear priorities this time round.

A Happy New Year for the intergovernmental post-2015 process?

While the UN High Level Panel on post-2015 is in full swing, the intergovernmental process, primarily the Open Working Group (OWG) on sustainable development goals (SDGs), has yet to come into existence. Agreed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (‘Rio+20’) last June, the OWG was meant to be launched at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2012 but to no avail.

Busy Christmas for the Post-2015 High Level Panel

Getting ready for the next round

The Eminent Persons on the High Level Panel (HLP) on post-2015 development, supported by their advisers and the UN HLP secretariat, are currently preparing for their next meeting in Monrovia, Liberia. Preliminary dates are 6-8 February 2013 but it might be moved forward because of diary clashes between the Heads of State co-chairing the Panel.

Post-2015 leadership: what does it look like?

There’s an African proverb often repeated in conversations on multilateralism: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ Like most clichés, it’s over-used because it’s at once true and not yet reflected in international politics.

Neil Palmer, CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture – global partnership

MDG7 (environmental sustainability) and MDG8 (global partnership) are different from the other six goals, tackling as they do sustainability and systemic barriers to development, rather focusing on poverty, health, education and equality. MDGs 7 and 8 are the goals that require all nations to participate in the journey towards equitable, sustainable, inclusive development.

Post-2015 processes at UN and Beyond 2015

Due to popular demand, CAFOD has updated the colourful post-2015 timeline outlining the current status of UN processes and Beyond 2015 processes.  It is a busy space but the colour code at the top of the chart should help navigating the graphic. To download the graphic click Post-2015 UN and B2015 process overview v07112012

NEW CAFOD Brief – Post-2015: From process to content

The interest in the post-2015 development agenda has surged in recent months, but the debate tends towards more heat than light.

With the official United Nations process up and running, the High-Level Panel on post-2015 and the soon-to-be established intergovernmental working group on sustainable development goals, and numerous national and global consultations as well as a host of civil society-led and other initiatives, attention is moving from ‘process’ issues to ‘content’ ones.

CAFOD believe that the key questions in content discussions are 1) what should the purpose of a post-2015 framework be, and 2) how exactly will it deliver change.

It is not possible to have a sensible discussion on which goals should be included and how they should be designed without clarity on these issues. The rush for priority issues and goals must be framed within a clear understanding of the framework’s core rationale, if the framework is to stand any chance of delivering real change.

The new CAFOD briefing paper sets out CAFOD’s position on the key content questions. It includes our proposal on the purpose of a post-2015 framework; our Theory of Change; principles underpinning the framework as a whole; and three candidate goals that CAFOD are developing.

In addition CAFOD has put together an two-pager on equitable growth, employment and poverty eradication to input to the concrete issues currently discussed at the second High-level panel on post-2015 meeting in London, UK.

It addresses strategies of addressing individual and household poverty through equitable growth and employment. For CAFOD the focus must be on the sector where most people living in poverty are economically active small businesses - often informal,rural and micro. The paper outlines recommendations for equitable economic strategies that foster small businesses and provide enabling enviroments which include equal access to employment for people living in poverty.