21 February 2013: The UN General Assembly’s Open Working Group (OWG) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will begin its work in mid-March 2013, in an open format meeting, and following consultations on the draft agenda, the composition of the Group’s leadership and its program and modalities of work, according to a letter from UNGA President Vuk Jeremic.

Jeremic also announced that he had invited Csaba Körösi, Permanent Representative of Hungary, and Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, to facilitate the “consultations pertaining to the preparations” for this first meeting. In addition, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Permanent Representative of Brazil, will engage with the two co-facilitators, “in order to maintain continuity with negotiations leading to the establishment” of the OWG, he said.

The establishment of the OWG was agreed on 22 January 2013 in UNGA Decision 67/555. [Letter from UNGA President] [IISD RS Story on OWG Establishment]