26 November 2012: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s (FES) New York Office held a day-long event, titled “Toward a New Generation of Development Goals: A Day of Informal Discussions.” Participants focused on the new generation of development goals that will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) post-2015, and on the reform of UN institutions for a more coherent development agenda.
The event took place at UN Headquarters in New York, US, and was held in partnership with the Club de Madrid, the Ford Foundation and the Permanent Missions of France, Mexico and Peru to the UN. Over 30 speakers, including UN administrators, ambassadors, former Heads of State, and civil society leaders, participated in interactive panels and question-and-answer sessions. Rubén Campos, Club de Madrid, and Werner Puschra, FES opened the event. They noted that since the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) called for the creation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this process will need to either relate itself or converge with the post-2015 development agenda negotiations. Campos stated that it is “imperative” for these two tracks of discussions to be brought together into a single track, and this was a subject of much discussion for the rest of the day.
Luis Alfonso de Alba, Permanent Representative of Mexico, said he found convergence between the post-2015 and SDG processes to be in need of “serious effort,” in order to build a new methodology and focus for the development agenda. Maria Teresa Mesquita Pessôa, Minister Plenipotentiary of Brazil, instead called for an “integration” of the two tracks, which are different in scope and depth. She proposed that the SDGs be universal, and for this process to be “in conversation” with the post-2015 process.
Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France, highlighted that many countries are concerned about a dilution of the MDGs (and ODA) with the new SDGs, while Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the UK, warned that the competition of these two conversations could pose a big risk to coherent action.
Parallel with the debate about convergence was a discussion on the reform of UN institutions to better handle international sustainable development. De Alba said the main problem with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) is its architecture as a subsidiary body that cannot coherently manage the economic, social, and environmental pillars of sustainable development. He called for a reformed Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), along with high-level meetings within the UN General Assembly (UNGA), to integrate the three topics and the work of development actors across the UN. Mootaz Khalil, Permanent Representative of Egypt, also spoke to the nature of fragmented development work across the UN, with competing secretariats, committees, and processes inhibiting policy implementation.
The event also featured remarks from members of the High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP). John Podesta, Panel member and Chair of the Center for American Progress, highlighted that the Panel’s collective responsibility is to end extreme poverty, and said it plans to put forward a report with detailed goals and road maps to reach this target. He said the process is more consultative than the 2000 MDG process, but that the landscape is more crowded with actors wanting to be included. Betty Maina, Panel member and CEO of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, emphasized that after the next HLP meeting, to be held in Indonesia in March 2013, the Panel’s collective positions will be more evident.
Many speakers said the post-2015 development agenda must break away from the architecture of the MDGs, and instead offer a transformative vision for the future of global sustainability. Stefano Prato, Advisor to Betty Maina, stressed that a new agenda must be an “integrated theory of change” that mends the fracture between socioeconomic and environmental development.
Robert Vos, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), called for an agenda that is a “true driver and motivator” of transformative change across the world. Part of this necessary global transformation is based on the inclusion of marginalized peoples, whom development is meant to affect.
Mwangi Waituru, Co-Chair of Beyond 2015, spoke for the presence of voices and ideas of those who live in poverty around the world, for they often have a different experience with development policies than those who envision them. Corinne Woods, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign, also argued for ownership and inclusion of the marginalized in the post-2015 agenda, but cautioned the community away from usual practices of consultation. Woods suggested that consultations with no productive outcome may be extractive, and that the agenda-setting process may be moving too quickly to genuinely engage citizens. Social media platforms used for this consultative purpose may actually exclude people that lack access to the needed technologies.
Finally, speakers offered their own visions for a post-2015 development agenda. Emphasizing that priority should be put on human rights, equality, and sustainability, they focused their ideas around interrelated and universal goals.
In concluding remarks, Jan Eliasson, UN Deputy Secretary-General, emphasized a need for stronger partnerships among development agendas and the importance of clear, focused goals. Alejandro Toledo, former President of Peru, called for an evaluation of what has been accomplished and a new sense of vision for the development of the future. [UN Webcast] [Event Program] [Statement of UN Deputy Secretary-General]