Monthly Archive: February 2017

Blog

2030 Spotlight on “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world”

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development represents a compromise among 193 governments and is the first time in an intergovernmental document, it acknowledges the “enormous disparities of opportunity, wealth and power” as immense challenges to sustainable development. Furthermore, it aims to address adequately the structural flaws of the global economic and financial systems, the imperative of ecological sustainability and the responsibilities of the global North. Read more…

Briefings

The UN development system: Can it catch up to the 2030 Agenda?

By Barbara Adams and Gretchen Luchsinger

The current model of UN development assistance—operating country by country, and issue by issue, with priorities heavily driven by individual donors and their interests—is no longer fit for its intended purpose. The ambitious vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development challenges the UN development system to fully respond to the inextricable links across countries and among social, economic and environmental concerns. This is not just an issue of greater efficiency and effectiveness within existing arrangements. It is a question of how the UN development system can meet the high demands of new commitments aimed at transforming the course of development so that it is equitable, sustainable and aligned with human rights, and remains within planetary boundaries. Read more…

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The 2030 Agenda requires mobilization of resources, some of which are considered hidden due to lack of policies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2014 estimated that: US$5–7 trillion a year is needed to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the action plan of the 2030 Agenda. The Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) calculated US$80–90 trillion in untapped assets for investment and offered blended financing as a major vehicle for ‘crowding in’ corporate funds. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed said in her first address as DS-G in New York: “Bringing partnerships and agencies together in a coherent and more coordinated manner will further leverage resources and different partnerships in a mobile [development] agenda, this is becoming more complex but it is bringing in more returns.” Is this sustainable development or business development?

 

The final unedited version of the Secretary-General’s report on the repositioning of the UN development system, as a follow-up to General Assembly resolution 71/243 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of United Nations operational activities for development (QCPR), offers the Secretary-General’s vision on the repositioning of the UN development system to effectively support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and responds to the mandates contained in GA/RES/71/243 due by June 2017. The report is the product of extensive consultations with Member States, the UN development system and other stakeholders, and has benefited from in-depth analysis of relevant studies and data on the system’s present functions and capacities to support the 2030 Agenda. Per operative paragraph 45, the Joint Inspection Unit was consulted on options for improving the accountability and overall coordination of the entities of the United Nations development system and their oversight by Member States found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-jiu-contribution.pdf. The Secretary-General’s report and all relevant documents are also available on the QCPR website at  https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/node/1213351. A consultants report was supplementally released found at https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/sg-report-dalberg_unds-outline-of-functions-and-capacities-june-2017.pdf.