13 December 2013: The UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held its sixth session to discuss: means of implementation (MOI, especially science and technology, knowledge-sharing and capacity building); global partnership for achieving sustainable development; needs of countries in special situations, African countries, least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), and small island developing States (SIDS), as well as specific challenges facing the middle-income countries; and human rights, the right to development, and global governance.

Taking place from 9-13 December 2013, at UN Headquarters in New York, OWG 6 was the first five-day meeting of the Group. Member States, civil society groups, expert panelists, and representatives of the UN System came together to discuss the issues each day.

Opening the session on 9 December, Co-Chair Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, gave an overview of the “long pipeline of work” between now and 2015, and said the OWG’s report will be synthesized with other relevant reports and presented by the UN Secretary-General to the UNGA in 2014. The work of the OWG will continue to focus on the SDGs, he stressed, and should discuss issues and targets around which to mobilize the means to achieve goals.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Co-Chair Csaba Kőrösi, Permanent Representative of Hungary, highlighted that ambitious goals cannot be set without specifying how they will be achieved. He noted that the outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) had created the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICSDF), which is addressing the finance part of MOI. He said the non-financial elements were part of the OWG’s considerations. He said, however, that the two tracks are interlinked and it may be difficult to draw the line between the two and to avoid duplication. With regard to countries in special situations, Kőrösi noted the need for countries to build resilience, address vulnerabilities, and invest in education and skills. On human rights, development and global governance, he highlighted the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the need for an effective UN as the cornerstone of sustainable development governance.

At the conclusion of OWG 6, Kamau introduced dates for future meetings of the OWG, which will follow the scheduled eighth session in February 2014. The next round of sessions are tentatively scheduled for: 3-7 March; 31 March-4 April; 5-9 May; 2-6 June; and 14-18 July.

OWG 7 will convene from 6-10 January 2014 to discuss: sustainable cities and human settlements, sustainable transport; sustainable consumption and production (SCP) (including chemicals and waste); and climate change and disaster risk reduction. [IISD RS Meeting Coverage] [OWG 6 Website] [Co-Chairs’ Concluding Remarks]