Co-facilitators Lois Young, Permanent Representative of Belize, and Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark, issued a revised draft of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global level.
In an accompanying letter, Young and Petersen announce "informal informal consultations between Member States" will take place on 24 May 2016.
18 May 2016: Co-facilitators Lois Young, Permanent Representative of Belize, and Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark, issued a revised draft of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global level. In an accompanying letter, Young and Petersen announce “informal informal consultations between Member States” will take place on 24 May 2016.
The issuance of the revised draft follows a 12 May meeting where UN Member States as well as Major Groups and other stakeholders provided comments on the zero draft.
Among the sections that have been revised, the 18 May draft addresses review of specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By the revised draft, the Assembly would decide that the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will discuss a set of SDGs and their interlinkages at each session, with the aim of reviewing progress of all Goals over the course of a four-year cycle. It states that Goal 17 will be discussed annually “in a manner that does not duplicate discussions in the Financing for Development (FfD) Forum.”
On the HLPF themes, the revised draft outlines themes for the remainder of the current cycle of the HLPF under the auspices of the ECOSOC, as follows: in 2017, Ensuring food security on a safe planet by 2030; in 2018, Making cities sustainable and building productive capacities; and in 2019, Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness. It also enumerates, in a separate paragraph, specific Goals that would be considered in each year.
On voluntary national reviews for the 2016 session of the HLPF under the auspices of ECOSOC, the draft calls for making use of innovative arrangements for the preparation of subsequent sessions of the HLPF, and encouraging Member States to involve non-state actors, including civil society and the private sector, in the national reviews. On regional and subregional levels, the revised draft “encourages” Member States to identify the most suitable regional or sub-regional forum “or format” to contribute to the follow-up and review at the HLPF.
On countries in special situations, the text reaffirms that HLPF meetings shall devote adequate time to sustainable development challenges facing developing countries, in particular the least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing States (SIDS) and landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), and recognizes the challenges faced by African countries, middle income countries (MICs) and countries in conflict and post-conflict situations. It also calls to provide for effective linkages between the HLPF meetings and the follow-up and review arrangements of all relevant UN conferences and processes including on LDCs, SIDS and LLDCs.
On participation and inclusiveness, the revised draft includes a shorter reference, which no longer reiterates the Forum’s openness to Major Groups, other relevant stakeholders and entities, but encourages innovative arrangements to be considered in organizing meetings of the HLPF to support effective, broad and balanced participation by region and by type of organization.
On HLPF documentation and inputs, the Assembly would take note of an intergovernmental decision on the scope, frequency and methodology of the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) and its relationship to the SDG Progress Report. It would underscore that all inputs to the HLPF, including stakeholders reporting on their contributions, should be made available and easily accessible in a user-friendly format “utilizing and enhancing where necessary, existing web-based platforms with linkages as appropriate.”
On coherence, the draft takes note of the ongoing work of the ECOSOC functional commissions and other intergovernmental bodies and forums on review of their working methods and agendas in order to ensure that they address the implementation of the 2030 Agenda “within their respective area of expertise and mandate, while avoiding duplications.” The revised resolution also requests the UN Secretary-General to reorganize the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) so as to avoid duplication, and to ensure that the Department as a whole can effectively provide support to HLPF in a cohesive, coordinated and collaborative manner. [Co-facilitators Letter and Revised Draft] [IISD RS Story on UNGA discussions on the zero draft] [IISD Sources]