1 July 2015: The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a policy brief on proposed objectives, guiding principles and an organizational framework for the post-2015 development agenda review process within the UN system. The review process should have two main objectives, according to the brief: to facilitate each government’s progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and to assess the impact of the SDGs at the global level, by aggregating national and regional experiences and evaluating repercussions of national actions on human sustainability on the planet.

The proposal, titled ‘A Sustainable Development Review Process’ is published as the fourth in UNCTAD’s Post-2015 Policy Briefs series. It identifies five basic guiding principles for the review process, suggesting that it: be seen as a cooperative framework among Member States and the UN system, being conducted in a manner that is objective, transparent, non-selective, constructive, non-confrontational and non-politicized; be a voluntary performance review by peers, based on mutual accountability; be transparent and participatory, and involve all relevant stakeholders, including NGOs; respect the principle of subsidiarity and not replace, undermine or overload existing specialized and mandatory review mechanisms; and be realistic and not cause proliferation of new UN bodies, nor absorb a “disproportionate” amount of time or human and financial resources.

The four-page brief further offers suggestions on an organizational framework for the process. At the national level, UNCTAD argues that the review process should aim to review four sub-components: progress made in the achievement of the SDGs; the means of implementation (MOI) available to a particular country; the challenges faced by Member States; and the functioning of partnerships in sustaining the national efforts. At regional level, it says, the process should promote coordination of government actions. The regional-level process could take place under the auspices of the UN regional commissions.

At the thematic level, UNCTAD proposes utilizing thematic clusters based on the six “essential elements” suggested in the UN Secretary-General’s synthesis report of December 2015: dignity, people, prosperity, planet, justice and partnership. At the global level, the policy brief suggests that the process bring all the reviews together to evaluate global progress toward achieving sustainable development, including reviews of national actions, and examine countries or segments of the world population that are left behind.

UNCTAD concludes that the High-level Political Forum on sustainable development (HLPF) as convened under the auspices of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) would be the “ideal body” for the global review. [Publication: Post-2015 Policy Brief No. 4] [UNCTAD Press Release]