15 May 2015: UN Member States held an informal discussion on the themes of the interactive dialogues of the UN summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda, taking place in on 25-27 September. They considered a revised proposal for the six themes, as follows: Ending poverty and hunger; tackling inequalities and leaving no one behind; fostering sustainable economic transformation; protecting our planet, promoting sustainable consumption and production and tackling climate change; strengthening institutions to achieve sustainable development; and delivering on a revitalised Global Partnership.

The discussion took place on 15 May 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, following the circulation of the revised proposal from the Post-2015 Co-Facilitators, Macharia Kamau of Kenya and David Donoghue of Ireland, on 13 May.

Disagreement among delegates pertained to: Whether and how to include “governance” in the title of theme five; how to reference gender equality; whether to list different types of vulnerable groups; whether to mention sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in relation to sustainable growth, climate change or both; whether to mention sustainable growth or industrialization, or both, in relation to economic development; and whether to include language on technology transfer and/or the universal nature of the post-2015 agenda.

A large group of Member States welcomed the revised chapeau that provides the “narrative” for the dialogues. They also: preferred mentioning persons with disabilities, indigenous people and migrants under Theme 2 on inequalities; requested referring to “sustaining oceans and seas” and “sustainable cities and human settlements;” praised the change of title for Theme 5 on institutions as “quite progressive;” and asked to refer to technology facilitation in Theme 6 on global partnership.

Several delegations agreed on: questioning the necessity to list specific vulnerable groups; calling for inclusion of language on peaceful societies as a cross-cutting theme; only accepting SCP referenced in relation to theme 3 (economic development) and not theme 4 (climate change); stressing the centrality of governance to the post-2015 agenda and asking for the inclusion of “governance” in the title of theme 5; advocating for a change of the language under theme 6 to call for a new global partnership, rather than for revitalizing existing ones; and including language on universality under theme 6 allowing leaders to discuss this key theme of the new agenda “without seeming to be completely off topic.” They also said it would be inappropriate to single out one specific MOI seeing it as making the themes too prescriptive for heads of state and government. The EU added the wish to focus not only on follow-up and review, but also on accountability and monitoring.

Other comments from delegations included: urging the inclusion of “safe drinking water and sanitation” to acknowledge the multi-dimensionality of the issues of water, sanitation, land degradation and human settlements; and proposing to refer to access to ecosystem services and for the themes to reflect better the integrated nature of sustainable development.

The Co-Facilitators are expected to circulate a new revised proposal, ahead of a meeting on the dialogue themes taking place during the fifth session of international negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda. [IISD RS Story on Discussion of Previous Draft Themes] [Revised Proposal of Dialogue Themes]