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Harping on about holiday decorations before the Thanksgiving Turkey is even stuffed should be the preserve of Macy’s design teams and tinsel factories. But a recent event at CGD had me thinking about Christmas trees.
One thing we emphasized in the Karver/Kenny/Sumner paper on MDGs 2.0 was that the MDGs are far better remembered, and have been far more influential, than the rest of the Millennium Declaration from which they were drawn. We suggested that was because the MDGs were easy to understand, self-evidently important, numerical and time bound, and we called for any follow up goals to keep those vital features. That point seems to be widely agreed,
Last week saw the opening meeting of the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda –AKA the HiPoPoDomAe. That’s the body set up by the UN Secretary General to mull what follows on from the Millennium Development Goals. There’s a brief round-up of some of what was said here. Reports of the discussion, some wonderful meetings in London two weeks ago, and recent interventions from Ben Leo at the ONE campaign as well as the WEF Global Agenda Council on Benchmarki
One of the Rio Summit’s all-to-few accomplishments was language in the outcome declaration about an intergovernmental process to develop Sustainable Development Goals. An "open working group" of 30 nations nominated by the five regional UN groups will come up with a list by September 2013.
Despite protestation from all sides that there should be only one development agenda post-2015, the Rio process continues on what appears to be a parallel, overlapping track. Not least that’s because the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are facing the same issue as the process to come up with new Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) –everyone with a sectoral agenda is arguing that their topic is vital to sustainable development. Many of them are surely right. But if poverty
I’ve spent the last few days immersed (drowning?) in MDGs 2.0. First, CGD hosted a discussion of Washington-based folks interested in the issue (thanks to ODI’s Claire Melamed for headlining), and then I went to New York for a meeting organized by UNDESA and UNDP –the Experts Group Meeting to Support the Advancement of the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda. We met, we supported, we grouped and agendized. It was very interesting indeed and I’m grateful to have been invited
As we look ahead to 2015 and the potential for a new round of MDGs, there’s a growing chorus of people arguing that, given how much the world has changed since 2000, the new set should look completely different from the last lot. The 2000 vintage was about rich and poor countries, focused on where donors would help recipients, based on the DAC Development Targets (which drew in turn from a range of UN Conferences). In a world with large emerging donor-recipients like China and India, where poverty levels are declining and
As we ramp up to 2015 and (maybe) a new set of Millennium Development Goals, people are proposing things to include: universal energy access, freedom from violence, a learning goal, stronger language on sustainable development
There’s more to this week’s UN General Assembly Meeting than Libya and Palestine, despite the focus of the popular media. The meeting’s extensive agenda includes issues of economic growth, poverty eradication, HIV prevention, and gender parity, which remain high priorities for the general assembly.
CGD hosted a meeting yesterday with Ambassador Brice Lalonde, UN Executive Coordinator of Rio +20 as well as representatives from the US Government, NGOs and the private sector. It was an opportunity for Lalonde to give an update and ask for feedback on preparations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development to take place in Rio next June.
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