unosd 1 st sustainable development transition forum farooq ullah executive director
TRANSCRIPT
UNOSD1St Sustainable Development
Transition Forum
Farooq Ullah
Executive Director
Rio+20: Success or Failure?• “Was Rio+20 a success or a failure?”– Simplistic and reductive, the answer is more nuanced– Successes and failures must be itemised– Rio+20 was the starting point of various processes
• Time will be the truest judge of Rio+20.• But time is not on our side; we are sitting on a
socio-ecological time bomb.
Where Are We Now?
Read Report Here
Rio+20: Landmark Commitments
Commitment Progress
so farTarget date
Work plan
Stakeholder engagement mechanisms
Transparency
Overall assessment
High level political forum
VERY GOOD
Sustainable Development
Goals GOOD
Financing sustainable
development GOOD
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) • SDGs set to replace the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) when they expire at end of 2015.
• SDGs and post-2015 development formally merged in Sept 2013.
• At Rio+20 States agreed that SDGs should be:– Action-oriented
– Concise and easy to communicate
– Limited in number
– Aspirational
– Global in nature and universally applicable to all countries • while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of
development and respecting national policies and priorities.
Open Working Group on SDGs• Group of UN Member States currently working on a
report proposing a set of SDGs, including targets and indicators
• Recently published 19 focus areas the goals should address.
• Currently discussing possible goals and targets (300) under each of these focus areas
• Not yet discussing indicators
• Not a negotiation, agreement by consensus
New Post-2015 Process
• Intergovernmental Negotiations
– Starts September 2014
– UN Secretary General’s Synthesis Report (Nov 14)
• Draws on OWG report, HLP report, SDSN report, ICESDF report and UNDG consultations.
• Could be the basis of a Zero Draft for negotiations.
– Culminates in Global Summit in September 2015.
The Universality Dilemma• What do we mean by ‘universal’?
– Norms and principles are relevant to all nations, irrespective of economic, social or environmental contexts, so the goals will apply to all countries
– But global goals don not easily translate to national contexts
– Therefore targets and indicators will be developed that reflect national contexts.
Challenge:
• How to ensure coherence between broad global goals and widely differing national contexts, i.e. how do we differentiate?
– Universality vs. differentiation (CBDR principle)
SDGs Tests of Success
Vertical Alignment
Vision
Goals
Implementation
SDGsSDGs
National SD Strategies & CouncilsNational SD Strategies & Councils
National PoliciesNational Policies
Post-2015Post-2015
Local Delivery ProgrammesLocal Delivery Programmes
Strategies
Closing Thoughts• Good Governance is foundational to sustainable
development
– Need multi-layered, multi-dimensional systems of governance.
– Clear strategies for implementation
• Created Horizontal Integration, Vertical Alignment
• Move from Partnerships to Multi-Stakeholder Approaches
• Improve Accountability driving by Monitoring and Reporting
– The enforcement challenge
• Continue to drive awareness, coupled with Education for SD.
