United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS)

8-9 April 2015 Financing for Development UN General Assembly Hearings

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At the request of the Office of the President of the General Assembly, the co-facilitators of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3), and the UN DESA Financing for Development Office (FFDO), UN-NGLS facilitated civil society participation in the 8-9 April UN General Assembly hearings in preparation for the FfD3 Conference, through an open, transparent and participatory process with a civil society Steering Committee. Hearings with the business sector were held on 8 April and hearings with civil society were held on 9 April in Trusteeship Council Chamber at UN Headquarters. Each day featured a high-level opening ceremony with representatives of both business and civil society.

These hearings provided the first opportunity for a diversity of stakeholders to provide feedback on the zero draft of the outcome document for the FfD3 Conference. The Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) aims to reinvigorate and strengthen the financing for development framework as well as support the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda currently being negotiated by Member States.

The programme for the 9 April civil society hearings is available here: http://bit.ly/9April-FfD-CSO-Hearings-Final-Programme. Links to civil society statements from the hearings are available at the bottom of this article. The concept note is available here. The programme for the 8 April business sector hearings can be found here. Videos of the civil society hearings and the business sector hearings are available here.

By 8 April: Apply for speaking role or Selection Committee for PGA's Debate on Strengthening Cooperation between UN & Regional & Subregional Organizations

General Assembly hall

عربي http://bit.ly/Arabic-4May-PGA-Cooperation
Español http://bit.ly/4Mayo-PGA-Cooperacion
Français http://bit.ly/4Mai-PGA-Cooperation

At the request of the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, UN-NGLS is facilitating a nomination process to identify a civil society speaker for the President’s High-level Thematic Debate on Strengthening Cooperation between the UN and Regional and Subregional Organizations, taking place on 4 May 2015 at UN Headquarters.

Indigenous Peoples Cannot be Left Behind in the Post-2015 Development Agenda - Roberto Borrero, International Indian Treaty Council

Roberto Borrero and UN Secretary General - UN NGLS web site Leer en Español

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and post-2015 development agenda aspire to “leave no one behind.” Yet, at this critical juncture in the elaboration of the SDGs, the process is in jeopardy of excluding Indigenous Peoples from the agenda. Ironically, while traditional Indigenous Territories “encompass up to 22 percent of the world’s land surface” and “coincide with areas that hold 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity,”^[i] the post-2015 development agenda is poised to repeat the broken promises of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the world’s Indigenous Peoples.^[ii]

By 8 April: Apply for stakeholder Steering Committee for the 26-27 May UN General Assembly hearings on the post-2015 development agenda

In accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 69/244, the UN summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held from 25 to 27 September 2015 in New York and convened as a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly. The General Assembly, in operative paragraph 10 of its resolution 69/244, "requests the President of the General Assembly to organize, with early preparations and in the most effective and efficient way, and to preside over two days of informal interactive hearings, before June 2015, with representatives of non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, major groups and the private sector, and requests the President of the Assembly to prepare a summary of the hearings to be made available prior to the summit." These hearings will take place on 26-27 May at UN Headquarters in New York. By request of the Office of the President of the General Assembly, UN-NGLS will facilitate a stakeholder Steering Committee for the hearings, which will select speakers from applications received through an open and transparent process.

Stakeholders invited to provide feedback on proposed indicators and targets for the Sustainable Development Goals

Revised SDG targets web site On 19 March 2015, a technical report was released by the Bureau of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) on the process of the development of an indicator framework for the goals and targets of the post-2015 agenda:
http://bit.ly/StatComm_Indicators_Technical_Report_March_2015

On 23 March, a proposal for updating 19 of the targets in the Open Working Group on SDGs proposal was released by the co-facilitators of the post-2015 negotiations: http://bit.ly/post2015-revised-targets

Civil society organizations and organizations participating in the Major Groups may contribute feedback on the draft indicators and updated targets by completing this form: http://bit.ly/Submit-feedback-targets-indicators.
You may provide links to existing documents in the form, or enter text directly.

Third round of post-2015 negotiations (23-27 March)

The third round of the post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations took place from 23-27 March at UN Headquarters. This negotiating session included discussion on the technical report of the UN Statistical Commission on an indicators framework, and suggested updates distributed by the Co-Facilitators of the post-2015 negotiations for 19 targets associated with the Sustainable Development Goals, based on the proposal of the Open Working Group. The programme, relevant documentation, and list of side events for the March negotiating session are available here. On Wednesday, 25 March, an interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other stakeholders was held from 10:00am-1:00pm in Trusteeship Council Chamber. Following an open call for applications facilitated by UN-NGLS and DESA-DSD, the March Stakeholder Steering Committee selected 24 speakers for the dialogue: http://bit.ly/25March-MGoS-Speakers. The programme for this dialogue is available here: http://bit.ly/25March-Final-Programme-p2015-stakeholder-dialogue. A video of the webcast of this event can be viewed here. Member State respondents included:

H.E. Mr. Morten Jespersen, Under-Secretary for Global Development and Cooperation, Denmark
H.E. Ambassador Guilherme De Aguiar Patriota, Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations
Mr. Anthony Pipa, Lead Negotiator on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Permanent Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations
Mr. Stephan Contius, Head of Division, German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety
H.E. Ambassador Abdulkalam Abdul Momen of the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of Bangladesh to the United Nations
H.E. Ambassador Tekeda Alemu, Permanent Representative of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the United Nations
H.E. Ambassador Marianne Loe, Special Envoy on the Post-2015 Agenda, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Dámaso Luna, Deputy Director General for Global Issues of the Government of Mexico
Mr. Olivier Brochenin, Head of Development Policy Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, France
H.E. Ambassador Do Hung Viet, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to the UN

By 31 March: Apply for stakeholder Steering Committee or speaking roles for the 20-24 April post-2015 development agenda negotiations

Youth Beyond Disasters web site

UN-NGLS and the UN DESA Division for Sustainable Development Major Groups Programme are facilitating stakeholder Steering Committees to ensure broad and inclusive participation of stakeholders in the negotiating sessions on the post-2015 development agenda at UN Headquarters in New York. Submit Steering Committee applications and speaker nominations now for the 20-24 April post-2015 development agenda negotiating session. This session will focus on Means of Implementation and Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.

By 31 March: Apply for speaking role or selection committee: UN PGA's 21-22 April High-level Thematic Debate on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation

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عربي          http://bit.ly/Arabic-PGA-Tolerance-Reconciliation
Español http://bit.ly/Espanol-PGA-Tolerencia-Reconciliacion
Français     http://bit.ly/Francais-PGA-Tolerance-Reconciliation
English    http://bit.ly/English-PGA-Tolerance-Reconciliation

At the request of the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, UN-NGLS is facilitating a nomination process to identify a civil society speaker for the President's High-level Thematic Debate on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation. The event will take place on 21-22 April 2015 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. This civil society speaker will receive travel funding, and will participate as a panelist in a discussion on "practical strategies to foster peaceful, inclusive societies and to counter the threat of radicalization and violent extremism."

World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction adopts Sendai Framework

WCDRR logo The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR), held in Sendai, Japan from 14-18 March, adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: 2015-2030. The Conference brought together over 6,500 participants from 187 Member States, including 25 Heads of State, Vice Presidents and Heads of Government, 42 intergovernmental organizations, 236 civil society organizations, 38 UN entities, and over 300 private sector representatives, who attended the intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder events.

FfD3 Co-facilitators release zero draft outcome document

UNCC flags FFD The Co-facilitators for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) have released the zero draft of the outcome document, building on the work of the preparatory process and inputs submitted by Member States and other stakeholders. The draft outcome document is intended to provide a holistic and forward-looking framework and concrete actions for the financing of sustainable development in order to deliver the means of implementation for the ambitious and transformative development agenda.

PGA hosts debate: “Advancing Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls for a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda”

PGA GENDER The President of the General Assembly hosted a high-level thematic debate on “Advancing Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women in the post-2015 development agenda” on 6 March 2015 at UN Headquarters, just prior to the 59^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The debate consisted of an opening segment, two interactive, multi-stakeholder panel discussions, and a closing segment, and brought together representatives from Member States, UN entities, civil society groups and others.

By 8 March: Apply for speaking roles during the 23-27 March negotiating session for the post-2015 development agenda

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The UN DESA DSD Major Groups Programme and UN-NGLS are facilitating stakeholder Steering Committees to ensure broad and inclusive participation of stakeholders in the negotiating sessions on the post-2015 development agenda at UN Headquarters. DESA-DSD and UN-NGLS are also conducting open and transparent nomination processes for these Committees to select speakers for these negotiating sessions, in accordance with the modalities that are defined for the process.

17-20 February negotiating session on the Declaration component of the post-2015 agenda

Donoghue and Kamau The second round of the post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations took place from 17-20 February at UN Headquarters. The full session was webcast and the archived videos can be found at the bottom of the page here. This session focused on the Declaration component of the agenda.

On 19 February, the co-facilitators of the post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations, Ambassador David Donoghue, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the UN, and Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN, released a discussion document for the Declaration section of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. This document contains 15 paragraphs that present ideas for Member States to consider including in the Declaration. UN DESA DSD and UN-NGLS invited non-governmental stakeholders to provide suggested text / language that is inspirational and aspirational for any of these paragraphs. Submissions received can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/p2015-declaration-paragraphs-submitted. A compilation document of all submissions was prepared by UN-NGLS and DESA-DSD with attributions, and reviewed by the United Nations as the first draft of the Declaration was crafted for consideration by UN Member States.

Summaries, statements and videos from the 19-21 January negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda

January Post 2015 negotiations opening smaller The first negotiating session on the post-2015 development agenda took place from on 19-21 January at UN Headquarters. Please see the summary of this stocktaking meeting, based on concluding remarks/observations made by the co-facilitators of the negotiations, Ambassador David Donoghue of Ireland, and Ambassador Macharia Kamau of Kenya. On Wednesday, 21 January, the co-facilitators of the post-2015 negotiations convened a 2-hour interactive dialogue with Major Groups and other stakeholders.

Summary of the 16 January Stakeholder Preparatory Forum for the Post-2015 Development Agenda Negotiations

The Stakeholder Preparatory Forum for the post-2015 development agenda negotiations was held on 16 January at UN Headquarters. It was organized by the Stakeholder Steering Committee representing the Major Groups and other stakeholders, facilitated by UN-NGLS and UN DESA-DSD. The Forum brought together approximately 400 participants, including UN Member States, the UN System and stakeholders from civil society and the private sector.

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