20 June 2016: The blog series coordinated by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) in the lead-up to the 2016 session of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) features a post from SOS Children’s Villages International on ensuring children’s representation in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) monitoring system. It also includes recent contributions from NRG4SD (Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development) and Together 2030.
The SOS Children’s Villages International contribution notes that 175 children’s and disabilities rights organizations and academics from across the world have issued a joint open letter to the UN, to ensure that all children are counted as part of the SDGs. The letter calls on the UN to account for children living outside of households and/or without parental care in the SDG monitoring system, and to improve and expand data collection methodologies to ensure all children are represented. The authors also highlight the need for more investment in strengthening statistical capacity at national and international levels to reflect children’s reality in official data.
The NRG4SD post addresses the importance of all levels of government for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It calls for: better coordination between all levels of government; working closely with local and regional governments; and involving and empowering communities in their cities and territories for the implementation of the Agenda. It notes that local and subnational authorities have specific competencies needed for the achievement of the SDGs, such as public services, integrated planning, policy-making, implementation and monitoring. These authorities can “tailor” guidelines from the global and national levels into actions to each territory, it says.
Together 2030 calls for “unpacking” the concepts of “leaving no one behind” and “reaching the furthest behind first” and to translate them into policies, programmes, projects and services that target all people. They say the “average” approach used to measure Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) progress cannot be applied to the SDGs. Together 2030 plans to submit written inputs to the HLPF with concrete proposals on how governments can make “leaving no one behind” a reality.
The blog is available on the UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, and features weekly contributions from UN Member States, the UN system and Major Groups and other stakeholders on how to ensure that no one is left behind as the SDGs are implemented. The 2016 session of the HLPF will take place from 11-20 July, in New York. [HLPF Blog] [IISD RS Story on Blog, Weeks 4-5] [IISDRS Story on Blog, Weeks 1-3]