Monthly Archive: July 2016

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UNCTAD 14: Nairobi “Maafikiano” barely saves minimal finance and development mandates

Due to UNCTAD’s decidedly pro-South and uncompromising development-focused mission, its quadrennial conferences have traditionally been North –South showdowns. Coming a few months after the adoption of the ambitious and universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 associated goals, the theme of the XIV Quadrennial Conference of UNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) was “From Decisions to Actions.” There was, therefore, reason to expect that this time members would bridge their differences for the sake of reinforcing mandates of the organization critical to the Agenda’s implementation. But that was not the case. Read more…

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The Next United Nations Secretary General Town Hall Debate

In 2016, the UN is searching for a successor to Ban Ki-Moon as the next Secretary General. Over the years, several initiatives have urged reforms regarding the UN Secretary General election process. In this spirit, the President of the General Assembly together with Al-Jazeera organized a town hall debate with the candidates on 12 July. Read more…

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Lebanese civil society formulated concrete recommendations in their alternative report on the 2030 Agenda: 1. Move from project-led initiatives towards adopting a comprehensive national strategy on rights-based development, integrating targets and goals. 2. Ensure that the National Committee for SDGs and the new National Human Rights Institute remain independent in their monitoring, coordination and advisory roles towards the implementation of the SDGs and the promotion and protection of human rights. 3. Revisit social and economic policies to ensure their alignment with the rights-based development approach. For implementation of the Capital Investment Plan – promoted by the government for job creation and development – ensure that an enabling environment for the private sector does not come at the expense of human rights and sustainable development.  Read more 

SDG 3: THE NEED TO STRENGTHEN PUBLIC FUNDING FOR THE WHO

A strong and dynamic World Health Organisation (WHO) is critical for the achievement of the SDGs, especially SDG 3 on health and well-being. The WHO constitution mandates the organization “to act as the directing and co-ordinating authority on international health work”. However, its ability to fulfill this mandate is circumscribed by the nature of its financial resources. WHO’s biennial budget for 2018-2019 is US$ 4.42 billion, 2 just over a quarter of the total sales of the top-selling medicine Humira (Adalimumab) in 2016 (US$ 16.08 billion). In part this is because many of the organization’s donors share the view that WHO may not need a huge budget to carry out its constitutional mandate. Read more here

Ways to improve donor reporting across United Nations system

The United Nations and system organizations should engage with donors in a dialogue at the strategic level for the adoption of donor reporting templates and accommodating the common information needs, demands and requirements of donors and the regulatory frameworks and capacities of the organizations. This is one of the main recommendations highlighted in a new report by the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU), an independent external oversight body of the UN system, reviewing donor reporting requirements across the UN system. The JIU review focused on the UN system organizations that have the highest number of donor reports and on the 16 major donors to the UN system, including the European Commission. Read more here.