Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Draft resolution for the Organization of the United Nations Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda Last week the Ambassadors of Papua New Guinea and Denmark released their draft resolution and it is worth all stakeholders taking an interest in this NOW. So far the work on the Sustainable Development Goals has had its meetings very well signposted 13 of them clearly announced so that civil servants from capitals and stakeholders can plan to attend. The meetings have been conducted with the active involvement of Major Groups and other stakeholders. They have been integrated into the meetings making their own inputs to the discussion. What the Ambassadors have put forward does not seem to meet the above participation of stakeholders and possibly even civil servants and experts from capitals. Stakeholders First the resolution does not build on the approach from Rio in 1992 to the SDG OWG which was based on Major Groups and other stakeholders . It ...

Add cry.uk@crymail.org to your contacts and white list to ensure you receive our e-mails Walking the East India Company with Nick Robins and CRY UK Date: 26th July, 2014 REGISTER 5th September, 2014 Time: Starts at 2.30pm ...

Football I am living in the USA during the World Cup and seeing  more and more people here starting to watch, learn the rules and enjoy the game. My local cafe has the matches on the tv and the locals talk about it - often needing a little information...from their resident Brit. The viewing figures are going up but are still only a quarter of US football and with new teams coming in Miami( Beckham) and New York (reformed New York Cosmos) it will only grow. I support my local team the Carolina Railhawks which plays in one of the lower divisions and its great to see how they have started building the support base based on families coming to the game. Over the years I have had season tickets with Derby County and Watford - followed and watched Arsenal, Notts County and Brentford and more recently Accrington Stanley. Its nice to have a local team here in the US to support where i can be at the pool at 615 and then decide to go to the watch and be there for a 7pm kick off. Dr Who ...

On reflection last week  was a good SDG OWG meeting. It has been a long journey from Solo Indonesia in July 2011 when Colombia and Guatemala first placed on the table the idea of Sustainable Development Goals.  The move from 17 to 15 Goals did not make everyone happy but most countries went along though the last SDG OWG will probably operate still as 17. The chairs have done excellent work in taking countries with them and most stakeholders as they shave started to streamline the text. I do think that the call by some countries to start this process one SDG OWG earlier would have helped but that was their call. I have been following a number of issues including animals, human settlements and governance and they all had a good showing last week. Opposition to a human settlements goal had been led by the UK - as it wasnt in the High Level Panel Report - was silent in the room. This is good news and means that as a goal it joins the core group which doesn't have any objection...

The eminent organization behavior professor John Kotter suggests that the main reason transformation efforts fail is a lack of vision. That didn't used to be an issue for UNDP. In 1994 my old organization, Stakeholder Forum, became the first National Committee for UNDP in a donor country. It was a pleasure to be advocate to the UK government and the UK stakeholders about what UNDP was doing and the vision they had under Gus Speth. "Sustainable human development is development that not only generates economic growth but distributes its benefits equitably; that regenerates the environment rather than destroying it; that empowers people rather than marginalizing  them. It gives priority to the poor, enlarging their choices and opportunities and providing for their participation in decisions affecting them. It is development that is pro-poor, pro-nature, pro-jobs, pro-women and pro-children". Sustainable human development can, therefore, be defined as “the enlar...

The SDG OWG 12th session started today after a three day informal last week. In the session this evening when the co-chairs introduced the report back from last Monday they made a suggestion of combining some goals so we are down from 17 to 15 in their list. Governments still to be convinced. Changes in bold. They remove a stand alone goal for climate and inequalities.  List of Proposed Sustainable Development Goals to be attained by 2030 1. End poverty and reduce inequality in all their dimensions everywhere 2. End hunger, achieve food security and adequate nutrition for all, and promote sustainable agriculture 3. Attain healthy life for all at all ages 4. Provide equitable and inclusive quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all 5. Attain gender equality, empower women and girls everywhere 6. Secure water and sanitation for all for a sustainable world 7. Ensure access to affordable, sustainable, and reliable modern energy se...

“Solutions imply new models that, above all else, begin to accept the limits of the carrying capacity of the Earth: moving from efficiency to sufficiency and well-being. Also necessary is the solution of the present economic imbalances and inequalities. Without equity, peaceful solutions are not possible.” Chilean economist Prof. Manfred Max-Neef Those of you who have been following my blog will have noticed my concern with the ongoing process in the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF). To just recap a little on the Committee’s work thus far, it has been done in private without the ability of stakeholders to watch and engage with the Committee’s members. There have been “briefings,” but in the 21 st century briefings don’t satisfy in the least what is expected regarding stakeholder engagement in intergovernmental processes. I was surprised to see the new draft (the zero draft was binned as very bad) to only be a...