14 January 2013: The UN Development Group (UNDG) held a briefing on “UNDG Consultations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda,” at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 14 January 2013. UNDG representatives provided updates on global, national and regional consultations, including the online engagement of the public on issues related to the post-2015 development agenda. They highlighted the “early finds” emerging from the consultation processes to date.

John Hendra, UN-Women, outlined UNDG’s aim for inclusiveness and transparency throughout the consultations, and emphasized the need to engage people at the country level, given that other aspects of the post-2015 process (the Open Working Group (OWG) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP), and the High-level Political Forum (HLPF), among others) are taking place at the global level.

Olav Kjorven, UN Development Programme (UNDP), highlighted input from some of the ongoing national-level consultations. Currently, 66 countries are running or planning consultations, facilitated by national governments and UN country teams. He expressed hope that the consultations would continue until 2015, although they are formally set to run until March 2013. Kjorven also highlighted the 11 global consultations, co-led by UN agencies and Member States, on 11 themes. He stressed that the 11 themes were not selected in order to create post-2015 goals on each theme, but seek to facilitate learning from experts, civil society, and the private sector. At the regional level, he said UNDG and the UN regional commissions are coordinating consultations, and a report is underway by UNDP, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on regional perspectives from the Asia-Pacific on the post-2015 agenda. Finally, Kjorven highlighted the web-based tools being used to facilitate the consultations, in particular the WorldWeWant2015.org platform and the MYWorld2015.org survey.

Representatives from the co-convening agencies of four thematic consultations provided highlights from the discussions so far. On the governance consultation, Shireen Said, UNDP, spoke of the strong emphasis on participation of populations that do not have access to global processes. She stressed the need to build a shared vision and ownership of the post-2015 development agenda around the world. Also outlined were the thematic consultations on Health, Conflict and Fragility – on which participants have called for separate targets for drivers of peace – and Inequalities – on which participants have said that a single goal is insufficient and that all goals should be underpinned with the principles and relevant targets framed from a human rights perspective. It was noted that the input gathered from the consultations would be synthesized in two stages, first in early March, and then in September 2013.

In a question-and-answer session, Member States’ delegations raised issues of the cost of national consultations, the place of South-South cooperation in the discussions, and the process for deciding the global “themes” to discuss. [UN Meeting Webcast] [World We Want 2015 Website] [MYWorld Survey Website] [IISD RS Sources]