17 January 2014: The Co-Chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have released a letter detailing plans to discuss the way forward for the OWG’s work. An informal consultation will be held on the evening of 4 February 2014 in order for Member States to reach consensus on how the group will proceed following its eighth session.

The 4 February consultation will decide on the design of a document to be prepared by the Co-Chairs in order to aid the Group in its work to determine a set of goals and targets. OWG Co-Chairs Machuria Kamau (Kenya) and Csaba Kőrösi (Hungary) have offered two options for such a document: an “inclusive and representative list/compendium of priority areas of sustainable development and the universal commitments needed to make significant and measurable progress in those areas;” or a “a loose text based on the stock-taking phase to stimulate further debate on the way forward.”

The letter notes that the Co-Chairs’ suggestion to organize an intersessional meeting to discuss the options before the eighth session is not possible for logistical and organizational reasons. Instead, the informal consultations on 4 February will take place from 6:00-8:00 PM, following the daily meeting of the OWG.

In the letter, the Co-Chairs also urge delegations to send written versions of their statements to the UN Division for Sustainable Development (dsd@un.org), in order to include them on the SDG OWG website. [OWG Co-Chairs Letter: 17 January 2014] [SDG OWG Website]