Monthly Archive: March 2015

Hold the Rich Accountable in New U.N. Development Goals, Say NGOs

By Thalif Deen, IPS
The Civil Society Reflection Group (CSRG) on Global Development Perspectives will be releasing a new study which calls for both goals and commitments – this time particularly by the rich – if the U.N.’s 17 proposed new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the post-2015 development agenda are to succeed.
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Do you need to be counted to count?

By Sabá Loftus

The 23-27 March session of the Post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations will focus on the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets. In this context on the 18th March, at the special request by the Co-facilitators, the Bureau of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) provided a “Technical report on the process of the development of an indicator framework for the goals and targets of the post-2015 development agenda”. This has re-sparked ongoing discussion over whether the indicators should be technical or politically negotiated.

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Political vision should come before technical practicality

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch

On Monday, the 23rd of March 2015, government representatives will meet at UN Headquarters for five days of negotiations on the SDG’s goals, targets and indicators.

Governments should resist the temptation –particularly when looking at targets and indicators- to be restricted by existing quantitative monitoring systems and the current (and limited) availability of data.
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Public-Private Partnerships: Benefiting or hindering international development?

By Sabá Loftus, Social Watch
On the 18th March, the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) hosted a side event in New York to promote the report “Why Public-Private-Partnerships don’t work”. The report assessed the impact of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) actually undertaken in rich and poor countries. These global case studies show that there is no evidence that PPPs are cheaper or more convenient for governments in the long-term.
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New Discussion Paper asks: Leave no-one out of the Post-2015 Agenda – particularly not the rich

The Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectivestoday launches its latest Discussion Paper. “Goals for the Rich – Indispensable for a Universal Post-2015 Agenda” deals with the question of how a fair sharing of costs, responsibilities and opportunities among and within countries can be achieved in formulating and implementing a Post-2015 Sustainability Agenda. Read more…

Why fighting illicit capital is not a priority?

By Marina Ponti, Social Watch
An interesting report named “Illicit financial flows, human rights and the post-2015 development agenda” has been submitted to the Human Rights Council on 9 March 2015 under the agenda item “Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, in political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development”.
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Statistics for the SDGs: the devil is in the indicators

By Roberto Bissio, Social Watch
The UN Statistical Commission concluded its meeting in New York last March 6 without agreeing on a list of indicators to measure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The body is composed of 24 governments and it oversees the work of the UN statistical Division, the most important global agency on world indicators, in charge, among other things of defining how GDP is conceptualized and counted.
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Data & Development: Reality check for Post-2015 agenda?

By Sabá Loftus

The UN Statistical Commission discussed the challenges of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. This included implementation, measuring or monitoring progress as well as accountability. This includes a pragmatic look at the available data and implications for the Sustainable Development Goal indicators. Linkages between different agendas being negotiated in parallel such as Financing for Development, Post-2015 and Climate were starkly noticeable.

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Development: Post-2015 declaration – one step forward, two steps back? – Pt. II

By Ranja Sengupta; SUNS.

The United Nations negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in New York saw Member States inching towards a political Declaration amidst considerable differences.

The Declaration is to lay the broader framework on which the more specific elements of the Agenda will rest in a separate outcome document. These will be adopted at the UN Summit on 25-27 September tilted "Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda".

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