19 March 2014: The Co-Chairs of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have written to UN Member States to present four documents ahead of the OWG’s tenth session (OWG 10).

The documents are: the 19 Focus Areas, incorporating “light revisions” reflecting views heard at OWG 9 and including “areas that could be considered” under each Focus Area; interlinkages among the Focus Areas, which were previously included in the Focus Areas document; eight clusters of Focus Areas to organize further discussion; and the Programme of Work for OWG 10.

The Programme of Work consists of “indicative debate on consolidation of focus areas, focusing on possible goals and targets” for each of the 8 clusters of Focus Areas. In addition, the Programme includes: a discussion on methodology and defining goals and targets; debate with Major Groups and other Stakeholders; and discussion on “the way forward.”

The Co-Chairs – Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, and Csaba Kőrösi, Permanent Representative of Hungary – invited OWG members to “initiate an in-depth consideration of the focus areas with a view to consolidating and clustering them wherever possible, with an eye to formulating goals and targets.”

OWG 10 convenes at UN Headquarters in New York, US, from 31 March-4 April 2014. [Documents for OWG 10]