30.03.2015 Third round of post-2015 negotiations
During 23-27 March, the third post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations took place at the UN in NY covering the theme of sustainable goals and targets. Last week Member States delved more into the details of the process versus the January and February sessions, which were more of an overview. Consequently, different positions emerged from Member States.
Co-Facilitators Kamau and Donoghue released an unofficial document containing proposed “tweaks” to 19 targets to fill in unspecified percentages and bring the targets in line with existing international agreements. It was not completely clear why these 19 were chosen and not all Member States were supportive of the document since they were not consulted. Co-facilitator Kamau proposed that a more detailed explanation is provided on the suggested changes to the 19 targets. None of the proposed targets directly affects persons with disabilities.
During the week many Member States called for the Open Working Group (OWG) goals and targets be included into the final post-2015 development agenda and many, especially from the global South recommended that goals and targets not be touched to respect the work done by the OWG. Conversely, some Member States from the global North pushed for technical proofing to ensure that the targets are consistent, complete, and meet a higher level of ambition. There is not a clear consensus on the goals and targets as of yet.
It was agreed that in the next post-2015 negotiations (20-24 April) there will be a joint session with the Financing for Development (FfD) preparatory process to connect the two processes more effectively. Kamau reassured the Member States that this conversation would continue and be the main focus of the April, June and July sessions.
Indicators
John Pollinger, Chair of UN Statistical Commission addressed Member States in the opening of the session. Below are some key points:
- Global indicators will be developed for all goals and targets, including for means of implementation
- In addition to the global and universal indicators there will be regional, national, and thematic indicators, with the goal of being integrated
- National statistical offices will take leading role in the indicator process
It was generally agreed that the indicator development framework would be completed in March 2016, but there must be a more clearly defined connection between the political negotiations and the United Nations Statistics Division development of indicators.
Persons with Disabilities
A few Member States explicitly advocated for persons with disabilities in their statements, particularly during the data discussion. These Member States include: Denmark, Israel, Papau New Guinea, and Bangladesh that pushed for disaggregation of data by disability, age, sex and culture.
Mosharraf Hossain from ADD International and IDDC presented on behalf of persons with disabilities during the civil society session in which he pushed for disaggregated data by disability. You can read his presentation here. In response, co-facilitator Kamau called Mosharraf’s presentation passionate and that there is a strong political push to keep few indicators, but this has a very real impact of people and thus to keep this in mind.
Proposed six themes for September
During the week the proposed six themes for interactive dialogues for September’s UN Summit were released. These include:
- Eradicating poverty in all its dimensions and addressing inequality
- Tackling climate change and achieving more sustainable lifestyles
- Building strong, inclusive and resilient economies
- Promoting peaceful societies and strong institutions
- A renewed global partnership and adequate means of implementation
- Reviewing progress on SDG commitments; universality and differentiations
On 26 March a proposal was made by the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates to designate children, young people, women and persons with disabilities as one of the six specific themes to be addressed at September’s United Nations Summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda. In addition, co-facilitator Macharia Kamau was supportive of this proposal. By the next morning, a broad coalition of development and advocacy organizations – including IDDC – came together to show their support behind this proposal by releasing a joint communique.
April negotiations
The next negotiations will take place from 21-24 April covering means of implementation and global partnership for sustainable development. There will be a special emphasis on the relationship between FfD and post-2015 processes. Click here to see details about the programme. Civil society will present its perspectives on Thursday, April 23rd.