16 January 2013: The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) hosted an event to highlight the role of governance in the post-2015 development agenda, in advance of the Global Thematic Consultation on Governance in the post-2015 development agenda. The high-level meeting of the Global Consultation on Governance will take place at the PAP offices in Midrand, South Africa, from 27-28 February 2013.

Speakers at the event discussed: progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); governance as a bottleneck to achieving the MDGs; the international development agenda; and how to align the post-2015 agenda with aspirations and needs of global citizens.

Several speakers stressed accountability and governance as issues that had hindered MDG achievement. Ebrahim Abrahim, Deputy Minister, Department of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa, said “there is need to deal with bureaucratic bottlenecks” in governance structures and systems to achieve sustainable development. Bethel Amadi, PAP President, said transparency and good governance are needed to address inequality, hunger, job creation and poverty. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Director for Democratic Government Practice, emphasized “a need to look at governance…from global to sub-national” angles and levels within the post-2015 framework.

Also as part of the consultations on governance, e-discussions took place on the World We Want 2015 platform, from November to December 2012. Regional dialogues have taken place in: Dhaka, Bangladesh; Cairo, Egypt; Manila, Philippines; Brasilia, Brazil; and Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants in these consultations have called for aligning the post-2015 agenda “with international human rights standards and principles, including civil and political rights,” according to Yanine Poc, Regional Representative for Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Findings and recommendations from the e-discussions and regional dialogues will feed into the high-level meeting of the Global Consultation in February, which will discuss how to include global, regional, national and subnational governance and accountability in the post-2015 agenda.

UNDP and OHCHR serve as the co-leaders of the Global Consultation, with support from the Governments of Germany and South Africa. Governance is one of 11 themes being addressed on a global level by the UN Development Group’s (UNDG) consultations on the post-2015 development agenda. [UN Press Release] [World We Want Press Release] [Webpage for Governance Consultation] [IISD RS Sources]