September 2012: The latest issue of “DESA News,” the newsletter of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), highlights the UN’s work to ensure a sustainable development path beyond 2015. DESA has established a department-wide task force to support the emergence of a “solid and ambitious” post-2015 development agenda, the newsletter notes.

The task force also supports DESA’s role in leading the UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, jointly with the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The issue also highlights that: the UN General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to launch, by the start of its 67th Session, an intergovernmental open working group to develop a proposal on sustainable development goals (SDGs); an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Special Ministerial Meeting on 24 September 2012 will address strengthening the multilateral system for sustainable development; the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda will hold its first meeting on the margins of the UNGA’s high-level debate; and UNGA 67 will consider the second annual report of the Secretary-General on accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including his recommendations on ways to advance the UN development agenda beyond 2015. [Publication: DESA News, Vol. 16, No. 9]