22 September 2013: The UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) published a report titled ‘Advancing Regional Recommendations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda,’ which synthesizes four months of consultations with 120 regional civil society networks on the post-2015 agenda. The report concludes that obstacles to achieving sustainable development are political, not technical, and recognizes post-2015 discussions as an opportunity to mobilize leadership and support for transformational change.
According to the report, civil society networks identified four objectives for the post-2015 agenda in the consultations: ensuring equitable distribution and safe use of natural resources; establishing participatory governance, accountability and transparency; rebalancing power relations for justice; and fulfilling human rights and overcome exclusion.
To ensure equitable distribution and safe use of natural resources, civil society networks insisted the post-2015 agenda promote policies that move from resource efficiency to resource sufficiency and supported new sustainable consumption and production (SCP) models. Civil society networks recommended Member States, inter alia: protect the global commons; promote an ecosystems approach; ensure food sovereignty; eradicate fossil fuel subsidies and promote carbon-free energy sources, including solar and hydropower; and take aggressive action on climate change, including on the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and by providing increased climate finance balanced between adaptation and mitigation.
Recommendations on rebalancing power include: a universal, comprehensive and holistic approach; meaningful structural transformation; and a focus on implementation.
Human rights recommendations include: eradicating extreme poverty and promoting decent work and social protection for all; addressing inequalities; developing an agenda on the right to education; empowering youth; and protecting and promoting the rights of indigenous peoples, migrants, persons with disabilities and women.
On governance, accountability and transparency, civil society network support, inter alia, monitoring and evaluating progress using targets and indicators that are: disaggregated; qualitative and measure multiple dimensions; and relate to the extent economic policies damage fisherfolk, forest and indigenous peoples, migrants and pastoralists.
The report includes recommendations for achieving each objective from Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LARC). African participants call for climate justice, stressing available funding is primarily for mitigation despite Africa’s priority on adaptation. Asia and the Pacific argue the post-2015 framework should be more ambitious on structural change.
UN-NGLS will deliver the report to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Special Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report also informed a dialogue between Member States and civil society on 22 September. [UN-NGLS Press Release] [Publication: Advancing Regional Recommendations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda] [Consultation Website]