16 October 2012: The October 2012 issue of DESA NGO News, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Development (DESA) NGO Branch, identifies several recent and upcoming activities related to the post-2015 development agenda.

First, the UN Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda has issued a factsheet addressing frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other follow-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and the role of poor and vulnerable people in these processes.

Second, the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) has published a brief on “Inequalities and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.” The brief calls for inequality to be high on the post-2015 development agenda, both “as a goal in itself and reflected in targets for other goals.”

Third, it notes that, at the opening of the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) Third Committee session, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo stressed the need to address rising inequality and its impacts on vulnerable groups, in the remaining years till the MDGs’ target date of 2015.

The newsletter also highlights: the keynote address to the UNGA Second Committee’s general debate; the launch of a new website in the follow-up to Rio+20: the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform (SDKP); and the Civil Society Dialogue on the Post-2015 Development Agenda held on 24 September 2012. [DESA NGO News, October 2012] [UN Task Team Fact Sheet] [UNRISD Brief] [Summary of Third Committee’s Opening Session]