5 March 2014: The UN General Assembly (UNGA) Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) convened from 3-5 March 2014, for the first session in its “consensus-building phase,” which seeks to identify SDGs and accompanying targets. Delegates considered the list of 19 Focus Areas compiled by the Co-Chairs, participated in a joint meeting with the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF), heard the reactions of Major Groups to the Focus Areas, and discussed the way forward for its upcoming session.

At the end of the meeting, the Co-Chairs offered to prepare four informational documents, to assist delegates in their deliberations at OWG-10: a “slightly tweaked” Focus Areas document; a compendium of existing issue targets on various issues; a matrix of interlinkages between issues; and working definitions of goals, targets, and indicators.

OWG-10 will convene from 31 March-4 April 2014, in New York, US. The C0-Chairs have proposed to use the meeting to consider all of the Focus Areas, a few at a time. They stressed that this discussion should focus on proposals for targets and goals. [OWG-9 Website] [IISD RS Meeting Coverage][Sustainable Development Policy & Practice post on 19 Focus Areas document]