October 2014: Civil society organizations and academics have published new research and inputs to the post-2015 development agenda and reactions to the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Recent position papers and other documents discuss the importance of data, serve as open letters to the UN Secretary-General on specific issues, and examine the structural challenges of negotiating a new agenda.

Civil society organizations are engaging with the subject of a post-2015 data revolution, and defining principles for its evolution. Development Initiatives has released a ‘Data Manifesto,’ including ‘Twelve Steps to a Data Revolution.’ It describes the need for data to be grounded in real life, and to become the building blocks for better policy choices. The ‘Twelve Steps’ include empowering data users through education, subjecting data to public scrutiny, and putting information user’s needs first. 350 stakeholder organizations have signed onto the Lyon Declaration, which calls for data and access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) to underpin the post-2015 development agenda. The declaration recommends that Member States acknowledge the public’s right to information and data, while respecting the right to privacy.

In an open letter to the UN-Secretary General, a collective of civil society organizations stresses that the “Right to Know” must be recognized in his synthesis report on post-2015, including the rights to free media, to information, and the organization of civil society. The Measure What Matters coalition has created an online space for global dialogue between business, civil society, research, and policy. The dialogues are intended to address the aligning of diverse reporting frameworks across different levels of institutions.

Organizations are also partnering together to release joint statements and calls to action in their specific areas of work, including human rights, nutrition, and environment. More than 100 human rights organizations sent an open letter to the UN Secretary-General stressing ten essential elements for ensuring that the post-2015 development agenda reflects human rights principles. These recommendations include underpinning the imperative of equality, including commitments to end poverty, and making the agenda universally applicable. A coalition of civil society and health groups released a joint call to action on the inclusion of nutrition in the post-2015 agenda. The call stresses the need to end global malnutrition, with emphasis on its overlap with issues of gender equality, food security, and human rights. The German NGO Forum on Environment and Development issued an open letter to the UN Secretary-General calling for a rights-based agenda which fully represents the environmental dimension of sustainability, addresses the responsibility of the private sector, and encourages innovation.

Finally, numerous researchers and academics are commenting on the structure of the post-2015 development agenda and the potential challenges and opportunities present in its negotiation. A paper by Karlee Silver and Peter Singer in The Lancet, titled ‘SDGs: start with maternal, newborn, and child health cluster,’ recommends “clustering” SDGs and targets into issue areas and launching them in a rolling fashion over five years. They recommend one such cluster on maternal, newborn, and child health, as 13 proposed targets pertain to these issues. In a blog on EFC in Dialogue, Minh-Thu Pham of the UN Foundation writes on the role of foundations in the post-2015 development agenda. She stresses that foundations can be catalytic in identifying the right interventions, giving voices to developing countries, and bringing evidence-based approaches to the political negotiations.

An article by Scott Wisor, titled ‘The Impending Failure of the Sustainable Development Goals,’ appears in Ethics and International Affairs. Wisor writes that Member States have “no excuse” for the design flaws in the proposed SDGs, blaming the “intense lobbying” by interest groups to have their specific issue included in the agenda. The article identifies targets without reliable data, flawed indicators, arbitrary rates of progress, and the inclusion of second- and third-tier issues. “The participants in the SDG process need to go back to the drawing board,” he writes. A blog by Dominic White and Bernadette Fischler of WWF-UK examines whether there are too many proposed SDGs and targets, and offers the “ideal” solution as a well-integrated number of goals that can be quickly implemented by governments.

A publication by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) presents four “major hurdles” that the UN General Assembly must overcome in the post-2015 negotiations: the politics of shaping a coherent vision while maintaining Member State support; policy and intellectual coherence; creating goals and targets that work individually and together; and the challenges of the architecture and follow-up process of the agenda. Thomas Fues of the German Development Institute published a paper titled ‘United Nations Post-2015 Agenda for global development: perspectives from China and Europe,’ which collects scholarly articles demonstrating the convergence and disagreement in German and Chinese post-2015 development priorities. [Data Manifesto] [Lyon Declaration] [Open Letter on the ‘Right to Know’] [Measure What Matters Dialogues] [Human Rights Groups’ Open Letter] [Call to Action on Nutrition] [German NGO Forum on Environment and Development Open Letter] [Publication: SDGs: start with maternal, newborn, and child health cluster] [UN Foundation Blog] [Publication: The Impending Failure of the Sustainable Development Goals] [WWF-UK Blog] [Taking the SDGs from ‘main basis’ to effective vision – what’s the roadmap?] [Publication: United Nations Post-2015 Agenda for global development: perspectives from China and Europe]